Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Strcutures'

La cour de justice des communautes europeennes, fidele a l'esprit et a la lettre des traites fondateurs a defini les conditions de l'equilibre institutionnel et etabli un systeme complet de protection juridique. Elle clarifia le processus decisionnel en identifiant une fonction legislative innomee dans les traites et fit apparaitre l'interaction institutionnelle comme base de l'equilibre entre le legislatif et l'executif. Elle delimita le role respectif des institutions et son exigence d'une plus grande transparence retablit la commission et le parlement dans leurs fonctions. La generalisation de la justiciabilite des actes des insitutions, l'elaboration du statut contentieux du parlement europeen et l'elargissement du droit de recours des particuliers contre les actes des autorites nationales caracteriserent une communaute de droit. La cour de justice conforta encore le poids du droit communautaire derive face aux droits nationaux tout en developpant une collaboration avec les juridications nationales qui participerent a l'integration du droit communautaire dans leurs systemes juridiques
Respectful of the ethos as well as of the provisions of the founder treaties, the e. C. J. Defined the institutional "checks and balances" and established a whole system of protection under community law. The court of justice has defined the respective roles of the institutions and through its demand for greater transparency, has reasserted the attributions of both the commission and the european parliament. Generalizing judicial review to all decisions of the community organs, developing a contentious status to the european parliament and guaranteeing the effectiveness of the legal protection of individuals rights are the ways chosen by the court of justice to assert the european community as a community based on the rule of law (communaute de droit)

La presente tesis estudia como las decisiones de estructura de deuda y de cobertura de riesgo de las empresas afectan a su nivel de inversión en activo fijo. En primer capítulo se centra en construir hechos estilizados sobre la relación entre la estructura de deuda, la estructura de capital y la inversión cuando las empresas pueden acceder tanto a deuda segura (con avales) como a deuda insegura (sin avales). Los resultados sugieren que i) las empresas con mayor calidad crediticia tienen a tomar prestado más en términos de deuda insegura, ii) una mayor capacidad de la empresa de ofrecer avales no necesariamente implica una mayor inversión y iii) las empresas que dependen más de la deuda insegura en su estructura de deuda, pueden llevar a cabo una mayor inversión en activo fijo. El segundo capítulo utiliza dos estrategias de identificación distintas para testar el efecto causal de los hechos estilizados derivados del capítulo uno. Testeo la hipótesis desde la perspectiva del canal de balance y crédito. Los resultados sugieren que la composición de la estructura de deuda tiene efecto sobre las variables reales. Cuanto mayor es la presencia de la deuda insegura en la estructura de deuda de las empresas, las empresas tienden a invertir más. La explicación más plausible para este resultado es que la deuda insegura es más efectiva en términos de costes; tanto en tipos de interés como en cláusulas contractuales (covenants). Por último, el tercer capítulo utiliza un panel de perturbaciones al coste de la cobertura mediante derivados en distintos momentos de tiempo para estudiar la relación entre la cobertura y el riesgo idiosincrático. Hago uso de las introducciones y eliminaciones de derivados sobre commodities por parte del Chicago Mercantile Exchange y otros mercados pos este motivo. Los resultados sugieren que un acceso más barato a instrumentos derivados reduce la volatilidad de los flujos de caja y por tanto, permite incrementar la inversión de las empresas afectadas.
This dissertation studies how debt structure and risk management decisions affect firms' investment. The first chapter focuses on building the stylized facts on the relation between debt structure, capital structure and investment when firms' have both, secured and unsecured debt available. Results suggests that i) firms with higher creditworthiness tend to borrow more unsecured debt, ii) higher collateral availability may not lead to more investment and iii) more reliance on unsecured debt leads to more investment. The second chapter uses two identification strategies to test the causal effect of the relations derived in chapter one. I test the hypothesis from a balance sheet and credit channel perspective. Results show that the composition of debt structure of firms has real implications. The higher the unsecured debt in debt structure, the more firms can invest. The explanation for this result is that unsecured debt is more cost-effect in terms of spreads and debt covenants. Finally, the last chapter uses a panel of shocks to the cost of hedging to different firms at different points in time to study the relation between hedging and risk. I exploit the introduction and delisting of commodity derivatives by the CME and other exchanges for identification. I find evidence suggesting that cheaper access to hedging instruments reduces the volatility of cashflows and thus, increases firms' investment.

La ubiquitinació i la SUMOilació són dos de les modificacions post-traduccionals més estudiades (PTM). En aquesta tesi, ens hem centrat en estudiar USP25, USP28 i en el reconeixement proteïna-proteïna dels enzims SUMO E1-E2 d’aquestes dues vies PTM. USP25 i USP28 són de-ubiquitinases que tenen papers importants en processos cel·lulars i les seves activitats enzimàtiques estan regulades per diversos PTMs, incloent SUMOilació, ubiquitinació i fosforilació. La interacció proteïna-proteïna de SUMO E1-E2 és un pas essencial de discriminació en la via de la conjugació. En aquesta tesi, els principals objectius inclouen l'elucidació de les bases estructurals de la regulació de l'activitat de USP25 i USP28, així com poder desxifrar els determinants estructurals en l'especificitat proporcionada per la interacció SUMO E1-E2. Hem resolt l'estructura cristal·lina de la USP25 humana (18 - 714). Sorprenentment, USP25 mostra una estructura quaternària homotetramèrica que està directament implicat en la inhibició de la seva activitat enzimàtica, i revela un nou mecanisme de tetramerització/inhibició. Assaigs bioquímics i cinètics in vitro amb construccions de dímer, tetràmer de USP25 donen suport a aquest mecanisme, mostrant en tots els casos una major activitat catalítica en el dímer. A més, la forta estabilització de les tankirases en cèl·lules en cultiu mitjançant l'expressió ectòpica del dímer de USP25 verifica la rellevància biològica d'aquest nou mecanisme de tetramerització/inhibició. Pel que fa a la interacció E1 UFD - E2, hem resolt l'estructura cristal·lina del complex E1 UFD - E2 tant en humans com en A. thaliana. Tot i la baixa homologia de seqüència presentada en la superfície d’interacció de UFD entre especies, la comparació estructural entre complexos revela determinants comuns en les interfícies entre humans, llevats i A. thaliana. La comparació estructural també revela una forta conservació en la superfície d’interacció de les E2 entre espècies, tot i la forta especificitat mostrada en assajos de conjugació de SUMO en a cada organisme. Curiosament, hem trobat residus de la E2 fora de la superfície d’interacció amb UFD que tenen un impacte en la conjugació de SUMO, el que suggereix la presència d’altres determinants estructurals diferents als de la superfície d’interacció entre E2 i E1 UFD en l'especificitat de la conjugació de SUMO.
Ubiquitination and SUMOylation are of the most studied post-translational modifications (PTMs). Here, we focus on USP25, USP28, and the SUMO E1-E2 protein-protein recognition in these two PTM pathways. USP25 and USP28 have important roles in cellular processes, and their enzymatic activities are regulated by diverse PTMs including SUMOylation, ubiquitination, and phosphorylation. SUMO E1-E2 protein-protein interaction is a major discrimination step in the conjugation pathway. In this thesis, the main goals include the elucidation of the structural basis for the activity regulation of USP25 and USP28, as well as to decipher the structural determinants for the specificity provided by the E1 UFD-E2 interaction. We have solved the crystal structure of human USP25 (18 – 714). Unexpectedly, USP25 displays a homotetrameric quaternary assembly that is directly involved in the inhibition of its enzymatic activity, revealing a novel tetramerization/inhibition mechanism. In vitro biochemical and kinetic assays with dimer, tetramer and truncation constructs of USP25 support this mechanism, displaying in all cases a higher catalytic activity in the dimer assembly. Moreover, the strong stabilization of tankyrases in cultured cells by the ectopic expression of the USP25 dimer verifies the biological relevance of this novel tetramerization/inhibition mechanism. Regarding to the E1 UFD-E2 interaction, we have solved the crystal structure of the E1 UFD-E2 complex in both human and A. thaliana. Despite the low sequence homology displayed by the UFD binding interface, structural comparison between complexes reveals common determinants in the interfaces between human, yeast, and A. thaliana. Structural comparison also reveals a strong conservation in the E2 binding interface across species, despite the strong specificity displayed in SUMO conjugation assays for each organism. Interestingly, E2 residues outside the UFD interface had impact on SUMO conjugation, suggesting the contribution of determinants other than the primary UFD binding interface in the specificity of the conjugation system.

The search for alternate and renewable energy resources as well as the efficient use of energy and development of such systems that can help to save the energy consumption is needed because of exponential growth in world population, limited conventional fossil fuel resources, and to meet the increasing demand of clean and environment friendly substitutes. Hydrogen being the simplest, most abundant and clean energy carrier has the potential to fulfill some of these requirements provided the development of efficient, safe and durable systems for its production, storage and usage. Chemical hydrides, complex hydrides and nanomaterials, where the hydrogen is either chemically bonded to the metal ions or physiosorbed, are the possible means to overcome the difficulties associated with the storage and usage of hydrogen at favorable conditions. We have studied the structural and electronic properties of some of the chemical hydrides, complex hydrides and functionalized nanostructures to understand the kinetics and thermodynamics of these materials. Another active field relating to energy storage is rechargeable batteries. We have studied the detailed crystal and electronic structures of Li and Mg based cathode materials and calculated the average intercalation voltage of the corresponding batteries. We found that transition metal doped MgH2 nanocluster is a material to use efficiently not only in batteries but also in fuel-cell technologies. MAX phases can be used to develop the systems to save the energy consumption. We have chosen one compound from each of all known types of MAX phases and analyzed the structural, electronic, and mechanical properties using the hybrid functional. We suggest that the proper treatment of correlation effects is important for the correct description of Cr2AlC and Cr2GeC by the good choice of Hubbard 'U' in DFT+U method. Hydrogen is fascinating to physicists due to predicted possibility of metallization and high temperature superconductivity. On the basis of our ab initio molecular dynamics studies, we propose that the recent claim of conductive hydrogen by experiments might be explained by the diffusion of hydrogen at relevant pressure and temperature. In this thesis we also present the studies of phase change memory materials, oxides and amorphization of oxide materials, spintronics and sulfide materials.

Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Physics
Dean Zollman
As part of a collaborative study of the science preparation of elementary school teachers, we investigated the quality of students’ reasoning and explored the relationship between sophistication of reasoning and the degree to which the courses were considered inquiry oriented. To probe students’ reasoning, we developed open-ended written content questions with the distinguishing feature of applying recently learned concepts in a new context. We devised a protocol for developing written content questions that provided a common structure for probing and classifying students’ sophistication level of reasoning. In designing our protocol, we considered several distinct criteria, and classified students’ responses based on their performance for each criterion. First, we classified concepts into three types: Descriptive, Hypothetical, and Theoretical and categorized the abstraction levels of the responses in terms of the types of concepts and the inter-relationship between the concepts. Second, we devised a rubric based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy with seven traits (both knowledge types and cognitive processes) and a defined set of criteria to evaluate each trait. Along with analyzing students’ reasoning, we visited universities and observed the courses in which the students were enrolled. We used the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to rank the courses with respect to characteristics that are valued for the inquiry courses. We conducted logistic regression for a sample of 18 courses with about 900 students and reported the results for performing logistic regression to estimate the relationship between traits of reasoning and RTOP score. In addition, we analyzed conceptual structure of students’ responses, based on conceptual classification schemes, and clustered students’ responses into six categories. We derived regression model, to estimate the relationship between the sophistication of the categories of conceptual structure and RTOP scores. However, the outcome variable with six categories required a more complicated regression model, known as multinomial logistic regression, generalized from binary logistic regression. With the large amount of collected data, we found that the likelihood of the higher cognitive processes were in favor of classes with higher measures on inquiry. However, the usage of more abstract concepts with higher order conceptual structures was less prevalent in higher RTOP courses.

碩士
國立中央大學
電機工程研究所
87
Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter is the key functional block in the area of digital signal processing (DSP). In the VLSI implementation, the hardware complexity of the FIR filter is directly proportionately to the tap length, N, and the wordlength, W. To reduce the hardware cost, we can employ the well-known scheme, Differential coef-ficient Method (DCM). The key concept of the DCM is to shorten the required the wordlength, W, without changing the SQNR of original FIR filter. This can be achieved by exploring the characteristics of the FIR filter coefficients. In this thesis, we propose a more efficient and versatile scheme based on the DCM scheme. We call it Generalized Differential coefficient Method (GDCM). Basically, the GDCM can provide more degrees of freedom in searching the optimal DCM-based design parameters. Compared with the conventional DCM, the proposed GDCM can not only reduce hardware complexity but also retain the required SQNR. It can also elimi-nate the numerical unstability that is encountered in the conventional DCM scheme. Moreover, unlike conventional DCM, which can only be used in low-pass FIR filter, we can apply the proposed GDCM to various types of FIR filters, such as low-pass FIR filter, high-pass FIR filter, band-pass FIR filter and band-stop FIR filter. A correspond-ing design methodology is developed so as to facilitate the cost-efficient VLSI imple-mentation of FIR filters in a systematic manner. Based on the derived design methodology, we also develop a CAD tool, which can generate the optimum solutions automatically for a given impulse response and the pre-defined Signal-to-Quantization-Noise Ratio (SQNR). As a result, the designer can easily apply the GDCM to save silicon complexity by using the developed CAD tool.

Cette thèse a pour objet l'étude du comportement d'un nouveau système de galerie de protection contre les chutes de blocs appelé Pare-blocs Structurellement Dissipant (PSD). L'innovation majeure, par rapport aux solutions classiques, est de dissiper l'énergie d'impact directement dans la dalle en béton armé ou dans des appuis fusibles, et non plus dans une couche de matériau amortissant. Les phénomènes dynamiques ayant lieu lors de l'impact d'un bloc sur la dalle sont analysés au moyen d'expérimentations sur une structure PSD à l'échelle 1/3. Les efforts de percussion appliqués à la dalle, durant la phase de contact avec le bloc, sont estimés ainsi que les différents transferts et dissipations d'énergie. Les résultats ont permis de valider le principe de fonctionnement et de réparation des PSD et font apparaître que la dalle est endommagée par trois mécanismes majeurs : le poinçonnement, la mise en flexion et la déstructuration de surface de la zone impactée. Les principales grandeurs expérimentales sont retrouvées à l'aide de simulations numériques des essais avec un code éléments finis. Un modèle mécanique simplifié « masses-ressorts-amortisseur » est également développé dans le but de concevoir des méthodes de dimensionnement applicables en bureau d'études. Les perspectives de ce travail sont d'aboutir à l'établissement de recommandations sur la conception et la réalisation des pare-blocs structurellement dissipants.

碩士
國立陽明大學
遺傳學研究所
92
One major challenge in the post-genomic era is to understand how nature has evolved one structural fold into various proteins for their different functions. Structural analysis of homologous proteins in a structural superfamily would provide an efficient path to understand the structural plasticity for the functional versatility. Our analysis has revealed that cytidine deaminases (CDAs), fungal cytosine deaminases (CDs), plant and some bacterial guanine deaminases (GDs), dCMP deaminases (dCMPD), RNA editing deaminases and riboflavin biosynthesis protein RibG belong to the CDA superfamily. These deaminases catalyze the zinc-assisted conversion of the amino group of the cytosine, guanine or adenine moiety into a keto group. To identify the putative substrate-recognition residues for each member, a comparative analysis of the available structures in the superfamily was first carried out. Then multiple sequence alignments for each member and for the CDA superfamily were performed by the program ClustalW, followed by manual editing according to the structural information and secondary structure prediction using PSI-PRED. Finally, atomic models were built based on the known structures to reveal whether the conserved residues are potentially localized nearby the active-site cavity. The putative substrate-interacting residues for dCMPD, RibG and RNA-editing deaminase have been identified. Obviously, these deaminases utilize different residues to interact with the common ribose and phosphate groups of their substrates. Our results also reveal that a large portion of the conserved residues are responsible for the superfamily's structural plasticity, whereas only a small portions are directly involved in its functional versatility. These prediction results would provide a structural basis for mutational analysis to elucidate the functional roles of the critical residues.

博士
國立中央大學
企業管理學系
103
This study examines how the split share structure reform affects cash holdings in Chinese listed firms. The sample comprises Chinese listed firms from 2001 to 2011. Our empirical results show that firms hold excess cash because of the higher precautionary motive after the reform. However, firms increased cash holdings in order to save for future investment opportunities rather than as a consequence of financial constraints. Furthermore, the agency motive of cash holdings was lower for managers than for controlling shareholders before the reform, and both decreased after the reform. We also divided the whole sample into state-controlled and non-state-controlled firms to compare the impacts of the reform on cash holdings of these two different types of firms. The results show that the precautionary motive for holding cash was higher in state-controlled firms than in non-state-controlled firms before the reform, but became indifferent after the reform. The agency motive of managers for holding excess cash was higher for non-state-controlled firms than for state-controlled firms in both pre-reform and post-reform period.

In this work, a micro-model of the catalyst layer of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was developed. The micro-model includes the transport phenomena and the reaction kinetics within a three dimensional micro-structure representing a sample of PEMFC catalyst layer. Proper physical boundary conditions have been described on the surfaces of the sample as well as on the interfaces between the regions through which all constituents are solved in a coupled manner. A four-phase micro-structure of CL was reconstructed, the platinum particles were resolved in the computational grid generation and the governing equations were solved within platinum region. A body-fitted computational mesh was generated for the reconstructed micro-structure of CL. The number of computational cells were optimized based on how close to an analytical sphere the magnitude of the surface area of a sphere can be captured after generating the computational cells. The interfaces with important physical phenomena were more refined than the rest of the interfaces, specially the electrochemically active reaction surface. The computational mesh was checked for a grid independent numerical solution. The Knudsen effects was included by calculating the characteristic length in the pore region. Four different cases of including Knudsen effects were studied. Also, a comparison was made between solution with and without Knudsen effects. A physical model of oxygen dissolution was developed, the oxygen dissolution at the interface between pore and ionomer was treated as an superficial phenomenon. The performance curves were produced and provided for the reconstructed micro-structure along with the distribution of field variables. A length study of the reconstructed micro-structure was conducted such that the results from the micro-modeling can capture the trend in variable distributions observed in the macro-modeling of CL or experiments. A platinum loading study was preformed and the anomalous phenomena of dramatic increase in oxygen transport resistance observed in some experimental works was explained by isolating the ionomer region of the CL micro-structure and numerically calculating the shape factor for diffusive transport. It was found that the increase in oxygen transport resistance is due to the increase in diffusion pathway and decrease in the transport surface area.
Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-03-06 15:55:21.564

Tese de Doutoramento em Direito, Ramo de Direito Público e apresentada à Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
Na presente investigação de doutoramento, propomo-nos reflectir, em termos crítico-reconstrutivos, sobre o projecto-procura de institucionalização da justiça social (maxime distributiva) assumido pela juridicidade, considerando especificamente - segundo uma perspectiva teorético-constitucional (de almejado fôlego inter- e transcultural) e sob a influência polarizadora das exigências normativas da solidariedade e da responsividade - o problema jurídico do acesso à saúde, enquanto topos sintetizador das interrogações pelo sentido e pelos métodos e logoi de realização da jussocialidade numa esfera societal específica. Empresa que nos expõe às perturbações desde sempre colocadas ao ius pelo direito público, pelo direito constitucional e pelo direito social e hoje sobremaneira exponenciadas por mor da diferenciação social global A ponto - acrescente-se -, de concitar(em) uma revisão dos pressupostos, fundamentos, dimensões constitutivas, intenções regulativas e funções societais da axiológico-normativa validade sancionável, que parece urdir-se a uma escala supra- ou transnacional, mas, não menos, do modo-de-ser que propriamente lhes corresponde e cujas facetas, modalidades, fontes e objectivações se não furtam a um reexame igualmente aturado. Esforços convindos numa equação das correspondentes garantia e sanção, interpretação/performance, implemento/concretização ou execução e cumprimento, com vista a testar as possibilidades e limites de compreensões putativamente mais amplas da metodologia do nomos (jus-constitucionalmente inteligido): vale dizer, incluentes de diferentes racionalidades e itinerários de realização, pontuados por plúrimos momentos regulativos, decisórios e judicativos e convocando, seja a mediação subjectiva de diversos co-autores e actores, seja a mediação objectiva de inúmeras normações e instituições juridicamente fundadas, limitadas, enformadas, inervadas e orientadas. Destarte, após um bosquejo isagógico pretensamente clarificador dos objectos intencional e problemático das disquisições ensejadas, assim como da perspectiva adopta(n)da, a investigação desdobra-se em três partes, devotadas respectivamente ao actual problema jurídico-constitucional do acesso, aos prolegómenos da jussocialidade contemporânea e aos essentialia da realização do acesso aos cuidados de saúde à luz das exigências normativas da solidariedade e da responsividade. Numa primeira estação, explicitam-se as coordenadas ontofenomenológicas, os referentes axiológico-problemáticos e os pressupostos epistemológicos definidores do horizonte reflexivo, contra o qual se formulam as hipóteses condutoras da pesquisa; afina-se depois o ângulo de tematização dos problemas - num diálogo com as correntes jurídico-públicas de inclinação político-publicista, internacionalista e constitucionalista, afluentes numa ideia de (trans-)culturalidade; para enfrentar, enfim, o problema do acesso, quer em geral, quer no sentido especificamente jurídico-público e socialmente ressonante que se intende descobrir-lhe, mediante um confronto com os principais discursos que o erigem em Grundbegriff essencial do nosso tempo. Na etapa segunda do percurso, arriscam-se os pródromos de uma teoria do direito público-social, tomando como fio condutor a exigência jusfundamental de socialidade. Destaca-se, neste plano, a dialéctica histórica desenvolta entre a emergência do social como tropo e questão fundamental e os referentes normativos auto-transcendental- e transcendentemente pressupostos e projectados para lhe responder (numa expressão simultânea da igualiberdade e co-responsabilidade). O antedito princípio de responsabilidade social(-comunitária) analisa-se de seguida em dois sub-princípios - o da solidariedade e o da responsividade – simultaneamente definidores de um espaço intermédio e dinamizadores de um movimento mediador pendular, no cerne dos quais se desvenda o acesso aos bens sociais fundamentais. Com efeito, devidamente re-concebidos como estatutos jurídicos fundamentais, inscritos no coração dos subsistemas societais, os direitos sociais reclamam um continuum de pressupostos económico-financeiros, infra-estruturais e orgânico-funcionais (culminantes numa atentio universalis), um núcleo de prestações materiais constitutivas (principais e acessórias), e de um conjunto de instâncias e práticas de monitorização iterativa, controlo consequencial e aprendizagem reflexiva do qual depende a sua efectiva garantia, e, com isso, a concretização sintética das demandas de redistribuição e dos novos apelos de reconhecimento, pela mediação de uma participação social actualizada em instituições intrínseca e funcionalmente adstritas à justiça social. Assim, envidar-se-ão esforços para comprovar as proposições avançadas, cumprindo as exigências prático-normativas nelas implicadas, através de uma crítico-reflexivamente reconstitutiva sobre-institucionalização jurídica do sector da saúde, capaz de honrar minimamente a responsabilidade pela justiça social que o direito, de modo infinito, esperançosamente incarna.
The aim of this research is to critically reflect on the project of institutionalization of social (maxime distributive) justice, law should assume, by taking into consideration - from a theoretical constitutional perspective (hopefully with an inter-and transcultural breath), and under the polarized influences of solidarity and responsiveness - the juridical problem of healthcare access, regarded as a synthesizing topos of our current interrogations about the meaning, the ways and the rationalities implied in the realization of juridical sociality in a specific societal sphere. A task that cannot avoid a confrontation with the challenges always posed by constitutional, social and public law, which only grew in depth and width due to the unstoppable dynamic of global societal differentiation. Difficulties that even go to the point of demanding a complete revision of the conditions, grounds and functions of sanctioning validities of those intentionalities, and not the less, of their specific modes-of-being (whose dimensions, modalities, sources and expressions claim for a similar exam, certainly culminating in the thorough equation of their interpretation, performance, sanctioning, and fulfillment). An opportunity to test the limits and possibilities of a wider understanding of the methodology of the nomos (juridically and politically understood), able to contemplate different sorts of rationalities, methods, decisions and judgments, actors and interpreters, institutional and practical manifestations. This way, after the introductory remarks about the intentional and problematic object, the elected perspective and the drain lines of the enterprise, the investigation is thus divided in three parts, dedicated to the jusconstitutional problem of access, to the prolegomena of social public law and to the realization of healthcare access, between solidarity and responsiveness. Part I starts with a detailed exposure of the phenomenological coordinates, the epistemological assumptions and the axiological references which draw this endeavor’s reflexive horizon, goes on with a definition of the endorsed constitutional prism (in a dialogue with concurring international, and public perspectives, the three converging to a tentative defence of law’s culturality), and ends up shifting its attention to the problem of access, not only in general, but also in its specific juridical and social relevance. Part II outlines the prolegomena of a theory of social public law, along the lines of sociality, emphasizing the historical dialectic between the social question and the normative values invoked in order to answer it, in what can be seen as an expression of human autonomy and social responsibility. Such a principle of responsibility (correspondent to the social fundamental rights grounding social law) is therefore analysed in two sub-principles - solidarity and responsiveness - which both allow us a diachronic journey and a sinchronic circulation around de social statutes built on the access to fundamental social goods, while they combine past and future of social justice in a bridge of economic and financial, infra-structural, organic and functional conditions, practical elements and monitoring and control instances and mechanisms. Finally, the lucubrations held along the way will be reflected on the health care arena, where access has been receiving unusual attention and granted a prominent role. That way, a prior identification of the difficulties raised by the autonomization of health’s social subsystem will be followed by na effort to prove the hypotheses initially advanced, and a parallel commitment to fulfill the normative demands therein implied, by means of a critical and reconstructive reflection pointed at a corrective institutionalization of that sector, able to honour the claim of social justice, to which law should resolutely, although infinitely, respond.

All hydrological models incur various uncertainties that can be broadly classified into three categories: measurement, structural, and parametric uncertainties. Measurement uncertainty exists due to error in measurements of properties and variables (e.g. streamflows that are typically an output and rainfall that serves as an input to hydrological models). Structural uncertainty exists due errors in mathematical representation of real-world hydrological processes. Parametric uncertainty exists due to structural and measurement uncertainty and limited amount of data availability for calibration.
Several studies have addressed the problem of measurement and parametric uncertainties but studies on structural uncertainty are lacking. Specifically, there does not exist any model that can be used to quantify structural uncertainties at an ungauged location. This was the first objective of the study: to develop a model of structural uncertainty that can be used to quantify total uncertainty (including structural uncertainty) in streamflow estimates at ungauged locations in a watershed. The proposed model is based on the idea that since the effect of structural uncertainty is to introduce a bias into the parameter estimation, one way to accommodate structural uncertainty is to compensate for this bias. The developed model was applied to two watersheds: Upper Wabash Busseron Watershed (UWBW) and Lower Des Plaines Watershed (LDPW). For UWBW, mean daily streamflow data were used while for LDPW mean hourly streamflow data were used. The proposed model worked well for mean daily data but failed to capture the total uncertainties for hourly data likely due to higher measurement uncertainties in hourly streamflow data than what was assumed in the study.
Once a hydrological and error model is specified, the next step is to estimate model- and error- parameters. Parameter estimation in hydrological modeling may be carried out using either formal Bayesian methodology or informal Bayesian methodology. In formal Bayesian methodology, a likelihood function, motivated from probability theory, is specified over a space of models (or residuals), and a prior probability distribution is assigned over the space of models. There has been significant debate on whether the likelihood functions used in Bayesian theory are justified in hydrological modeling. However, relatively little attention has been given to justification of prior probabilities. In most hydrological modeling studies, a uniform prior over hydrological model parameters is used to reflect a complete lack of knowledge of a modeler about model parameters before calibration. Such a prior is also known as a non-informative prior. The second objective of this study was to scrutinize the assumption of uniform prior as non-informative using the principle of maximum information gain. This principle was used to derive non-informative priors for several hydrological models, and it was found that the obtained prior was significantly different from a uniform prior. Further, the posterior distributions obtained by using this prior were significantly different from those obtained by using uniform priors.
The information about uncertainty in a modeling exercise is typically obtained from residual time series (the difference between observed and simulated streamflows) which is an aggregate of structural and measurement uncertainties for a fixed model parameter set. Using this residual time series, an estimate of total uncertainty may be obtained but it is impossible to separate structural and measurement uncertainties. The separation of these two uncertainties is, however, required to facilitate the rejection of deficient model structures, and to identify whether the model structure or the measurements need to be improved to reduce the total uncertainty. The only way to achieve this goal is to obtain an estimate of measurement uncertainty before model calibration. An estimate of measurement uncertainties in streamflow can be obtained by using rating-curve analysis but it is difficult to obtain an estimate of measurement uncertainty in rainfall. In this study, the classic idea of repeated sampling is used to get an estimate of measurement uncertainty in rainfall and streamflows. In the repeated sampling scheme, an experiment is performed several times under identical conditions to get an estimate of measurement uncertainty. This kind of repeated sampling, however, is not strictly possible for environmental observations, therefore, repeated sampling was used in an approximate manner using a machine learning algorithm called random forest (RF). The main idea is to identify rainfall-runoff events across several different watersheds which are similar to each other such that they can be thought of as different realizations of the same experiment performed under identical conditions. The uncertainty bounds obtained by RF were compared against the uncertainty band obtained by rating-curve analysis and runoff-coefficient method. Overall, the results of this study are encouraging in using RF as a pseudo repeated sampler.
In the fourth objective, importance of uncertainty in estimated streamflows at ungauged locations and uncertainty in measured streamflows at gauged locations is illustrated in water quality modeling. The results of this study showed that it is not enough to obtain an uncertainty bound that envelops the true streamflows, but that the individual realizations obtained by the model of uncertainty should be able to emulate the shape of the true streamflow time series for water quality modeling.

DNA Nanotechnology allows the synthesis of nanometer sized objects that can be site specifically functionalized with a large variety of materials. However, many DNA structures need a higher ionic strength than that in common cell culture buffers or in bodily fluids to maintain their integrity and can be degraded quickly by nucleases. The aim of this dissertation was to overcome this deficiency with the help of cationic PEG-poly-lysine block copolymers that can electrostatically cover the DNA nanostructures to form “DNA origami polyplex micelles” (DOPMs). This straightforward, cost-effective and robust route to protect DNA-based structures could therefore enable applications in biology and nanomedicine, where un-protected DNA origami would be degraded. Moreover, owing to high polarity, the DNA-based structures are restricted to the aque-ous solution based buffers only. Any attempt to change the favorable conditions, leads to the distortion of the structures. In this work it was demonstrated that, by using the polyplex micellization strategy, the organic solubility of DNA origami structures can be improved. The strategy was also extended to functional ligands that are otherwise not soluble in organic solvents. With this strategy, it is now also possible to perform organic solution reactions on the DNA-based structures, opening up the possibility to use hydro-phobic organic reagents to synthesize novel materials. The polyplex micellization strategy therefore presents a cheap, robust, modular, reversible and versatile method to not only solubilize DNA structures in organic solvents but also improve their stability in biological environments. A third project was based on the possibility to synthesize complementary sequences to single-stranded gap regions in the DNA origami scaffold cost-effectively by a DNA polymerase rather than by a DNA synthesizer. For this purpose, four different wireframe DNA origami structures were designed to have single-stranded gap regions. The introduction of flexible gap regions resulted in fully collapsed or partially bent structures due to entropic spring effects. These structures were also used to demonstrate structural transformations with the help of DNA polymerases, expanding the collapsed bent structures to straightened tubes. This approach presents a powerful tool to build DNA wireframe structures more material-efficiently, and to quickly prototype and test new wireframe designs that can be expanded, rigidified or mechanically switched.:Abstract v Publications vii Acknowledgements ix Contents xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Nanotechnology 1 1.1.1 History of nanotechnology 1 1.1.2 Phenomena that occur at nanoscale 4 1.1.3 Nature’s perspective of nanotechnology 4 1.1.4 Manufacturing nanomaterials 6 1.2 Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) 8 1.2.1 DNA, the genetic material, “The secret of life” 8 1.2.2 Structure of DNA 9 1.2.3 DNA synthesis 15 1.2.4 Stability of DNA 18 1.3 DNA nanotechnology 20 1.3.1 Historical development 20 1.3.2 DNA tile motifs 21 1.3.3 Directed nucleation assembly and algorithmic assembly 23 1.3.4 Scaffolded DNA origami and single-stranded DNA tiles 25 1.3.5 Expanding the design space offered by DNA 27 1.3.6 Assembling heterogeneous materials with DNA 30 1.3.7 Functional devices built using DNA nanostructures 35 Chapter 2 Motivation and objectives 40 Chapter 3 Block copolymer micellization as a protection strategy for DNA origami 42 3.1 Introduction 42 3.1.1 Cellular delivery of DNA nanostructures 42 3.1.2 The need for stability of DNA nanostructures 43 3.1.3 Non-viral gene therapy 44 3.2 Results and discussions 46 3.2.1 Strategy to form DNA origami polyplex micelles (DOPMs) 46 3.2.2 Optimizations 46 3.2.3 Decomplexation 53 3.2.4 Stability tests 55 3.2.5 Short PEG-PLys block copolymer 58 3.2.6 Compatibility with bulky ligands 59 3.2.7 Accessibility of handles on DOPMs 63 3.3 Conclusion 64 3.4 Outlook and state of the art 65 3.5 Methods 67 3.5.1 DNA origami folding 67 3.5.2 Preparation of ssDNA functionalized AuNPs 68 3.5.3 Agarose gel electrophoresis 69 3.5.4 Block copolymer preparation 70 3.5.5 DNA origami polyplex micelle preparation 70 3.5.6 Decomplexation of DOPM using dextran sulfate 73 3.5.7 Stability tests 74 3.5.8 tSEM characterization 75 3.5.9 AFM imaging 76 Chapter 4 Improving organic solubility and stability of DNA origami using polyplex micellization 77 4.1 Introduction 77 4.2 Results and discussions 79 4.2.1 Strategy for organic solubility of DNA origami 79 4.2.2 Proof of concept using AuNPs functionalized with ssDNA 80 4.2.3 Extending the strategy to DNA origami 82 4.2.4 Optimizations 86 4.2.5 Compatibility with functional ligands 88 4.2.6 Functionalization of DNA origami in organic solvent 94 4.3 Conclusion and outlook 95 4.4 Methods 97 4.4.1 Conjugation of functional ligands to DNA origami 97 4.4.2 Organic solubility 98 4.4.3 Reactions in organic solution on DOPMs 99 4.4.4 Fluorescence imaging using gel scanner 100 Chapter 5 Structural transformation of wireframe DNA origami via DNA polymerase assisted gap-filling 101 5.1 Introduction 101 5.2 Results and discussion 102 5.2.1 Design of the structures 102 5.2.2 Folding of gap-structures 105 5.2.3 Single-stranded DNA binding proteins 107 5.2.4 Gap filling with different polymerases 109 5.2.5 Gap filling with Phusion high-fidelity DNA polymerase 111 5.2.6 Optimization of the extension reaction using T4 DNA polymerase 115 5.2.7 Secondary structures 121 5.2.8 Folding kinetics of gap origami 124 5.2.9 Bending of tubes 125 5.3 Conclusion 126 5.4 Outlook 127 5.5 Methods 128 5.5.1 DNA origami folding 128 5.5.2 Gap filling of the wireframe DNA origami structures 128 5.5.3 Agarose gel electrophoresis 130 5.5.4 PAGE gel analysis 130 5.5.5 tSEM characterization 131 5.5.6 AFM imaging 131 5.5.7 AGE based folding-yield estimation 132 5.5.8 Gibbs free energy simulation using mfold 132 5.5.9 Staple list for folding the DNA origami triangulated structures 132 Appendix 134 A.1 Additional figures from chapter 3 134 A.2 Additional figures from chapter 4 137 A.3 Additional figures from chapter 5 149 Bibliography 155 Erklärung 171