cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Low-income African-American and Hispanic caregivers' knowledge, behaviors, and perceptions relating to children's calcium intakes: survey results from clients of urban, neighborhood laundromats
Creators: name: Bigwood, Alison H.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Limited-resource African-American and Hispanic children were found to have inadequate intakes of calcium.  Since increasing their calcium intakes would decrease their risk for health conditions prevalent in these populations, i.e., lead poisoning, dental caries, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis, this study was performed.  More specifically, this work sought to determine if urban, New Jersey laundromats were useful venues in which to educate caregivers about calcium and its importance for their children via the display of "Calcium: Select to Protect" social marketing campaign materials.  Also examined were caregivers' perceptions of factors related to children's inadequate calcium intakes.  This research sought to accomplish these goals via evaluation tools developed using constructs from the Social-Ecological Model, the Stage Theory of Organizational Change, and the Health Belief Model.  Limited-resource African-American (n=134) and Hispanic (n=143) caregivers from ten laundromats were surveyed.  Newark, NJ laundromats (n=6) served as intervention sites, and Jersey City, NJ laundromats (n=4) served as control locations.  Post-intervention, only two of the 72 Newark laundromat clients surveyed reported exposure to the intervention materials, indicating the campaign's lack of success in this venue.  This work's aims were revised, and the data collected, minus the two participants that reported exposure to the intervention, were used to examine caregivers' baseline characteristics that may influence their children's calcium intakes.  Few caregivers reported previous exposure to calcium-related materials; however, those receiving WIC reported having had greater exposure to calcium-related materials compared to non-participants t(271) = 2.80, p [less than] .01.  Caregivers exhibited limited knowledge of their children's calcium requirements, calcium sources, and calcium-related health conditions.  Findings from variables drawn from the Health Belief Model showed that caregivers did not perceive their children to be susceptible to inadequate calcium intakes, had insufficient understanding of the benefits of adequate calcium intakes during childhood, and experienced multiple barriers to ensuring their children's adequate calcium consumption.  These factors may have negatively affected children's calcium consumption, and could be addressed via the effective dissemination of "Calcium: Select to Protect" campaign messages.  Further research is needed to improve calcium intakes among low-income African-American and Hispanic children who live in urban environments.
Modulating TLR9 Activation for Lung Cancer Therapy
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men in the United States and worldwide accounting for even more deaths from solid tumors than breast, prostate, pancreatic and colorectal cancers combined. Tobacco smoking is the major causal agent for the lung cancer incidence. The large numbers of current and former smokers are at high risk for developing lung cancer, and there are currently no chemopreventive agents for effectively preventing lung cancer in humans. Thus novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed to improve the clinical treatment of this serious disease.

 Synthetic CpG containing oligo-deoxynucleotides (CpG-ODN) are being exploited as a novel therapeutic approach for treatment of several different human cancers. Their efficacy is currently under evaluation in clinical trails. CpG-ODN could be developed for using alone, or in combination with different type of cancer therapies such as radiation therapy, surgery and chemotherapy for cancer treatment. For example, in combination with standard paclitaxel or cisplatin chemotherapy, CpG-ODN have been used in phase III clinical trail as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced (stage IIIb or IV) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

 Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is the cellular receptor which mediates the antitumor activity of CpG-ODN. This receptor is expressed in B lymphocytes, plasmacytoid dendritic cells, monocytes and at lower levels in respiratory cells and lung cancer cells. Stimulation of TLR9 triggers Th1 immune responses including increased synthesis of cytokines such as IL-12 and interferon-? (IFN-?), leading to maturation, differentiation, and proliferation of natural killer (NK) cells, T cells and monocytes. These immunoadjuvant effects facilitate eradication of malignant cells.

 We recently identified a novel protein termed Triad3A, and have generated knockout mice for this gene. Triad3A is an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase that regulates ubiquitination and proteolytic degradation of TLR9. The Triad3A deficient mice are hyperresponsive to CpG-ODN. We hypothesize that the extent of TLR9 activation upon stimulation could be important in determining the efficacy of CpG-ODN in lung cancer therapy. To test this hypothesis, in this project we will: (1) establish lung cancer animal models in the Triad3A gene knockout mice to investigate whether reduction of Triad3A activity enhances the efficacy of CpG-ODN in inhibition of lung cancer growth, and (2) investigate the extent and the molecular basis of CpG-ODN induced immunological responses in the Triad3A knockout mice. Completion of this project will help us to elucidate whether Triad3A is a molecular target to enhance the therapeutic effect of CpG-ODN for lung cancer treatment, and provide us information for additional therapeutic strategies with CpG-ODN.
Performance and hardware complexity analysis of programmable radio platform for MIMO OFDM based WLAN systems
Creators: name: Bhatnagar, Vijayant
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Emerging wireless technologies and standards present a design space with multiple dimensions in terms of time, physical hardware space, and technology trends. Efficient evaluation of a desired combination of these dimensions to support multiple technologies and standards presents a significant challenge. We study the feasibility of a multiprotocol architecture without sacrificing the Quality of Service. An architecture facilitating such a mechanism can be implemented at different layers in the network stack with each layer offering a tradeoff between complexity and latency. Careful analysis of the physical layer reveals that most blocks of the transceiver can be reused for different protocols without significant architectural change. In addition to the feasibility analysis, we also identify common blocks in the network stack that could be possibly reused buying us significant hardware gains without sacrificing the aggregate system throughput. Our study presents the gate count complexity and the performance analysis of programmable radio architecture with the 802.11n (Draft 3.0) MIMO-OFDM based protocol stream and 802.11a OFDM based WLAN protocol stream. In this thesis, we demonstrate that multiple protocols can be supported using the same hardware under acceptable latency requirements. Complexity of the system in terms of gate count has been determined. It has been found that for shorter frame sizes, it is better to process less number of OFDM symbols at a time. However, for larger frame sizes, it is beneficial to process large number (four to eight) of OFDM symbols at a time. Also, the minimum clock rate required to run the hardware, would vary depending upon the number of OFDM Symbols processed. The switching and multiplexing overhead of the programmable radio platform has also been investigated. Finally, our simulator is capable of evaluating bottlenecks, if any.
Interaction between ephrin/Eph and BDNF in modulating hippocampal synaptic transmission and synapse formation
Creators: name: Bi, Caixia
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The hippocampus is a brain structure known to be critical for learning and memory consolidation.  Abnormal development or damage to this structure is known to play a role in developmental or degenerative neurological disorders such as autism and Alzheimer's disease.  In this thesis, I argue that an interaction between ephrin/Eph and  BDNF signaling pathways is critical for the development of the selective connection of CA3 neurons to CA1 neurons in hippocampus.  This claim was evaluated on the basis of electrophysiology evidence about the ephrin/Eph -- BDNF interaction in synaptic activity, and the effect of the interrupting Eph and BDNF signaling on the hippocampal projection specificity onto CA1 neurons by functional synapse identification via the combination of electrophysiology and immunocytochemistry. First, I confirmed that the primary hippocampal neuronal culture can be a model for studying the specificity of synaptic connection within the hippocampal circuitry.  Functional synapses were characterized by recording from pairs of cells which we subsequently identified with immunocytochemical labeling.  Most connections were  unidirectional, and I found that when one of the cells was a CA1 neuron (identified by labeling with the CA1 marker anti-SCIP) it was predominantly the postsynaptic member of the pair, a result consistent with in vivo connectivity.  Second, ephrin-A/EphA signaling was shown to produce a transient increase in synaptic transmission and be able to inhibit the effect of subsequent BDNF application on synaptic activity.  These electrophysiological experiments were suggestive of possible interaction between ephrin-A/EphA and BDNF in modulation synapse formation.  Third, interruption of the endogenous EphA signaling by the kinase dominant negative EphA constructs significantly changed the natural synaptic connection selectivity in the hippocampal circuitry and dramatically increased the bi-directional connections in the culture as a consequence.The empirical results presented in this thesis provide a valuable mechanism for hippocampal trisynaptic circuitry development and function through balancing opposite influences of various modulating factors at specific developmental phases.
Parazuphium Jeannel 1942
Creators: name: Azadbakhsh, Saeed
name: Nozari, Jamasb
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Parazuphium

description: Genus Parazuphium Jeannel, 1942
Subgenus Neozuphium Hurka, 1982
Parazuphium (Neozuphium) damascenum damascenum Fairmaire, 1897 Citations: Felix (2009) cited the species for Iran based on on a personal communication of Jan Muilwijk. This record should be confirmed.
description: Published as part of Azadbakhsh, Saeed & Nozari, Jamasb, 2015, Checklist of the Iranian Ground Beetles (Coleoptera; Carabidae), pp. 1-108 in Zootaxa 4024 (1) on page 99, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4024.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/240494
Polistichus Bonelli 1810
Creators: name: Azadbakhsh, Saeed
name: Nozari, Jamasb
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Polistichus

description: Genus Polistichus Bonelli, 1810
Polistichus connexus (Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785)
Citations: Kuh-räng (Prov. of Esfahan; Mandl, 1963); Kordkoy (Prov. of Golestan; Samin et al., 2011).
Polistichus fasciolatus (P.Rossi, 1790)
Citations: Province Mazandaran (Chaudoir, 1842).
description: Published as part of Azadbakhsh, Saeed & Nozari, Jamasb, 2015, Checklist of the Iranian Ground Beetles (Coleoptera; Carabidae), pp. 1-108 in Zootaxa 4024 (1) on page 99, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4024.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/240494
Assembly of a novel cavitand utilizing dynamic covalent bond formation
Creators: name: Bennett, James Lyle
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Molecular assembly which utilizes dynamic covalent bonding is reported. Previously unreported cavitand 19 was synthesized and is shown to assemble into structure 20 which is composed of four cavitands and eight ethylenediamine by the formation of sixteen imine bonds.
Anthia Weber 1801
Creators: name: Azadbakhsh, Saeed
name: Nozari, Jamasb
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Anthia

description: Genus Anthia Weber, 1801
Subgenus Termophilum Basilewsky, 1950
Anthia (Termophilum) duodecimguttata Bonelli, 1813
Citations: Bam (Prov. of Kerman; Sadeghi. et al., 2011); Without exact locality (Häckel & Farkač, 2013).
Subgenus Anthia Weber, 1801
Anthia (Anthia) mannerheimi Chaudoir, 1842
Citations: Mashhad (Prov. of Razavi Khorasan; Sadeghi. et al., 2011); Bam (Prov. of Kerman; Sadeghi. et al., 2011); Jussufabad (Prov. of Kerman; Mandl, 1967b); Provinces Mazandaran and Golestan (Häckel & Farkač, 2013).
Anthia (Anthia) sexguttata (Fabricius, 1775)
Citations: Without exact locality (Häckel & Farkač, 2013).
description: Published as part of Azadbakhsh, Saeed & Nozari, Jamasb, 2015, Checklist of the Iranian Ground Beetles (Coleoptera; Carabidae), pp. 1-108 in Zootaxa 4024 (1) on pages 99-100, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4024.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/240494
Forest recovery and just sustainability in the Florianópolis city-region
Creators: name: Baptista, Sandra Regina
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: This dissertation examines human-environment interactions in the Florianópolis city-region, Santa Catarina State, Brazil from a just sustainability perspective. I construct an in-depth historical narrative of social and landscape transformations and offer an account of the diverse origins of this expanding metropolis. This historical narrative provides the context for understanding contemporary demographic change, metropolitan land-use, forest-transition dynamics, sociospatial inequalities, legal-institutional reforms, and democratic practice. Employing a multiscalar methodological approach, I integrate documentary research, aerial photos, interviews, participant observation, and site visits. I analyze social and ecological data at nested spatial and organizational scales ranging from neighborhoods to national and global arenas. Results suggest that the Florianópolis city-region has experienced a forest transition from a period of net deforestation caused by extractive and agricultural activities to a period of net forest recovery. Forest recovery has resulted from tree planting with exotic species and the 'spontaneous' regeneration of secondary forests. Exotic tree monocultures have been planted since the 1960s. Much of the forest regeneration has occurred since the 1980s during a period characterized by decline in agricultural land use, real estate speculation, and the establishment of conservation units and other types of land-use restrictions. The environmental services and amenities associated with the protected-area network have contributed to the ongoing viability of local tourism development and rising real estate prices in well-located neighborhoods. Middle- and upper-income housing construction has accelerated since the 1990s, converting parcels to residential or commercial subdivisions in suburban and peri-urban landscapes. Low-income, self-provisioned, informal settlements have emerged and expanded on 'marginal,' 'peripheral,' and 'precarious' lands, often in locations legally defined as environmentally protected areas and that lack sanitation services. This process of urban dualization has resulted in socioenvironmental injustices by reinforcing and exacerbating differential access to life opportunities and environmental services as well as differential exposure to environmental hazards. I conclude with a discussion of land quality, uneven development, uneven valuation of ecosystems, participatory democracy, possible future scenarios, policy implications, unresolved issues, and suggestions for future research.
Statistical mechanics and combinatorics of some discrete lattice models
Creators: name: Ayyer, Arvind
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Many problems in statistical physics involve enumeration of certain objects. In this thesis, we apply ideas from combinatorics and statistical physics to understand three different lattice models.We investigate the structure of the nonequilibrium stationary state (NESS) of a system of first and second class particles onL sites of a one-dimensional lattice in contact with first class particle reservoirs at the boundary sites and second class particles constrained to lie the system. The internaldynamics are described by the usual totally asymmetric exclusion process (TASEP) with second class particles. We show in a conceptually simple way how pinned and unpinned (fat) shocks determine the general structure of the phase diagram.  We also point out some unexpected features in the microscopic structure of the NESS both for finite L and in the limit of large L. In the latter case the local distribution of second class particles is given by an equilibrium pressure ensemble with a pair potential between neighboring particles which grows logarithmically with distance.We model  a long linear polymer constrainedbetween two plates as a walk on a two-dimensional lattice constrained to lie between two lines, x=y and x=y+w, which interacts with these lines via contact parameters s and t. The atomic steps of the walk can be taken to be from an arbitrary but fixed set S with the only condition being that the firstcoordinate of every element in S is strictly positive. For any such S and any w,  we prescribe general algorithms (fully implemented in Maple) for the automated calculation of several mathematical and physical quantities of interest.  Ferrers (or Young) diagrams are very classical objects in representation theory, whose half-perimeter generating function of Ferrers diagrams is a straightforward rational function. We construct two new classes of Ferrers diagrams, which we call wicketed and gated Ferrers diagrams, which have internal voids in the shape of Ferrers diagrams, and calculate their half-perimeter generating functions, one of which is closely related to the generating function of the Catalan numbers, using a more abstract version of the usual transfer matrix method.
Novel developmental roles of EphA receptors
Creators: name: Cooper, Margaret Ann
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The EphA tyrosine kinase receptors mediate diverse cellular functions including axon guidance, cell migration, cell adhesion, and differentiation.  A member of this family, EphA5, is well known for its roles in the development of several topographical maps in the CNS such as the hippocamposeptal, thalamocortical, and retinotectal systems.  However, the EphA5 receptor is expressed beyond just these few areas, for example, in the olfactory bulb, hypothalamus, amygdala, and cranial nerve ganglia.  In providing a thorough analysis of EphA5 receptor localization in developing and adult mice, previously unexplored regions with EphA5 expression were uncovered.  Functions of the EphA receptor and A-ephrins were characterized in further studies in two of these areas, the midbrain dopaminergic nuclei in the ventral midbrain and the lens of the eye.    Expression patterns of EphA5 in the midbrain and of ephrin-A5 in the striatum, suggested a role in mediating dopaminergic axon-target interactions.  Dopaminergic neurons adhere to striatal tissue in part through ephrin-A5 functions.  An examination of the biological effects of ephrin-A5 on dopaminergic neurons revealed enhanced neurite outgrowth in the presence of the ligand in vitro.  Additionally, retrograde tracing studies with ephrin-A5-/- mice revealed that fewer neurons sent axons to their appropriate striatal targets, indicating that interactions between ephrin-A ligands and EphA receptors may promote the proper development of the midbrain dopaminergic pathways.Outside of the nervous system, a second novel role for EphA receptors was identified in the lens.  Ephrin-A5-/- mice exhibited a high incidence of cataract development.  Of several EphA receptors shown to be expressed in the lens, EphA2 exhibited decreased phosphorylation in ephrin-A5-/- lenses demonstrating that it could function as a physiological receptor for the ligand.  Although the mechanism for the defects is unclear, electron micrographs showed disruptions in the plasma membrane junctions between lens fiber cells.  Early signs of lens degeneration in mutant mice consisted of the formation of small vacuoles and a loss of fiber cell shape.  Both of these studies demonstrate the positive functions mediated by the Eph family.
Measuring overtreatment: a structural model to estimate the impact of non-clinical factors on healthcare utilization
Creators: name: Arrieta, Alejandro
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: It is well acknowledged that, in the agency relationship between physicians and patients, the informational advantage gives doctors an incentive to deviate from the appropriate treatment, thus incurring over- or under- utilization. However, the empirical consequence of this problem has not been adequately considered. In particular, physician agency creates a gap between appropriate treatment and actual treatment whose characteristics and effects on estimation are analogous to a classification error. This thesis proposes a structural model based on misclassification in which the physician behavior characterizes the structure of the measurement error. The model produces consistent estimators and is able to measure the degree of over- and under-utilization by separating out the effect of clinical and non-clinical variables on treatment decision. The model is applied to cesarean section deliveries performed in New Jersey in 1999-2002. The results show a moderate but growing rate of non-clinically required c-sections of around 3.2%, implying that the rapid growth of c-section rates over these years is explained mainly by non-clinical factors.In the second chapter, the model is used to study how reform in the Peruvian health system has increased physician incentives to overuse c-sections in private hospitals. C-section rates in the private sector grew from 27% to 48% after the health reform of 1997, while the rates remained constant at 19% in the public sector. Using a national survey, it is estimated that each year more than 13 thousand women are over-treated, having a c-section without medical reasons. This document highlights the consequences of unnecessary c-sections on women's reproductive rights, and establishes important implications and recommendations for other health reforms in Latin America.The third chapter extends the parametric estimation of the structural misclassification model to a semi-parametric estimation based on a double-index semi-parametric maximum likelihood with bias correction (Klein and Vella, 2008). I show that misspecification error due to a wrong assumption in error distribution may lead to an important inconsistency in parametric estimates, thus justifying the use of a semi-parametric technique to support results. The parametric and semi-parametric models are compared using a Monte Carlo study and an application for c-section deliveries.
Zeno, Aristotle, the Racetrack and the Achilles: a historical and philosophical investigation
Creators: name: Allen, Benjamin William
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: I reconstruct the original versions of Zeno's Racetrack and Achilles paradoxes, along with Aristotle's responses thereto.  Along the way I consider some of the consequences for modern analyses of the paradoxes.It turns out that the Racetrack and the Achilles were oral two-party question-and-answer dialectical paradoxes.  One consequence is that the arguments needed to be comprehensible to the average person, and did not employ theses or concepts familiar only to philosophical specialists.  I rely on this fact in reconstructing the original dialectical versions of the paradoxes.  I show that both paradoxes rely for their success on forcing the dialectical answerer to reflect on his own potentially unending experience of imagination, and show that this renders the most popular contemporary critique of each paradox unworkable in an ancient dialectical context.In responding to the Racetrack, Aristotle seeks to replace the answerer's first-person experience with something more objective, a visible diagram.  He then argues that the Racetrack involves an equivocation, an equivocation resulting from the fact that one and the same visible diagram can be interpreted in two ways.  He frames his charge of equivocation in standard dialectical fashion, but his use of a diagram is his own innovation.While first employing his response to the Racetrack to construct a response to the somewhat different Achilles paradox, Aristotle later proceeds to offer a revised critique of the Racetrack itself.  His revised critique is heavily influenced by his reaction to a variant pre-Aristotelian version of the paradox, a version involving counting.  This leads him to reflect on the possibility of mentally experiencing an infinite collection.  He also reflects on his earlier diagrammatic methodology, and on the conditions that individuate points, especially halfway-points.  He concludes that points which are individuated in diagrams need not represent points that are individuated in reality.  His revised critique of the Racetrack hinges on the distinction between actual points and potential points, and I show that this critique maintains the dialectical form of its predecessor, while constituting a reflection on the potentially misleading nature of diagrams.
Weighted 2D-kernel density estimations provide a new probabilistic measure for epigenetic age - Additional files
Creators: name: Perez-Correa, Juan-Felipe
name: Stiehl, Thomas
name: Marioni, Riccardo E.
name: Corley, Janie
name: Cox, Simon R.
name: Costa, Ivan G.
name: Wagner, Wolfgang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025

description: This repository contains the following files:

Additional file 2: kernels.Rds. .Rds file containing the 27 kernels calculated with our algorithm for the 27 CpG clock (WKDE).

Additional file 3: best_parameters.Rds. .Rds file containing the 27 weights for the 27 CpG clock (WKDE).

Additional file 4: WKDE_functions.R. .R script containing the functions w2dkage (to calculate epigenetic age), w2dkrange (to calculate probability age functions) and w2dkvs (to calculate variation score) with the 27CpG WKDE method. All the 3 functions have one input: a matrix of DNAm beta values (CpGs in rows, samples in columns).

Additional file 5: WKDE_method_and_figures.R. R script containing the source code to load the training and validation datasets used in the 27CpG WKDE clock, to create an epigenetic clock by implementing the WKDE method using the training dataset, and to generate the main figures of the manuscript.
Performance modeling and  risk analysis of transit vessel traffic in the Istanbul strait: studies on queues with multiple types of interruptions
Creators: name: Ulusçu Tütün, Özgecan S.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The Istanbul Strait, the narrow waterway separating Europe from Asia, holds a strategic importance in maritime transportation as it links the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.  It is considered one of the world's most dangerous waterways to navigate.  Over 50,000 transit vessels pass through the Strait annually, 20% of which carry dangerous cargo.In this research, we have developed a mathematical risk analysis model to analyze the risks involved in the transit vessel traffic system in the Istanbul Strait.  In the first step of the risk analysis, the transit vessel traffic system is analyzed and a simulation model is developed to mimic and study the system behavior.  In addition to vessel traffic and geographical conditions, the current vessel scheduling practices are modeled using a scheduling algorithm.  This algorithm is developed through discussions with the Turkish Straits Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) to mimic their decisions on sequencing vessel entrances as well as coordinating vessel traffic in both directions.  Furthermore, a scenario analysis is performed to evaluate the impact of several parameters on the system performance.  Risk analysis is performed by incorporating a probabilistic accident risk model into the simulation model.  A mathematical model is developed based on probabilistic arguments and historical data and subject matter expert opinions.  We have also performed a scenario analysis to evaluate the characteristics of the accident risk.  This analysis allows us to investigate how various factors impact risk.  These factors include vessel arrivals, scheduling policies, pilotage, overtaking, and local traffic density.  Policy indications are made based on results.Finally, complexity of the operations at the Strait has motivated us to model congestion at the waterway entrances through queueing analysis.  We have developed queueing models subject to various operation-independent interruptions.  We have used waiting time arguments and service completion time analysis to approximate the expected waiting time of a vessel in the aforementioned queue for various cases of service interruptions.  These cases include the single-class models with non-simultaneous and possibly simultaneous interruptions, the multi-class priority queueing model with k possibly simultaneous class-independent interruptions, and the two-class priority queueing model with k possibly simultaneous class-dependent interruptions.
Weighted 2D-kernel density estimations provide a new probabilistic measure for epigenetic age - Additional files
Creators: name: Perez-Correa, Juan-Felipe
name: Stiehl, Thomas
name: Marioni, Riccardo E.
name: Corley, Janie
name: Cox, Simon R.
name: Costa, Ivan G.
name: Wagner, Wolfgang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: This repository contains the following files:

Additional file 2: kernels.Rds. .Rds file containing the 27 kernels calculated with our algorithm for the 27 CpG clock (WKDE).

Additional file 3: best_parameters.Rds. .Rds file containing the 27 weights for the 27 CpG clock (WKDE).

Additional file 4: WKDE_functions.R. .R script containing the functions w2dkage (to calculate epigenetic age), w2dkrange (to calculate probability age functions) and w2dkvs (to calculate variation score) with the 27CpG WKDE method. All the 3 functions have one input: a matrix of DNAm beta values (CpGs in rows, samples in columns).
100% of anything looks good -- the appeal of one hundred percent and the psychology of vaccination
Creators: name: Li, Meng
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: People overweight certainty, even when it is just an illusion. In study 1, participants (N = 470) preferred a vaccine that was 100% effective against viral infections that cause 70% of cancer cases to a vaccine that was 70% effective against infections that cause 100% of cancer cases. Study 2 (N = 129) illustrated the appeal of 100%, even if it does not refer to probability: vaccines with either 100% effectiveness or 100% target range were preferred to other vaccines that were less than 100% effective towards less than 100% target. The preference for 100% effectiveness towards a subset of targets was unaffected by framing the vaccine in a broader target scope. We propose that people overweight 100% in general when they make decisions involving percentage, be it probability, proportion of population, or subset, despite the fact that almost anything can be described as 100% of something.
Parameterizations of Teichmüller spaces of surfaces with boundary
Creators: name: Guo, Ren
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The Teichmüller space of a surface with boundary is the space of all isotopy classes of hyperbolic metrics with totally geodesic boundary. Using the cosine law of a hyperbolicright-angled hexagon, Feng Luo introduced a continuous family of new coordinates of the Teichmüller space: the $psi_{lambda}$coordinate. He proved that for $lambda geq 0$, the image of the Teichmüller space under the $psi_{lambda}$ coordinate is an open convex polytope independent of $lambda$. In thisdissertation, we verify Luo's conjecture that for $lambda [less than]0$, the image of the Teichmüller space under the $psi_{lambda}$coordinate is a bounded open convex polytope.
Topics in statistical finance
Creators: name: Goteti, Venkata Sasikiran
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part investigates the presence of long term dependence in stock price data via a permutation test based on the correlation structure of the underlying stock prices. These tests reveal the short term nature of stock price dependence structure. The second part extendsRamprasath and Singh(2007)'s `statistical options' to define a group of American type options based on robust estimators of location. The payoff functions of these path dependent options are based on a new set of stochastic processes which are defined using various robust estimators of location. The asymptotic distributional behavior of these new processes is ascertained which in turn is used in pricingthe options. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods were used to compute the prices of the statistical options. The third part explores a stock price model parameter estimation problem and interprets a growth rate parameter.
Evolution of Colletotrichum species inhabiting grasses in diverse ecosystems
Creators: name: Crouch, Jo Anne
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Fungi in the genus Colletotrichum are destructive pathogens, afflicting over 900 plant species worldwide, including numerous grasses and cereal crops. In this dissertation I reconstruct the evolution of grass-inhabiting Colletotrichum and relate it to pathogenicity.  I have undertaken this research to (1) understand how graminicolous Colletotrichum were shaped by evolutionary processes such as population divergence, gene flow, mutation, recombination and speciation; and (2) evaluate whether the lifestyles of these fungi can be correlated with genotypic or genomic signatures, life history or ecological adaptations. These broad objectives were centered on the application-based model of C. cereale, a recently emerged pathogen of the golf course turfgrasses. Novel tools, including sequence-based markers from four protein coding genes and five transposon species, transposon RFLPs, and microsatellite markers were developed and deployed. Although ITS sequences are currently the most common method of classifying Colletrichum species, this research highlighted the potential inaccuracy of ITS-based classification. The unreliability of 47% of Colletotrichum ITS sequences from public databases suggested a proliferation of compromised species identifications.  Comparison with multilocus phylogenies showed Colletotrichum ITS data are insufficient for the task of taxonomic resolution. In addition, these studies demonstrated traditional classification tools (i.e., morphology and host range) are subject to convergent evolution. Phylogenetic reconstructions showed that graminicolous Colletotrichum underwent a prominent historical split, separating cool-season grass-associated taxa from lineages inhabiting warm-season grasses. Eight novel Colletotrichum species were identified and described; two species were emended. C. cereale populations were found in native grasses, cereal crops and turfgrass environments, but disease was limited to turfgrass. Genotypic data, along with the detection of the meiosis-specific repeat-induced point mutation process provided evidence of recombination in C. cereale, a fungus long presumed asexual.  Extreme differentiation between locally-adapted populations indicated that asymptomatic grasses are unlikely reservoirs of infectious disease propagules that could initiate disease in turf.  But gene flow from the generalist C. cereale founder population and specialized genotypes provides an indirect pathway for genetic exchange between otherwise isolated populations.  Together, these studies contribute substantially to the growing number of genomic resources available for this increasingly important evolutionary research system.
Effect of high hydrostatic pressure and thermal processing on cranberry juice
Creators: name: Chiappe Giacarini, Gloria Maria Gabriella
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Cranberry is a native crop of North America. Many studies that have looked into the health benefits of consuming cranberry juice point to cranberry proanthocyanidins for the health promoting properties of the juice. Cranberry juice is usually sold as pasteurized juice; however, it is not known whether processing has any detrimental effect on the health promoting compounds. Anthocyanins, the major pigment compounds responsible for the color of cranberry juice are known to be unstable and sensitive to light, oxygen, high temperatures, and enzyme activity. Therefore, an alternative processing technology is needed to maintain color and nutraceuticals in cranberry juice. High hydrostatic pressure processing (HHPP) is a novel, non-thermal food processing method that destroys food borne bacteria while retaining thermally labile compounds. It has been shown the HHPP can be used to produce high quality orange juice.The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of thermal and high hydrostatic pressure processing on proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins in cranberry juice, immediately after processing and during storage, and to evaluate the impact of processing on the sensory attributes of the juice. During the study untreated cranberry juice was used as control. Proanthocyanidin content in the juice was analyzed by HPLC with UV/Fluorescence detection. Anthocyanin content was determined by pH differential method. Proanthocyanidin content was negatively affected by both pasteurization and high hydrostatic pressure treatments, and by storage time and temperature. Combination of higher pressure and longer time during HHPP was found to be the most detrimental process of for procyanidin retention.  Anthocyanidin levels in the juice increased immediately after all treatments, but decreased in all samples during storage. However, no visual differences in color were observed after processing or during storage of the samples. Sensory evaluation of the processed and unprocessed juice samples showed no significant differences between the unprocessed and the processed samples.
Structural studies of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: resistance to AZT via ATP-mediated excision
Creators: name: Tu, Xiongying
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: AZT, 3'-azido-2',3'-deoxythymidine, is a widely used anti-AIDS drug.  Incorporation of AZTTP, the triphosphate form of AZT, into a growing DNA chain by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase (RT) blocks chain elongation.  HIV develops resistance to AZT by acquiring mutations in reverse transcriptase (RT) that enhance ATP-mediated excision of AZTMP.  This excision frees the end of the primer strand, making it possible for RT to continue viral DNA synthesis.  The product of the excision reaction is AZT adenosine dinucleoside tetraphosphate (AZTppppA).  In order to understand the structural bases of this resistance mechanism, five different HIV-1 RT complex structures involved in this ATP-mediated excision were determined using a cross-linking strategy and X-ray crystallography.  The structures of wild-type and AZT-resistant HIV-1 RT with a dsDNA and an AZTppppA (excision product complex) were determined to 3.15 and 3.2 Å resolution, respectively.  Superposition of these two structures reveals that the ATP binds differently to wild-type RT and AZT-resistant RT.  Primary resistance mutations do not improve a pre-existing site but create a new, higher-affinity binding site for ATP.  The primary AZT-resistance mutations K70R and T215Y make significant contributions to ATP-binding, whereas, secondary resistance mutations assist the binding of ATP to RT.  These structures also provide insights into antagonism between AZT-resistance mutations and other nucleoside-analog resistance mutations, including K65R and K70E.The structure of AZT-resistant HIV-1 RT with a pre-translocation AZTMP-terminated DNA was determined to 3.7 Å.  This structure has the fingers subdomain in a closed configuration instead of an open configuration found in the reported structure of the wild-type HIV-1 pre-translocation complex.  The pre-translocation complex with the fingers in a closed configuration may be the preferred acceptor for ATP.  This structure also implies polymerization/pyrophosphorolysis may occur without major opening of the fingers. The structures of the AZT-resistant HIV-1 RT with a post-translocation AZTMP-terminated DNA and the unliganded AZT-resistant HIV-1 RT were determined to 2.9 and 2.65 Å resolution, respectively.  Structural comparisons of these two complexes and excision product complexes suggest that the side chains of the two primary resistance mutations may undergo conformational changes that should be induced by the ATP.
The communicative accomplishment of mutuality during father-son play in early childhood
Creators: name: Sweet, Dawn M.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: This dissertation reports a three-study investigation of mutuality within self-directed play sessions of four African-American father-son dyads at two points in time. These three studies use multiple methods for systematically analyzing face-to-face interaction occurring within a finite space, namely a play area of a daycare center, during a fixed period of time, approximately 15 minutes. This dissertation develops a systematic approach for studying mutuality as it links to well-being as a quality of every day life and individual development. This research offers communication explanations for how relationships in the early stages of life are formed and a way of thinking about well-being across psychological, cognitive, emotional, and social domains from a communication perspective. Study 1 uses exploratory microanalytic techniques (Mokros, 2003) to identify units of decision making during father-son play. Through its in-depth and systematic examination of decision making, Study 1 provides a vocabulary for talking about decision making from a communication perspective and ultimately provides a conceptual framework and coding system for identifying features of mutuality within father-son interaction. From insights gleaned from this first study, the research in Study 2 reports a comparative study that focuses on understanding individual differences in the amount and quality of mutuality exhibited within and across four father-son dyads at two points in time. This research concludes with Study 3, a comparative study designed to link Interaction States identified in Study 2 with Command Sequences identified by using the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) (Eyeberg &amp; Robinson, 1983).  This study contributes to communication theory and research because it examines the moment-to-moment child-rearing practices in families at risk and speaks to how through communicative practices, fathers and sons are able to construct and sustain moments of mutual focus on a task or each other and what this says about not only how relationships in the early stages of life are developed but also about well-being as a quality of everyday life and individual development.
title: Lengua Extranjera III
Creators: name: Palma Lara, Gildardo
Publisher: name: Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: FGUS-004 Lengua Extranjera I
subject: LE 3
subject: Lugares
subject: Adverbios de frecuencia

description: INGLÉS NIVEL BÁSICO
Robust statistics over Riemannian manifolds for computer vision
Creators: name: Subbarao, Raghav
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The nonlinear nature of many compute vision tasks involves analysis over curved nonlinear spaces embedded in higher dimensional Euclidean spaces. Such spaces are known as manifolds and can be studied using the theory of differential geometry. In this thesis we develop two algorithms which can be applied over manifolds. The nonlinear mean shift algorithm is a generalization of the original mean shift, a popular feature space analysis method for vector spaces. Nonlinear mean shift can be applied to any Riemannian manifold and is provably convergent to the local maxima of an appropriate kernel density. This algorithm is used for motion segmentation with different motion models and for the filtering of complex image data.The projection based M-estimator is a robust regression algorithm which does not require a user supplied estimate of the scale, the level of noise corrupting the inliers. We build on the connections between kernel density estimation and robust M-estimators and develop data driven rules for scale estimation. The method can be generalized to handle heteroscedastic data and subspace estimation. The results of using pbM for affine motion estimation, fundamental matrix estimation and multibody factorization are presented.A new sensor fusion method which can handle heteroscedastic data and incomplete estimates of parameters is also discussed. The method is used to combine image based pose estimates with inertial sensors.
Improved chemoradiotherapy of lung cancer
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Topotecan is a new anticancer drug in 1990s for the treatment of human recurrent small cell lung cancer. However, toxic side effects such as neutropenia and thrombocytopenia have limited the usefulness of this drug. We are seeking to develop and test a novel second-generation version of topotecan that is more effective in killing human lung cancer cells as a radiation enhancement agent, but less toxic to normal tissues. Our preliminary results indicate that this second-generation analog is substantially more effective against lung cancer cells than topotecan. It also exhibited 100% curative effects on mouse mammary tumors in mice, but none with topotecan. Moreover, this analog is significantly less toxic to normal mice than topotecan. The key active structure of this analog is highly stable in human plasma, but not that of topotecan.

 We plan to test this promising analog on two types of human lung cancers grown in nude mice, and to evaluate its therapeutic efficacy at clinically relevant doses for future application in human lung cancer therapy. In these studies its drug effects will be evaluated alone and in combination with radiotherapy, compared to those of topotecan. These preclinical studies of this nature are complex and laborious, but they provide essential information on therapeutic properties of topotecan analog under clinically relevant conditions. Based on preliminary results it is hoped that these novel topotecan analog will be superior to topotecan, providing a unique combination of improved therapeutic action in killing lung cancer cells without any penalty in the form of increased drug toxicity. If therapeutic effects similar to those noted in tissue culture and in mice could be achieved on human lung cancers, the clinical benefits would be substantial.

 Therefore, the development of newly synthesized second-generation topotecan analog with higher efficacy and reduced toxicity holds a considerable promise for dramatically improved therapy of lung cancers. The proposed studies in this project will directly contribute to the design of clinical trials and to the development of this novel topotecan analog as a clinically useful therapeutic agent for conquering lung cancers.