cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit testing for tail copulas
Creators: name: Can, Sami Umut
name: Einmahl, John H. J.
name: Khmaladze, Estate V.
name: Laeven, Roger J. A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Statistics Theory (math.ST)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Let $(X_1,Y_1),\ldots,(X_n,Y_n)$ be an i.i.d. sample from a bivariate distribution function that lies in the max-domain of attraction of an extreme value distribution. The asymptotic joint distribution of the standardized component-wise maxima $\bigvee_{i=1}^nX_i$ and $\bigvee_{i=1}^nY_i$ is then characterized by the marginal extreme value indices and the tail copula $R$. We propose a procedure for constructing asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit tests for the tail copula $R$. The procedure is based on a transformation of a suitable empirical process derived from a semi-parametric estimator of $R$. The transformed empirical process converges weakly to a standard Wiener process, paving the way for a multitude of asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit tests. We also extend our results to the $m$-variate ($m>2$) case. In a simulation study we show that the limit theorems provide good approximations for finite samples and that tests based on the transformed empirical process have high power.
description: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOS1304 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)
Pedestrian Collision Prediction Using a Monocular Camera
Creators: name: Boukhers, Zeyd
name: Chen, Shiyuan
name: Qin, Xue
name: See, John
name: Sui, Wei
name: Yang, Cong
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: 3D Object Detection
Fuzzy Control
Pedestrian Detection
Collision Prediction
Autonomous Driving

description: Presentation slides of our paper "Pedestrian Collision Prediction Using a Monocular Camera" at the iWOAR Workshop 2023
The complexity of signed graph and edge-coloured graph homomorphisms
Creators: name: Brewster, Richard C.
name: Foucaud, Florent
name: Hell, Pavol
name: Naserasr, Reza
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Discrete Mathematics (cs.DM)
subject: Combinatorics (math.CO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: We study homomorphism problems of signed graphs from a computational point of view. A signed graph $(G,Σ)$ is a graph $G$ where each edge is given a sign, positive or negative; $Σ\subseteq E(G)$ denotes the set of negative edges. Thus, $(G, Σ)$ is a $2$-edge-coloured graph with the property that the edge-colours, $\{+, -\}$, form a group under multiplication. Central to the study of signed graphs is the operation of switching at a vertex, that results in changing the sign of each incident edge. We study two types of homomorphisms of a signed graph $(G,Σ)$ to a signed graph $(H,Π)$: ec-homomorphisms and s-homomorphisms. Each is a standard graph homomorphism of $G$ to $H$ with some additional constraint. In the former, edge-signs are preserved. In the latter, edge-signs are preserved after the switching operation has been applied to a subset of vertices of $G$. We prove a dichotomy theorem for s-homomorphism problems for a large class of (fixed) target signed graphs $(H,Π)$. Specifically, as long as $(H,Π)$ does not contain a negative (respectively a positive) loop, the problem is polynomial-time solvable if the core of $(H,Π)$ has at most two edges, and is NP-complete otherwise. (Note that this covers all simple signed graphs.) The same dichotomy holds if $(H,Π)$ has no negative digons, and we conjecture that it holds always. In our proofs, we reduce s-homomorphism problems to certain ec-homomorphism problems, for which we are able to show a dichotomy. In contrast, we prove that a dichotomy theorem for ec-homomorphism problems (even when restricted to bipartite target signed graphs) would settle the dichotomy conjecture of Feder and Vardi.
description: 21 pages; 6 figures. In this version, we have adopted some changes in terminology and notation
Shock formation in electron-ion plasmas: mechanism and timing
Creators: name: Novo, Anne Stockem
name: Bret, Antoine
name: Fonseca, Ricardo A.
name: Silva, Luis O.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We analyse the full shock formation process in electron-ion plasmas in theory and simulations. It is accepted that electromagnetic shocks in initially unmagnetised relativistic plasmas are triggered by the filamentation instability. However, the transition from the first unstable phase to the quasi-steady shock is still missing. We derive a theoretical model for the shock formation time, taking into account the filament merging in the non-linear phase of the filamentation instability. This process is much slower than in electron-positron pair shocks, so that the shock formation is longer by a factor proportional to sqrt(m_i/m_e) ln(m_i/m_e).
Humidophila rouhaniana Chattova & Van de Vijver 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Chattová, Barbora
name: Lebouvier, Marc
name: Vijver, Bart Van De
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Chromista
Bacillariophyta
Bacillariophyceae
Naviculales
Diadesmidaceae
Humidophila
Humidophila rouhaniana

description: Humidophila rouhaniana Chattová & Van de Vijver sp. nov. (Figs 122–144)
 Light microscopy (Figs 122–140): Valves linear with almost parallel to sometimes even slightly asymmetrical margins and broadly rounded apices. Smaller specimens occasionally with a more linear–elliptic valve outline. Valve dimensions (n = 50): length 7.5 – 16.0 μm, width 1.5–3.0 μm. Axial area linear, rather broad, slightly narrowing towards the poles. Raphe filiform, straight. Central area stauroform, reaching the valve margins. Transapical striae not discernible in LM, interrupted centrally.
SEM (Figs 141–144): Striae composed of one transapically weakly elongated, near apices almost rounded areola (Fig. 143), ca. 45 in 10 μm. At the apices, striae usually terminating near the distal raphe endings, sometimes beyond the distal raphe endings (Figs 142 and 143). Mantle areolae continuing around the apices (Fig. 144). External raphe branches straight with clearly depressed proximal and distal pores with distinctly depressed bow-tie endings (Fig. 142). Internal structure not observed. Valve face and mantle areolae separated by a narrow longitudinal groove. Girdle composed of three copulae, perforated by a single row of elongated, slit-like pores (Fig. 141).
 Type:— ILE AMSTERDAM, TAAF sample AMS-M201, B. Van de Vijver, 15 December 2007 (holotype: BR! slide no. 4489; isotype: PLP! slide no. 327, University of Antwerp, Belgium). The holotype specimen is represented by fig. 124.
 Etymology: The new species is named after Dr. Germinal Rouhan (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France) to thank him for the wonderful joint field work on Ile Amsterdam in November–December 2016.
 Ecology and associated diatom flora:—The type population of Humidophila rouhaniana was found in an almost dry moss sample (F-value VII) taken from the Jardin Météo on the vicinity of the base Martin-de-Viviès. The associated community is composed of several Humidophila species (such as H. amsterdamensis and H. vidalii), Halamphora dagmarobbelsiana Van de Vijver & Levkov (in Van de Vijver et al. 2014: 384), Chamaepinnularia aerophila and an at present unidentified Nitzschia species.
description: Published as part of Chattová, Barbora, Lebouvier, Marc & Vijver, Bart Van De, 2018, Morphological and taxonomical analysis of the terrestrial diatom genus Humidophila (Bacillariophyta) on Ile Amsterdam and Ile Saint-Paul (Southern Indian Ocean), pp. 28-42 in Phytotaxa 336 (1) on pages 36-37, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.336.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/13721006
FRET binding antenna reports spatiotemporal dynamics of GDI–Cdc42 GTPase interactions
Creators: name: Spiering, Désirée
name: Danuser, Gaudenz
name: Sabouri-Ghomi, Mohsen
name: MHahn, Klaus
name: Dagliyan, Onur
name: Der Mardirossian, Céline
name: Hodgson, Louis
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: Guanine-nucleotide dissociation inhibitors (GDI) are negative regulators of Rho family GTPases that sequester the GTPases away from the membrane. Here we ask how GDI-Cdc42 interaction regulates localized Cdc42 activation for cell motility. The sensitivity of cells to overexpression of Rho family pathway components led us to a new biosensor design (GDI.Cdc42 FLARE), in which Cdc42 was modified with a FRET ‘binding antenna’ that selectively reported Cdc42 binding to endogenous GDI. Similar antennae could also report GDI-Rac1 and GDI-RhoA interaction. Through computational multiplexing and simultaneous imaging, we determined the spatiotemporal dynamics of GDI-Cdc42 interaction and Cdc42 activation during cell protrusion and retraction. This revealed a remarkably tight coordination of GTPase release and activation on a time scale of 10 seconds, suggesting that GDI-Cdc42 interactions are a critical component in the spatiotemporal regulation of Cdc42 activity, and not merely a mechanism for global sequestration of an inactivated pool of signaling molecules.
Insights into newly discovered marks and readers of epigenetic information
Creators: name: Strahl, Brian D
name: Andrews, Forest H
name: Kutateladze, Tatiana G
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: The field of chromatin biology has been advancing at an accelerated pace. Recent discoveries of previously uncharacterized sites and types of post-translational modifications (PTMs) and the identification of new sets of proteins responsible for the deposition, removal, and reading of these marks continue raising the complexity of an already exceedingly complicated biological phenomenon. In this Perspective article we examine the biological importance of new types and sites of histone PTMs and summarize the molecular mechanisms of chromatin engagement by newly discovered epigenetic readers. We also highlight the imperative role of structural insights in understanding PTM–reader interactions and discuss future directions to enhance the knowledge of PTM readout.
Non-Hermitian Dynamics in the Quantum Zeno Limit
Creators: name: Kozlowski, Wojciech
name: Caballero-Benitez, Santiago F.
name: Mekhov, Igor B.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Measurement is one of the most counter-intuitive aspects of quantum physics. Frequent measurements of a quantum system lead to quantum Zeno dynamics where time evolution becomes confined to a subspace defined by the projections. However, weak measurement performed at a finite rate is also capable of locking the system into such a Zeno subspace in an unconventional way: by Raman-like transitions via virtual intermediate states outside this subspace, which are not forbidden. Here, we extend this concept into the realm of non-Hermitian dynamics by showing that the stochastic competition between measurement and a system's own dynamics can be described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. We obtain an analytic solution for ultracold bosons in a lattice and show that a dark state of the tunnelling operator is a steady state in which the observable's fluctuations are zero and tunnelling is suppressed by destructive matter-wave interference. This opens a new venue of investigation beyond the canonical quantum Zeno dynamics and leads to a new paradigm of competition between global measurement backaction and short-range atomic dynamics.
description: Accepted in Phys. Rev. A
title: Motor Current Signature Analysis Towards Mechanical Seal Failure Detection for Electrical Submersible Pump
Creators: name: Afrizal, Nurafnida
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2020

description: Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) is one of the most efficient and reliable devices to lift fluids to the surface. It is commonly used in the oil and gas industry, where it provides a low-cost solution for high volumes of lifting and the flexibility to cover a range of sizes, output flow capacities, production profiles and various well conditions. The ESP is operated in a very challenging environment and it is exposed to many factors that could lead to its downtime. One of the critical elements for the ESP failure is the mechanical seal. While a significant amount of research has been dedicated to the improvement of the seal design to enhance its performance and reduce the risk of failure, its failure remains among the major contributors towards the ESP failure, with significant consequences in terms of loss of production (downtime) and equipment replacement costs. The aim of the research presented in this thesis is to enhance the condition monitoring of the ESP to allow a more accurate detection of early conditions that could lead to the mechanical seal failure, such as excessive vibrations caused by a misalignment between the motor and the pump shafts. The proposed monitoring method is based on the Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA), i.e. the analysis of the stator current in the induction motor connected to the pump. It is known that vibrations produce characteristic features in the current signal, appearing as sidebands in its frequency spectrum; however, those sidebands are difficult to detect and measure because of their small amplitudes and the typical presence of large spectral leakage in the measured current spectra. The main objective of this research is to develop a novel signal processing method to compensate for the leakage error that affects the MCSA, in order to obtain more accurate measurements of the current features of interest to detect the shaft misalignment. An analytical model has been formulated to relate the shaft misalignment to vibrations, and the vibrations to specific sidebands in the motor current spectrum. The model has then been used to run numerical simulations, in order to validate the proposed method in a wide range of conditions, and with different motor power ratings. Finally, a small-scale experimental test rig has been designed to validate the proposed method with motor current measurements from a real motor. The obtained results confirm that the proposed method allows a significant decrease in the spectral leakage affecting sideband measurements in MCSA, with a consequent significant improvement in the estimation of the amplitudes of those sidebands. The method is therefore promising for the detection of vibrations that could lead to the mechanical seal failure in ESP, although further investigations on high-power motors are required in the future for a full validation.
title: Role of microRNAs and effects of substrate, age and stretch in experimental models for IPF.
Creators: name: Scotto di Mase, Michele
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2021

description: Pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a debilitating progressive disease mostly affecting the elderly, and due to dysregulated wound healing repair. It is characterised by increased matrix production and altered ECM composition, leading to increased tissue rigidity, and eventually, death. In mammalian lungs, mechanical stretch is generated by the diaphragm and chest muscles and transferred first to lung septa and then at cellular level. In lung fibrosis the increase in ECM causes mechanical stretch impairment due to the increase in tissue stiffness, which is thought to be mostly dependant on increased fibrillar collagen. Using an ad hoc in vitro system, the effects of collagen as culture substrate, age and mechanical stretch on several ECM genes were investigated in both primary and immortalised lung cells. My results indicated profibrotic roles for collagen as a substrate and age, while mechanical stretch appeared to have a protective role against fibrosis. Pharmacological use of microRNAs to fine tune mRNA expression is a novel field of research. MicroRNA based therapies either aim to increase expression of a microRNA to repress a target mRNA (mirmimics), or decrease microRNA expression to upregulate a target mRNA (antagomir). Analysis of microRNA expression in the Bleomycin mouse model of lung fibrosis identified more than 20 microRNAs that were significantly modified in their expression during fibrosis induction and progression. Using the Bleomycin model, I identified 4 microRNAs (miR-21a-5p, miR-34a- 5p, miR- 29a-3p and miR-378-5p) as potential pro-fibrotic microRNAs due to progressively increased expression correlated with progression of fibrotic features. Results from primary mouse fibroblast cultures showed that overexpression of miR-29a- 3p results in a reduction of Col1a1 expression, suggesting an antifibrotic role for this microRNA. miR-21a-5p expression decreased Smad7 expression in both primary mouse lung fibroblasts and in the Bleomycin model of lung fibrosis. Treatment with a miR-21a mirmimic resulted in increased lung fibrosis in the Bleomycin mouse model, while treatment with a miR- 21a antagomir resulted in reduced lung fibrosis. My results identify miR-21a repression as a potential novel strategy to treat IPF.
Light-induced nuclear export reveals rapid dynamics of epigenetic modifications
Creators: name: Kuhlman, Brian
name: Bear, James E.
name: Hahn, Klaus
name: Lerner, Andrew Michael
name: Zimmerman, Seth Parker
name: Strahl, Brian D.
name: Yumerefendi, Hayretin
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: We engineered a photoactivatable system for rapidly and reversibly exporting proteins from the nucleus by embedding a nuclear export signal in the LOV2 domain from phototropin 1. Fusing the chromatin modifier Bre1 to the photoswitch, we achieved light-dependent control of histone H2B monoubiquitylation in yeast, revealing fast turnover of the ubiquitin mark. Moreover, this inducible system allowed us to dynamically monitor the status of epigenetic modifications dependent on H2B ubiquitylation.
Destabilising the Discourses of Psychopathy Through Contemporary Canadian and US Women’s Writing
Creators: name: Spruce, Hannah
Publisher: name: University of Leicester
Year: 2023
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: In this thesis, I explore twelve contemporary novels by women from the US and Canada with the objective of analysing, exposing, and unsettling the varied and often harmful discourses of psychopathy. Through an examination of contemporary fiction, I demonstrate that archaic and dehumanising stereotypes are embedded in these discourses. The twelve novels I examine range from bestsellers to independent press releases that employ styles associated with psychological terror to speculative fiction, true crime, and the police procedural. I provide a broad picture of how contemporary Canadian and US women’s fiction deploys the popular and prevalent discourses of psychopathy in vastly differing ways. In doing so, I illustrate how women’s fiction employs psychopath imagery, motifs, and language to reinforce as well as to destabilise dominant formations of class, race, and gender and stereotypes about ‘bad’ mothers, ‘crazy’ women, monstrous serial killers and sex offenders, and people diagnosed as autistic. Taking a comparative and thematic approach, I organise my analysis through four chapters structured by mode and theme. Chapter one, on serial killer fiction, interrogates the depiction of the serial murderer and murderous culture in Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley Under Water (1991), Joyce Carol Oates’s Zombie (1995), and Lisa Moore’s Alligator (2006). Examining speculative fiction in chapter two, I unsettle the aligning of autism and psychopathy in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003), Tricia Sullivan’s Maul (2003), and Elizabeth Moon’s Speed of Dark (2002). Analysing terror narratives in chapter three, I interrogate sexist stereotypes in portrayals of the ‘psychopathic woman’ in Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003), Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl (2012), and Maureen Medved’s Black Star (2018). Chapter four turns to witness narratives on sexual violence to examine Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones (2002), Myriam Gurba’s Mean (2017), and Katherena Vermette’s The Break (2016). Cumulatively, my readings expose and unsettle the stigmatising, pathologising, and demonising aspects of psychopathy discourses.
Ubaldino Peruzzi a Raffaello Busacca (2 luglio 1857)
Creators: name: Peruzzi, Ubaldino
name: Busacca, Raffaello
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Accademia dei Georgofili
Peruzzi, Ubaldino
Busacca, Raffaello
Lettera
Letter
Carteggio
Correspondence
1857

description: Lettera di Ubaldino Peruzzi a Raffaello Busacca del 2 luglio 1857. Segnatura dell’unità documentale: Archivio storico dell’Accademia dei Georgofili, Carteggio, Busta 33, 3420. Natura: manoscritto. Consistenza: cc. 2
description: Digitalizzato come parte della Mostra virtuale: Ubaldino Peruzzi : un percorso in rete : in occasione del bicentenario della nascita https://www.georgofili.it/contenuti/ubaldino-peruzzi-un-percorso-in-rete/17485
SU Uma stars: Rebrightenings after superoutburst
Creators: name: Meyer, Friedrich
name: Meyer-Hofmeister, Emmi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: SU Uma stars after their long superoutbursts often show single or multiple rebrightenings. We show how this phenomenon can be understood as repeated reflections of transition waves which mediate changes between the hot and the cool state of the accretion disk and travel back and forth in the outer disk region, leaving an inner part permanently hot. This points to a temporarily increased viscosity, possibly related to the formation of large-scale and longer persisting magnetic fields by the dynamo operation during the long superoutburst. The 'mini-rebrightenings' in the early post-outburst light curve of V585 Lyr discovered by Kato and Osaki in Kepler observations seem to be understandable as a small limit cycle of low luminosity changes originating from a wiggle-feature in the thermal equilibrium curve of the cool optically thick disk.
description: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ
Variations in the Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Features during 2011 outburst of 4U 0115+63
Creators: name: Iyer, N.
name: Mukherjee, D.
name: Dewangan, G. C.
name: Bhattacharya, D.
name: Seetha, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the variations in the Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Feature (CRSF) during 2011 outburst of the high mass X-ray binary 4U 0115+63 using observations performed with Suzaku, RXTE, Swift and INTEGRAL satellites. The wide-band spectral data with low energy coverage allowed us to characterize the broadband continuum and detect the CRSFs. We find that the broadband continuum is adequately described by a combination of a low temperature (kT ~ 0.8 keV) blackbody and a power-law with high energy cutoff (Ecut ~ 5.4 keV) without the need for a broad Gaussian at ~ 10 keV as used in some earlier studies. Though winds from the companion can affect the emission from the neutron star at low energies (< 3 keV), the blackbody component shows a significant presence in our continuum model. We report evidence for the possible presence of two independent sets of CRSFs with fundamentals at ~ 11 keV and ~ 15 keV. These two sets of CRSFs could arise from spatially distinct emitting regions. We also find evidence for variations in the line equivalent widths, with the 11 keV CRSF weakening and the 15 keV line strengthening with decreasing luminosity. Finally, we propose that the reason for the earlier observed anti-correlation of line energy with luminosity could be due to modelling of these two independent line sets (~ 11 keV and ~ 15 keV) as a single CRSF.
description: 12 pages, 8 figures (4 in colour), 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Typos corrected, Figure 8 changed and some changes to draft
Sigma-1 receptor ligands control a switch between passive and active threat responses
Creators: name: Huang, Xi-Ping
name: Kokel, David
name: Lorello, Paul J.
name: Roth, Bryan L.
name: Rennekamp, Andrew J.
name: Gonzales, Andrew P. W.
name: Patel, Samir
name: Peterson, Randall T.
name: Cade, Lindsay
name: Yeh, Jing-Ruey Joanna
name: Caldarone, Barbara J.
name: Wang, You
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: Humans and many animals exhibit freezing behavior in response to threatening stimuli. In humans, inappropriate threat responses are fundamental characteristics of several mental illnesses. To identify small molecules that modulate threat responses, we developed a high-throughput behavioral assay in zebrafish (Danio rerio) and characterized the effects of 10,000 compounds on freezing behavior. We found three classes of compounds that switch the threat response from freezing to escape-like behavior. We then screened these for binding activity across 45 candidate targets. Using target profile clustering we implicated the sigma-1 receptor in the mechanism of behavioral switching and confirmed that known sigma-1 ligands also disrupt freezing behavior. Furthermore, mutation of the sigma-1 gene prevented the behavioral effect of escape-inducing compounds. The compound ‘finazine’ potently bound mammalian sigma-1 and altered rodent threat response behavior. Thus, pharmacological and genetic interrogation of the freezing response revealed sigma-1 as a mediator of vertebrate threat responses.
title: Precarious: work, life, and methods
Creators: name: Nielsen, Jacob
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2025

description: Based on ethnographic fieldwork over an 18 month period in London amongst people living and working in precarious circumstances, this thesis seeks to develop academic method assemblages that are more attuned to precarious worlds. In doing so, it moves away from the notion that precariousness is something that only belongs to specific groups that can be delineated and studied with the purpose of creating policy interventions. Instead, it argues that precariousness refers to shared interdependence and vulnerability and that traditional social research method assemblages are often not attuned to these factors. To move towards more precarious method assemblages the thesis problematises the traditional ethnographic distinction between ‘the field’ and an imagined academic ‘home’ in order to navigate the tension between traditional method assemblages that rely on non-precarious methods and lives and precarious methods that are both more survivable for precarious academics and which might also be able to better apprehend precarious worlds. It furthermore outlines how academic methods partially interlink with salvage capitalist processes of inventory making and wealth accumulation. To explore these tensions and dynamics the thesis comprises three parts with different methodological directions and ambitions. In the first part, traditional method assemblages are utilised to explore the impact work had on people’s lives in the field. Whilst decent work is often promoted as the policy solution to the concerns of people working and living in precarious circumstances, the analyses offered in this part show lived experiences are more complex and that, in order to deal with the imposition of work, people engage in a range of different practices that become part of ever-changing dynamics of resistance and control. In the second part, the thesis draws out fragments from a messy and precarious research process to highlight the point that the research findings presented in the first part did not show the full picture. Instead, this part highlights how the analysis was always unsettled, multiple, diverse, and dependent on others until it was finalised as a disentangled academic piece of work. In the third part, the thesis tries to explore textual forms that can apprehend something about an unfolding weighted present in a precarious world that cannot quite be contained within traditional framings of that world. The textual fragments are more contradictory, incomplete, and vulnerable to the sway of others than was the case in the first two parts as they seek out ways to belong and survive in a precarious world. In a final discussion of how these parts are connected, the thesis ends with reflections on what it means to move away from methods that rely upon ringfenced meanings and conclusive findings, to methods which are instead open to more vulnerable and interdependent ways of making sense of the multiple possible meanings of the thesis and the lives, experiences, practices and situations it touches upon.
Untersuchungen zur Variation von Struktur, Dynamik und Funktionalität von Protein- und Lipidsystemen durch physiologisch relevante Osmolyte und Druckapplikation
Creators: name: Al-Ayoubi, Samy
Publisher: name: Technische Universität Dortmund
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Druck
subject: Proteine
subject: Osmolyte
subject: Spektroskopie
subject: Streumethoden
subject: 540
subject: Spektroskopie
subject: Protein
subject: Druck

description: Letztendlich ist alles Leben Nichtgleichgewichtsthermodynamik und beruht auf einem korrekten Zusammenspiel der Struktur und Dynamik biologischer Makromoleküle. Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Fragestellung, inwieweit Struktur, Dynamik und damit auch die Funktionalität von Proteinen und Modellmembranen sich gegenseitig beeinflussen und durch Druckapplikation und Zugabe von Osmolyten, und somit durch Änderungen der Lösungsbedingungen, modifiziert werden können. Leben ist unter diversen extremen Umweltbedingungen wie extremen Temperaturen, extremen pH-Werten oder unter osmotischem und hydrostatischem Druck beobachtet worden. Dies setzt die evolutionäre Entwicklung bestimmter Kompensations-Strategien in extremophilen Organismen voraus. Einer dieser Mechanismen ist die vermehrte Biosynthese von Osmolyten. Dies sind niedermolekulare organische Verbindungen, welche den Einfluss negativer Stressfaktoren kompensieren. Der Fokus dieser Arbeit liegt dabei vor allem auf dem Einfluss von hydrostatischem Druck auf die Eigenschaften von Membranen und Proteinen sowie der Fragestellung, inwieweit dieser Einfluss durch Osmolyte kompensiert wird. Zusätzlich wurde auch der Einfluss der Stressfaktoren Temperatur und osmotischer Druck betrachtet.
title: Host derived markers of lyme disease and other spirochaetal infections: their discovery and diagnostic potential
Creators: name: Joyner, Greg
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2020

description: UK laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease involves the Standard Two-Tier serological approach. The negative predictive value of the test has been challenged, particularly in the early stages of disease. In order to better understand the host response to Lyme disease and to identify any potential host biomarkers that may correlate with early infection, proteomic and transcriptomic analyses were undertaken on Lyme disease patient samples. Label free quantitative spectrometry was used to measure and compare the serum proteome of seropositive patients against that of individuals that had tested seronegative for Lyme disease and a control group consisting of samples from normal healthy donors and patients with related infectious disease including leptospirosis and syphilis. Seropositive and seronegative individuals were found to be remarkably similar at the serum proteome level. Of the 12 proteins found to be at significantly different abundance between groups, the protein Lipocalin-2 was of particular interest due to role its role modulation of immune responses. Further analysis by ELISA in additional samples showed that Lipocalin-2 was significantly increased in Lyme disease positive patients when compared to normal healthy donors. Whole blood samples from patients with Lyme disease were then RNA sequenced and differential gene analysis was performed using sequencing data for healthy controls. Several pathways associated with bacterial immune response in the host were identified, together with actin rearrangement and oxidative stress pathways. eIF2 signalling was found to be significantly reduced in patients with early Lyme disease. The pathway has previously been identified as being down regulated during Lyme disease. In later samples from patients, following antibiotic therapy, eIF2 signalling levels were found to increase back towards those seen in control samples from normal/healthy individuals.
Colored triangulations of arbitrary dimensions are stuffed Walsh maps
Creators: name: Bonzom, Valentin
name: Lionni, Luca
name: Rivasseau, Vincent
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Combinatorics (math.CO)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Regular edge-colored graphs encode colored triangulations of pseudo-manifolds. Here we study families of edge-colored graphs built from a finite but arbitrary set of building blocks, which extend the notion of $p$-angulations to arbitrary dimensions. We prove the existence of a bijection between any such family and some colored combinatorial maps which we call stuffed Walsh maps. Those maps generalize Walsh's representation of hypermaps as bipartite maps, by replacing the vertices which correspond to hyperedges with non-properly-edge-colored maps. This shows the equivalence of tensor models with multi-trace, multi-matrix models by extending the intermediate field method perturbatively to any model. We further use the bijection to study the graphs which maximize the number of faces at fixed number of vertices and provide examples where the corresponding stuffed Walsh maps can be completely characterized.
description: 29 pages
title: Meteotsunami generation, amplification and occurrence in north-west Europe
Creators: name: Williams, David
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2020

description: Meteotsunamis are atmospherically generated tsunamis with characteristics similar to all other tsunamis, and periods between 2–120 minutes. They are associated with strong currents and may unexpectedly cause large floods. Of highest concern, meteotsunamis have injured and killed people in several locations around the world. To date, a few meteotsunamis have been identified in north-west Europe. This thesis aims to increase the preparedness for meteotsunami occurrences in north-west Europe, by understanding how, when and where meteotsunamis are generated. A summer-time meteotsunami in the English Channel is studied, and its generation is examined through hydrodynamic numerical simulations. Simple representations of the atmospheric system are used, and termed synthetic modelling. The identified meteotsunami was partly generated by an atmospheric system moving at the shallow-water wave speed, a mechanism called Proudman resonance. Wave heights in the English Channel are also sensitive to the tide, because tidal currents change the shallow-water wave speed. To explain meteotsunami growth in a wider range of conditions, a generalised understanding of Proudman resonance is developed through idealised simulations and analytical models. Most surprisingly, wave amplification near predictions of Proudman resonance can occur even if the instantaneous forcing speed deviates from the mean forcing speed by 18%. This amplification can happen if the atmospheric forcing remains over the meteotsunami. Broader context is given to meteotsunami case studies in north-west Europe through an 8-yr climatology. In total, 349 meteotsunamis are identified and 256 associated mesoscale atmospheric systems are classified. Of meteotsunamis between 2010–2017, 79% were smaller than 0.5 m and about half occurred in winter. Of the classified atmospheric systems, 46% were quasi-linear systems and 33% were open-cellular convection. For 45 meteotsunamis in France, the mesoscale atmospheric systems occurred within well-documented synoptic atmospheric conditions, and there is evidence of repeated favourable conditions for Proudman resonance. Finally, a new explanation of how open-cellular convection generates meteotsunamis is developed through synthetic models. Open-cellular convection is modelled as a repeating field of individual cells moving at the shallow-water wave speed. Each individual cell generates an individual wave. When these individual waves form a linear superposition, constructive interference of repeating waves can lead to a larger meteotsunami than would be expected from single individual cells.
The Taf14 YEATS domain is a reader of histone crotonylation
Creators: name: Shanle, Erin K.
name: Andrews, Forest H.
name: Gest, Anneliese
name: Bridgers, Joseph B.
name: Strahl, Brian D.
name: Krajewski, Krzysztof
name: Tsun, Ian K.
name: Kutateladze, Tatiana G.
name: Shinsky, Stephen A.
name: Shi, Xiaobing
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: The discovery of new histone modifications is unfolding at startling rates, however, the identification of effectors capable of interpreting these modifications has lagged behind. Here we report the YEATS domain as an effective reader of histone lysine crotonylation – an epigenetic signature associated with active transcription. We show that the Taf14 YEATS domain engages crotonyllysine via a unique π-π-π-stacking mechanism and that other YEATS domains have crotonyllysine binding activity.
Zebrafish behavioral profiling identifies multitarget antipsychotic-like compounds
Creators: name: Lensen, Dennis
name: Velenich, Andrea
name: Bruni, Giancarlo
name: Caldarone, Barbara J.
name: Evron, Tama
name: Rennekamp, Andrew J.
name: Kokel, David
name: Taylor, Jack
name: McCarroll, Matthew
name: Gendelev, Leo
name: Lorello, Paul J.
name: Carey, Galen
name: Peterson, Randall T.
name: Roth, Bryan L.
name: Lakhani, Parth
name: Prinssen, Eric
name: Kolczewski, Sabine
name: Huang, Xi-Ping
name: Keiser, Michael J.
name: Fertsch, Ethan
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: Many psychiatric drugs act on multiple targets and therefore require screening assays that encompass a wide target space. With sufficiently rich phenotyping, and a large sampling of compounds, it should be possible to identify compounds with desired mechanisms of action based on their behavioral profiles alone. Although zebrafish (Danio rerio) behaviors have been used to rapidly identify neuroactive compounds, it remains unclear exactly what kind of behavioral assays might be necessary to identify multi-target compounds such as antipsychotics. Here, we developed a battery of behavioral assays in larval zebrafish to determine if behavioral profiles could provide sufficient phenotypic resolution to identify and classify psychiatric drugs. Using the antipsychotic drug haloperidol as a test case, we found that behavioral profiles of haloperidol-treated animals could be used to identify previously uncharacterized compounds with desired antipsychotic-like activities and multi-target mechanisms of action.
An excited state underlies gene regulation of a transcriptional riboswitch
Creators: name: Guffy, Sharon L.
name: Williams, Benfeard
name: Zhao, Bo
name: Zhang, Qi
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2017

description: Riboswitches control gene expression through ligand-dependent structural rearrangements of the sensing aptamer domain. However, we found that the Bacillus cereus fluoride riboswitch aptamer adopts identical tertiary structures in solution with and without ligand. Using chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) NMR spectroscopy, we revealed that the structured ligand-free aptamer transiently accesses a low-populated (~1%) and short-lived (~3 ms) excited conformational state that unravels a conserved ‘linchpin’ base pair to signal transcription termination. Upon fluoride binding, this highly localized fleeting process is allosterically suppressed to activate transcription. We demonstrated that this mechanism confers effective fluoride-dependent gene activation over a wide range of transcription rates, which is essential for robust toxicity response across diverse cellular conditions. These results unveil a novel switching mechanism that employs ligand-dependent suppression of an aptamer excited state to coordinate regulatory conformational transitions rather than adopting distinct aptamer ground-state tertiary architectures, exemplifying a new mode of ligand-dependent RNA regulation.
title: A Statistical Framework for Model Comparison in Particle Physics
Creators: name: Williams, Gareth
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2020

description: With the vast quantities of data from experimental work an important task will be to distinguish which physical models are best fitted to these data sets especially in cases where the data shows deviations from the Standard Model. The Bayes factor is a tool used to determine which of two competing hypothe- ses is favoured given the data and in the case of model comparison provides the ability to determine which of the two physical model is favoured subject to the data. The marginalized likelihood is obtained by integrating the product of the likelihood P(D|θ⃗i) and the prior distribution of the parameters P(θ⃗1|Mi) over the parameter vectors θi for some model Mi given data D. Calculating the marginalized likelihood of two models and taking the ratio one obtains the Bayes factor. The degree to which one model is favoured over the other is obtained from a standard table which offers an interpretation of the result depending on which band of values the resultant Bayes factor lies. The computational framework to allow one to undertake statistical analysis of this kind is presented with a discussion on how it was built along with the underlying statistics to allow a user to input any model desired that they may wish to perform such analyses on. The minimally supersymmetric Standard Model and two-Higgs doublet model represent two of the simplest extensions to the Standard Model which both offer explanations to some of its deficiencies. Following the discussion on the fundamentals of these two models an explanation of how they handle the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and lepton flavour violating decays is given and the Bayes factor calculated between these two models. The result of this indicates the two-Higgs doublet model is preferred given the data on these observables and the reasoning behind why such a result is obtained is presented in the final chapter of this thesis.
New modes for massive Dirac field in higher dimensional Black Holes
Creators: name: Sporea, Ciprian A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In this letter we derive new modes for massive Dirac field in the background of a higher-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole. We use in our approach the Cartesian gauge defined in local frames. We work in the context of ADD-like theories, assuming that the Standard Model fields (fermions and bosons) live only on a (3+1)-dimensional brane and the extra dimensions of space can be large in size.
In silico design of novel probes for the atypical opioid receptor MRGPRX2
Creators: name: Shoichet, Brian K.
name: Che, Tao
name: Carroll, Frank I.
name: Kroeze, Wesley K.
name: Nagase, Hiroshi
name: Karpiak, Joel
name: Roth, Bryan L.
name: Huang, Xi-Ping
name: McCorvy, John D.
name: Lansu, Katherine
name: Jin, Jian
name: Liu, Jing
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2017

description: The primate-exclusive MRGPRX2 G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) has been suggested to modulate pain and itch. Despite putative peptide and small molecule MRGPRX2 agonists, selective nanomolar potency probes have not yet been reported. To identify a MRGPRX2 probe, we first screened 5,695 small molecules and found many opioid compounds activated MRGPRX2, including (−)- and (+)-morphine, hydrocodone, sinomenine, dextromethorphan and the prodynorphin-derived peptides, dynorphin A, dynorphin B, and α- and β-neoendorphin. We used these to select for mutagenesis-validated homology models and docked almost 4 million small molecules. From this docking, we predicted ZINC-3573, which represents a potent MRGPRX2-selective agonist, showing little activity against 315 other GPCRs and 97 representative kinases, and an essentially inactive enantiomer. ZINC-3573 activates endogenous MRGPRX2 in a human mast cell line inducing degranulation and calcium release. MRGPRX2 is a unique atypical opioid-like receptor important for modulating mast cell degranulation, which can now be specifically modulated with ZINC-3573.
title: Intensity-dependency and plasticity of perceived audio-visual simultaneity: behavioural and neural correlates
Creators: name: Horsfall, Ryan
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2021

description: The perception of simultaneity and temporal order of audio-visual stimuli is vital in understanding which sensory information emanates from the same physical events. Two tasks commonly used to assess the relative perceptual latencies of audio-visual stimuli are the simultaneity judgement and temporal order judgement tasks, both of which provide an estimate of the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS), which reflects the temporal stimulus offset (typically in milliseconds) where simultaneity is perceived. These two estimates, perhaps surprisingly, have been shown to be uncorrelated, leading to the suggestion that the two tasks are mediated by separate neural mechanisms. The present thesis addresses this possibility using electroencephalography (EEG), and demonstrates that task-based differences are evident only late in the event-related potential, attributable to differences in decisional, rather than early sensory, processes. The PSSs estimated using these tasks are highly variable and depend on the relative intensity of the stimuli. By comparing various contender models, the author argues that the effect of intensity on the PSS can be explained by intensity-dependent processing latencies, and critically, that this intensity dependency is consistent across the two tasks. Furthermore, the current thesis highlights a novel process, whereby the PSS shifts depending on the visual intensity (as well as the leading modality) of the preceding trial, which is argued to reflect a decisional mechanism to compensate for differences in central arrival times caused by intensity-dependent processing latencies. Finally, training observers using the SJ task has previously been cited as a potential method to improve the accuracy of audio-visual perceptual judgements in those with multisensory deficiencies. The presented data highlights the lack of generalisability of training induced performance improvements between audio-visual stimuli with two visual intensities, highlighting limitations of these proposed interventions.
Electron gun for diffraction experiments off controlled molecules
Creators: name: Müller, Nele L. M.
name: Trippel, Sebastian
name: Długołecki, Karol
name: Küpper, Jochen
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
subject: Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A dc electron gun, generating picosecond pulses with up to $8\times10^{6}$ electrons per pulse, was developed. Its applicability for future time-resolved-diffraction experiments on state- and conformer-selected laser-aligned or oriented gaseous samples was characterized. The focusing electrodes were arranged in a velocity-map imaging spectrometer configuration. This allowed to directly measure the spatial and velocity distributions of the electron pulses emitted from the cathode. The coherence length and pulse duration of the electron beam were characterized by these measurements combined with electron trajectory simulations. Electron diffraction data off a thin aluminum foil illustrated the coherence and resolution of the electron-gun setup.