McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2005

The articles presented in this thesis examined issues of identification and perception of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a sample of 38 boys with ADHD and 43 comparison boys without ADHD. The boys were recruited from local schools in the Montreal area as well as through the community. In Article 1, the positive illusory bias was explored in the area of attention using two different tasks in order to improve our understanding of the self-perceptions of boys with ADHD. Some evidence for positive illusions was found in that boys with ADHD estimated performance at the same level as the …  Lire la suite

AspectJ is a popular aspect-oriented extension to Java, providing powerful new features for the modularizing of crosscutting concerns, promising improved code quality. The runtime cost of these features, however, is currently not well understood, and is a concern limiting even more wide-spread adoption of the language. The crosscutting nature of AspectJ complicates the measurement of these costs. This thesis presents a methodology for analyzing the runtime behaviour of AspectJ programs, with a particular emphasis on identifying runtime overheads resulting from the implementation of AspectJ features. It presents a taxonomy of overhead kinds and defines some new AspectJ-specific dynamic metrics. A …  Lire la suite

Modulation of the innate immune response by Leishmania has been extensively studied; however, some questions still need to be answered. In the present study, we demonstrated, in vitro and in vivo, that Leishmania interacts with TLR4 in order to induce chemokine mRNA expression. That TLR4-dependent macrophage (Mϕ) activation was shown to be MyD88-independent in vitro, and results in the activation of the transcription factors NF-kappaB and CREB. Their role in chemokine mRNA expression was further demonstrated using specific inhibitors toward these transcription factors. Moreover, using TLR4-deficient mice we confirmed the role of TLR4 in Leishmania-induced chemokine gene expression and in …  Lire la suite

Based on nineteen months of ethnographic field research in Israel/Palestine (including participant observation and in-depth interviews), this study presents an analysis of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD). First formed in 1997, it is a coalition of social movement organizations (SMOs) in the Israeli radical left peace and human rights movement. This project traces significant organizational, and wider movement, dynamics from the time of ICAHD's inception until the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000. While countless scholars investigate historical and contemporary aspects of the political conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, relatively little research attention is directed …  Lire la suite

Travis, Lisa de Mena (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The adoption of a new constitution, the changes in legislation, and the well-known shift in policies and State practices introduced by the Chavez administration, are some of the factors that persuaded me to examine not only the legal protection but the actual exercise of internationally recognized core labour standards in Venezuela, notably freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labour, the abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination at work. Given the structure and nature of the ILO, its mechanisms of enforcement are limited. Despite the successful ILO objective of promoting compliance …  Lire la suite

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a plastic polymer composed of ~43% hydrocarbon by weight and ~57% chlorine has become extensively used in our daily lives. However, the disposal of waste PVC plastics presents serious problems. The increased awareness of these problems requires the development of a reliable technique to dispose of these wastes in a safe and environmentally benign way that is devoid of the formation/release of organo-chlorine compounds. Chemical degradation of PVC is a technology that transforms PVC waste into completely new chemical products that don't contain chlorine. Sub-critical water (SCW) treatment is one of the most reliable technologies since SCW …  Lire la suite

Anopheles species composition and relative seasonal abundance were measured in an irrigated division (low historical malaria incidence) and in a rain-fed division (high historical malaria incidence) of southern Sri Lanka. Twelve species of anophelines were represented in adult and larval collections with Anopheles vagus Donitz being the most abundant. In cattle-baited net trap collections, Anopheles adults were significantly more abundant in the irrigated division than in the rain-fed division. In pyrethrum-spray sheet collections, cattle-baited but trap collections and larval collections, Anopheles abundance was significantly greater in the rain-fed division. Houses were of poorer construction in the rain-fed division, where pyrethrum-spray …  Lire la suite

The last decade has witnessed an explosive growth in internet protocol, packet based traffic. Although long-haul fiber backbone networks provide capacities on the order of Tb/s, a bottleneck at the access network has arisen due to electronic domain signal processing. Recent developments in optical multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) access networks promise to remove this bottleneck and allow Gb/s capacities per user and satisfy foreseeable future bandwidth requirements. This thesis introduces an optical MPLS network where packet payloads are wavelength multiplexed and labels correspond to spectral optical code division multiple access codes. Using this network, we examine payload and label processing …  Lire la suite

Environments are changing rapidly, which renders many local populations susceptible to extinction unless they can adapt to these changes. Studies of rapid adaptation commonly document the evolution of individual traits. Overall adaptation however, is a function of fitness itself, rather than the individual traits that contribute to fitness. Although numerous studies provide evidence for the evolution of specific traits on contemporary time scales, no published studies of wild animal populations have examined the evolution of a major fitness component following environmental change. My research demonstrates that an introduced population of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) has adapted to its new environment in …  Lire la suite

In marine environments, the open system (OS) theory, whereby populations are assumed to be well connected through large-scale dispersal, is currently being challenged by studies demonstrating limited dispersal. Using a novel metapopulation framework featuring nonequilibrium within-site disturbance cycles and limited dispersal, I investigate the large-scale response of marine mussel populations to changes in oceanographic productivity. By altering the fecundity parameter, I am able to shift from open to dynamically-coupled systems (DCS), thereby generating predictions that can be used to test the connectivity of marine populations. Within-site disturbance cycles scale-up and drive regional dynamics in both OS and DCS. Fast disturbance …  Lire la suite

The biomechanics of running on level surfaces has been extensively researched, but there is limited knowledge on the biomechanical adaptations of curvilinear running. The purpose of this study was to investigate the electromyographic activity (EMG) of the lower leg muscles while running at two speeds (3.8 and 7.0 m/s) under three conditions (straight-away, flat curve, and banked curve of 11 degrees). Seven male elite track runners participated. Surface electrodes were placed bilaterally on the tibialis anterior (TA), peroneus longus (PL), and gastrocnemius lateralis (GL) muscles. In general, there was greater EMG activity and body lean at the higher speeds for …  Lire la suite

This paper relates to Franco-Japanese relations between 1932 and 1945 in East Asia. In order to do this, it examines French behavior towards the Japanese in Shanghai and Indochina, France's position during incidents such as the 1932 Shanghai Incident, its policy during the Sino-Japanese conflict as well as its changing role and position in East Asia during the 1930s and 1940s, especially with the changes brought upon by the Second World War. This paper also pays attention to how France, as well as other Western nations, viewed Japan and East Asia, as well as how it affected East-West relations during …  Lire la suite

The objective of this study was to assess the oxygen cost of various intensities of steady-state cycling. VO2 (ml·min -1·kg-1) was measured at rest, during unloaded cycling (UL), 20 Watts, 50% (SS50) & 65% (SS65) of peak watts in 40 COPD patients (64 +/- 9 yrs; FEV1/FVC: 48 +/- 17 % predicted; FEV1:36 +/- 14 % predicted) and 28 age-matched healthy controls (CTRL). Despite higher VE (L·min -1) in COPD vs. CTRL (UL: 20.6 +/- 3.4 vs. 15.4 +/- 4.1; 20W: 24.3 +/- 4.5 vs. 17.8 +/- 4.2), VO2 at rest, at UL and 20W was not higher in COPD …  Lire la suite

The purpose of this work was to develop novel 3D coralline-chitosan macroporous composite scaffolds for in vitro bone tissue engineering and investigate cellular responses to these scaffolds. In these composites, coral skeletal material, which is made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), was simultaneously used as particulate reinforcing phase and gas-forming agent to obtain a structure with large pores and improved mechanical and biological properties. The reaction between the coralline material and the acidic chitosan polymer solvent, which produces carbon dioxide (CO2), was rapidly stopped by the subsequent thermally induced phase separation step, leaving coral particulates in the polymeric structure. Scaffolds containing …  Lire la suite

Bacillus thuringiensis NEB17 is a plant growth promoting rhizobacterium that produces a compound that directly increases plant growth. The compound is a bacteriocin and we propose the name thuricin 17. Thuricin 17 is a novel peptide inhibiting the growth of Bacillus species/strains, displaying both bactericidal and static effects. Its molecular weight, estimated via SDS-PAGE and verified by MALDI-QTOF mass spectroscopy, is 3162 Da. The partial amino acid sequence was determined and is N-term---WTCWSCLVCAACSVELL, C-term-CAS. Heat and pH stability, production and susceptibility to proteolysis were conducted. Thuricin 17 is active in pH 1.00-9.25, stable above 60°C and produced in the late …  Lire la suite

The purpose of this study was to examine to perceptions of early adolescent girls with regards to friendships, peer relations and stress. Ten early adolescent girls (aged 12-13 years) were interviewed using a semi-structured qualitative format. Findings report that subjects felt a sense of belonging in friendships, as well as experiencing exclusion from friends. In summary, the participants reported that they do experience stress and that it is friends, boys and parents that act as the main stressors in their life. A number of strengths were reported, including friendship as protective factor, empathy and optimism. The Positive Youth Development Framework …  Lire la suite

Measham, Toby (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The general aim of the experiments conducted for this thesis was to determine whether there are morphological changes in the innervation of the skin underlying states of neuropathic pain. More specifically, this thesis was immediately addressing the question of whether autonomic fibers sprout de novo into the upper dermis of the rat lower lip following bilateral chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the mental nerve, a purely sensory branch of the trigeminal. In addition to the main objective, we sought to determine whether and to what extent the peptidergic and non-peptidergic populations of primary afferent sensory fibres were affected following CCI. …  Lire la suite

This thesis looks at the textual representations of sociability problems in Raymond Queneau's autobiographical novels, which are also the first six novels of his career. Using an eclectic approach that combines elements of autobiographical analysis and social psychology with the numerous studies on the presence of philosophy in Queneau's work, we use the concept of identity to study social attitudes, first the author's own attitudes toward real groups, then the way the characters identify with groups, some having a tendency to share the groups identity, others choosing to distanciate themselves from the groups. Following this path, we try to demonstrate …  Lire la suite

Sherwin, Barbara B. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Child-based consultation is an innovative problem-solving consultative model. Essentially, child-based consultation is a process wherein the child is given the role of the consultee to induce a behavioral change in a significant adult (Bergan & Kratochwill, 1990; Kratochwill & Pittman, 2002; Kratochwill, Sladeczek, & Plunge, 1995). The present study was an exploratory investigation to evaluate the efficacy of child-based consultation as an alternative form of problem-solving consultation in the school setting. In the present study, child-based consultation was used to promote behavioral changes in teachers in the classroom environment. In addition, child consultees, manifesting behavioral difficulties, were engaged in this …  Lire la suite

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) acting on Sertoli cells of the testis plays important roles during reproductive development. FSH-R knockout (FORKO) mice provide a model to examine alterations in testicular and epididymal structure and function in its absence. Examination of the FORKO testis revealed a gross alteration of Sertoli cell structure indicative of a fluid imbalance. Functional parameters, such as ABP secretion were also significantly reduced in FORKO testis. Morphometry revealed quantitative reductions in seminiferous tubule size. The epididymal epithelium, appeared abnormal and morphometry revealed that epididymal tubule size was reduced in the knockout. Computer Assisted Sperm Analysis on sperm from …  Lire la suite

As the number of drug-resistant malaria parasites continues to grow, pressure is increasing to find an effective, cross-protective, multi-valent malaria vaccine (32). Expression library immunisation is an un-biased screening technique that leads to the identification of novel, protective antigens that can be administered as components of a multivalent DNA vaccine (9, 50, 75, 86, 92). Here, a P. c. adami DS expression library has been evaluated as a malaria vaccine in mice, and several subpools of cross-protective plasmids have been identified. Upon vaccination with these plasmid subpools, mice demonstrate significantly lower mean cumulative parasitemia values than control vaccinated mice, when …  Lire la suite

JRelix is a relational database implementation that supports not only traditional relational algebra and domain algebra but also complex data type and recursive nesting with powerful database programming language. This thesis documents some new features and operators of JRelix. Among them, type polymorphism (union type domain) and the relational pattern search (grep) operator are especially useful when dealing with semistructured data in a relational database. We use union type domains to increase the flexibility of rigid type definition in relational databases. In addition, we implement the grep operator in the relational algebra to facilitate queries on semistructured data. Grep returns …  Lire la suite

Children's learning of language-universal and language-specific principles of argument representation was the topic under investigation in the three studies comprising this thesis. Another objective was to investigate whether a discourse-pragmatic approach could be employed to explain children's patterns of argument omission and production, developmentally and crosslinguistically. To answer these questions, referential choice in the spontaneous language of monolingual English-speaking and monolingual Japanese-speaking children and their mothers was developmentally investigated whereby a sentence argument's morphological form (null, pronominal, lexical), referential status (given, new), and syntactic location (transitive subject, transitive object, intransitive subject) were systematically analysed. The first and second studies revealed …  Lire la suite

Cystic fibrosis (CF) female patients have a worse prognosis compared to their male counterparts. CF patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa have also been shown to have dysregulated cytokine profiles. Therefore, we studied the importance of sex and interleukin-10 in the susceptibility of C57BL/6 mice to pulmonary infection with P. aeruginosa. The results clearly demonstrate that both wildtype and interleukin-10 knockout (KO) female mice are more susceptible to P. aeruginosa infection than males, and that they mount a stronger inflammatory response in the lungs. Several animal models of CF show most of the CF symptoms; however, only a few of these …  Lire la suite

Two classes of parameters are important in product quality control and process design: thermo-physical and rheological properties. Reliable estimates of thermal properties (thermal conductivity, diffusivity, density, specific heat, and glass transition temperature) are needed to model the rate of heat transfer during food processing. Measurements of rheological parameters like viscosity and elasticity have been recognized as important tools to provide fundamental insights on structural organization of the food. Small amplitude oscillatory testing is useful in evaluation of gel characteristics and texture development in different food products. Proper design of industrial plants, modeling and automation in food process industry require data …  Lire la suite

This thesis documents the design and implementation of nine new features for supporting semistructured data in jRelix, including the augmentation of attribute metadata, the extension of the wildcard, and the expansion of recursive virtual nested relations. The strategy for implementation of semistructured data in Aldat system is to augment the data type and operations in the programming language, jRelix. The functionalities of attribute metadata operators (eval, quote, transpose ) have been enhanced and new operators (relation, typeof, self ) have been added. The capacity of the wildcard has been magnified; therefore, it can represent top-level relations or nested relations in …  Lire la suite

The Gag protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) contains a 14 amino acid region termed SP1 that is located between the capsid (CA) and downstream nucleocapsid (NC) sequences, and plays an active role in Gag assembly. This activity of SP1 involves its amino-terminal residues that, together with adjacent CA residues, constitute a putative (x-helical structure spanning Gag residues from positions 359 to 371. However, the underlying mechanisms are mostly unclear. The major goal of this PhD study was to understand the role of SP1 in HIV-1 Gag multimerization, membrane binding and viral RNA packaging. In addition to the …  Lire la suite

Carbon/Carbon composites belong to the generic class of fiber reinforced composites and are widely used because of their high strength as well as chemical and thermal stability. Like other fiber reinforced composites they consist of the fibers which act as reinforcements and matrix which acts as a glue that binds the fibers. c/c composites from pitch based precursor are unique since the matrix in this case is a liquid crystal or mesophase. This makes them remarkable in the sense that unlike c/c composites from other precursors such as PAN, rayon etc. they have extremely high degree of molecular orientation and …  Lire la suite

Amniotic fluid (AF) is a protective pool and a resource of amino acids for the growing fetus. In study 1, we investigated if any of these AF amino acids at mid gestation were associated with fetal development in humans. Nineteen amino acids differed across birth weight percentiles. Arginine, 3-methyl histidine and tryptophan were positive predictors of birth weight, while ornithine was a negative predictor. In study 2, we used a diet induced model of IUGR to see if specific AF amino acids were predictive of fetal weight near term. Methionine and phenylalanine were modified by diet, and 12 amino acids …  Lire la suite

In most species, highly sophisticated global regulatory networks regulate the expression of genes in response to environmental and physiological demands. The mechanisms devised control virtually every event involved in transcription and translation, as well as influencing mRNA degradation, protein stability, protein localization, protein-protein interactions, and protein function. In order to understand the general mechanism used by several organisms to control gene expression, three regulatory proteins were investigated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. The systems studied were proteins involved in the control of gene expression at the transcriptional (YaeO, Chapter 2), posttranscriptional (CsrA, Chapter 3) and translational levels (aIF2Pbeta Chapter …  Lire la suite

Gustavo Adolfo Becquer presents a romantic vision of poetry summed up in the sentence "poetry is you" because according to this vision "poetry is feeling and feeling is woman." This means that the concept of poetry is formed by the essential parts of Becquer's world. Woman, presented as the centre of Becquer's poetic universe, is an asexual idea and an attractive and passionate muse at the same time. Poetry, which is feeling as well as woman, can be seen in the same way, and therefore can be not only pure and ideal, but also living and passionate. The poet is …  Lire la suite

This thesis analyses the Mexican legal framework and the public policies implemented by the Mexican government regarding female labour from an international perspective. The position to be argued throughout the thesis is that the Mexican government has not fulfilled its international obligations derived from the treaties and international conventions that directly or indirectly provide for women's labour rights. The thesis proposes a number of legal reforms and public policies that once properly enforced and implemented by the Mexican government would provide for gender equality in the Mexican labour market.  Lire la suite

While the overall annual incidence of tuberculosis (TB) on the Island of Montreal has been stable at 10 per 100,000 in recent years, incidence varies tremendously by country of birth and by neighbourhood. It is not clear how much of this variation reflects population distribution, and how much reflects localized risk factors and/or local transmission. Precise mapping and spatial statistical analysis allowed for the identification of two types of TB concentrations: hotspots---raw concentrations of cases, and high-incidence zones---where TB incidence significantly exceeds the rate expected. The high-incidence zones were not fully explained by known risk factors for TB, such as …  Lire la suite

In order to survive in today's competitive manufacturing markets, manufacturing systems need to adapt at an ever-increasing pace to incorporate new technology which can lower the cost of production, while maintaining quality and delivery schedules. The task of the manufacturing system becomes even more challenging in the quest to use a common approach for different manufacturing plants and ever evolving manufacturing processes for specific plants. This thesis introduces a reference architecture that enables such changes between plants and updates within plants. For this, we use the paradigm of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). A developed MES architecture by the National Institute …  Lire la suite

Feine, Jocelyne S. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Inside is the Sky is a musical composition for mezzo soprano and chamber orchestra. It is a collection of four songs using poems by renowned Canadian poet Lorna Crozier: A Summer's Singing, In Moonlight, Tautologies of Summer, and Inner Space. The composer wishes to connect music and poetry on a fundamental level. The approach is to write music that responds not to the mere surface of the poems, but rather to their central poetic themes, by means of parameters intrinsic to music: harmony, rhythm, melody, and registral expanse.  Lire la suite

Transcription factors encoded by the Hox gene family are conserved throughout the animal kingdom. Their differential spatial and temporal expression is crucial for axial patterning in early embryonic development. The affinity and specificity of DNA-binding by the homeodomain (HD)-containing HOX proteins is raised by interaction with cofactors. The three-amino-acid-loop-extension (TALE) class of HD-containing proteins comprises HOX-cofactors which are further categorized into subfamilies including the PBC family, the MEIS family and the PKNOX/PREP family. HOX-cofactors belonging to the TALE class have been shown to form dimeric or trimeric complexes with other TALE family members and with HOX proteins to regulate Hox …  Lire la suite

A three-dimensional numerical model (PHOENICS) was used to investigate the role of stream deflector angle and length on the flow field in a rectangular laboratory flume. Subsequent bed topography surveys were performed to examine the role of obstruction angle on scour hole development over time. The model was capable of predicting laboratory velocity and turbulent kinetic energy measurements, performing better for flow over a flat stable bed than over a deformed sand bed. A new method of incorporating complex bed topography into a structured Cartesian mesh was developed in the process. Flow field properties such as dynamic pressure, velocity amplification, …  Lire la suite

Neural tube defect is one of the leading causes of birth defect in human. Mouse planar cell polarity genes Vangl2 and Vangl1 are expressed in the developing neural tube. Mutation in Vangl2 has been shown to cause mouse equivalent of craniorachischisis. A cre/loxP conditional Vangl1 knockout was designed from a pFlox vector. The effectiveness of the cre/loxP recombination in pFlox was tested in a bacterial system. The targeting vector was transfected into pluripotent E.S. cells to allow homologous recombination to displace the wildtype Vangl1. Cre expressing vector was transfected into the E.S. cells to produce both the conditional and conventional …  Lire la suite

Structural damage detection at the earliest possible stage is very important in the aerospace industry to prevent major failures. In this work, a potential cost-effective crack detection method using piezoelectric strips bonded on the structure was studied. A crack model was developed and validated. Static, modal and transient dynamic analysises are performed for the case of piezoelectric strips bonded to the structure by using a finite element method to explore the effectiveness of the crack detection method. Panel methods are used for steady flow problems of fixed wings in order to calculate the pressure distributions on the wing surface. A …  Lire la suite

Several past studies have identified that dysphoric undergraduates (those with depressed mood) sometimes give estimates of their control over outcomes closer to the actual contingency than estimates made by the nondepressed. This "depressive realism" phenomenon is typically found in tasks with zero control and frequent outcomes. The present paper investigates this phenomenon with a more powerful design for comparing estimates. Experiment 1 manipulated motivation for accuracy to compare the prevalent self-serving motivational bias explanation to an information processing bias perspective. Depressive realism was found under the typical conditions, but under conditions of higher motivation for accuracy, all participants overestimated their …  Lire la suite

Liver diseases are the eighth leading cause of death in North America. Currently, liver transplant is the available treatment for patients with liver failure. However, the shortage of donors and the requirement of immunosuppressant remain a disadvantage. Microencapsulation of living cells is an emerging technology which may serve as an alternative therapy for patients requiring organ transplants. One of the limiting factors in the progress of such therapy is attaining a biocompatible and mechanically stable polymer. In the following thesis, a novel microcapsules combining alginate, poly-l-lysine, chitosan and polyethylene glycol (ACPPA) was designed and evaluated for its use in the …  Lire la suite

Given a graph G = (V, E), an odd cycle cover is a subset of the vertices whose removal makes the graph bipartite, that is, it meets all odd cycles in G. A packing in G is a collection of vertex disjoint odd cycles. This thesis addresses algorithmic and structural problems concerning odd cycle covers and packings. In particular, we consider the two NP-hard problems of finding a maximum packing and a minimum covering. In 1994 Brass [53] conjectured that tau, the minimum size of an odd cycle cover, is at most twice nu, the maximum size of a packing. …  Lire la suite

The performance of a resolution-based automated theorem prover (ATP) depends on the speed at which clauses are derived and the efficiency at pruning the search space. The speed at which clauses are derived depends in part on the number of operations performed to construct derived clauses. Depth-first search based ATPs derive clauses in a linear manner. In linear derivations, a large percentage of the derived clauses are intermediate conclusions that are discarded shortly after they are derived. Therefore, the time spent constructing those clauses is wasted. In this thesis we present a stalling strategy, called delayed clause-construction (DCC), that reduces …  Lire la suite

The nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) transcription factors are key regulators of immunomodulatory genes regulation. NF-kappaB activity is regulated through the phosphorylation of inhibitory proteins (IkappaBs) by the IkappaB kinase (IKK) complex (IKK alpha/beta/gamma), leading to IkappaB degradation and NF-kappaB translocation to the nucleus where they promote transcription of immunoregulatory genes. Moreover, cRel and p65 activities are also regulated by direct phosphorylation of their transactivation domain. Recently, two IKK non-canonical homologues, IKKepsilon and TBK-1 (TANK binding kinase-1) have been identified with functions distinct from the classical IKKalpha/IKKbeta. TBK-1/IKKepsilon trigger antiviral immunity through direct phosphorylation of the IRF3/IRF7 transcription factors, which are …  Lire la suite

The degradation of C8-C16 alpha,beta-dichloroalkanes by Rhodococcus rhodochrous ATCC 13808 and Pseudomonas oleovorans ATCC 29347 was studied. The carbon chain length of the alpha,beta-dichloroalkane influenced the degradation rates of these compounds and the observed trends were species-dependent. R. rhodochrous exhibited faster rates towards the longer-chained compounds whereas P. oleovorans most rapidly degraded the shorter-chained compounds. This observation is consistent with the chain-length specificity of the hydroxylase enzymes responsible for initiating the degradation of alkanes by each organism. Studies conducted in a cyclone batch reactor indicated that alpha,beta-dichloroalkanes are modified to chlorinated metabolites prior to the dechlorination step. This indicates that …  Lire la suite

The following thesis deals with three current legal issues regarding airports. In the first chapter the development of airport ownership and management structures will be studied. Although in most cases airports are still owned and managed by governments or local bodies, since the 1960s, new approaches to ownership and management have come into practise. This phenomenon is studied from the perspective of its impact upon public air law. The second chapter deals with airport charges and their international legal framework. After examining the different forms of airport charges and the recommendations enacted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the …  Lire la suite