7,310 research outputs found

    Information actors beyond modernity and coloniality in times of climate change:A comparative design ethnography on the making of monitors for sustainable futures in Curaçao and Amsterdam, between 2019-2022

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    In his dissertation, Mr. Goilo developed a cutting-edge theoretical framework for an Anthropology of Information. This study compares information in the context of modernity in Amsterdam and coloniality in Curaçao through the making process of monitors and develops five ways to understand how information can act towards sustainable futures. The research also discusses how the two contexts, that is modernity and coloniality, have been in informational symbiosis for centuries which is producing negative informational side effects within the age of the Anthropocene. By exploring the modernity-coloniality symbiosis of information, the author explains how scholars, policymakers, and data-analysts can act through historical and structural roots of contemporary global inequities related to the production and distribution of information. Ultimately, the five theses propose conditions towards the collective production of knowledge towards a more sustainable planet

    Graduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    Symmetry-based decomposition for optimised parallelisation in 3D printing processes

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    Current research in 3D printing focuses on improving printing performance through various techniques, including decomposition, but targets only single printers. With improved hardware costs increasing printer availability, more situations can arise involving a multitude of printers, which offers substantially more throughput in combination that may not be best utilised by current decomposition approaches. A novel approach to 3D printing is introduced that attempts to exploit this as a means of significantly increasing the speed of printing models. This was approached as a problem akin to the parallel delegation of computation tasks in a multi-core environment, where optimal performance involves computation load being distributed as evenly as possible. To achieve this, a decomposition framework was designed that combines recursive symmetric slicing with a hybrid tree-based analytical and greedy strategy to optimally minimise the maximum volume of subparts assigned to the set of printers. Experimental evaluation of the algorithm was performed to compare our approach to printing models normally (“in serial”) as a control. The algorithm was subjected to a range of models and a varying quantity of printers in parallel, with printer parameters held constant, and yielded mixed results. Larger, simpler, and more symmetric objects exhibited more significant and reliable improvements in fabrication duration at larger amounts of parallelisation than smaller, more complex, or more asymmetric objects

    Specificity of the innate immune responses to different classes of non-tuberculous mycobacteria

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    Mycobacterium avium is the most common nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) species causing infectious disease. Here, we characterized a M. avium infection model in zebrafish larvae, and compared it to M. marinum infection, a model of tuberculosis. M. avium bacteria are efficiently phagocytosed and frequently induce granuloma-like structures in zebrafish larvae. Although macrophages can respond to both mycobacterial infections, their migration speed is faster in infections caused by M. marinum. Tlr2 is conservatively involved in most aspects of the defense against both mycobacterial infections. However, Tlr2 has a function in the migration speed of macrophages and neutrophils to infection sites with M. marinum that is not observed with M. avium. Using RNAseq analysis, we found a distinct transcriptome response in cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction for M. avium and M. marinum infection. In addition, we found differences in gene expression in metabolic pathways, phagosome formation, matrix remodeling, and apoptosis in response to these mycobacterial infections. In conclusion, we characterized a new M. avium infection model in zebrafish that can be further used in studying pathological mechanisms for NTM-caused diseases

    Synthesis of Shoreline, Sea Level Rise, and Marsh Migration Data for Wetland Restoration Targeting Final Report

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    Coastal marsh loss is a significant issue globally, due in part to rising sea levels and high levels of coastal human activity. Marshes have natural mechanisms to allow them to adapt to rising sea levels, however, migration across the landscape is one of those mechanisms and is frequently in conflict with human use of the shoreline. Ensuring the persistence of marshes into the future requires an understanding of where marshes are likely to migrate under sea level rise and targeting those areas for conservation and preservation activities. The goal of this project was to 1) compile existing datasets and information related to marsh migration under sea level rise-driven inundation due to forecasted climate change, topography of bay shorelines, shoreline condition (e.g., erosion rates, hardening, existing natural resources), existing wetland area and potential migration corridors, and other relevant data from around the Chesapeake Bay and 2) develop a methodology that synthesizes the information in a format that can be used to assist with marsh conservation and restoration decisions under multiple sea level rise scenarios (see associated report). This dataset is the resulting data from the methodology development

    Selected Papers from 2020 IEEE International Conference on High Voltage Engineering (ICHVE 2020)

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    The 2020 IEEE International Conference on High Voltage Engineering (ICHVE 2020) was held on 6–10 September 2020 in Beijing, China. The conference was organized by the Tsinghua University, China, and endorsed by the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society. This conference has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers around the world in the field of high voltage engineering. The forum offered the opportunity to present the latest developments and different emerging challenges in high voltage engineering, including the topics of ultra-high voltage, smart grids, and insulating materials

    General Course Catalog [2022/23 academic year]

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    General Course Catalog, 2022/23 academic yearhttps://repository.stcloudstate.edu/undergencat/1134/thumbnail.jp

    A Survey of Developable Surfaces: From Shape Modeling to Manufacturing

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    Developable surfaces are commonly observed in various applications such as architecture, product design, manufacturing, and mechanical materials, as well as in the development of tangible interaction and deformable robots, with the characteristics of easy-to-product, low-cost, transport-friendly, and deformable. Transforming shapes into developable surfaces is a complex and comprehensive task, which forms a variety of methods of segmentation, unfolding, and manufacturing for shapes with different geometry and topology, resulting in the complexity of developable surfaces. In this paper, we reviewed relevant methods and techniques for the study of developable surfaces, characterize them with our proposed pipeline, and categorize them based on digital modeling, physical modeling, interaction, and application. Through the analysis to the relevant literature, we also discussed some of the research challenges and future research opportunities.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures, Author submitted manuscrip

    A multidisciplinary approach to the development of innovative tools for pharmaceutical and technological applications

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    The research activity carried out during the Ph.D. in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences has regarded the design, synthesis, and characterization of innovative tools relevant to both pharmaceutical and technological fields. Great interest has been dedicated to the investigation of the “affinity polymerization” mechanism of novel polymeric materials founded on repetitive monomeric units based on the 3-phenylbenzofulvene scaffold that spontaneously polymerize by simple removal of the solvent. In this context, the attention has been focused on the synthesis of novel benzofulvene-based derivatives bearing complexed and non-complexed pyridine rings in different positions of the benzofulvene scaffold, to evaluate the effects generated by the insertion of a bulky substituent in the aggregation/polymerization behavior. The experience acquired with this study has been then capitalized on the design, synthesis, and characterization of a novel visible-light-sensitive biomimetic molecular switch inspired by the benzofulvene scaffold and the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) chromophore. The chemical-structural manipulation of the benzofulvene structure has made possible the development of a novel set of biomimetic photoswitches inspired by the supramolecular properties of the 3-phenylbenzofulvene scaffold and the molecular features of the GFP chromophore. In the framework of material chemistry, the well-known click-chemistry reaction of hyaluronic acid (HA) derivatives bearing propargylated ferulic groups has been exploited to obtain biomimetic and biocompatible materials useful in different biopharmaceutical fields. In particular, low molecular weight HA has been anchored on the hydrophobic surface of low-generation poly(propylene imine) (PPI) dendrimers by the click-chemistry reaction between their azido-functionalized surfaces and low molecular weight HA derivatives bearing propargylated ferulic groups. The resulting materials have been proposed as biocompatible drug delivery systems (DDSs) of Doxorubicin. Another application of HA has concerned the hyaluronan-based graft copolymers showing low and medium molecular weight values that have been exploited in cross-linking by the click-chemistry reaction. Interestingly, the interaction of resulting HA materials with water led to the formation of hydrogels, and the tunable rheological behavior of these materials led to their applicability in different biomedical fields. Lastly, the knowledge in medicinal chemistry has guided the design and synthesis of innovative bioactive compounds such as novel Cyclooxygenase‑2 (COX-2) inhibitors containing Nitric Oxide (NO) donor moiety (CINODs) endowed with vasorelaxant properties. The outcomes of these studies would provide fertile ground for future projects that will hopefully contribute to accelerate the research in several fields. Indeed, the increased knowledge on the behavior of these innovative tools, by means of a multidisciplinary approach, is the key for boosting the development of novel materials for pharmaceutical and technological applications

    Getting the gist of it: An investigation of gist processing and the learning of novel gist categories

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    Gist extraction rapidly processes global structural regularities to provide access to the general meaning and global categorizations of our visual environment – the gist. Medical experts can also extract gist information from mammograms to categorize them as normal or abnormal. However, the visual properties influencing the gist of medical abnormality are largely unknown. It is also not known how medical experts, or any observer for that matter, learned to recognise the gist of new categories. This thesis investigated the processing and acquisition of the gist of abnormality. Chapter 2 observed no significant differences in performance between 500 ms and unlimited viewing time, suggesting that the gist of abnormality is fully accessible after 500 ms and remains available during further visual processing. Next, chapter 3 demonstrated that certain high-pass filters enhanced gist signals in mammograms at risk of future cancer, without affecting overall performance. These filters could be used to enhance mammograms for gist risk-factor scoring. Chapter 4’s multi-session training showed that perceptual exposure with global feedback is sufficient to induce learning of a new gist categorisation. However, learning was affected by individual differences and was not significantly retained after 7-10 days, suggesting that prolonged perceptual exposure might be needed for consolidation. Chapter 5 observed evidence for the neural signature of gist extraction in medical experts across a network of regions, where neural activity patterns showed clear individual differences. Overall, the findings of this thesis confirm the gist extraction of medical abnormality as a rapid, global process that is sensitive to spatial structural regularities. Additionally, it was shown that a gist category can be learned via global feedback, but this learning is hard to retain and is affected by individual differences. Similarly, individual differences were observed in the neural signature of gist extraction by medical experts
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