cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
title: Hydrangea :
title: Guidelines for the Conduct of Tests for Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability.
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: International Union For The Protection Of New Varieties Of Plants..,
Publisher: name: International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
Year: 0
Subjects: New Varieties of Plants
Hydrangea
Group identity

description: The purpose of these guidelines (“Test Guidelines”) is to elaborate the principles contained in the General Introduction (document TG/1/3), and its associated TGP documents, into detailed practical guidance for the harmonized examination of distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) and, in particular, to identify appropriate characteristics for the examination of DUS and production of harmonized variety descriptions.
Enlightening Encounters: The Role of a Human Library in Shaping Pre-Service Teachers' Future Trauma-Informed Approaches
Creators: Pelletier, Gabrielle N.
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Due to the striking impact of childhood trauma on development and well-being (Mandelli et al., 2015; Paquola et al., 2016; Statistics Canada, 2015), there has been a movement towards systemic implementation of trauma-informed approaches (TIAs). TIAs are meant to help working professionals realize, recognize, respond, and resist re-traumatization (SAMHSA, 2014a). One key system that bears the ability to mitigate the impacts of childhood trauma is the education system. However, as much as schools need policy and system-level change to support children who experience trauma, they also need agreement and effort from the people doing the work - namely future teachers. One way to shift pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs is by engaging them in experiential learning opportunities that evoke strong emotions (Day & Sachs, 2004, Stoll et al, 2012). A Human Library is an experiential opportunity where individuals, “storytellers”, share their lived experiences with strangers, “readers”.  The goal is to create a space for open and respectful dialogue amongst participants, to reduce stigma, and increase awareness and understanding of diverse lived experiences. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of pre-service teachers participating in a Human Library and its impact on their attitudes and beliefs about TIAs. My research questions were the following: (1) Does a Human Library event change pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about trauma-informed teaching? (2) What is the lived experience of pre-service teachers participating in a Human Library event? (3) Does a Human Library event influence pre-service teachers’ intentions and behaviours to learn more about trauma-informed teaching? (4) What is the sustained impression of the Human Library event on pre-service teachers? I utilized a multi-method design, collecting data from seven participants through surveys at three time points and one interview post event. To analyze my data, I used descriptive statistics and a reflexive thematic analysis (RTA; Braun & Clark, 2020). The researcher’s findings revealed that the Human Library had a significant positive impact on participants. Individual trajectories demonstrated an overall upward trend towards more trauma-informed attitudes. There was also a positive sustained impression of the event and an intention to continue their journey in becoming trauma-informed teachers. Their “enlightening” experience of the Human Library is reflected through four different themes: (1) feeling impassioned, (2) meaningful shifts, (3) advocates for trauma-informed teaching, and (4) processing becoming a trauma-informed teacher. Embedding Human Libraries into teacher education presents a promising and innovative direction for introducing the concept of TIAs to future teachers.
Lithium-Ion Battery Model Development and State Estimation for an Extended Single Particle Model Coupled with Thermal Modeling
Creators: Chevalier, Brianna L.
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Lithium-ion batteries are the predominant battery type in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Compared to experimental studies, simulation studies tend to be more cost-effective. Trustworthy simulation results depend on high-fidelity electrochemical-thermal dynamic models. To balance computational efficiency with exactness, we propose an enhanced model through an extended single-particle model with thermal dynamics to forecast the internal battery states. Experimental results from literature verify the effectiveness of the developed model. Along this line, we provide a comprehensive analysis of dynamic behaviour of a lithium-ion battery cell using the proposed model. Simulation shows promising results while maintaining computation speed. The developed model does not depend on any commercial packages and provides a high-fidelity simulation platform for battery research and development. Moreover, to enable the effective operation of portable electronics and electric vehicles, accurate and quick estimations of state of charge (SOC) and internal cell temperature are vital to battery management systems. Therefore, a long-short-term-memory (LSTM) recurrent-neural network is proposed which completes the state estimation of SOC and internal average cell temperature (Tavg) of lithium-ion batteries under varying current loads. The network is trained and evaluated using data compiled from the developed extended single particle model coupled with a thermal dynamic model. Results are promising, with root mean square error values typically under 2 \% for SOC and 1.2K for Tavg, while maintaining quick training and testing times. Also examined was a comparison of a single-feature versus multi-feature network, as well as two different approaches to data partitioning.
Additional file 1 of The effect of altruism on COVID-19 vaccination rates
Creators: name: Hierro, Luis Á.
name: Patiño, David
name: Atienza, Pedro
name: Garzón, Antonio J.
name: Cantarero, David
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Biotechnology
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy
subject: Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Additional file 1: Appendix A. Evolution of vaccination across European Union countries. Appendix B. Results using organ donations as proxy for altruism. Appendix C. Description of the Polarization Index. Appendix D. Results of panel data model. Appendix E. Correlation matrix of independent variables.
New Views of IC 10 in the Radio
Creators: Corbould, Harrisen T
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

In this thesis, we showcase new high-resolution VLA L-band data of IC 10, a dwarf

irregular galaxy in the Local Group. IC 10 is a target of the Local Group L-band

survey (LGLBS) due to its distance, location in the sky, and the fact that it is

the only starbursting galaxy in the Local Group. Due to its low metallicity and

proximity to the Milky Way, it is a unique candidate for studying star formation

and galaxy formation in an environment similar to those in the early universe. This

survey has both the highest spatial (4.5′′) and spectral (0.4 km/s) resolution HI

21-cm data of IC 10 to date and the highest spatial resolution (1.5′′) L-band 1.0 -

2.0 GHz continuum data. We create a catalog of compact continuum sources and

classify them by their spectral index and position. We find 62 total sources, of these

zero are identified as HII regions with α > −0.2, 19 are supernova remnants with a

steep spectral index −0.8 < α < −0.2, and 43 are background galaxies with steep

spectral indices α < −0.8. Using a spectral stacking technique, we compare CO (1-0)

molecular gas emission with the HI 21-cm emission and recover ∼ 23% more emission

than previously visible in the bright CO alone. Performing Gaussian decomposition

on the HI and CO data we find the HI is composed of two components in many

regions within the disk and we find that the CO emission is often but not necessarily

associated with the brightest HI component. Lastly, we analyze an off-disk molecular

cloud and find that it is surprisingly normal in its line widths, central velocities,

and integrated intensity but displays a very high molecular gas fraction for its low

dynamical equilibrium pressure due to the lack of a bright stellar population in the

region.
Detangling Hairwork: A Study of Victorian Mourning Practices
Creators: Carr, Emma R.
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

During the Victorian Era, it was common for women to use hair from loved ones to create intricate pieces of jewelry and art, particularly for mourning mementos. This thesis endeavoured to answer the research question: “What can an object analysis of a nineteenth-century mourning hair jewelry piece tell us about Victorian mourning practices?” through an object analysis of a hair bracelet located in the Anne Lambert Clothing and Textiles Collection (ALCTC). I used Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim’s object-based research methodology and drew on three artifacts in external collections and three primary text sources: Godey’s Lady’s Book from 1830 to 1890, Mark Campbell’s 1867 Self-Instruction in the Art of Hair Work, Dressing Hair, Making Curls, Switches, Braids, and Hair Jewelry of Every Description, and Alexandra Speight’s 1871 The Lock of Hair: Its History, Ancient and Modern, Natural and Artistic. The ALCTC hair bracelet analysis produced a number of conclusions: the object was handmade, its structure lends itself to frequent use, based on other jewelry surveyed and the plaiting techniques, the bracelet was likely made and worn between 1849 and 1863, and it was worn as a mourning or fashion piece. The popularity of mourning jewelry led to an industry of makers who specialized in hairwork and contributed to mourning jewelry evolving into a fashion object. Hair bracelets were considered a second or half mourning custom in 1849 to 1850 but merged into fashionable attire by 1858. Hair bracelets began waning in popularity in 1863, and, by 1871, hair jewelry was being advertised primarily as fashionable accessories rather than mourning jewelry. The research question, which was rooted in mourning practices, thus pivoted to suggest a shift in the use of hair jewelry and may suggest that the growth observed in the popularity of hairwork after the 1861 death of Prince Albert could correspond to the rise of hair jewelry as fashion objects.
IJM836015_Appendix – Supplemental material for Informal and non formal music experience: power, knowledge and learning in music teacher education in Chile
Creators: name: Poblete, Carlos
name: Leguina, Adrian
name: Masquiarán, Nicolás
name: Carreño, Bárbara
Publisher: name: SAGE Journals
Year: 2019
Subjects: Education

description: Supplemental material, IJM836015_Appendix for Informal and non formal music experience: power, knowledge and learning in music teacher education in Chile by Carlos Poblete, Adrian Leguina, Nicolás Masquiarán and Bárbara Carreño in International Journal of Music Education
Adapting to Non-stationarity in Online Learning
Creators: Jacobsen, Andrew
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Over the last decade, machine learning (ML) has lead to advances in many fields, such as computer vision, online decision-making, robotics, natural language processing, and many others. The algorithms driving these successes typically have one or more user-specified free variables called hyperparameters, or simply parameters, which must be set prior to running the algorithm. These parameters can have a significant effect on an algorithm's performance in practice, and setting them optimally requires problem-dependent knowledge that the practitioner does not typically have access to, such as statistics of the underlying data-generating process. Common practice is to empirically "tune" the hyperparameters for a specific problem setting by repeatedly guessing values, observing the resulting performance, and adjusting the hyperparameter values accordingly. However, this practice is ultimately heuristic in nature and generally fails to provide meaningful performance guarantees, especially if the problem may change or drift over time.

The aim of this thesis is to develop learning algorithms which make meaningful performance guarantees in the absence prior knowledge, obviating the need to tune hyperparameters entirely. We focus in particular on developing algorithms which are suitable for non-stationary problem settings, in which the unknown problem solution may change arbitrarily over time. We study this problem through the lens of online learning, a framework used to model learning from a stream of data. We present the first online learning algorithms that achieve optimal performance guarantees in the complete absence of prior knowledge about the problem solution, even if it changes over time. We achieve this feat in the standard setting of Lipschitz losses, as well as under a relaxation of the Lipschitz condition which allows for unbounded losses, leading to novel results for stationary problem settings and saddle-point optimization as well. Our efforts culminate in a universal algorithm for online linear regression, which requires no prior knowledge of any kind to make optimal performance guarantees, even in the face of non-stationary data.
The impact of household characteristics, socio-cultural factors and HIV/aids on child welfare in Kenya
Creators: name: Kimbu, David Mutie
Publisher: name: Figshare
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: This thesis investigates socio-economic and health economic issues related to the Kenyan people using the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey Data. The studies give empirical evidence that helps to understand the impact of socio-economic and health factors, including HIV/AIDS, on child schooling and health status. The thesis examines the factors contributing to an individual acquiring HIV, factors affecting child schooling and the factors having impact on child health in Kenya. Each of these studies employs the econometric tools necessary for reliable estimates. The econometric tools address issues with endogeneity, sample selection and missing data.
The thesis is comprised of five chapters with three major ones. The first Chapter gives an introduction and overview of the thesis. This chapter covers the motivation and objectives of the thesis. It also gives some historical background about Kenya. Chapter 2 examines the factors contributing to an individual acquiring HIV, with a focus on behavioural and personal characteristics, household characteristics and other socio-economic factors.
Chapter 3 deals with children’s education outcomes, specifically examining school attendance, school attainment, and rates of grade progression. The study focuses on the impact of individual and household characteristics. It incorporates the effect of socio-cultural factors as well as HIV/AIDS on child schooling. Extensive work is done on relevant econometric and statistical tools designed to address the difficulties associated with the variables used in the analysis. The discussion and conclusion gives some guidance to education policy makers in Kenya and other parts of the world which face similar conditions.
Optimal Pollution Control
Creators: Milanes Perez, Daniel Enrique
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

We consider the problem of a firm that wants to maximize its earnings. Production generates pollution as a by-product and has a negative impact on the environment. This negative impact causes disutility. The firm determines the optimal production rate and chooses between two types of technologies available. Each tech- nology generates different pollution levels and benefits from production. We model this as a mixed classical-switching stochastic control problem. By analyzing the related differential equation, we are able to obtain an explicit solution that allows us to derive interesting managerial insights.
Investigating the Interplay of Prioritized Replay and Generalization
Creators: Mohammad Panahi, Parham
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Experience replay, the reuse of past data to improve sample efficiency, is ubiquitous in reinforcement learning. Though a variety of smart sampling schemes have been introduced to improve performance, uniform sampling by far remains the most common approach. One exception is Prioritized Experience Replay (PER), where sampling is done proportionally to TD errors, inspired by the success of prioritized sweeping in dynamic programming. The original work on PER showed improvements in Atari, but follow-up results were mixed. In this thesis, we investigate several variations on PER, to attempt to understand where and when PER may be useful. Our findings in prediction tasks reveal that while PER can improve value propagation in tabular settings, behavior is significantly different when combined with neural networks. Certain mitigations---like delaying target network updates to control generalization and using estimates of expected TD errors in PER to avoid chasing stochasticity---can avoid large spikes in error with PER and neural networks but generally do not outperform uniform replay. In control tasks, none of the prioritized variants consistently outperform uniform replay with neural networks; however, recomputing priorities and sampling without replacement improves the performance of PER over uniform replay in tabular settings. This thesis sheds light on the interaction between prioritization, bootstrapping, and neural networks and proposes several improvements for PER in tabular settings and noisy domains.
Characterization of Activity Budgets by Beef Cattle on Pasture
Creators: Oloyede, Temitope O.
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Much of the cattle production cycle in western Canada occurs while grazing on open-range pasture, in which cattle exhibit complex behavior. Among these behaviors is how cattle spend their time grazing, walking, and resting. While these metrics may help explain behavioral responses and associated production, few studies have examined these attributes in cattle. This study examined cattle activity budgets using leg-mounted pedometers while grazing during summer and fall within a typical native Parkland rangeland of central Alberta, Canada. Moreover, these behaviors were evaluated relative to differences in environmental conditions (e.g., weather) and inherent animal attributes (age, RFI-fat and breed composition), and also related these behaviors to heifer and cow/calf production during the grazing season.

The first study evaluated activity budgets during an unusually warm summer and fall (2021) to evaluate the impact of heat stress on behavior. Cattle were found to have greater movement, as exhibited by daily step counts, during times of elevated heat stress, as characterized by the thermal heat index (THI). Additionally, heifers had higher movement rates than cows with calves, particularly in summer. Heat stress conditions not only altered daily movement rates and lying/resting times, but also altered diurnal patterns of activity, with increased movement overnight and at midday during heat stress conditions, and reduced activity in the morning and afternoon. Fewer impacts of heat stress were found in fall as compared to summer, despite the continued occurrence of short periods of heat stress (less than a day).

In a subsequent study using data from five cattle herds tested over 3 years, cow age was found to alter activity, with higher movement rates (and greater lying times) in heifers than cows, with movement further declining in older cows (up to 9 yr of age). In contrast, cattle activity on pasture had little association with either breed composition or RFI-fat (tested as a yearling in drylot). Cattle production metrics were found to depend on animal activity, with cows and heifers having greater weight gain in animals having greater daily movement rates (step counts) and reduced lying times. Additionally, several complex interactions were found between activity (step counts) and cattle age, particularly on the weight gain of calves, suggesting a need for further studies to better understand the role of beef cattle behavior (activity) on pasture, its underlying causes, and subsequent impact on cattle productivity.
Supplementary document for Multi-band infrared camouflage compatible with radiative cooling and visible colors via a simple multilayer film structure - 6581955.pdf
Creators: name: Wang, Lei
name: Zhang, Shangyu
name: Dong, Jian
name: Ma, Lanxin
name: Zheng, Chong
name: Zhang, Wenjie
name: LIU, LINHUA
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: See Supplement for the effect of quartz thickness, the material optical constants, the OCP and SRR, and the GA convergence.
Supplemental Material, JSR-16-350.R3_executive_summary - Sharing Goods? Yuck, No! An Investigation of Consumers’ Contamination Concerns About Access-Based Services
Creators: name: Hazée, Simon
name: Vaerenbergh, Yves Van
name: Delcourt, Cécile
name: Warlop, Luk
Publisher: name: SAGE Journals
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: 150310 Organisation and Management Theory
subject: FOS: Economics and business
subject: 150402 Hospitality Management

description: Supplemental Material, JSR-16-350.R3_executive_summary for Sharing Goods? Yuck, No! An Investigation of Consumers’ Contamination Concerns About Access-Based Services by Simon Hazée, Yves Van Vaerenbergh, Cécile Delcourt, and Luk Warlop in Journal of Service Research
Additional file 1 of Immune-mediated myogenesis and acetylcholine receptor clustering promote a slow disease progression in ALS mouse models
Creators: name: Margotta, Cassandra
name: Fabbrizio, Paola
name: Ceccanti, Marco
name: Cambieri, Chiara
name: Ruffolo, Gabriele
name: D’Agostino, Jessica
name: Trolese, Maria Chiara
name: Cifelli, Pierangelo
name: Alfano, Veronica
name: Laurini, Christian
name: Scaricamazza, Silvia
name: Ferri, Alberto
name: Sorarù, Gianni
name: Palma, Eleonora
name: Inghilleri, Maurizio
name: Bendotti, Caterina
name: Nardo, Giovanni
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Molecular Biology
subject: Physiology
subject: Pharmacology
subject: Cancer
subject: Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Computational Biology

description: Additional file 1: Supplementary Figure 1. Skeletal muscle SOD1 expression and late muscle denervation in fast- and slow-progressing SOD1G93A mice. Supplementary Figure 2. Nicotinic Acetylcholine receptor morphology in fast- and slow-progressing mice. Supplementary Figure 3. Ex-vivo muscle-derive satellite cells proliferation in fast and slow-progressing mice. Supplementary Figure 4. Muscle fibre composition of the two ALS murine models. Supplementary Figure 5. Muscle inflammatory signals in fast- and slow-progressing mice.
Duck RIPLET in RIG-I activation and avian antiviral immunity
Creators: Kazbekov, Mirzabek Jusipbekovich
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Retinoic Acid-Inducible Gene I (RIG-I) is a crucial pattern recognition receptor for detecting viral RNA and initiating an immune response against influenza A viruses (IAV). RIG-I requires an E3 ubiquitin ligase RIPLET for its activation. This thesis focuses on the functions of RIG-I and RIPLET in mallard ducks, which are natural reservoirs of IAV and known for their robust antiviral responses against IAV. In contrast, chickens lack the RIG-I and RIPLET and are more susceptible to IAV infections.

Limited research exists on how duck RIG-I and RIPLET interactions enhance antiviral immune responses, since previous research suggested that mallard duck RIPLET lacks the catalytic RING domain necessary for ubiquitin ligase activity. We confirmed the presence of the full-length RIPLET in ducks, including the essential RING domain. Our dual luciferase assays demonstrated that duck RIPLET enhances the IFN-β promoter activity in chicken DF-1 fibroblasts when co-expressed with duck RIG-I. qPCR analyses showed that co-expression of duck RIG-I and RIPLET significantly upregulates key immune genes and reduces viral RNA levels in DF-1 cells challenged with low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) H6N2. Co-immunoprecipitation and confocal microscopy studies confirmed the interaction and colocalization of duck RIG-I and RIPLET in the cytoplasm. We demonstrated that the non-structural protein 1 (NS1) of IAV, known for its role in immune evasion, suppression, and pathogenicity, from five different strains of IAV (PR8, BC500, CA431, D4AT, and VN1203) can all inhibit the duck RIPLET activation of RIG-I, as shown by the decrease in IFN-β promoter activity in chicken DF-1 cells.

Overall, our research provides valuable insights into the innate immune mechanisms in ducks. Understanding the interplay between RIG-I, RIPLET, and viral proteins like NS1 across species can inform the development of targeted interventions to mitigate the impact of IAV.
The White Linen Shirt and Shift in Early Colonial Eastern Woodlands North America
Creators: Power, Chiara Louise
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

This thesis investigated the white linen shirt and shift in Eastern Woodlands North America during the 17th and 18th centuries. The research question was: “Through a material culture analysis of an 18th century shirt and shift, what can we extrapolate about how these objects may have affected the power dynamics in relationships between settler and Indigenous communities in Eastern Woodlands North America during the early colonial period?” To find an answer, the shirt and shift were examined as objects that moved within and between Indigenous and settler communities. A material culture analysis was performed on an 18th century shirt and shift from the Anne Lambert Clothing and Textiles Collection. The letters of Marie de l’Incarnation and four oil portraits by John Verelst were also examined to contextualize the artifacts and examine portrayals and discussion around the objects. This research aimed to study two objects in depth and then expand the research to the objects in their social context in order to examine the power dynamics between Indigenous and settler communities at the time of study. The research demonstrates that the layered meanings of linen undergarments in European dress systems allowed a space for settler colonial rhetorics to be propagated.
Subcellular Investigation of Poxvirus Coinfections and the Impact on the Evolution of Cidofovir Resistance
Creators: Lee, Stephen Z
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

The Orthopoxviruses remain important re-emerging pathogens, yet there are only two monotherapy antiviral drugs for treating infections. One of the two approved drugs is brincidofovir, which is a prodrug of the acyclic nucleoside phosphonate cidofovir (CDV). CDV inhibits the vaccinia virus DNA polymerase E9, and substitutions in the polymerase confer resistance to the drug. The molecular mechanisms explaining how rare, CDV-resistant (CDVR) mutants emerge in a population are poorly understood. It is unclear how a rare mutant would ever gain a foothold in a predominantly wildtype population. We were particularly interested in understanding how coinfection between CDVR and CDV-sensitive (CDVS) viruses would impact the selection for this rare trait. To this end, we assembled recombinant CDVR or CDVS vaccinia viruses expressing EGFP or mKate2 fluorescent proteins fused to the λ bacteriophage cro DNA binding peptide. The cro-EGFP and cro-mKate2 proteins were useful markers to distinguish virus plaques in cell cultures and fluorescent labels for tracking the expansion of virus factories, cytoplasmic sites of replication for poxviruses.

Surprisingly, we showed that in coinfection experiments with CDV treatment, CDVR viruses appeared to lose their selective advantage over CDVS viruses. When the viruses replicated in separate cells, there was a strong selection for the CDVR viruses, which showed that the presence of CDVS viruses somehow interfered with the selection for CDVR viruses during coinfection. This prompted us to look at the subcellular behavior of the two viruses using fluorescence microscopy. In single infections with CDV treatment, the CDVR virus displayed a significantly higher virus factory growth rate than the CDVS virus. However, when the two viruses were present in the same cell, there was no difference in the growth of the CDVR and CDVS viruses despite the presence of CDV. Additionally, increasing the number of CDVS viruses in the cell significantly slowed factory growth across both CDVR and CDVS viruses. Thus, in a coinfected cell, the CDVS virus parasitized the growth advantage of the CDVR virus. This allowed the CDVS virus to survive the strong selective pressure from CDV treatment. However, when the two viruses replicated in isolated cells, the CDVS virus could not gain this advantage. Thus, the purifying selection from CDV treatment can only act when viruses remain in separate cells and cannot interact. These data suggest that mechanisms that maintain single infections could play an important role in maintaining fitness in a population of poxviruses.
Examining whether Multicopper Oxidase 4 (Mco4) acts as a high affinity iron importer in  Drosophila melanogaster
Creators: Yu, Qingxuan
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Iron is a crucial micronutrient for nearly all living organisms, playing a vital role in

various biological processes. In humans, it is essential for the production of hemoglobin, which

is necessary for oxygen transport in red blood cells. Beyond oxygen transport, iron is a key

component of heme and iron-sulfur clusters, which are involved in numerous cellular functions,

including DNA repair and hormone synthesis. The model organism Drosophila melanogaster

has proven to be a valuable tool for studying iron metabolism due to its genetic similarities to

humans and its high iron demand for steroid hormone synthesis.

Multicopper oxidase 4 (Mco4) was first discovered as a gene upregulated in response to

genetic or dietary disruption of iron homeostasis. Mco4 is expressed on the cell membrane and

has a yeast ortholog, Fet3p, which acts as a component of a high-affinity iron import system.

This thesis investigates whether Mco4 also plays a role in high-affinity iron import in

Drosophila, which would represent the first such system identified in animals.

In this study, I performed the phenotypic analysis of an Mco4 knockout line, which

showed that loss of Mco4 function causes sensitivity to iron starvation. Specifically, multigenerational iron depletion showed that Mco4 null mutant flies exhibit decreased survival rates

when reared on iron-deprived food due to lower body iron content compared to wild-type flies. I

also constructed a Mco4-3xFlag knock-in line to analyze the expression pattern of Mco4.

Immunofluorescence experiments revealed that Mco4 is predominantly expressed in the

proventriculus. In other tissues, primarily the gut, Mco4 is only detectable under low dietary iron

level, indicating a role during iron starvation.

To further understand its function, I explored the effects of Mco4 overexpression and

found that whole-body overexpression of Mco4 leads to increased iron content in the gut and

strongly enhanced resistance to iron deprivation. Remarkably, Mco4 overexpression allows

animals to survive extreme iron deprivation, which is not seen in controls. Additionally, Mco4

overexpression in S2 cells demonstrated ferroxidase activity comparable to that of human

Hephaestin, a known ferroxidase. Using the TurboID proximity labeling technique, I identified

interactions between Mco4 and ferritin heavy and light chains. Together, these findings indicate

that Mco4 plays a critical role in the cellular response to iron deprivation and likely functions as

a high-affinity iron importer, thus facilitating the import of iron when it is scarce.
Low-rank based motion correction followed by automatic frame selection in DT-CMR
Creators: name: Wang, Fanwen
name: Ferreira, Pedro F.
name: Munoz, Camila
name: Wen, Ke
name: Luo, Yaqing
name: Huang, Jiahao
name: Wu, Yinzhe
name: Pennell, Dudley J.
name: Scott, Andrew D.
name: Nielles-Vallespin, Sonia
name: Yang, Guang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Image and Video Processing (eess.IV)
subject: Medical Physics (physics.med-ph)
subject: FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Motivation: Post-processing of in-vivo diffusion tensor CMR (DT-CMR) is challenging due to the low SNR and variation in contrast between frames which makes image registration difficult, and the need to manually reject frames corrupted by motion. Goals: To develop a semi-automatic post-processing pipeline for robust DT-CMR registration and automatic frame selection. Approach: We used low intrinsic rank averaged frames as the reference to register other low-ranked frames. A myocardium-guided frame selection rejected the frames with signal loss, through-plane motion and poor registration. Results: The proposed method outperformed our previous noise-robust rigid registration on helix angle data quality and reduced negative eigenvalues in healthy volunteers.
description: Accepted as ISMRM 2024 Digital poster 2141
Supplementary document for Comprehensive study of Ag/Au-TiO2 composite thin films for tunable LSPR absorption - 6582104.pdf
Creators: name: Mukhametkarimov, Yerzhan
name: YERGALIYEVA, Saule
name: Nemkayeva, Renata
name: Gusseinov, Nazim
name: Prikhodko, Oleg
name: Arbuz, Aleksandr
name: Orynbay, Bakytzhan
name: Sagidolda, Yerulan
name: Aitzhanov, Madi
name: Ismailova, Guzal
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Supplemental material
Additional file 1 of Exonized Alu repeats in the 3’UTR of a CYP20A1_Alu-LT transcript act as a miRNA sponge
Creators: name: Singhal, Khushboo
name: Dhamija, Sonam
name: Mukerji, Mitali
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Molecular Biology
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Mental Health
subject: Hematology
subject: Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Computational Biology

description: Supplementary Material 1
Additional file 3 of Factors associated with inadequate receipt of components and non-use of antenatal care services in India: a regional analysis
Creators: name: Nagdev, Nilu
name: Ogbo, Felix Akpojene
name: Dhami, Mansi Vijaybhai
name: Diallo, Thierno
name: Lim, David
name: Agho, Kingsley E.
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Cell Biology
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy
subject: Hematology
subject: Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Cardiology

description: Additional file 3: Table S1. Factors associated with inadequate ANC in North India states. Table S2. Factors associated with inadequate ANC in South Indian states. Table S3. Factors associated with inadequate ANC in East India states. Table S4. Factors associated with inadequate ANC in West Indiana states. Table S5. Factors associated with inadequate ANC in Central India states. Table S6. Factors associated with inadequate ANC in Northeast Indian states.
Investigating the Quality of Bindings for Machine Learning Libraries in Software Package Ecosystems
Creators: Li, Hao
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Machine learning (ML) has revolutionized many domains, with developers often relying on open source ML libraries to integrate ML capabilities into their projects. However, these libraries primarily support a single programming language, limiting their availability for projects in other languages. Bindings serve as bridges between programming languages by providing interfaces to ML libraries. This thesis investigates the quality of bindings for ML libraries in software package ecosystems, focusing on their maintenance and software quality.

The first study presented in this thesis introduces BindFind, an automated approach to identify bindings and link them with their corresponding host libraries across various software package ecosystems. By analyzing 2,436 bindings for 546 ML libraries, we find that most bindings are community-maintained, with npm being the most popular choice for publishing these bindings. The analysis reveals that these bindings usually cover a limited range of releases from their host library and experience significant delays in supporting new releases.

In the second study, we investigate the usage and rationale behind release-level deprecation in bindings for ML libraries within the Cargo and npm ecosystems. We discover that bindings in Cargo have a higher percentage of deprecated releases compared to general packages, while the percentages of deprecated releases and general packages are similar in npm. The primary reasons for deprecation are package removal or replacement and defects in both ecosystems. We also identify the issue of implicitly deprecated releases in Cargo due to deprecation propagation through the dependency network.

The third study evaluates the impact of using different bindings on the software quality of ML systems through experiments on model training and inference using TensorFlow and PyTorch across four programming languages. The results show that models trained with one binding perform consistently in inference tasks when utilized with another binding. Furthermore, non-default bindings can outperform the default Python bindings in specific tasks without sacrificing accuracy. We also find significant differences in inference times across bindings, highlighting the benefits of choosing appropriate bindings based on specific performance requirements to maximize efficiency in ML projects.

The work presented in this thesis provides deep insights, actionable recommendations, and effective and thoroughly evaluated approaches for assessing and improving the quality of bindings for ML libraries in software package ecosystems.
Marine Heatwave Dynamics in James Bay: A Numerical Modelling Approach
Creators: Louis, Hannah L
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

The Hudson Bay and James Bay are critically understudied regions of the Arctic undergoing many changes due to climate change and Arctic Amplification. Cree and Inuit communities surrounding the bay have reported drastic changes in the marine environment since the late 1990s. This thesis explores the connection that Marine Heatwaves (MHWs) may have played into these reported changes. With climate change and the associated increasing atmospheric temperatures and warmer, more open oceans, we will likely see more extreme MHWs. Therefore, identifying key drivers in MHW dynamics is important for understanding how southern Hudson Bay and James Bay (SHBJB) may be impacted in the future due to climate change. This thesis first explores how SHBJB sea surface temperature (SST) has responded over the past 21 years using the forced ocean model, Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO). Then, the processes affecting MHWs are analysed using the model, calculating both the oceanic horizontal advection and the air-sea heat fluxes. To understand the dynamics further, two case studies with the highest SST anomalies are analysed closer, looking at both the years 2005 and 2017. These case studies follow a similar analysis, calculating both the horizontal advection and air-sea heat fluxes, and show that the shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes are the main driver that onsets the MHW event both years. Horizontal advection seems to play a secondary role in MHWs, either acting to prolong the event until ice cover begins to start, or creating another MHW event in the late fall/early winter. Lastly, this thesis explores sensitivity experiments that deviate from the baseline experiment used for the initial MHW analysis. An extended time period with different atmospheric forcing is used as the first sensitivity experiment, showing MHWs that seem to match up with the same reports from local Indigenous communities of drastic climate change in the region. The final sensitivity experiment explore how added river temperatures affect the MHW dynamics in the SHBJB region, ultimately showing a null result.
Dimming the Spotlight: Investigating Classroom Assessment Anxiety to Reduce its Effect on Student Performance
Creators: Antoniuk, Andrea S.
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Many contemporary educators utilize a broad assessment repertoire to understand their students’ learning progress. To support students in receiving high-quality education and help them reach their full potential, researchers have investigated the effects of test anxiety on academic performance. However, the effects of anxiety in other assessment contexts are less well-known. This dissertation consists of two studies. In the first study, we developed a measure for classroom assessment anxiety (MCA) with four subscales (i.e., tests, games, questions, presentations). We also evaluated its psychometric properties. In the second study, we investigated CA and classroom assessment shame (CS), and teachers’ ability to identify CA. Students (N = 204) in grades 3–8 completed the MCA. The MCA exhibited strong psychometric properties and supported a 4-factor hypothesis of CA (i.e., worry, cognitive interference, physical sensations, off-task/avoidance). All assessment types were potential sources of CA and CS, and shame and anxiety were significantly related. Students’ endorsement with negative self-appraisals was also statistically significantly related to CS. Furthermore, female students were more likely than male students to endorse test anxiety. This dissertation contributes to CA literature by developing a measure that, with further research, may provide a useful self-report measure that teachers can use. The findings shed light on students’ experiences of CA and CS, offering recommendations that can inform the development of interventions aimed at supporting students in coping with and managing these challenging emotions.
Goal Space Planning with Reward Shaping
Creators: Roice, Kevin
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Planning and goal-conditioned reinforcement learning aim to create more efficient and scalable methods for complex, long-horizon tasks. These approaches break tasks into manageable subgoals and leverage prior knowledge to guide learning.  However, learned models may predict inaccurate next states and have compounding errors over long-horizon predictions. This often makes background planning with learned models worse than model-free alternatives, even though the former uses significantly more memory and computation. Methods that plan in an abstract space, such as Goal-Space Planning, avoid these typical problems of models by background planning with models that are abstract in state and time. This thesis shows how potential-based reward shaping can propagate value and speed up learning with local, subgoal-conditioned models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in tabular, linear, and deep value-based learners, and study its sensitivity to changes in environment dynamics and the chosen subgoals.
Self-Management Approaches and Life Space Mobility of South Asian Older Immigrant Women with Osteoarthritis in Edmonton, Canada
Creators: Nisa, Saba Un
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

Background: South Asian (SA) older immigrant women in Canada, encounter distinctive challenges in self-managing chronic diseases like osteoarthritis (OA) and maintaining life-space mobility (LSM). Self-management is vital to dealing with chronic diseases because it enables individuals to actively engage in their healthcare, leading to better symptom control, improved well-being, and greater independence in daily life. This study aims to explore the self-management experience and LSM of SA older immigrant women with OA in Canada.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was used to interview 12 participants either in person or on the phone interviews. The participants were SA immigrant women aged 60 years or above and suffering from knee and hip OA. Two participants completed walk-along interviews in their neighborhoods. We used purposive sampling and participants were recruited through a developed screening questionnaire for confirmation of hip and knee OA. A thematic analysis was conducted following the steps outlined by Braun and Clarke.

Findings: We categorized our findings into three themes: (1) Immigration status as a barrier to the management of OA, (2) participants’ beliefs in health and osteoarthritis management, and (3) the impact of OA on LSM. We found that older SA immigrant women encountered challenges in managing healthcare costs due to their immigration status. Additionally, women faced difficulties accessing and utilizing healthcare services, such as experiencing long wait times for treatment. Moreover, OA significantly affected their daily activities, religious practices, and social interactions, which limited their LSM.

Conclusion: Collaborative efforts within communities are essential to develop and implement effective strategies that address the unique barriers faced by this demographic
title: Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE)
Creators: name: Schulte, N.
name: Babiel, S.
name: Messinger, M.
name: Thielsch, M. T.
Publisher: name: ZIS - GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Feuerwehr
subject: Evaluation

description: Das Feedback-Instrument
zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE) erfasst die Qualität der Ausbildung von
Rettungskräften. Das Instrument basiert auf qualitativen Analysen zu Merkmalen einer
guten Ausbildung im Bereich Rettungswesen. Die auf Basis dieser Merkmale zusammengestellten
Items wurden in zwei Studien am Institut der Feuerwehr Nordrhein-Westfalen (IdF
NRW) hinsichtlich Relevanz und Verständlichkeit geprüft. Mithilfe einer
explorativen Faktorenanalyse konnte das Instrument auf 21 Items reduziert und
die Faktoren Dozentenverhalten, Anforderungsniveau, Struktur und Gruppe
auf Ebene der Lernprozesse sowie die Faktoren Kompetenzerwerb und Transfer
auf Ebene der Lernoutcomes identifiziert werden. Das Instrument wurde mithilfe
von Lehrgangsteilnehmenden am IdF NRW validiert. Eine konfirmatorische
Faktorenanalyse konnte die Faktorstruktur bestätigen; die Skalen zeigen eine
akzeptable bis gute interne Konsistenz und es liegen eindeutige Hinweise auf Konstrukt-
und Kriteriumsvalidität vor.
description: Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen (ZIS)