cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Targeting LOXL2 for cardiac interstitial fibrosis and heart failure treatment
Creators: name: Yang, Jin
name: Savvatis, Konstantinos
name: Kang, Jong Seok
name: Fan, Peidong
name: Zhong, Hongyan
name: Schwartz, Karen
name: Barry, Vivian
name: Kasner, Mario
name: Tschoepe, Carsten [U.V.M.]
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Heart failure
subject: Preclinical research
subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Interstitial fibrosis plays a key role in the development and progression of heart failure. Here, we show that an enzyme that crosslinks collagen—Lysyl oxidase-like 2 (Loxl2)—is essential for interstitial fibrosis and mechanical dysfunction of pathologically stressed hearts. In mice, cardiac stress activates fibroblasts to express and secrete Loxl2 into the interstitium, triggering fibrosis, systolic and diastolic dysfunction of stressed hearts. Antibody-mediated inhibition or genetic disruption of Loxl2 greatly reduces stress-induced cardiac fibrosis and chamber dilatation, improving systolic and diastolic functions. Loxl2 stimulates cardiac fibroblasts through PI3K/AKT to produce TGF-β2, promoting fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transformation; Loxl2 also acts downstream of TGF-β2 to stimulate myofibroblast migration. In diseased human hearts, LOXL2 is upregulated in cardiac interstitium; its levels correlate with collagen crosslinking and cardiac dysfunction. LOXL2 is also elevated in the serum of heart failure (HF) patients, correlating with other HF biomarkers, suggesting a conserved LOXL2-mediated mechanism of human HF.
The Telestroke solution to rural thrombolysis
Creators: name: Nagao, Kanae Jennifer
name: Yan, Bernard
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: More than fifteen years have passed since early intravenous thrombolysis was proven to improve functional outcome in acute ischaemic stroke. However, this effective treatment is still poorly utilised in rural areas where there is a shortage of stroke specialists required for safe thrombolysis. Due to long travel times from rural hospitals to stroke centres offering thrombolysis, rural patients often fail to present within the 4.5 hour eligibility window for thrombolysis. Furthermore, the delay in receiving thrombolysis is associated with more resultant disability, as time to treatment is critical in determining functional outcome. "Telestroke," the application of telemedicine in assessment and management of acute stroke patients, is one solution to combat the rural-metropolitan stroke care disparity. These systems utilise real-time videoconferencing technology to provide stroke specialist guidance for rural clinicians inexperienced in acute stroke care and increase rural accessibility of thrombolysis. Both site-dependent and mobile web-based Telestroke systems are already in place overseas and have demonstrated safety, diagnostic accuracy and improvement in long-term functional outcomes. In this paper, we describe the current progress of Telestroke in Australia, including a pilot mobile system successfully set up in rural Victoria.
Pathological alterations in liver injury following congestive heart failure induced by volume overload in rats
Creators: name: Shaqura, Mohammed
name: Mohamed, Doaa M.
name: Aboryag, Noureddin B.
name: Bedewi, Lama
name: Dehe, Lukas
name: Treskatsch, Sascha
name: Shakibaei, Mehdi
name: Schaefer, Michael
name: Mousa, Shaaban A.
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Heart failure has emerged as a disease with significant public health implications. Following progression of heart failure, heart and liver dysfunction are frequently combined in hospitalized patients leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Here, we investigated the underlying pathological alterations in liver injury following heart failure. Heart failure was induced using a modified infrarenal aortocaval fistula (ACF) in male Wistar rats. Sham operated and ACF rats were compared for their morphometric and hemodynamic data, for histopathological and ultrastructural changes in the liver as well as differences in the expression of apoptotic factors. ACF-induced heart failure is associated with light microscopic signs of apparent congestion of blood vessels, increased apoptosis and breakdown of hepatocytes and inflammatory cell inifltration were observed. The glycogen content depletion associated with the increased hepatic fibrosis, lipid globule formation was observed in ACF rats. Moreover, cytoplasmic organelles are no longer distinguishable in many ACF hepatocytes with degenerated fragmented rough endoplasmic reticulum, shrunken mitochondria and heavy cytoplasm vacuolization. ACF is associated with the upregulation of the hepatic TUNEL-positive cells and proapoptotic factor Bax protein concomitant with the mitochondrial leakage of cytochrome C into the cell cytoplasm and the transfer of activated caspase 3 from the cytoplasm into the nucleus indicating intrinsic apoptotic events. Taken together, the results demonstrate that ACF- induced congestive heart failure causes liver injury which results in hepatocellular apoptotic cell death mediated by the intrinsic pathway of mitochondrial cytochrome C leakage and subsequent transfer of activated caspase 3 into to the nucleus to initiate overt DNA fragmentation and cell death.
Identification of moving objects in colour digital video sequences.
Creators: name: Noël, Gaétan.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: Engineering, Electronics and Electrical.

description: In the past decade, there has been a tremendous increase in the use of digital video through computer systems. However, in many applications, the video size and frame rate suffer from the fact that enormous amounts of bandwidth and storage space are still required by digital video. Nevertheless, home and industry level computers have become powerful enough to decompress and display good quality video through the use of specialized hardware such as video capture boards and video display cards without using up all CPU cycles: we now have the ability to process video in real-time. Research on video processing is still at an early stage but is now attracting attention. Concepts such as motion detection, object tracking and object recognition can be very useful in many applications and have become more feasible. Another area that could benefit from new video processing algorithms is video indexing in multimedia database systems. Compression of video allows it to be stored in vast quantity, but the problem is the retrieval of video that has been stored. Multiple techniques can be used to accelerate the video search process but most of them do not help in understanding the contents of the video, which often must be done manually. In this thesis, a moving objects identification algorithm called SmartID has been designed. It brings some level of improvement in many sectors of computerized video, but in particular in the three sectors mentioned above: video compression, video processing applications and video indexing. This research also encompassed the design and implementation of a digital video surveillance application that demonstrates the usefulness of the algorithm.
"The Diary of Frida Kahlo": The genre, the book, the work.
Creators: name: Loizou, Melissa.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: Biography.

description: This study explores some fundamental aspects of The Diary of Frida Kahlo, namely its classification as a diary, the impact of the prologues of the different versions on the diary's reception, and the various dialogues taking place within it and the rest of Kahlo's artistic production. The first part focuses on the classification of this work as a diary. The theoretical sources utilized to establish the characteristics of the diary genre are: Le journal intime by Beatrice Didier, and the scholarly article by Valerie Raoul, "Women and Diaries: Gender and Genre". This chapter demonstrates that there are certain aspects of Kahlo's diary that indeed correspond to the genre whereas other elements distance it from this classification. In the second part of this study, the role and impact of the introduction and prefatory essays is examined. The basis of the analysis of the different prefaces is Gerard Genette's concept of the paratexte as elaborated in his book, Seuils. In the final part of the study an interpretation of Kahlo's diary is offered which focuses particularly on the notion of dialogue. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Research Report. 2015/16 - 2016/17
Creators: name: Oliffe, John Lindsay
name: Hughes, Merrilee A.
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2017

description: The 2015-2017 edition is the fourth installment of the UBC Nursing research report. In addition to finding novel ways to visualize the financial aspects of the UBC Nursing research enterprise, we were particularly interested in providing fresh insights to the diverse research outputs of our faculty and trainees. In foregrounding this content, a brief overview of changes in the UBC Nursing faculty full-time equivalent (FTE) composition is offered to contextualize the School’s achievements.
Municipal capacity to implement an ecosystem approach in coastal zone management, St. Lawrence River Basin, New York State.
Creators: name: Burhoe, David-Allen.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: Geography.

description: This MA thesis is a contemporary look at rural municipal planning and management in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties, Upper New York State. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin, since 1972, has been subject to binational agreements and federal and state legislation for the protection and development of its coastal resources. Many were enacted because state and local institutional arrangements for planning and regulating land and water uses for coastal areas were judged inadequate. A number of elements contribute to institutional complexity and affect municipal planning and management capacity. The International Joint Commission (IJC) proposes an ecosystem approach as part of the decision-making process both lake-wide and locally to address many of these concerns. The IJC is mandated by both federal governments, through the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, to investigate binational concerns throughout the basin. The present research uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to assess definitional clarity of the ecosystem approach and the capacity of local governments to facilitate usage of this approach in the planning and management of its coastal resources. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
AFLP markers linked to Fusarium head blight resistance in Triticum aestivum.
Creators: name: Potter, Tara.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: Biology, Molecular.

description: In this study, AFLP technology was used to find markers linked to genes controlling Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance in Triticum aestivum L. FHB is a disease of cereal crops that results in reduced wheat yields, discoloured, shrivelled kernels, mycotoxin accumulation, and reduced seed and grain quality. Since resistance mechanisms in wheat are complex, often being confounded by environmental effects, and there is high genotypic variance for resistance, molecular markers closely linked to FHB resistance would help in the screening of resistant germplasm. Candidate markers for resistance that were found among three varieties of wheat, two being susceptible to FHB ('Karena' and 'AC Cartier') and one being resistant to FHB (FHB 148), were followed into double haploid (DH) F2 from crosses between each of the susceptible varieties and the resistant variety. These DH lines were evaluated for resistance after inoculation with F. graminearum and MAXR linear regression was done to determine whether any of the candidate markers could explain the variation in phenotype. In the 'Karena'/FHB 148 DH lines, 67% of the polymorphisms segregated in a 1:1 Mendelian fashion (p ≥ 0.05), while 50% segregated 1:1 in the 'AC Cartier'/FHB 148 DH lines (p ≥ 0.05). In the 'Karena'/FHB 148 population, 35% of the variation in the FHB resistance phenotype was explained by two markers (p ≤ 0.05), while in the 'AC Cartier'/FHB 148 population, two markers explained 29% of the variation in phenotype (p ≤ 0.05). Cloning and sequencing of these markers would be useful in the development of cultivars resistant to FHB by marker assisted selection.
Novel links between protein sorting and cytoskeletal dynamics in the secretory pathway
Creators: name: Prosser, Derek C
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Biology, Neuroscience.

description: Sorting of proteins and lipids is an essential process for maintaining organelle composition and integrity in eukaryotic cells. In many compartments, proteins are sequestered into membrane subdomains from which vesicle budding and scission occur, thereby allowing transport to other compartments. Protein sorting and vesicle transport are closely coupled to the cytoskeleton, where actin and/or tubulin dynamics are involved in multiple steps of this process. However, links between sorting and the cytoskeleton remain unclear. Within the endocytic pathway, sorting nexins (SNXs) play a role in sorting of internalized receptors for recycling or degradation. In this study, SNX1 and SNX2 are shown to interact with Kalirin-7 (Kal7), a neuronal guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) that activates the actin-modulating GTPases Rac1 and RhoG. Overexpression of either SNX with Kal7 in epithelial cells potentiated lamellipodia formation in a GEF- and RhoG-dependent manner, while SNX depletion inhibited this phenotype. Furthermore, SNX2 enhanced Kal7-dependent neurite extension in nerve growth factor-treated PC12 cells. Finally, SNX1 and SNX2 interact with inactive RhoG, and could thus recruit the small GTPase to its GEF. In the exocytic pathway, proteins are synthesized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where they are folded prior to transport and maturation in post-ER compartments. ER tubules extend along the microtubule network, and this link is critical for ER structure and function. The VAMP-associated proteins VAPA and VAPB are ER transmembrane proteins that interact with microtubules through a conserved major sperm protein (MSP) domain. This link between ER and microtubules could create immobile obstacles in the ER membrane, which could adversely affect membrane protein diffusion. In this study, overexpression of VAPA, but not VAPB, inhibited lateral diffusion of the transmembrane cargo VSVG, suggesting differential effects on cargo sorting. Furthermore, a P56S mutation in the VAPB MSP domain, which is linked to adult-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, caused ER aggregation that blocked anterograde VSVG transport. These defects could be rescued by co-expression of a FFAT (two phenylalanines in an acidic tract) motif found in numerous VAP-interacting proteins, which dissociated VAPs from microtubules. Overall, these findings demonstrate novel links between protein sorting and cytoskeletal dynamics in multiple transport processes.
The role of neuronal feedback in the detection of transient signals: a computational approach
Creators: name: Zysman, Daniel
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Biology, Neuroscience.

description: This study investigates the role of neuronal feedback in the detection of small amplitude transient signals. We focus specifically on how the weakly electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus capture prey such as Daphnia in a noisy environment, by means of its electric sense. Using the electrosensory network as a template, we build a computational model that allows us to evaluate detection performance in two different scenarios: without neuronal feedback (open-loop) and with neuronal feedback (closed-loop). For each network scenario, spike count distributions across realizations are computed in the absence and presence of the prey-related signal, and compared using ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curves analyses. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) and the equal error rate (EER) are used to quantify the performance of the different network configurations. For body-object distances < 20 mm, the closed loop model results in a more robust and reliable signal detection than the open loop configuration. For larger distances, there are no differences between open and closed loop. These results depend on the exact choice of parameters for the model, in particular those controlling feedback inhibitory input strength; increasing inhibition, to a certain extent, further improves the closed-loop model. This study shows, in a simplified model framework that can be applied to a variety of sensory systems, how feedback can enhance the detection of weak transient signals.
Understanding How Elite Women Volleyball Players Learn
Creators: name: Woods, Lionel
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Health Sciences, Recreation.

description: Learning to become an elite athlete is a long and complex journey. The process of developing a complete understanding of athlete learning may prove even longer and more intricate still. Researchers in motor learning have investigated how athletes learn through a variety of methods; however, there is an absence of qualitative studies on this topic, and studies that examine the actual learning processes of athletes. The purpose of the present study was therefore to better understand how elite women volleyball athletes have learned throughout their athletic life from the perspective of the athletes themselves. Ten high performance varsity and ex-varsity women volleyball athletes with national and international experience were interviewed. The research findings indicate that the athletes' ways of learning were influenced by their biographies, by a variety of learning situations that they experienced with both their coaches and their teammates, and by their use of personal reflection. The findings of this study suggest that an athlete's internal drive and desire to be the best, their ability to view all forms of disjuncture as opportunities to learn, and their willingness to seek out and accept feedback and coaching as important components in the complex process of learning. The findings also point to the need for the sport learning environment to continue to develop coaches with effective teaching and interpersonal skills as well as solid technical skills in their respective sports.
An architecture for MPEG-21 based live adaptation of H264 video
Creators: name: Iqbal, Razib
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Computer Science.

description: Diversity of devices in both wired and wireless networks through which multimedia contents are desired to be accessed and interacted with has grown significantly. The driving concept of Universal Multimedia Access (UMA) depicts that instead of having multiple types of the same content, it is preferred to adapt the original content accordingly. Conventional transcoders adapt digital contents by decompression, adaptation, and recompression. An easy solution to adaptation is thus achieved by allocating some trusted intermediary nodes in between the media resource provider and the consumer to perform manifold decoding and encoding operations. But if cascaded transcoding can be avoided and adaptation can be performed in a compressed domain without decompression and re-compression, it will be surely a significant improvement. The objective of this thesis is to show that knowledge of the bitstream along with content structure in the form of MPEG-21 generic Bitstream Syntax Description (gBSD) enables the adaptation process to be easily deployable avoiding cascaded transcoding. A comprehensive study and an implementation technique of a dynamic schema for temporal adaptation of the H.264 pre-recorded and live video, conforming ISO/IEC MPEG-21 Digital Item Adaptation (DIA), is presented in this work. Adaptation is performed on demand directly from the bitstream and its gBSD. As a result, any MPEG-21 compliant host can adapt the stream without requiring the video codec.
Machine Learning to Differentiate Between Positive and Negative Emotions Using Pupil Diameter
Creators: name: Babiker, Areej
name: Fayek, Ibrahima
name: Prehn, Kristin
name: Malik, Aamir
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: pupillometry
subject: emotion recognition
subject: classification
subject: k-nearest neighbor algorithm
subject: sensitivity analysis
subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Pupil diameter (PD) has been suggested as a reliable parameter for identifying an individual’s emotional state. In this paper, we introduce a learning machine technique to detect and differentiate between positive and negative emotions. We presented 30 participants with positive and negative sound stimuli and recorded pupillary responses. The results showed a significant increase in pupil dilation during the processing of negative and positive sound stimuli with greater increase for negative stimuli. We also found a more sustained dilation for negative compared to positive stimuli at the end of the trial, which was utilized to differentiate between positive and negative emotions using a machine learning approach which gave an accuracy of 96.5% with sensitivity of 97.93% and specificity of 98%. The obtained results were validated using another dataset designed for a different study and which was recorded while 30 participants processed word pairs with positive and negative emotions.
Indications of recent warm and dry summers' impact on private wells for drinking-water supply in Germany: a review of press articles
Creators: name: Rickert, Bettina
name: Görnt, Annika
name: Ruhl, Aki Sebastian
name: Vogelsang, L.
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Klimaänderung
Wassermangel

description: Climatic changes lead to seasonal droughts with declining groundwater levels, and - especially in rural regions - private wells in the upper aquifer might fall dry. However, only limited information and no systematic administrative reporting of the extent are available for Germany yet. Therefore, a systematic analysis of newspaper articles as a promising source of information was conducted for the extraordinarily hot summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020. The results of the database searches were analysed with respect to frequency and local and regional hotspots, relations to climatic data, extent of the reported dry-fallings and emergency water supply. The analysis indicates hotspots particularly for the federal states of Saxony, where a subsidy programme for connecting to the public water supply was reissued in 2019, for Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Emergency supply was realised through various approaches. It was partly required until the winter months and did not always have drinking-water quality. As private wells are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, their operators should be involved as a stakeholder group in future discussions about allocating water resources to increasingly competing uses in periods of scarcity. © 2022 The Authors
"I would like Broadband ... like everyone else": The role of highspeed-broadband in connecting people with little or no speech and GPs
Creators: name: Greenstock, Louise
name: Wickham, Brendon
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: The authors present the findings of a small exploratory pilot study investigating how people with little or no speech communicate with General Practitioners (GPs) and whether there is
any potential for high-capacity broadband to facilitate communication in this context. A focus group with four individuals with little or no speech and three interviews with GPs were conducted in Melbourne in 2011. Thematic analysis of the data collected indicated that the main challenges to effective communication were the time allocated to face-to-face
consultations, patient frustration at being misunderstood, patients’ experiences of communicating with GPs through receptionists and other staff, and GPs’ understanding of the patient’s unique communication needs. Factors said to support effective communication included having an ongoing relationship with a regular GP, allocating patients a longer appointment time-slot, and training in communication disability for all primary health care staff. Patients and GPs felt there was potential for the use of telecommunications, including high-capacity broadband, in this context but their views differed. Patients expressed a concern that broadband was not affordable and a desire to use email to communicate with GPs. GPs were open to considering the use of email in principle but expressed concerns about security of transmission, staffing infrastructure, determining urgency, and medico-legal constraints. The authors conclude that research surrounding the future of telehealth must be firmly grounded in the needs of the user (patient/GP) and the communicative function the technology is designed to enable. Further rigorous research on this topic is needed.
title: Characterization, treatment patterns, and patient-related outcomes of patients with Fragile X syndrome in Germany
title: final results of the observational EXPLAIN-FXS study
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Haessler, Frank
name: Gaese, Franziska
name: Huss, Michael
name: Kretschmar, Christoph
name: Brinkman, Marc
name: Peters, Helmut
name: Elstner, Samuel
name: Colla, Michael
name: Pittrow, David
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Fragile X syndrome
subject: Health care
subject: Outcomes
subject: Ambulatory setting
subject: Mental disorders
subject: Caregiver burden
subject: Quality
subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit::619 Gynäkologie, Pädiatrie, Geriatrie
subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Background As data on the phenotype, characteristics and management of patients with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) are limited, we aimed to collect such data in Germany in experienced centres involved in the treatment of such patients. Methods EXPLAIN-FXS is a prospective observational (non- interventional) study (registry) performed between April 2013 and January 2016 at 18 sites in Germany. Requirements for patient participation included confirmed diagnosis of FXS by genetic testing (>200 CGG repeats) and written informed consent. Patients were followed for up to 2 years. Results Seventy- five patients (84.0 % males, mean age 16.7 ± 14.5 years, ranging from 2 - 82 years) were analysed. The mean 6-item score, determined according to Giangreco (J Pediatr 129:611-614, 1996), was 6.9 ± 2.5 points. At least one neurological finding each was noted in 53 patients (69.7 %). Specifically, ataxia was noted in 5 patients (6.6 %), lack of fine motor skills in 40 patients, (52.6 %), muscle tonus disorder in 4 patients (5.3 %), and other neurological disorders in 39 patients (51.3 %). Spasticity was not noted in any patient. Seizures were reported in 6 patients (8.1 %), anxiety disorders in 22 patients (30.1 %), depression in 7 patients (9.6 %), ADHD/ADD in 36 patients (49.3 %), impairment of social behavior in 39 patients (53.4 %), and other comorbidities in 23 patients (31.5 %). The mean Aberrant Behaviour Checklist Community Edition (ABC-C) score on behavioral symptoms, obtained in 71 patients at first documentation, was 48.4 ± 27.8 (median 45.0, range 5-115). The mean visual analogue scale (VAS) score, obtained in 59 patients at first documentation, was 84.9 ± 14.6 points (median 90; range 50 – 100). Conclusions This report describes the largest cohort of patients with FXS in Europe. The reported observations indicate a substantial burden of disease for patients and their caregivers. Based on these observations, an early expert psychiatric diagnosis is recommended for suspected FXS patients. Further recommendations include multimodal and multi-professional management that is tailored to the individual patient’s needs. Trial registration The ClinTrials.gov identifier is NCT01711606. Registered on 18 October 2012.
Structure, metamorphism and tectonic setting of a gneissic terrane, the Sagan Afelata area, southern Ethiopia.
Creators: name: Gichile, Samuel.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1991
Subjects: subject: Geology.

description: The Sagan-Afelata area, which extends east approximately 100 km from the Main Ethiopian Rift towards the Adola gold fields, is underlain by high-grade rocks, dominantly biotite and quartzofeldspathic gneiss. The gneissic rocks are characteristically of K-rich mineralogy and appear to form a Proterozoic supracrustal sequence rather than Archean basement as thought earlier. The gneissic rocks were subjected to at least three distinct phases of deformation. The first, D$\sb1$, to which probably several generations of structures are attributed, formed migmatitic layering then isoclinal folds that transposed the layers parallel to flat-lying regional foliation (S$\sb1$), during amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism. The second, D$\sb2$, formed upright folds in S$\sb1$ and parallel layers with subhorizontal NNW to NNE trending axes, accompanied by amphibolite facies metamorphism that overprinted most rocks. D$\sb3$, resulted in local E-W trending, open, upright folds that are confined to the eastern part of the area. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Delineating changes in vertical hydrogeologic connectivity in the Silurian-Devonian Aquifer using transient high resolution head profiles
Creators: name: Doyle, Thomas Bradley
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2022
Subjects: Iowa
Silurian
Water resources management
public abstract
Hydrogeology

description: Groundwater models are an important tool that water managers rely on to predict the future conditions of and risks to aquifers. Hydrostratigraphic units (HSUs), depth intervals in the subsurface with distinct hydrogeologic properties, are the framework that controls the spatial distribution of hydrogeologic properties within these models. The Silurian Devonian aquifer system is composed of carbonate bedrock and serves as an important water source for the eastern Iowa region. It is also the surficial bedrock aquifer throughout much of the area where it is utilized, making it prone to contamination where the overlying unconsolidated Quaternary sediments are thin or absent. The current conceptual model of the system generally divides the Devonian into two HSUs, with the Silurian represented by a single HSU. These HSUs are based primarily on the lithologic variability of existing stratigraphic units. This approach assumes the boundaries of the existing stratigraphic units will coincide with changes in hydraulic conductivity representative of HSUs. This assumption has never been tested with high resolution hydraulic data. The goal of this research was to test the current HSU conceptualization for the Silurian Devonian aquifer system using hydraulic head data collected in high-resolution depth discrete vertical profiles. The data were used to quantify vertical hydraulic gradients and responses to barometric pressure fluctuations and earth tides throughout the profile. Depth intervals with contrasting vertical hydraulic gradients and/or differences in poroelastic response were used to delineate zones within the Silurian Devonian aquifer system that may have distinct hydrogeologic properties. While contrasts were subtle, the methods applied in this research allowed for the identification of a total of 22 vertical gradient zones and three zones of potential low Kv based on poroelastic responses in the Silurian. Five vertical gradient zones were also identified in the Devonian strata. Additional work needs to be done to assess the spatial extent and reproducibility of the zones delineated. The presence of multiple vertical gradient zones and different poroelastic responses throughout profiles in the system suggests that the Silurian Devonian aquifer system likely has a more complex HSU structure than the currently accepted conceptual model.
Big spatiotemporal data analytics of traffic congestion propagation patterns
Creators: name: Xiong, Haoyi
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2025
Subjects: deep-learning
network dynamics
spatiotemporal representation of event propagation
traffic congestion
public abstract
Computer Science

description: New approaches are needed to find geographic information embedded in big data and enhance large scale surveillance and prediction. In the context of vehicle movement, congestion can propagate to upstream segments as vehicles continue to queue up, leading to large-scale traffic congestion. If the spatiotemporal patterns of such dynamic process can be identified, city managers and traffic engineers will be better able to mitigate traffic congestion. Although recent research has led to new methods for the detection of spatiotemporal propagation patterns of traffic congestion, there is a lack of adequate evaluation as well as investigation into the use of data of high temporal granularity. The heterogeneous spatiotemporal patterns of traffic congestion propagation also make predicting future propagation difficult. Challenges, therefore, remain if such tools are to become of practical use. To address these challenges, three data driven methods are proposed. The first research task aims to detect congestion propagation patterns and comprehensively evaluate the proposed method using simulated data. The results show the proposed method is better than a state-of-the-art approach. Real-world cases are also presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method given currently available data. The second research task addresses the problem of predicting congestion propagation patterns via a Markov based approach. A sparse matrix query algorithm is proposed to reduce the computational time of the method, and the Area under the ROC Curve (AUC) of predicted results ranges from 0.535 to 0.616 for most future time steps. The third research task provides an alternative method based on an existing deep-learning technique. The AUC of the alternative method is generally 0.25 higher than the Markov based approach.
title: Prognostic Significance of Overexpressed p16INK4a in Patients with Cervical Cancer
title: A Meta-Analysis
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Lin, Jiaying
name: Albers, Andreas E.
name: Qin, Jinbao
name: Kaufmann, Andreas M.
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Background p16INK4a is a tumor suppressor protein which is induced in cells upon the interaction of high-risk HPV E7 with the retinoblastoma protein by a positive feedback loop, but cannot exert its suppressing effect. Previous reports suggested that p16INK4a immunostaining allows precise identification of even small CIN or cervical cancer lesions in biopsies. The prognostic value of overexpressed p16INK4a in cervical cancer has been evaluated for several years while the results remain controversial. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies assessing the clinical and prognostic significance of overexpression of p16INK4a in cervical cancer. Methods Identification and review of publications assessing clinical or prognostic significance of p16INK4a overexpression in cervical cancer until March 1, 2014. A meta-analysis was performed to clarify the association between p16INK4a overexpression and clinical outcomes. Results A total of 15 publications met the criteria and comprised 1633 cases. Analysis of these data showed that p16INK4a overexpression was not significantly associated with tumor TNM staging (I+II vs. III+IV) (OR = 0.75, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.35–1.63, P = 0.47), the tumor grade (G1+ G2 vs. G3) (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.39–1.57, P = 0.49), the tumor size (<4 vs. ≥4 cm) (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 0.45–2.69, P = 0.83), or vascular invasion (OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.69–2.08, P = 0.52). However, in the identified studies, overexpression of p16INK4a was highly correlated with no lymph node metastasis (OR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.28–0.95, P = 0.04), increased overall survival (relative risk [RR]: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.24–0.72, P = 0.002) and increased disease free survival (RR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.44–0.82, P = 0.001).
Representations of the refugee subject in educational discourse
Creators: name: Jarratt, Lindsay
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2025
Subjects: Boundary Work
Curriculum
Discourse
Diversity
Refugee
Representation
public abstract

description: Every year, more people are displaced from their homes and forced to seek assistance from a global community that is increasingly reluctant to help. The refugee has therefore become a common and polarizing symbol in international debate. In the media, politics, and social discourse, refugee portrayals are flat and reductive—a contrast to the diverse backgrounds and experiences I have born witness to in my own work with refugees.
description: This multiple article dissertation is an attempt to understand, if not reconcile, the differences between refugees’ experiences and their portrayals, and to explore how those portrayals are taken up in educational contexts. All three included studies examine a different site of learning. In the first study, I analyze social studies lesson plans about refugees from 8th-12th grade curricula, and how refugee portrayals subtly reinforce national identity and borders. The second study turns attention to the ways space and time are used in constructing the refugee journey story by analyzing educational videos available online. And in the third study, I talk to volunteer tutors about how racial dynamics enter into the teaching and learning interaction. Individually, these three studies offer snapshots into the ways refugee portrayals are created and communicated in schools and sites of learning. Collectively, they further knowledge about the social creation of boundaries and borders, as well as offering a window into the possibilities for us to intervene and transform the walls between us.
VLSI architectures for real-time recursive state-space filtering.
Creators: name: Zhang, Jin Yun.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1991
Subjects: subject: Engineering, Electronics and Electrical.

description: The increasing demands of speed and performance become evident with the expanding utilization of signal/image processing to industrial, medical, and military environments. As the numerical properties are considered, state-space structures have been successfully exploited in realizing high performance fixed-point digital filters. However, they require more computations than other realizations. In this thesis, a general design methodology for mapping recursive algorithms onto optimal VLSI array processors is first given. Then, the parallel computational models for recursive state-space filtering are developed, and various high speed VLSI array architectures are obtained based on the design methodology. For 1-D IIR filters, the state variable representation is used to obtain a simple systolic array. Based on a block processing technique, an advanced state update algorithm is developed and a corresponding high speed array processor results for state-space filtering. By using the decomposition method, a cascade form of second-order state-space structures is suggested, which gives a high throughput rate and high efficiency with hardware less than for the Nth order form. In the 2-D case, besides the advanced state update array (called local speedup), the inherent spatial concurrency in 2-D systems is explored and a global speedup architecture is presented. This architecture consists of a number of column array processors and it works on multiple columns in parallel. It is very flexible and modular. The throughput rate is adjustable and therefore can be very high. In order to utilize the advantages of state-space filtering, the adaptive state-space filtering is developed based on the LMS algorithm. Gradients are derived directly from the state update equation and the observation equation. The stability monitoring, convergence rate and roundoff noise performance of the adaptive filter are studied. A VLSI architecture is proposed for speeding up the filtering and the adaptation. Finally, a very fast Kalman filter for image restoration is investigated. By using Roesser's LSS structure to represent the image generation model and the degradation model, a simple composite dynamic system representation is obtained. The fast Kalman filter is established by defining a proper state vector and using diagonal scanning method. A dedicated VLSI array architecture is designed for real-time image restoration. Proposed algorithms and architectures are verified by computer simulations.
Predicting and understanding road user behaviors through big geo-referenced egocentric video data analytics
Creators: name: Ding, Yichen
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: Deep Learning
Egocentric Video
Road User Behaviors
Information science
public abstract

description: Understanding and forecasting road user behaviors is an important problem for road safety, transportation, and autonomous driving. With the advancement in technology, rich data have been collected from the real world, such as GPS trajectories, surveillance camera data, and egocentric (i.e., first-person view) video records from helmet/vehicle-mounted cameras. Deciphering the behavior of road users to predict their future actions and what they would do from videos can generate insights on how to keep these road users safe and bring inspiration to facilitate behavioral studies. Traditional analyses are done by manually observing the video data to code them and extract useful information, which are not scalable to larger datasets due to intensive human involvement and introduce potential human bias. This thesis aims to develop deep learning-based methods to investigate the behavior of cyclists and drivers, such as how they respond to the various traffic conditions, how they react in the complex road environment, and how they interact with other road users. Specifically, we utilize well-known and reliable object detection techniques to identify key factors (e.g., moving vehicles, pedestrians, road conditions and infrastructure) in the sight of a road user and propose methods to automatically learn the relationship between the presence of such factors and the decisions made by the road user. Case studies and extensive experiments on large-scale real-world data show that our proposed solutions demonstrate their efficacy and outperform baseline methods.
A computational investigation of Doberman dilated cardiomyopathy
Creators: name: Polenberg, Alex
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: public abstract

description: This thesis concerns the development and pathology of dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM) in Doberman Pinschers, a population known for its increased
description: susceptibility relative to other domestic dogs. We begin with a broad discussion of cardiomyopathies as a family of diseases before narrowing our
description: focus to DCM in particular. We present our analysis in two parts. First, we apply statistical models and data analysis methods to detect associations
description: between genetic mutations and disease status. Then, utilizing dynamical systems modeling and numerical methods, we study one such association
description: reported in the literature.
description: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are useful for detecting candidate genes associated with complex diseases in a population. We conduct a GWAS leveraging a database of genetic profiles obtained through collaboration with the Doberman Diversity Project. We cover common association models such as linear and logistic regression. But because these investigations require substantial statistical power and are prone to type I and type II errors, we also discuss alternative mixed effects models. These incorporate genetic variance as stochastic effects, increasing the strength of the corresponding association study while mitigating potential errors. Our analyses include thorough reports of data collection methodologies, data cleaning and quality control, as well as the association tests themselves.
description: Following our search for candidate genes, we develop a model describing a previously reported association. In 2012, a GWAS detected an association between a mutation in the gene encoding for the enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4) and DCM development in Doberman Pinschers. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) consists of three enzymes which together convert pyruvate, a product of glycolysis, to acetyl-CoA. PDK4 inhibits this conversion, and is thought to act as a switch between pyruvate decarboxylation and fatty acid oxidation. We present a preliminary model describing the interaction between PDK4 and the PDC. We observe a separation of timescales and explore the fast-slow dynamics of the system. Steady-state analysis suggests PDK4 could serve to maintain minimum pyruvate levels during starvation, rather than act as a metabolic switch between the two pathways.
CO2-Minderung im Stromsektor durch den Einsatz erneuerbarer Energien in den Jahren 2012 und 2013
Creators: name: Klobasa, Marian
name: Sensfuß, Frank
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Anteil erneuerbarer Energien
subject: Modellierung
subject: CO2-Minderung
subject: Stromsektor
subject: Anteil erneuerbarer Energien an der Stromerzeugung
subject: Stromaußenhandel
subject: Klima | Energie
subject: Climate | Energy

description: Im Rahmen des Gutachtens werden die Substitutionswirkungen und die CO2-Vermeidung durch die Einspeisung Erneuerbarer Energien in Deutschland analysiert, wobei die Wechselwirkungen durch den Stromaußenhandel mit den Nachbarländern Deutschlands mit berücksichtigt werden. Die Analyse erfolgt modellbasiert mit dem Strommarktsimulationsmodell PowerACE, indem zwei Szenarien einmal mit der Einspeisung Erneuerbarer Energien bzw. ohne diese Einspeisung gerechnet werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die CO2-Minderung insgesamt ca. 98 Mio. t in 2012 und ca. 104 Mio. t in 2013 erreicht. Quelle: http://www.umweltbundesamt.de
description: Im Rahmen des Gutachtens werden die Substitutionswirkungen und die ⁠CO2⁠-Vermeidung durch die Einspeisung Erneuerbarer Energien in Deutschland analysiert, wobei die Wechselwirkungen durch den Stromaußenhandel mit den Nachbarländern Deutschlands mit berücksichtigt werden. Die Analyse erfolgt modellbasiert mit dem Strommarktsimulationsmodell PowerACE, indem zwei Szenarien einmal mit der Einspeisung Erneuerbarer Energien bzw. ohne diese Einspeisung gerechnet werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die CO2-Minderung insgesamt ca. 98 Mio. t in 2012 und ca. 104 Mio. t in 2013 erreicht.