cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Discriminative models and dimensionality reduction for regression
Creators: name: Kim, Minyoung
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Many prediction problems that arise in computer vision and robotics can be formulated within a regression framework. Unlike traditional regression problems, vision and robotics tasks are often characterized by a varying number of output variables with complex dependency structures. The problems are further aggravated by the high dimensionality of the input. In this thesis, I address two challenging tasks related to learning of regressors in such settings: (1) developing discriminative approaches that can handle structured output variables, and (2) reducing the dimensionality of the input while preserving the statistical correlation with the output.A complex dependency structure in the output variables can be effectively captured by probabilistic graphical models. In contrast to traditional joint data modeling for probabilistic models, I propose conditional models and a discriminative learning approach that are directly related to the ultimate prediction objective. While discriminative learning of structured models such as Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) has attracted significant interest in the past, learning structured models in the regression setting has been rarely explored. In this work I first extend the CRF and the discriminatively trained HMM methods to the structured output regression problem. I propose two different approaches based on directed and undirected models. In the second approach the parameter learning is cast as a convex optimization problem, accompanied by a new approach that effective handles the density integrability constraint. Experiments in several problem domains, including human motion and robot-arm state estimation, indicate that the new models yield high prediction accuracy comparable to or better than state-of-the-art approaches.In the second part of the thesis, I consider the task of finding a low-dimensional representation of the input covariates while preserving the statistical correlation in regressing the output. This task, known as the dimensionality reduction for regression (DRR), is particularly useful when visualizing high-dimensional data, efficiently designing regressors with a reduced input dimension, and eliminating noise in the input data by uncovering essential information for predicting the output. While the dimensionality reduction methods are common in many machine learning tasks, their use in the regression settings has not been widespread. A number of recent methods for DRR have been proposed in the statistics community but suffer from several limitations, including non-convexity and the need for slicing of potentially high-dimensional output space. I address these issues by proposing a novel approach based on covariance operators in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSes) that provide a closed-form DRR solution without the need for explicit slicing. The benefits of this approach are demonstrated in a comprehensive set of evaluations on several important regression problems in computer vision and pattern recognition.
Smoking prevention for Asian-American college students
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Asian Americans account for the third largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group in California. As a whole, Asian American adolescents smoke less than non-Asian adolescents, but there are important gender and ethnic subgroup differences among Asian youth: Males smoke more than females and, for example, Koreans smoke more than Chinese. Among Asian American adults, however, the smoking rates of some subgroups (in particular, among males) are higher than the rates of non-Asians. At this time little is known regarding factors that influence smoking behaviors among ethnic minority populations in the United States, with even less known regarding between-cultural variations of such influences. In addition, college students represent an understudied population for which increased prevalence of smoking has been reported and for whom little information is available relevant to the design of tobacco focused interventions.

 This study proposes to continue a currently funded project (TRDRP 10RT-0142) designed to identify cultural variations in smoking behavior between Chinese American and Korean American college students attending the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The currently funded project evaluates students during their first year of college when they are 18-19 years old and re-evaluates them 15 months later during their second year in college, in an attempt to understand various factors that increase an individual’s risk for smoking as well as factors that protect against smoking. This proposed study will continue evaluation of these students during their third and fourth years of college to examine changes in their smoking behavior over time. A primary focus of the proposed study is to examine factors that predict the initiation and progression of tobacco use during the four years of college attendance. The knowledge gained from this study will contribute to understanding why young adults of Chinese and Korean heritage start to smoke, why some of them quit, and why many of them keep smoking. In addition, this study will provide information that can be used to develop interventions targeted to prevent and reduce smoking behavior in college students of Chinese and Korean heritage.
Social support trajectories and school outcomes among urban, elementary aged youth
Creators: name: Klein, Dena A.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of social support trajectories among urban children during a one-year period and to determine whether these trajectories are associated with school-related adjustment. Conceptualizing support in this way provides important information about the developmental course of disadvantaged children that may not be obtained by analyses examining average changes in support over time. Participants included 402 students attending six elementary schools in an urban, low-economic school district. Students provided ratings of perceived social support from their family, teacher and peers during the fall and spring semesters of 2nd grade. Teacher ratings of academic competence, grades, and attendance records were collected during the fall and spring of 2nd grade and the spring of 3rd grade. Results indicated that although the majority of participants experienced consistent levels of ongoing perceived support, a substantial portion experienced categorically defined changes in support (i.e., support growth or decay). Membership in these trajectories was not related to gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Planned comparisons indicated that there were no significant differences in school outcomes for any of the family support trajectories. However, when teacher, peer, and cumulative support trajectories were examined, several significant differences emerged. Children who perceived highly supportive relationships at the beginning of the year, followed by decay, demonstrated academic advantages when compared to children who perceived consistently low support. Further, early deficits in supportive relationships were associated with academic disadvantages that persisted, despite support growth. Results also indicated that children who perceived relative support constancy had better school outcomes compared to those who perceived relative growth or decay in support. Together, these findings suggest that children's history of support is associated with a level of academic competence and achievement that endures, at least for a short time, even when supportive resources change. This has important theoretical and practice implications for young children in urban contexts.
All organic memory devices utilizing C60 molecules and insulating polymers
Creators: name: Kanwal, Alokik Paul
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The convergence of mobile technologies combined with stricter power requirements and increasing demands have strained the current memory technology. Newer technologies such as phase changing, ferroelectric, and magnetic random access memories are unsatisfactory in meeting the new requirements. We propose a new memory technology based on our initial discovery of charge storage in C60 molecules within poly (4-vinyl phenol) (PVP). To understand the memory potential, we created single-layer devices consisting of ~30nm films of PVP+C60 sandwiched between aluminum (Al) electrodes. Current versus voltage (I-V) sweeps showed a significant hysteresis of 75nA, with distinguishable memory states. Room temperature charging of C60 was confirmed indirectly through capacitance versus voltage measurements and directly by monitoring the A1g characteristic peak of C60 during Raman measurements. We demonstrated memory operations by applying read-write-erase (RWE) pulses. The PVP+C60 devices exhibited memory retention for over 1 hour and response times of around 10ns. Characteristic hysteresis was demonstrated at the nanoscale. Conduction models were fitted at room temperature to the I-V curves. It was found that combination of direct and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling were the principle conduction mechanisms. For a more technologically viable memory device, we developed a multi-layer device structure, consisting of a polystyrene (PS) capping layer. The resulting asymmetrical I-V curve exhibited a hysteresis ratio of 103. RWE cycles were measured with clearly distinguishable states. The memory retentions were measured over 2 hours and the response time around 10ns. The stability of the multi-layer devices was improved. I-V measurements at temperatures varying from 4.2 K to 298 K were performed to construct a theoretical model. The I-V curves were found to be temperature independent and exhibited similar tunneling behaviors as the single-layer devices. A simple model for conduction and memory operation is proposed based on the I-V fits. These devices exhibit the characteristics needed to satisfy the new demands for memory application and have the potential of becoming the first universal memory technology. They possess the high speed, non-volatility, thermal stability, and potentially high memory densities to make them ideal for use in laptops, iPhones, mp3 players, portable video players, GPS systems, and other mobile devices.
Welding defects on the pipeline
Creators: name: Hadzihafizovic, Dzevad
Publisher: name: Dzevad Hadzihafizovic's Lab
Year: 2022

description: Welding defects on the pipeline

The integrity of oil and gas transmission pipelines is now the subject of new regulations, codes and standards in the USA and elsewhere. A key element of pipeline integrity and these new initiatives is the evaluation of defects that inevitably occur over the lifetime of a pipeline; therefore, assessment methods are needed to determine the severity of defects when they are detected in pipelines. The past 40 years has seen the development of a number of methods for assessing the significance of defects. Some of these methods have been incorporated into industry guidance, others are to be found in the published literature. However, there is no definitive guidance that compares the assessment methods, or assesses each method against the published test data, or recommends best practice in their application. To address this industry need, a Joint Industry Project has been sponsored by sixteen international oil and gas companies to develop a Pipeline Defect Assessment Manual (PDAM).
Neuropharmacology of nicotine relapse
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Tobacco smoking is the most important preventable cause of death in the United States. Nearly 25% of the U.S. population smokes and each year more than 425,000 Americans die of tobacco-related illnesses. A formidable challenge for the treatment of nicotine addiction is the highly vulnerability to relapse following abstinence, which is one of the principal characteristics of tobacco smoking. Many smokers want to quit, but only approximately 3% of smokers successfully remain abstinence each year, which is less than 10% of those who attempt to quit. One of the major issues involved in relapse is that various factors that are linked to smoking (e.g. smell of cigarette smoke, finishing a meal at a restaurant, drinking, etc.) can trigger memories of smoking and it’s pleasurable components both consciously and subconsciously. These factors are called cues. The proposed experiments will develop an animal model to study the influence of cues on nicotine relapse after abstinence. Rats are trained operantly to self-administer nicotine and to associate a light cue with infusion of nicotine. Then, the operant (lever press) responses are extinguished by withholding nicotine and its associated light cue. After extinction, the rats are tested to determine the ability of the light cue to reinstate lever responding in the absence of the nicotine infusion. The first experiment will test the ability of the light cue to reinstate lever pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks and 2 months after training in order to determine how long the cue effect lasts. The next experiment will compare the ability of the light cue to reinstate lever pressing with that of nicotine priming. The third experiment will use drugs to study what chemicals in the brain are involved in the cue-induced relapse. Drugs to be tested include compounds that have been used to treat nicotine addiction. The results obtained from the proposed experiments might have important clinical implications for developing strategies for the treatment and prevention of relapse.
Evaluating carbonate saturation effects on magnesium calcium core top calibration in benthic foraminifera
Creators: name: Jordan, Katherine A.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Magnesium calcium paleothermometry in benthic foraminifera is intended to provide a salinity-independent reconstruction of bottom water temperature.  The temperature calibration is however, rather uncertain, due to evidence of additional carbonate saturation effects on Mg incorporation into benthic tests.  The overarching goal of this thesis is to directly determine the magnitude of the carbonate saturation effect and the threshold at which this effect significantly alters temperature estimates based on the Mg/Ca content of benthic foraminiferal tests.  My research has focused on using homothermal homohaline depth transects from the Norwegian Sea and Gulf of Mexico in the context of a global core top calibration.  This thesis consists of 45 core tops from four cruises.  In these transects, the relationship between carbonate saturation and Mg/Ca is not strongly pronounced, possibly due to the large variability in the data.  As is, it does support the hypothesis that in saturated waters, temperature exerts the primary control on benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca.  A two-part global calibration equation has been constructed for under-(∆[CO3-2] [less than] 3µmol/kg) and over-saturated (∆[CO3-2] [greater than] 3µmol/kg) waters.  However, these equations produce unrealistic bottom water temperature reconstruction when applied to a downcore record in the eastern basin of the tropical Atlantic Ocean (1°21'S 11°58'W; 3912 m).  These results suggest that further work is needed to improve the reliability of the Mg/Ca-T-∆[CO3-2] equation and to accurately determine the threshold at which ∆[CO3-2] effects become pronounced.  Likewise, future studies should look into using multi proxy approaches for correcting Mg/Ca-T estimates for saturation effects, such as the use of B/Ca measurements as a proxy for ∆[CO3-2].
Proarna uruguayensis Berg 1882
Creators: name: Sanborn, Allen F.
name: Heath, Maxine S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Proarna
Proarna uruguayensis

description: Proarna uruguayensis Berg, 1882
Proarna uruguayensis Berg 1882: 43 (type material examined).
Type locality. Montevideo, Uruguay.
Remarks. The species was recorded from Buenos Aires Province in Argentina (Berg 1883) and Uruguay (Metcalf 1963a).
description: Published as part of Sanborn, Allen F. & Heath, Maxine S., 2014, The cicadas of Argentina with new records, a new genus and fifteen new species (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae), pp. 1-94 in Zootaxa 3883 (1) on page 58, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3883.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4951252
Essays on decision making
Creators: name: Joseph, George
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The three essays in this dissertation examine individual decision making from a behavioral economics perspective. The first two essays report the results of an experiment that examine bidding behavior and belief formation in market-like environments with common values. In the first essay, using elicited beliefs of bidders on the value of the object at different stages of bidding, I examine whether information cascades and rational herding can be credited for the occurrence of the 'winners' curse' I find that the role of information cascades in the occurrence of the winner's curse is marginal and bidders tend to give more weight to private information in making the bidding decisions. The winner's curse is caused primarily by herding due to disconfirmation bias and conservatism in updating beliefs.  In the second essay, I extend the analysis to understand heuristics and biases like confirmation bias, disconfirmation bias, conservatism and overreaction exhibited by decision makers in the formation of subjective beliefs.  The results show hardly any evidence for Bayesian updating by the bidders. Confirmation bias, disconfirmation bias and heuristics like conservatism and are observed in the formation of beliefs but are sensitive to treatment conditions.  Non-optimal belief formation due to upwardly biased prior beliefs and conservatism in updating beliefs are responsible for overbidding in markets with sequential bids and common values. Another important finding is that Perfect Bayesian equilibrium behavior is consistent with the presence of biases and heuristics.The third essay estimates a series of random parameter logit models of the college-to-work migration decisions of technology graduates and holders of doctorates within the United States.  I employ detailed information on the migration-relevant characteristics of individuals, as well as on their actual origins and destinations at the metropolitan scale. The results demonstrate that science and technology graduates migrate to better educated places, other things equal; that PhD graduates pay greater attention to amenity characteristics than other degree holders; and that foreign students from some immigrant groups migrate to places where those groups are concentrated.
Prasinosoma Torres 1963
Creators: name: Sanborn, Allen F.
name: Heath, Maxine S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Prasinosoma

description: Prasinosoma Torres, 1963
Type species. Proarna heidemanni Distant, 1905 (Bolivia).
Remarks. Currently the species of the genus are recorded from Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay (Metcalf 1963a; Sanborn 2011a; 2013).
description: Published as part of Sanborn, Allen F. & Heath, Maxine S., 2014, The cicadas of Argentina with new records, a new genus and fifteen new species (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae), pp. 1-94 in Zootaxa 3883 (1) on page 59, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3883.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4951252
Gymnodactylus kirmanensis
Creators: name: Ananjeva, Natalia B.
name: Milto, Konstantin D.
name: Barabanov, Andrei V.
name: Golynsky, Evgeny A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Phyllodactylidae
Gymnodactylus
Gymnodactylus kirmanensis

description: Gymnodactylus kirmanensis NIKOLSKY (“1899” 1900: 381)
Lectotype (designated by Szczerbak & Golubev 1986):
ZISP 9330.2, adult male, “ Kirmanum orientale” [vicinity of Mazel-Ab well, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, 29.29 N 60.75 E]. Leg: N. A. Zarudny, 17.VI.1898.
Paralectotypes:
NMW 17388–17389, 2 specimens, “ Kirman, E-Persien” [vicinity of Mazel-Ab well, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, 29.29 N 60.75 E]. Leg: N. A. Zarudny, 1898.
ZISP 9329.1 - 6, 6 specimens, “Mons Ku-i-tuftan in Sargado” [foot of the volcano of Kuh-e Taftan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, 28.62 N 61.14 E]. Leg: N. A. Zarudny, 25.VIII.1898.
ZISP 9330.1, 3-6, 5 specimens, “ Kirmanum orientale” [vicinity of Mazel-Ab well, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, 29.29 N 60.75 E]. Leg: N. A. Zarudny, 17.VI.1898.
Present name: Cyrtopodion kirmanense (Nikolsky, 1900) fide Bauer et al. (2013).
Remarks: Six paralectotypes (ZISP 9329.1-6) could not be located in the ZISP collection.
description: Published as part of Ananjeva, Natalia B., Milto, Konstantin D., Barabanov, Andrei V. & Golynsky, Evgeny A., 2020, An annotated type catalogue of amphibians and reptiles collected by Nikolay A Zarudny in Iran and Middle Asia, pp. 101-128 in Zootaxa 4722 (2) on page 114, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4722.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3605815
Forming fat identities
Creators: name: Jaffe, Karen
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Using data from a large national sample and 40 in-depth qualitative interviews, I explore how fat identities are formed.  To understand this process, I argue one must deconstruct it into both the tangible trait around which the identity is formed (overweight) and the social meaning this trait symbolizes (fat).  I conceptualize a fat identity as learned, trying, and all encompassing.  It is learned via exposure to messages about weight, trying because of the physical and social challenges being overweight poses, and all encompassing because it permeates all experiences.  Based upon these three criteria, I argue that fat identities exist on a sliding continuum.  I found many factors to define the length of one's climb to the fat threshold.  This threshold designates the point at which fatness becomes an integral part of one's self concept.  Present and past physical weight helps determine one's initial placement on the continuum.  However, race and gender help to determine where on the continuum the threshold is placed.  Moreover, I found the physical and social changes that come with aging play an important role in one's slide up and down the fat continuum.  Older people are more likely to be concerned about health conditions; younger people are more concerned about the visible and social aspects of being fat.  Finally, although I did not find evidence to support my hypothesis that discrimination forms fat identities, I did find that experiencing discrimination strengthens fat identities.  I conclude by calling for future research that follows the model put forth here.  By looking at identities as an interaction between a physical trait and a social identity, researchers will be better equipped to understand identity formation, and how to alleviate the hardships involved with possessing a stigmatized identity. I conclude with suggestions for educating the public about the health implications of obesity while decreasing the stigma surrounding fat.  I suggest using culturally sensitive plans designed around the specific needs of the diverse demographic of which the United States is comprised.
Understanding molecular and thermodynamic miscibility of carbohydrate biopolymers
Creators: name: Icoz, Didem
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Most food materials are composed of polymeric molecules with different chemistry and properties. Increasing demand for food products with new/improved functionalities require formulations to include/exclude ingredients. Processability, texture, stability and palatability of the food products are greatly influenced by interactions and miscibility/immiscibility between these polymeric components. Molecular and thermodynamic basis of these phenomena are still not well understood and are the focus of scientific debate. A set of quantitative predictive rules are needed to be developed.The major objective of this dissertation was to fundamentally understand the molecular and thermodynamic basis of miscibility and to develop quantitative miscibility predictions for carbohydrate mixtures. Dextrans (glucose polymers) with different molecular weights (Mw) and chemically derivatized forms were used as model carbohydrate polymers. Thermal analysis on individual and mixtures of standard dextrans showed that physical blend of dextrans was immiscible due to the diffusion barrier, whereas freeze-dried solution of these dextrans was miscible. In the mixtures of chemically derivatized dextrans, thermal analysis showed miscible or immiscible systems depending on the concentration and ionic strength through addition of salt. Systematic differences in the FTIR spectra of miscible systems with different component ratios were assigned to the change in hydrogen-bonding distribution resulting from changes in intra- and inter-molecular interactions, whereas FTIR spectra of immiscible systems didn't show such systematic changes, indicating insufficient hydrogen-bonding to form miscible systems.In order to quantitatively predict miscibility, first, a methodology was developed to determine solubility parameters of dextrans with different Mw using their Tg. Using these solubility parameters, thermodynamic ideas based on the number of configurational arrangements and quantitative measures of dispersive interactions (Flory-Huggins theory) were demonstrated to be insufficient to quantitatively explain the miscibility in carbohydrate systems. This failure was due to the limitation of these ideas in underestimating the effect of specific bonding interactions, including hydrogen-bonds. A more advanced framework, Painter-Coleman association model, quantitatively demonstrated that hydrogen-bonding significantly contributed to predictive miscibility in carbohydrate systems. It was shown that with appropriate approximations it was possible to successfully predict miscibility in dextran systems. The quantitative understanding gained with dextrans was validated on real carbohydrate systems by testing miscibility/immiscibility in inulin-amylopectin systems.
Prasinosoma fuembuenai Torres 1963
Creators: name: Sanborn, Allen F.
name: Heath, Maxine S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Prasinosoma
Prasinosoma fuembuenai

description: Prasinosoma fuembuenai Torres, 1963. New Record.
Prasinosoma fuembuenai Torres 1963a: 311.
Type locality. Bolivia.
Remarks. The species was known only previously from Bolivia (Duffels & van der Laan 1985). We collected specimens in Santiago del Estero Province. The species is associated with the Chaco floristic province (Sanborn et al. 2011a).
Material examined. Santiago del Estero, 7 km W of Pampa de los Guanacos, 9-I-1988, Heath-Sanborn- Noriega coll. (eight males, MHSC, three males, AFSC).
description: Published as part of Sanborn, Allen F. & Heath, Maxine S., 2014, The cicadas of Argentina with new records, a new genus and fifteen new species (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae), pp. 1-94 in Zootaxa 3883 (1) on page 59, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3883.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4951252
Explicit solutions to a pair of continuous time stochastic control problems
Creators: name: Jonsson Oduya, Lars Adam
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: We study a pair of continuous time stochastic control problems, arising in Financial and engineering economics respectively. We first consider the optimal consumption and investment of a utility maximizing investor without an income. The optimal consumption and investment plan is derived and a new way of obtaining closed form expressions for these quantities is provided. We then consider a simple stochastic model for optimal extraction from a groundwater aquifer that has surprising features. A result concerning optimal policies that clarifies these features is proved.
Polyanhydride blends as drug delivery matrices to control biofilms, bone and nerve regeneration
Creators: name: Johnson, Michelle Linette
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Biodegradable polyanhydrides were fabricated into disks, coatings, microspheres, and tubes for controlled drug delivery as well as enhanced thermal and mechanical properties.  The polymer systems were evaluated as potential treatments for periodontal disease, orthopedic injuries, nerve regeneration, and biofilm formation.  The polymers contained the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), salicylic acid and the antibiotic, ampicillin, in the polymer backbone, which are subsequently released as the polymers degrade.  Significantly, the polymers can be fabricated into these different geometries that would not be possible with the drug molecules alone.  This dissertation characterizes the in vitro degradation of the polyanhydrides specifically for the multiple applications.  Polymer degradation was monitored by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) for final degradation products.  The effect of physically admixing additional drugs into the polymer matrix was studied as well, where the admixed drugs were delineated from the chemically incorporated drugs by HPLC.  Accelerated in vitro degradation rates were developed using highly basic media.  Mechanical and thermal properties were examined for potential orthopedic and nerve applications.  The compliance and modulus of polymer blends and composites were measured to characterize the flexibility and strength of each system.  Additionally, properties, such as glass transition temperature (Tg) and decomposition temperature (Td) were measured to monitor polymer changes as a result of processing and degradation. Overall, the fundamental chemical, thermal and mechanical properties of each polyanhydride system were monitored.  This dissertation describes the optimization of controlled drug release rates for specific applications through composites and blends of ceramics (hydroxyapatite), drugs (antimicrobials and NSAIDs), and polymers (polyanhydrides).
Prasinosoma heidemanni
Creators: name: Sanborn, Allen F.
name: Heath, Maxine S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Prasinosoma
Prasinosoma heidemanni

description: Prasinosoma heidemanni (Distant, 1905)
Proarna heidemanni Distant 1905a: 311 (type material examined).
Type locality. Argentina and Sapucay, Paraguay.
Remarks. The species was reported from Argentina and Paraguay (Metcalf 1963a). Specimens were collected in Corrientes, Formosa, and Misiones Provinces within Argentina (Torres 1963a). We collected specimens in Chaco, Corrientes, Misiones, and Santa Fe Provinces. The species is associated with the Chaco and Espinal floristic provinces (Sanborn et al. 2011a).
New provincial records. Chaco, Dto. General Donovan, 5 km E Lapachito, 8-I-1988, Heath-Sanborn-Noriega Coll. (one male, MSHC); Santa Fe, 2 km S Florencia, 29-XII-1986, Al Sanborn Coll., EX: Grass (one male, MSHC); Santa Fe, 7 km NW Tostado, 30-XII-1986, F. Noriega Coll. (one male, MSHC).
description: Published as part of Sanborn, Allen F. & Heath, Maxine S., 2014, The cicadas of Argentina with new records, a new genus and fifteen new species (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae), pp. 1-94 in Zootaxa 3883 (1) on page 59, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3883.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4951252
A regulatory architecture for a digital enterprise
Creators: name: Ionescu, Mihail
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: We are witnessing the birth of the digital enterprise, in which many of the enterprise operations will be performed by independent software programs or by programs acting on behalf of humans. Although this automation proved to be efficient for many enterprises, the digital infrastructure can become difficult tomanage in the presence of large, distributed systems composed of heterogenous agents. The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA forshort) is becoming a de-facto standard paradigm for the design of the new generation of enterprise systems. It expresses a perspective of software architecture that defines the use of loosely coupled software services to support the requirements of the business processes and software users. In such an environment, resources are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.It is the conventional wisdom---to which we subscribe---that open enterprise systems can be tamed, thus made more manageable andmore secure, by regulating the interaction between their disparate actors (software components, and people); that is, by subjectingsuch interactions to explicitly stated and enforced constraints, often called policies.The effectiveness of the current approaches is limited due to their failure to address several needs  inherent in  modern enterprises. We identified the following requirements that aregulatory mechanism has to offer support for: (i) the required expressive power of policies, (ii) the multiplicity of enterprise policies, and their inherently hierarchical organization and (iii)the scalability of the formulation of policies and of their enforcement.The objectives of this thesis are to design a comprehensive regulatory mechanism for enterprise systems, which meets the challenges outlined above and to construct a prototype of this mechanism. We call this mechanism ARM, for ``A Regulatory Mechanism,'' (noting that one of the dictionary definition of the word ``arm'' is ``power or authority'' as in ``long arm of the law.''). The implementation of ARM will employ the distributed coordination and control mechanism called Law-Governed Interaction (LGI). This mechanism already features some of thecapabilities required to meet our challenges, including its high expressive power, and decentralized enforcement of policies (called ``laws'' under LGI).
An execution context optimization framework for disk energy
Creators: name: Hom, Jerry Yin
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: Power, energy, and thermal concerns have had explosive growth in research over the past two decades.  In servers, desktops, and mobilesystems, the hard disk is among the top resources in power and energy consumption.  Common techniques for reducing disk energy consumption have included caching, adaptive low power modes, batch scheduling, and data migration.  Many previous software optimizations for single disk systems have assumed and experimented in uniprogramming environments.However, modern systems are typically multiprogramming, and the optimizations do not extend well from the uniprogramming model.Programs should be aware of concurrently running programs to enable cooperation and coordinate disk accesses from multiple programs.  The set of concurrently running programs is referred to as an execution context.  Execution context optimizations were introduced to target multiprogramming environments.  My research introduces an optimization framework to provide execution context information and reduce disk energy consumption by effectively managing disk accesses.Optimizing over all possible execution contexts is counter-productive because many contexts do not occur in practice.  For an extreme example, users rarely, if at all, run more than twenty programs concurrently.  Optimizations may be profitably targeted at the most common execution contexts for a given workload.  A study was conducted of real workloads by collecting user activity traces and characterizing the execution contexts.  Out of hundreds of contextsand over 50 unique programs, the study confirmed the intuition that users generally run only a small set of programs at a time.Execution context optimizations were implemented on eight streaming and interactive applications.  The optimizations were compared to previous best optimizations and evaluated on a laptop disk which is already designed for energy efficiency.  The disk energy was measured while running synthetic traces of ten execution contexts.  The results show up to 63% energy savings while incurring less than 1%performance delay.  When compared to unoptimized versions, energy savings was up to 77%.  If the optimizations were applied tocomparable applications in the user study, an estimated 9% disk energy could have been saved.  Execution context optimizations showsignificant promise for saving disk energy.
Models in finance and medicine using Bayesian inference
Creators: name: Ibuka, Yoko
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze three models in medicine and finance using Bayesian inference with the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. The model in medicine addresses cost-effectiveness analysis using copulas, and the two models in finance include discrete-time asset pricing models and a short-term interest rate model with stochastic volatility.The first chapter develops the model that allows dependence between cost and effectiveness using copulas in cost-effectiveness analysis. The model was applied with sample of adults from the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study, assuming a lognormal distribution for cost and a Weibull distribution for effectiveness as the marginals. Cost-effectiveness analysis is conducted for two types of patients using the estimated posterior densities of parameters regarding the hypothetical intervention for hypertension. A simulation based on Bayesian predictive densities is also performed to analyze cost and effectiveness at an individual patient level. The empirical result indicated a negative dependence between measures of effectiveness and cost. The second chapter conducts a Bayesian analysis of discrete-time asset pricing model. The chapter particularly discusses the naive discretization problem, which arises from using discrete-time data to estimate continuous-time models. Our results using generated data showed that the naive discretization would not work well when data generating process is unknown, when the data is sampled at low frequency, and averaged data is used. The final chapter develops a Bayesian analysis of a short-term interest rate model with stochastic volatility. The model was developed based on the CKLS model (Chan et al. 1992). We constructed MCMC algorithms suitable for the model based on the Jacquire, Polson and Rossi(1994) algorithm. The empirical results with the 3-month Treasury constant maturity rate suggested that there was high autocorrelation in volatility of the error terms. Finally, the developed model was compared with the model with a GARCH error, using Bayesian predictive densities. The predictive densities obtained by CKLS with stochastic volatility have wider variance than the ones from CKLS-GARCH,and the realized value did not fall in the support of the predicted values for the CKLS GARCH model because of the tight variance in prediction.
Object-specific priming benefit enhanced during explicit multiple object tracking
Creators: name: Haladjian, Harry Haroutioun
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The referential link between an external object and its corresponding mental representation has yet to be clearly defined. Visual indexes are primitive mechanisms that act as pointers to objects in a visual scene and can be linked to descriptive mental representations. These representations, or "object files", have been demonstrated by object-specific preview benefits (OSPB), where a priming effect for object identity travels with the object in which information initially appeared. The present study explores OPSB effects during Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) to investigate the formation of object representations in a dynamic environment. All experiments reported used the MOT framework, where four identical circles moved unpredictably and independently on a computer screen. In Experiment 1, either one or two preview letters appeared briefly inside the circles during movement. At the end of the trial, one test letter appeared inside a circle and observers indicated whether or not the test letter matched any of the preview letters. Inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) between the preview and test letters varied at one, two, and four seconds (no tracking was required). Reaction times in the "same-object/same-letter" condition showed significant OSPB effects in both single and dual preview versions, but only during the one-second ISI. This suggests an automatic construction of object files that decay over time. To explore OSPB effects when attention is deployed during tracking, Experiment 2 required observers to track and identify the two objects that displayed preview letters prior to object movement (creating constant four-second ISIs). There was no OSPB effect in the non-tracking condition, which replicated the four-second ISI results in Experiment 1, but there was a significant OSPB effect in the explicit tracking condition. Experiment 3 further tested this effect by using novel symbols from an ancient alphabet (otherwise, the design was identical to Experiment 2). Again, a significant OSPB effect was observed only in the tracking condition. Taken together, these results suggest that feature binding to indexes occurs automatically, but attention is required to extend the persistence of these object representations. Such findings can inform models of referential links between external objects and mental representations.
Phthalate biodegradation: gene organization, regulation and detection
Creators: name: Han, Ruyang
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The three phthalate isomers are widely found in the environment due to their extensive use in the manufacture of plastics.  Many microorganisms have been isolated for their ability to degrade phthalate isomers.  In this study, we focused on nine different phthalate degrading bacterial strains (YZW-A, -B, -C, -D, -E, -F, -G, -H, and -I) which were isolated from Passaic River sediment and belong to different genera (Comamonas, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and Arthrobacter).  Our work aims to identify the presence and divergence of the phthalate, isophthalate and terephthalate degradative genes in the nine strains isolated from the same sediment sample.  The oph, iph, and/or tph genes in Comamonas testosteroni strains (YZW-B, -E, and -F) and Pseudomonas strains (YZW-A and -G) were determined by PCR and inverse PCR.  Sequence analyses indicate that phthalate, isophthalate and terephthalate degrading bacterial isolates at the same location are not simply clones of each other and that the genes identified are linked specifically to these bacterial strains.  In order to investigate whether each phthalate isomer would specifically induce the corresponding degradative gene cluster and how regulatory genes control phthalate isomers degradation, we used quantitative real time PCR to measure the expression of genes encoding phthalate (ophA2), isophthalate (iphA2), terephthalate (tphA2) dioxygenase in YZW-B.  qPCR data showed that the ophA2, iphA2, and tphA2 genes were specifically induced by phthalate, isophthalate, and terephthalate, respectively.  The tphA2 gene was slightly upregulated by isophthalate.  Furthermore, we knocked out phthalate regulatory gene ophR and isophthalate regulatory gene iphR in YZW-B and analyzed the ophA2, iphA2, and tphA2 gene expression patterns in the ophR or iphR knock out mutant using qPCR.  Gene knockout and qPCR showed that the ophR gene and the iphR gene encoded repressors that negatively controlled the phthalate and the isophthalate gene expression, respectively.
Prasinosoma inconspicua
Creators: name: Sanborn, Allen F.
name: Heath, Maxine S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Prasinosoma
Prasinosoma inconspicua

description: Prasinosoma inconspicua (Distant, 1906)
Proarna inconspicua Distant 1906a: 150 (type material examined).
Type locality. Misiones, Argentina.
Remarks. The species was recorded from Argentina and Uruguay (Metcalf 1963a; Torres 1963a). Argentine specimens were collected previously in Misiones Province (Distant 1906a; Torres 1963a). We collected specimens in Corrientes Province. The species was collected in the Paranense floristic province (Sanborn et al. 2011a).
New provincial records. Corrientes, Dto. Ituzaingo, Ruta 12, 3 km E of Ruta 38, 7-I-1988, Heath-Sanborn- Noriega Coll. (seven males, one female, MSHC, two males, AFSC).
description: Published as part of Sanborn, Allen F. & Heath, Maxine S., 2014, The cicadas of Argentina with new records, a new genus and fifteen new species (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae), pp. 1-94 in Zootaxa 3883 (1) on page 59, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3883.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4951252
Inventaire du fonds Bastaire de littérature populaire et infantine [version 1]. Bibliothèque d'Education et Presses universitaires de France et Sudel et Barcla (livres scolaires) Livres de Chansons
Creators: name: :Unkn
Publisher: name: NAKALA - https://nakala.fr (Huma-Num - CNRS)
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/04ces3204
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Numérisation ICB CollEx-Persée AAP20212022
description: Les titres sont ceux donnés par Jean Bastaire. Les dates indiquées ont été établies depuis un courrier de Jean à Michel Bastaire qui lui demandait de dresser l'inventaire. Et la date de fin correspond à la donation et à la publication de Lectures englouties. Listes manuscrites de la collection établie par Jean Bastaire et Michel Bastaire ; Jean sous forme de livrets thématiques et feuilles volantes au format A5. Michel a consigné les titres dans un carnet bloc type Rhodia format A6.
description: Source: Fonds Bastaire Université Clermont Auvergne (Bas-G08_D054)
description: Relation: http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/ms/_631139801_Bas-G08_D054
description: created: 1993/2008
Probing the universal role of Sec1/Munc18 proteins by mutagenesis of yeast Sec1
Creators: name: Hashizume, Kristina Kaori
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2008

description: The Sec1/Munc18 (SM) family of proteins is essential for intracellular vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic cells.  Sec1, the SM protein at the yeast plasma membrane, is required for membrane fusion leading to secretion and cell growth.  Fusion of exocytic vesicles targeted to the plasma membrane occurs in two stages.  The vesicle is first tethered to the membrane by a protein complex called the exocyst.  Essential membrane-associated proteins known as the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) located on both the plasma membrane and the vesicle assemble together to form a stable four-helix bundle called the SNARE complex.  In the second step, Sec1 binds to the assembled SNARE complex and there is fusion of the two membranes.  Sec1 has been shown to bind the SNARE complex, but the exact role and mechanism of Sec1 function remains unknown.  In this study, site-directed mutagenesis was used to investigate the significance of highly conserved salt bridges in SM proteins and define the SNARE complex binding surface on Sec1 with data from random mutants studied by Yi-Shan Cheng and Jenna Hutton.  In addition, Sec1 mutants with a novel phenotype were generated that may support a role for Sec1 in vesicle tethering.
Characterizing the Autophagic Response to Exercise-Heat Stress in Older Men
Creators: name: McManus, Morgan
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa | University of Ottawa
Year: 2024
Subjects: Autophagy

description: À la demande de l'auteur, le résumé a été retiré en raison de la nature confidentielle de la thèse. Il sera ajouté une fois la période d'embargo terminée. At the author’s request, the abstract has been removed due to the confidential nature of the thesis. It will be added once the embargo period has passed.