cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
A tale of many cities: universal patterns in human urban mobility
Creators: name: Noulas, Anastasios
name: Scellato, Salvatore
name: Lambiotte, Renaud
name: Pontil, Massimiliano
name: Mascolo, Cecilia
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)
subject: Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: The advent of geographic online social networks such as Foursquare, where users voluntarily signal their current location, opens the door to powerful studies on human movement. In particular the fine granularity of the location data, with GPS accuracy down to 10 meters, and the worldwide scale of Foursquare adoption are unprecedented. In this paper we study urban mobility patterns of people in several metropolitan cities around the globe by analyzing a large set of Foursquare users. Surprisingly, while there are variations in human movement in different cities, our analysis shows that those are predominantly due to different distributions of places across different urban environments. Moreover, a universal law for human mobility is identified, which isolates as a key component the rank-distance, factoring in the number of places between origin and destination, rather than pure physical distance, as considered in some previous works. Building on our findings, we also show how a rank-based movement model accurately captures real human movements in different cities. Our results shed new light on the driving factors of urban human mobility, with potential applications for urban planning, location-based advertisement and even social studies.
title: Emerging Needs and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Stories of 2SGLBTQ+ Experiences of Psychedelic Consciousness
Creators: name: Desrochers, Stefanie
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Education--Social Sciences

description: Varieties of psychedelic-assisted therapies (PAT) are in the process of being legalized and regulated or are already legally accessible depending on jurisdiction and substance. Psychedelics are increasingly available for healing, wellness, spiritual, and recreational purposes in a variety of legal, quasi-legal, and illicit ways. While the Indigenous traditional and ceremonial use of these sacred medicines has storied histories that go back generations, the new stories being told in media and academia about psychedelics focus on changes in attitudes towards psychedelics and their potential clinical applications. The stories that are told about psychedelics inevitably shape our experience of them, who can access these experiences and the meanings we make of them. Stories like the “War on Drugs” and now the “Psychedelic Renaissance” obfuscate the individual storied experiences of queer psychedelia and the many connections between queerness and psychedelic consciousness. Using the qualitative methodology of narrative inquiry, this research takes up accounts of four queer Albertans in the midst of their unique experiences with psychedelics. Each shared their stories of psychedelic experiences and how those stories impact the ways that they understand themselves, their gender, and sexuality. Tensions and resonances between and across the narrative threads of these queer stories are explored and offer recommendations for safe and equitable access to psychedelic consciousness, current practice with PAT, and the development of queer-affirming PAT. It concludes with wonders visions of liberatory approaches to psychedelic access and containers. As psychedelics come out of the closet, this research underscores the necessity of raising queer voices so that queer folks are not left behind.
New Ireland Languages: A Review
Creators: name: Beaumont, C.H. (Ed.)
Publisher: name: Pacific Linguistics
Year: 1972

description: NEW IRELAND LANGUAGES: A REVIEW. 1 1.0. INTRODUCTION 1 1.0.1. Purpose 1 1.0.2. General 1 1.1. SURVEYS 2 1.1.1. Stephan and Gräbner 2 1.1.2. Friederici 2 1.1.3. Meyer 2 1.1.4. Capell 3 1.1.5. Lithgow and Claassen 3 1.1.6. Comparison of Surveys 4 1.2. CLASSIFICATION 7 1.2.1. Meyer 7 1.2.2. Capell 1962a 7 1.2.3. Grace 7 1.2.4. Salzner 8 1.2.5. Dyen 8 1.2.6. Lithgow and Claassen 8 1.2.7. Capell 1969 9 1.2.8. Capell 1971 9 1.2.9. Other Studies 10 1.2.10. Assessment 11 1.2.10.1. Languages excluded 11 1.2.10.2. Basis for Groupings 11 1.2.10.3. Kuot 11 1.2.10.4. Madak Family 12 1.2.10.5. Patpatar - Tolai Subgroup 12 1.2.10.6. St. Matthias Subgroup 12 1.2.10.7. Northern New Ireland Subgroup 15 1.2.10.8. A Wider Grouping 15 1.3. BIBLIOGRAPHIES 19 1.3.1. Pioniere der Südsee 19 1.3.2. Capell 19 1.3.3. Klieneberger 19 1.3.4. Taylor 19 1.3.5. Laufer 20 1.3.6. Lithgow and Claassen 20 1.3.7. General 20 1.4. PHONOLOGY 20 1.4.1. Tigak 20 1.4.2. Other languages 20 1.4.3. Stops 21 1.4.4. Fricatives 21 1.4.5. Nasals 21 1.4.6. Laterals and Vibrants 21 1.4.7. Semi-vowels 21 1.4.8. Vowels 22 1.4.9. Tone 22 1.5. GRAMMAR 22 1.5.1. Emira - Mussau 22 1.5.2. Lavongai (Tungak) 22 1.5.3. Tigak 23 1.5.4. Kara 23 1.5.5. Patpatar 23 1.5.6. Sursurunga 23 1.5.7. Lihir 23 1.5.8. Tangga 24 1.5.9. Kandas 24 1.5.10. Duke of York 24 1.5.11. Tolai 24 1.5.11.1. Bley 25 1.5.11.2. Waterhouse 25 1.5.11.3. Lanyon-Orgill 25 1.5.11.4 Franklin and Kerr 25 1.5.12. General 26 1.6. LEXICAL MATERIAL 26 1.6.1. Dictionaries 26 1.6.1.1. Lavongai (Tungak) 26 1.6.1.2. Tigak 26 1.6.1.3. Patpatar 26 1.6.1.4. Lihir 27 1.6.1.5. Tangga 27 1.6.1.6. Duke of York 27 1.6.1.7. Tolai 27 1.6.1.7.1. Meyer 27 1.6.1.7.2. Lanyon-Orgill 27 1.6.1.7.3. A Kuanua Dictionary 28 1.6.1.7.4. English - Kuanua Dictionary 28 1.6.2. Wordlists 29 1.6.2.1. General 29 1.6.2.2. Emira - Mussau 29 1.6.2.3. Kandas 29 1.6.2.4. Patpatar 29 1.6.2.5. Duke of York 30 1.6.2.6. Tolai 30 1.6.3. Lists of Kinship Terms 30 1.6.4. Wordlists of Historical Interest 30 1.6.4.1. Le Maire and Schouten 30 1.6.4.2. Gaimard and d'Urville 30 1.6.4.3. Strauch 31 1.6.4.4. Brown 31 1.6.4.5. Duffield 31 1.6.4.6. Ray 31 1.6.4.7. Parkinson 31 1.6.4.8. Other lists 31 1.7. TEXTS 31 1.7.1. Lavongai (Tungak) 31 1.7.2. Tigak 32 1.7.3. Kara 32 1.7.4. Patpatar 32 1.7.5. Lihir and Tangga 32 1.7.6. Tolai and Duke of York 32 1.8. MIGRATION 32 1.8.1. Butam 32 1.8.2. Tolai Migration 32 1.8.3. Melanesian Migration 33 1.9. SUMMARY 33Bibliography 34A. Published 34B. Manuscripts 40Tables: 1 - Comparison of Surveys 6 2 - Languages and Populations 13 3 - Cognate Percentages 18Maps: Map 1 - Language Subgroups, New Ireland 14 Map 2 - Languages, Northern New Ireland 16 Map 3 - Languages, Southern New Ireland 17
The trial within : negotiating justice at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-1948
Creators: name: Sedgwick, James Burnham
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2012

description: This dissertation explores the inner-workings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). Commonly known as the Tokyo trial, Tokyo tribunal, or Tokyo IMT, the IMTFE brought Japan’s wartime leadership to justice for aggression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during World War II. Using rare sources in three languages from public and private collections in eight countries, this dissertation presents a multi-perspective experiential history of the IMTFE in operation. By placing the court in a distinct international moment that produced the United Nations, the Nuremberg trial, the Genocide Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, among other outgrowths of global community, this work explores the IMTFE as both a groundbreaking judicial undertaking and a pioneering multilateral institution. Other scholars use overly reductive and judgmental constructs based on outside-looking-in perspectives to assess the court’s legal or moral legitimacy without appreciating or detailing its nuance and complexity. This dissertation prefers an inside-out view to explain the trial, not judge it. It describes the IMTFE as a collective endeavour and experience behind the scenes. Chapters review the personal, emotional, administrative, logistical, legal, political, and global dimensions of internationalism in action. Justice emerged as a contested encounter inside an involute web of intimate and external factors; transitional and transnational forces. Outside pressures – including postwar idealism, decolonisation, and the Cold War – meshed with and filtered through the intrinsic elements of ‘being international’ on the ground: social interaction, personal responses, and professional engagement. This ‘trial within’ influenced every aspect of IMTFE processes and outcomes, and the complexity of its internal dynamics best explains enduring criticism and memory of the court as a political trial or manifestation of victors’ justice. Although a unique historical moment, the IMTFE reveals basic, foundational truths about the essence of all international organisations and other modes of ambitious global governance. Ultimately, this dissertation uses the IMTFE to reinterpret modern internationalism as a complex, messy, and negotiated encounter rather than a staid set of promises and ideals: a process and experience that ultimately – inevitably – compromised principles for politics, and form for function.
Bringing Earthbags to the People – A New, Democratic Approach to Sustainable Building
Creators: name: Zemskova, Kateryna
name: Belofsky, Nathan
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2018
Subjects: Sustainable buildings--Design and construction
Nepal Earthquake (April 25, 2015)
Soil-structure interaction
Sustainable buildings

description: Earthbag technology builds safe, appealing, and cost-effective structures out of ordinary soil. Stronger, cheaper, and less harmful to the environment than conventional building techniques like brick and cement, Earthbag technology is generally considered the most promising of sustainable building techniques. But despite widespread support among environmental groups and eco-builders, this method is shunned by governments and remains virtually unknown to everyday building professionals and the public. This paradigm, however, is changing in Nepal, where a catastrophic 2015 earthquake flattened much of the housing stock. Good Earth Nepal, a non-profit organization, has pioneered a three-pronged approach designed to overcome resistance to sustainable building and to, for the first time, make Earthbag technology accessible to the masses.
title: R/V SHINSEI MARU Cruise report KS-23-5
Creators: name: Kuroda, Junichiro
Publisher: name: JAMSTEC
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Cruise report
subject: R/V SHINSEI MARU
subject: oceans

description: [CRUISE REPORT] This document is a preliminary report of KS-23-5 on R/V SHINSEI MARU from 2023-04-13 to 2023-04-17.
Analytic varieties as limit periodic sets
Creators: name: Belotto, André
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Dynamical Systems (math.DS)
subject: Classical Analysis and ODEs (math.CA)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Let $f(x,y) \not\equiv 0$ be a real-analytic planar function. We show that, for almost every $R>0$ there exists an analytic 1-parameter family of vector fields $X_λ$ which has $\{f(x,y)=0\} \cap \bar{B_R((0,0))}$ as a limit periodic set. Furthermore, we show that if $f(x,y)$ is polynomial, then there exists a polynomial family with these properties.
title: Engineering a High Throughput Lung-on-a-Chip System with Intravascular Shear Stress to Better Represent In Vivo Lung Physiology and Characterize Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Creators: name: Volek, Kelsie Lena
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Lung
subject: Microphysiologic Systems
subject: Organ on Chip
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Education--Health
subject: Engineering--Biomedical

description: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is an inflammatory condition often requiring mechanical ventilation due to severe lung injury, frequently leading to fatal outcomes. Traditional models, including animal studies and 2D cell cultures, fail to capture the complexities of human lung physiology, limiting our understanding of ARDS. To address these limitations, we developed a sophisticated lung-on-a-chip (LoC) platform integrating human endothelial cells forming microvessels within a fibrin hydrogel containing fibroblasts alongside an alveolar epithelial cell-lined air-liquid interface. We use this novel LoC to investigate ARDS disease mechanisms and drug responses. First, we demonstrate marked microvascular damage and tissue biomechanical changes induced by double-stranded RNA (PolyI:C), a common inflammatory agonist which mimics viral lung infections. Additionally, we identified a clinically available drug that blocks JAK/STAT inflammatory signaling, ruxolitinib, and prevented this lung damage. With the addition of continuous vascular fluid flow (and hence shear stress), we found enhanced vascularization under standard conditions but retained disruption following polyI:C treatment. A computational fluid dynamics model was also used to provide insight into fluid velocities and shear stresses present in the ‘healthy’ LoC, parameters that are difficult to measure using empiric testing. This modeling along with empiric vascular bulk flow and bead velocity measurements, points towards significant intravascular obstruction during viral lung infection. These results significantly advance our understanding of lung physiology and ARDS disease progression, paving the way for novel therapeutic interventions in respiratory health, particularly targeting the pulmonary vasculature.
title: The Influence of Mind-Wandering and Brain Signal Complexity on Visual Perceptual Learning
Creators: name: Krile, Louisa
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Brain signal complexity
subject: Electroencephalography (EEG)
subject: Event-related potential (ERP)
subject: Mind-wandering
subject: Multiscale entropy (MSE)
subject: Texture discrimination task (TDT)
subject: Visual perceptual learning
subject: Psychology--Cognitive
subject: Neuroscience

description: Mind-wandering, or shifts in attention from task-related to task-unrelated thoughts, occupies up to 50% of our waking hours and impacts neural and behavioural functioning. Mind-wandering is associated with impaired performance on cognitive tasks but may facilitate performance on creative problem-solving tasks. Until now, research has focused on the impact of mind-wandering on immediate task performance, but the association with learning-related gains over time remains unclear. Previous research examining brain signal complexity during task performance showed that periods of mind-wandering were associated with higher signal complexity compared with on-task states, reflecting increased neural flexibility. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether higher signal complexity associated with mind-wandering may represent a flexible neural state conducive to learning. Twenty-eight adults underwent electroencephalography (EEG) recording while performing a visual texture discrimination task before and after a training period, with their attention state probed throughout the experiment. Task performance improved (p = .033), the amount of mind-wandering increased (p = .016), and N1 and P3 event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes were modulated (p’s < .01) significantly following training. Neural results showed that increased mind-wandering, smaller N1 amplitudes, and better post-training performance were associated with widespread increased signal complexity (p = .001), and that larger ERP amplitudes and better baseline performance were associated with a greater reliance on global signal complexity (p = .038). Overall, these results suggest that a high-flexibility brain state associated with mind-wandering may support learning in low-level perceptual tasks.
Investigating the Global and Local in Wangchuck Centennial National Park: A Case for the Bhutanese Conservation Actors In-Between
Creators: name: Steele, Anne Lee
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2018
Subjects: Sustainable development
Environmental protection
Developing countries
Rural development
Civil service--Economic aspects

description: Bhutan is world famous for its approach to both environmental conservation and development, despite being classified as “least developed” by the World Bank as recently as 2016. As Bhutan continues to develop, it has increasingly encountered the colloquially known, but statistically unproven phenomena: that development standards and conservation goals are often in conflict with the needs of rural communities. In the case of such ideological, cultural and economic clashes, this article argues for the necessity of “middle-actors” such as native Bhutanese civil servants, as they are able to navigate the cultural and economic zone “in-between” the international and the local in ways that others cannot.
title: The Legality of Violence in Ice Hockey: Consent and Assumption of Risk in the Playing Culture of North American Hockey Leagues
Creators: name: Dennie, Martine
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Ice Hockey
subject: Violence
subject: Consent
subject: Risk
subject: Injury
subject: Battery
subject: Negligence
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Law
subject: FOS: Law

description: This thesis explores the question of when hockey players should be held legally liable in Canadian tort law for intentionally and/or negligently causing violent injuries on the ice. This question has puzzled the Canadian legal system, which has led to different legal outcomes in various provincial jurisdictions. At the heart of the legal issue in most participant liability cases of hockey violence is the question of consent and the assumption of the inherent risk of injury that comes with playing a competitive contact sport. Throughout this thesis, the main argument is that despite the normalization of risk-taking, pain, and injury in the occupational culture of hockey over decades of widespread violence, it does not warrant a uniform and objective application of consent. The decision to consent to violence and the risk of injury in hockey is deeply subjective and it is shaped by broader structural and occupational requirements for the athletes to put their bodies at risk of unnecessary harm. To resist the hegemony of the National Hockey League (“NHL”) and professional hockey more generally, players are increasingly turning to the law to address the fact that the NHL is doing little to curb the problem of hockey violence and to receive compensation for the serious injuries they suffered while playing hockey. The turn to the law demonstrates that the process by which consent is secured and communicated to do violence on the ice and suffer the embodied consequences of playing such a physical contact sport is not effective. Rather, it serves as evidence that there are limits to a player’s consent to violence in hockey. My research thus explores these limits in more depth through a qualitative research design to provide empirical evidence of the cultural breaches in the normalization of risk, pain, and injury in hockey to show at what point players should be held legally responsible for inflicting injury on another player.
title: Open-set Speaker Recognition with Bounded Laguerre Voronoi Clustering
Creators: name: Ohi, Abu Quwsar
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Computer Science
subject: Artificial Intelligence

description: Speaker recognition is a challenging problem in behavioral biometrics. It has been rigorously investigated over the last decade. Although numerous supervised closed-set systems successfully harvest the power of deep neural networks, limited studies have been made on open-set speaker recognition. This thesis proposes a self-supervised open-set speaker recognition that leverages the geometric properties of speaker distribution for accurate and robust speaker identification. The proposed framework consists of a deep neural network incorporating a wider viewpoint of temporal speech features and Laguerre–Voronoi diagram-based speech feature extraction. The deep neural network is trained with a specialized clustering criterion that only requires positive pairs during training. The framework further incorporates a novel approach of clustering by integrating concepts from Voronoi diagrams in Laguerre geometry. This approach offers flexibility by necessitating only one hyperparameter, an upper-bound value for the number of centroids. The experiments validated that the proposed system outperformed current state-of-the-art methods in open-set speaker verification and identification.
Locally Most Powerful Invariant Tests for Correlation and Sphericity of Gaussian Vectors
Creators: name: Ramírez, D.
name: Vía, J.
name: Santamaría, I.
name: Scharf, L. L.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Information Theory (cs.IT)
subject: Other Statistics (stat.OT)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: In this paper we study the existence of locally most powerful invariant tests (LMPIT) for the problem of testing the covariance structure of a set of Gaussian random vectors. The LMPIT is the optimal test for the case of close hypotheses, among those satisfying the invariances of the problem, and in practical scenarios can provide better performance than the typically used generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT). The derivation of the LMPIT usually requires one to find the maximal invariant statistic for the detection problem and then derive its distribution under both hypotheses, which in general is a rather involved procedure. As an alternative, Wijsman's theorem provides the ratio of the maximal invariant densities without even finding an explicit expression for the maximal invariant. We first consider the problem of testing whether a set of $N$-dimensional Gaussian random vectors are uncorrelated or not, and show that the LMPIT is given by the Frobenius norm of the sample coherence matrix. Second, we study the case in which the vectors under the null hypothesis are uncorrelated and identically distributed, that is, the sphericity test for Gaussian vectors, for which we show that the LMPIT is given by the Frobenius norm of a normalized version of the sample covariance matrix. Finally, some numerical examples illustrate the performance of the proposed tests, which provide better results than their GLRT counterparts.
Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 16
Creators: name: Allen, J. (Ed.)
name: Lawrence, M. (Ed.)
Publisher: name: Pacific Linguistics
Year: 1972

description: A-34
description: Contents iii{Janice Allen} 1RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SENTENCE AND DISCOURSE IN HALIA. 0. INTRODUCTION 1 1. DESCRIPTION OF UNITS 1 2. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN UNITS 7 Notes 14{Marshall Lawrence} 17OKSAPMIN SENTENCE STRUCTURE. 1. SENTENCE TERMINATION 18 1.1. Information Structure within the Clause 18 1.2. Information Structure and Information Focus within the Sentence 24 2. SENTENCE STRUCTURE 27 2.1. Opening 27 2.1.1. Outer Periphery 27 2.1.2. Inner Periphery 28 2.2. Closure 30 2.2.1. Tense and Mood 30 2.3. Nucleus 33 2.3.1. Simple Nucleus 33 2.3.2. Complex Nucleus 35 2.3.3. Compound Nucleus 38 Notes 44
High Star Formation Efficiency in Barred Galaxy Centers Revealed with a New CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor Prescription
Creators: name: Teng, Yu-Hsuan
name: PHANGS
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: The CO-to-H2 conversion factor (alphaCO) is central to studying molecular gas and star formation in galaxies, and it is known to vary with environmental conditions. In particular, alphaCO can drop in galaxy centers by nearly an order of magnitude. The variation of alphaCO causes major uncertainties in current molecular gas measurements, and it interferes with accurately measuring star formation efficiency and molecular cloud properties. Using high-resolution and sensitive ALMA observations of multiple 12CO, 13CO, and C18O lines in several barred galaxy centers, we have found that the alphaCO decreases are primarily driven by CO opacity changes and thus shows strong correlations with observables like velocity dispersion and 12CO/13CO line ratio (Teng et al. 2022, 2023). Motivated by these results, we have constructed a new alphaCO prescription which accounts for emissivity effects in galaxy centers and verified it on a set of barred and non-barred galaxies with measured alphaCO values. Applying our new prescription to the PHANGS-ALMA Large Program dataset, we observe an overall 3x higher star formation efficiency in barred centers than in non-barred centers, which is an unprecedented trend that has been obscured by current alphaCO treatments. We discuss how the alphaCO variation and current prescriptions impact star formation efficiency and molecular gas concentration in various types of galaxies and galactic nuclei, leveraging the full PHANGS-ALMA sample of 65 nearby star-forming galaxies.
Mitigating the Effects of Transport Infrastructure Development on Ecosystems
Creators: name: Ghent, Carleigh
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2018
Subjects: Transportation
Transportation--Environmental aspects
Sustainable development
Environmental policy
Ecological disturbances

description: Transport infrastructure is one of the most important ways to help a country drive economic growth and alleviate poverty, but it can also have devastating effects on the surrounding ecosystems and wildlife. Habitat fragmentation and degradation, vehicle-wildlife collisions, population and genetic isolation, and loss of ecosystem services are just some of the effects roads can have on ecosystems and wildlife. This synthesis paper seeks to explore these effects and look at different ways to mitigate them to help restore ecosystems and the services they provide. Some ways to mitigate these effects include green infrastructure, corridors, and wildlife crossings. Green infrastructure provides more natural or semi-natural space for various ecosystem services, wildlife, and humans. Corridors connect the natural spaces created by green infrastructure and protected areas and allow movement of wildlife between these areas. Wildlife crossings can be overpasses or underpasses that lessen the barrier effects of transport infrastructure. Collaboration between multiple sectors, including governments, policy makers, transport infrastructure planners, ecologists, and geographers, is needed to create successful and both sustainable transportation networks and green infrastructure that support ecosystem services and functions.
Detection of fungal and bacterial carbohydrates: Do the similar structures of chitin and peptidoglycan play a role in immune dysfunction?
Creators: name: Dworkin, Jonathan E.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Chitin
subject: Peptidoglycans
subject: Carbohydrates
subject: Immune response
subject: Molecular biology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine

description: Carbohydrate recognition is fundamental to a wide variety of interkingdom interactions. For example, bacterial peptidoglycan, an N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc)–N-acetylmuramic acid (MurNAc) polymer, and fungal chitin, a GlcNAc polymer, are both immunostimulatory to vertebrates. In addition, bacterially produced Nodulation (Nod) factors, which consist of a modified GlcNAc, play a key role in symbiotic interactions with plants. The structural similarity of these GlcNAc-containing molecules suggests possible overlap in their physiological action, although many of the mechanisms underlying the detection of these molecules in different organisms appear unrelated. However, a single phylogenetically conserved domain, called Lysin (LysM), is found in specific receptors in signaling pathways responsive to one or more of these three related carbohydrates in bacteria, plants, and fungi and possibly mammalian systems. Thus, promiscuous activation could occur when a structurally similar but physiologically inappropriate ligand binds and thereby aberrantly activates an incorrect LysM domain-containing receptor. Here, I will discuss this possibility and its implications for immune pathologies such as asthma in which chitin is relevant.
On the functions counting walks with small steps in the quarter plane
Creators: name: Kurkova, Irina
name: Raschel, Kilian
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Combinatorics (math.CO)
subject: Probability (math.PR)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 05A15, 30F10, 30D05

description: Models of spatially homogeneous walks in the quarter plane ${\bf Z}_+^{2}$ with steps taken from a subset $\mathcal{S}$ of the set of jumps to the eight nearest neighbors are considered. The generating function $(x,y,z)\mapsto Q(x,y;z)$ of the numbers $q(i,j;n)$ of such walks starting at the origin and ending at $(i,j) \in {\bf Z}_+^{2}$ after $n$ steps is studied. For all non-singular models of walks, the functions $x \mapsto Q(x,0;z)$ and $y\mapsto Q(0,y;z)$ are continued as multi-valued functions on ${\bf C}$ having infinitely many meromorphic branches, of which the set of poles is identified. The nature of these functions is derived from this result: namely, for all the 51 walks which admit a certain infinite group of birational transformations of ${\bf C}^2$, the interval $]0,1/|\mathcal{S}|[$ of variation of $z$ splits into two dense subsets such that the functions $x \mapsto Q(x,0;z)$ and $y\mapsto Q(0,y;z)$ are shown to be holonomic for any $z$ from the one of them and non-holonomic for any $z$ from the other. This entails the non-holonomy of $(x,y,z)\mapsto Q(x,y;z)$, and therefore proves a conjecture of Bousquet-Mélou and Mishna.
description: 40 pages, 17 figures
title: The Role of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Receptor 1 in the Heat Shock-Mediated Behavioural and Metabolic Response in Zebrafish
Creators: name: Shvartsburd, Zachary Skyler
Publisher: name: Science
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: stress physiology
subject: zebrafish
subject: heat shock
subject: HPI-axis
subject: CRHR1
subject: behaviour
subject: metabolic rate
subject: Animal Physiology

description: Activation of the primary stress response, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis in mammals or the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI)-axis in fish, requires the binding of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) to CRH receptor 1 (CRHR1), though CRHR1 activity is also implicated in behavioural adjustment and peripheral signalling not associated with the HPI-axis. With global water temperatures rising and daily temperature fluctuations becoming more extreme, the stress response may be a critical mechanism of aquatic species to withstand shifts in temperature. By using a ubiquitous CRHR1 knockout (CRHR1KO) model, I investigated the hypothesis that CRHR1 is involved in the behavioural and metabolic modulation of the developmental and adult life stage stress response during acute heat shock in zebrafish. Following a 1-hour +5°C heat shock, wildtype (WT) fish larvae showed an increase in swimming activity but CRHR1KO larvae failed to respond to the heat shock. Basal oxygen consumption between WT and CRHR1KO larvae were similar, but CRHR1KO had elevated oxygen consumption in non-mitochondrial and ATP-linked processes. Cardiac performance was unchanged between WT and CRHR1KO larvae, indicating differences in behaviour were not due to modulation of heart function. Adult WT zebrafish showed the same increase in swimming activity when exposed to acute heat shock, while CRHR1KO fish had no change in swimming behaviour. The metabolic rate (MO2) of WT adult fish also increased with heat shock, but this was not associated with increased circulating cortisol, as exposure to metyrapone, an inhibitor of cortisol synthesis, failed to attenuate the heat shock-induced rise in MO2. The MO2 of CRHR1KO fish did not increase following heat shock, suggesting CRHR1 action independent of the HPI-axis. Swimming performance was impaired in the CRHR1KO, with a lower aerobic scope and Ucrit compared to WT. Transcript and metabolite analysis in the muscle revealed potential futile cycling of glycogen in CRHR1KO fish. In summary, my study shows CRHR1 as a key integrator of the behavioural and metabolic rate response which improves performance following an acute heat shock, implicating CRHR1 as a metabolic thermal sensor for ectotherms.
Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape (A2R): A Baseline Study of Climate Resilience in Developing Countries
Creators: name: Dale, Lisa
name: Held, Jonathan
name: Ratte, Stephanie
name: Zaman, Farrukh
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2018
Subjects: Developing countries
Climatic changes--Risk management
Natural disaster warning systems

description: The United Nations Climate Resilience Initiative: Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape (A2R) is a global, UN-led, multi-stakeholder initiative that strengthens climate resilience for vulnerable countries and people. A2R addresses the urgent needs of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Africa and other vulnerable regions. The initiative accelerates action on key aspects of climate resilience under its three pillars: 1) Anticipate – Increased capacity to better anticipate and act on climate hazards and stresses through early warning and early action; 2) Absorb – Increased capacity to absorb shocks by increasing access to climate risk insurance and social protection systems; and 3) Reshape – Increased capacity to reshape development pathways by transforming economies to reduce risks and root causes of vulnerabilities and support the sound management of physical infrastructure and ecosystems to foster climate resilience. This report outlines the current status of key indicators relevant to the three pillars. It also identifies some of the challenges faced in this analysis and suggests ways of overcoming them, so that we may, in the future, be able to provide a fuller picture of progress on these three key capacities for climate resilience.
Topological quantization of the free massive bosonic field
Creators: name: Arciniega, Gustavo
name: Nettel, Francisco
name: Patiño, Leonardo
name: Quevedo, Hernando
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present a topological quantization of free massive bosonic fields as the first example of a classical field theory with a quantum counterpart to be studied under this formalism. First, we identify certain harmonic map as a geometric representation of this physical system. We take as a concrete example the case of free massive bosonic fields in two dimensions represented by the minimal embedding of a two dimensional surface into a pp-wave spacetime. We use this geometric representation to construct the fiber bundle corresponding to some specific field configurations and then find their topological spectra, defined in terms of the Euler invariant. We discuss the results for some particular configurations and their consequences for the energy of the system.
description: 17 pages, 5 figures
Acting crazy : psychotherapy, dramatherapy, and drama? Autoethnographic play
Creators: name: Grace, Tidal
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2012

description: Psychotherapy, acting, and drama therapy have traditionally existed as separate knowledge silos in the research cannon, although many interrelations exist between them. This research examines those interrelations through the researcher’s perspectives of being involved in all three as an actor/director, acting teacher/coach/facilitator, and an aspiring psychotherapist, using an autoethnographic stage play to tease out the general themes. The general themes that surfaced centered on the importance of desire, and its relationship to the will and self; how desire constructs meaning through language; psychology’s ambivalence with sexuality; the relevance of communitas and environment to learning; the pitfalls of therapy and drama; awareness; the self as an ultimate defence and survival mechanism; veneers and actualization as power grabs by the self; real caring versus professional caring; reality versus fantasy; rationality versus emotionalism; science/knowledge/mind versus art/faith/body; drama as therapy, and therapy as drama. The conclusion of this research examines a host of topics too: how these domains’ nomenclature is problematic; how the researcher’s self interacts in these three embedded environments; the potential interpersonal, social, and cultural impacts on participating in these programmes; the significance, strengths, and limitations of this research; the potential applications of its findings; and, future directions that are possible for further research.
Mapping spin-polarised transitions with atomic resolution
Creators: name: Schattschneider, Peter
name: Schaffer, Bernhard
name: Ennen, Inga
name: Verbeeck, Johan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The coupling between Angstrom-sized electron probes and spin polarised electronic transitions shows that the inelastically scattered probe is in a mixed state containing electron vortices with non-zero orbital angular momentum. These electrons create an asymmetric intensity distribution in energy filtered diffraction patterns, giving access to maps of the magnetic moments with atomic resolution. A feasibility experiment shows evidence of the predicted effect. Potential applications are column-by-column maps of magnetic ordering, and the creation of Angstrom-sized free electrons with orbital angular momentum by inelastic scattering in a thin ferromagnetic foil.
title: The Lived Experiences of Gender and Sexually Diverse Students at the University of Calgary
Creators: name: Luo, Cong
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: queer students
subject: higher education
subject: mixed methods
subject: inclusivity
subject: UCalgary
subject: Education

description: Postsecondary institutions have traditionally served as havens for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex (2SLGBTQI+) students. The University of Calgary (UCalgary) espouses allyship and commitment to diversity on its official website and policy, “UCalgary values and champions diversity, equality and inclusiveness.” However, no research has investigated the well-being of 2SLGBTQI+ students at UCalgary. This study seeks to delve into the lived experiences of 2SLGBTQI+ students at UCalgary, treating them as experts in their own experiences, and advocating for positive changes. This study intends to serve as a useful resource for UCalgary and other higher education stakeholders by providing insights into the opportunities and challenges facing 2SLGBTQI+ students, and solutions to address the issues. By adopting a mixed methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative elements, this research gathered and analyzed 64 survey responses to identify gaps in university services, resources, and programs impacting 2SLGBTQI+ students’ campus experiences. Additionally, I conducted 18 open-ended and semi-structured interviews to explore participants’ perceptions of inclusivity on campus. The findings suggest that UCalgary’s overall performance is satisfactory while pointing to disparities among 2SLGBTQI+ students, with some thriving socially and academically while others encounter barriers and struggles. Despite rare instances of overt transphobic or homophobic abuse, microaggressions and subtle forms of discrimination persist within and outside of classrooms. Gender and sexually diverse students express a desire for UCalgary to enhance its policies and practices to support their community, fostering a safer and more inclusive learning and teaching environment for all.
Investigation of the thermal stability of Mg/Co periodic multilayers for EUV applications
Creators: name: Hu, M. -H.
name: Guen, K. Le
name: André, Jean-Michel
name: Zhou, S. -K.
name: Li, H. -C.
name: Zhu, J. -T.
name: Wang, Z. -S.
name: Meny, C.
name: Mahne, N.
name: Giglia, Angela
name: Nannarone, S.
name: Esteve, I.
name: Walls, M.
name: Jonnard, Philippe
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present the results of the characterization of Mg/Co periodic multilayers and their thermal stability for the EUV range. The annealing study is performed up to a temperature of 400\degree C. Images obtained by scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy clearly show the good quality of the multilayer structure. The measurements of the EUV reflectivity around 25 nm (~49 eV) indicate that the reflectivity decreases when the annealing temperature increases above 300\degreeC. X-ray emission spectroscopy is performed to determine the chemical state of the Mg atoms within the Mg/Co multilayer. Nuclear magnetic resonance used to determine the chemical state of the Co atoms and scanning electron microscopy images of cross sections of the Mg/Co multilayers reveal changes in the morphology of the stack from an annealing temperature of 305\degreee;C. This explains the observed reflectivity loss.
description: Published in Applied Physics A: Materials Science \& Processing Published at http://www.springerlink.com.chimie.gate.inist.fr/content/6v396j6m56771r61/ 21 pages
Gene expression in response to optical defocus of opposite signs reveals bidirectional mechanism of visually guided eye growth
Creators: name: Tkatchenko, Tatiana V.
name: Troilo, David
name: Benavente-Perez, Alexandra
name: Tkatchenko, Andrei V.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2018
Subjects: Eye--Growth
Eye
Gene expression
Retina
Myopia
Eye--Accommodation and refraction
Visual pathways
Ophthalmology

description: Myopia (nearsightedness) is the most common eye disorder, which is rapidly becoming one of the leading causes of vision loss in several parts of the world because of a recent sharp increase in prevalence. Nearwork, which produces hyperopic optical defocus on the retina, has been implicated as one of the environmental risk factors causing myopia in humans. Experimental studies have shown that hyperopic defocus imposed by negative power lenses placed in front of the eye accelerates eye growth and causes myopia, whereas myopic defocus imposed by positive lenses slows eye growth and produces a compensatory hyperopic shift in refractive state. The balance between these two optical signals is thought to regulate refractive eye development; however, the ability of the retina to recognize the sign of optical defocus and the composition of molecular signaling pathways guiding emmetropization are the subjects of intense investigation and debate. We found that the retina can readily distinguish between imposed myopic and hyperopic defocus, and identified key signaling pathways underlying retinal response to the defocus of different signs. Comparison of retinal transcriptomes in common marmosets exposed to either myopic or hyperopic defocus for 10 days or 5 weeks revealed that the primate retina responds to defocus of different signs by activation or suppression of largely distinct pathways. We also found that 29 genes differentially expressed in the marmoset retina in response to imposed defocus are localized within human myopia quantitative trait loci (QTLs), suggesting functional overlap between genes differentially expressed in the marmoset retina upon exposure to optical defocus and genes causing myopia in humans. These findings identify retinal pathways involved in the development of myopia, as well as potential new strategies for its treatment.
On the deployment and testing of a quantum ground station for satellite Quantum Key Distribution
Creators: name: Yastremski, Mathew A.
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Quantum key distribution
subject: Quantum
subject: QKD
subject: Physics
subject: Noise Characterization
subject: Light Pollution
subject: BB84
subject: Groundstation
subject: Satellite
subject: Error Characterization
subject: Optical Communication
subject: Jinan-1
subject: Micius
subject: Optics
subject: Atmospheric Science

description: Satellite-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) uses the fundamental properties of quantum mechanics to offer unparalleled security against eavesdroppers with the ability to scale quantum networks globally. Its use of quantum mechanics to protect information makes QKD the best choice currently for next generation secure communication systems. The implementation of satellite-based QKD still has many challenges to overcome before it becomes a widely used method of secure communication. This thesis discusses some fundamentals of classic cryptography and why moving towards quantum-based security protocols is necessary. We introduce a range of considerations for establishing a reliable long-distance free-space satellite optical link, thus allowing QKD to occur. Since a substantial amount of research has already been conducted on optical fiber communication for terrestrial links, our focus is specifically directed towards free space quantum links. While we discuss the protocols used with current experiments, we further focus the discussion around how background noise present in these free-space satellite channels can contribute to lower Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs). Additionally, we experimentally measure background noise and light pollution expected at three quantum ground station locations: The University of Calgary, Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, and the University of Waterloo. The experimental measurements were taken at periods during which high atmospheric background noise was predicted. These measurements aim to show the anticipated background light during a downlink QKD experiment, when the ground station is used as a receiver and the satellite as a transmitter of quantum signals. To measure the expected background noise of an uplink QKD experiment, one for which the satellite is the receiver, we use the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day-Night Band (VIIRS-DNB) instrument onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. This satellite gives a spectra for a requested day in the 500 nm to 900 nm bandwidth. As many QKD experiments of interest fall within the upper range of this bandwidth, this satellite data is an excellent candidate for our analysis. In this thesis we show a comprehensive analysis of background noise and help find the background noise limit for future satellite-based QKD experiments, such as the upcoming Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat).