SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Special Topics in Information Technology

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the thirteen best theses defended in 2020-21 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

Special Topics in Information Technology

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the thirteen best theses defended in 2020-21 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

Applications

Volume 3 describes how resource-aware machine learning methods and techniques are used to successfully solve real-world problems. The book provides numerous specific application examples: in health and medicine for risk modelling, diagnosis, and treatment selection for diseases in electronics, steel production and milling for quality control during manufacturing processes in traffic, logistics for smart cities and for mobile communications

Genomiske analyser av populasjonstruktur og kjønnbestemmelse hos Atlantisk torsk (Gadus morhua)

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is a benthopelagic cold-water marine species found across the North Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to its historical and current significance as an important food resource it is one of the most well-known and well-studied teleost fish species. Genetic studies of Atlantic cod have been conducted since the 1930s, but with the advent of highthroughput DNA sequencing technologies investigations have been reinvigorated with highresolution data allowing us to address previously unanswerable questions. This thesis explores the genome biology of Atlantic cod with the specific goals of; i) understanding the genomics underlying population divergence between cod populations in Norwegian waters, ii) using long-read sequencing technology to build a genome assembly representing the southern cod populations, and iii) characterizing genomic regions associated with sex determination. The knowledge generated in this thesis can enhance the understanding on how genomic architecture influence genome-wide variations contributing to population structures and sex determination. Atlantic cod in the Norwegian Sea are classified into one of two different populations; migratory Northeast Arctic cod (NEAC) and stationary Norwegian coastal cod (NCC). In Paper I, we sought to understand how phenotypic and genetic differences are maintained despite interbreeding between NEAC and NCC. Utilizing genotype data from 192 parents of farmed families of NEAC, NCC or NEACxNCC crosses, we identified extended linkage disequilibrium (LD) in a 17.4Mb region on linkage group 1 (LG01). Furthermore, linkage analysis revealed two adjacent inversions within the region that repress meiotic recombination in NEACxNCC crosses. The haplotype block harbours 763 genes, including candidates regulating swim bladder pressure, heme synthesis and skeletal muscle organization conferring NEAC adaptation to long-distance migration and vertical movements to large depths. Our results document that inversion is the genetic mechanism that maintains the genetic differentiation despite interbreeding and we hypothesize the cooccurrence of possibly multiple adaptive genes forming a ‘supergene’ advantageous to NEAC. The public reference genomes for Atlantic cod have all been derived from NEAC samples and therefore representing the northernmost cod population, adapted to near freezing temperatures. Several studies have demonstrated regions of genomic differentiation on linkage groups (LGs) 1, 2, 7 and 12 associated with adaptation to temperature along the 4 north-south gradient (Bradbury et al. 2010; 2013). In paper II, we generated a highly contiguous genome assembly representing the southern Celtic population of Atlantic cod using long-read nanopore sequencing data. By comparing this to the latest NEAC assembly gadMor3 we were able to characterize in detail the rearrangements creating the ‘islands of genomic divergence’ on LGs 1, 2, 7, and 12. The long contiguous genome assembly also facilitated the identification of a putative centromere-specific repeat. In paper III, by comparing and contrasting whole genome short-read sequencing data from 49 male and 53 female cod, we detected a male specific region of 9,149 bp on LG11. A diagnostic PCR test was developed and confirmed the sex-specific nature of this mal

Applications

Volume 3 describes how resource-aware machine learning methods and techniques are used to successfully solve real-world problems. The book provides numerous specific application examples: in health and medicine for risk modelling, diagnosis, and treatment selection for diseases in electronics, steel production and milling for quality control during manufacturing processes in traffic, logistics for smart cities and for mobile communications

The assessment and development of methods in (spatial) sound ecology

As vital ecosystems across the globe enter unchartered pressure from climate change industrial land use, understanding the processes driving ecosystem viability has never been more critical. Nuanced ecosystem understanding comes from well-collected field data and a wealth of associated interpretations. In recent years the most popular methods of ecosystem monitoring have revolutionised from often damaging and labour-intensive manual data collection to automated methods of data collection and analysis. Sound ecology describes the school of research that uses information transmitted through sound to infer properties about an area's species, biodiversity, and health. In this thesis, we explore and develop state-of-the-art automated monitoring with sound, specifically relating to data storage practice and spatial acoustic recording and data analysis. In the first chapter, we explore the necessity and methods of ecosystem monitoring, focusing on acoustic monitoring, later exploring how and why sound is recorded and the current state-of-the-art in acoustic monitoring. Chapter one concludes with us setting out the aims and overall content of the following chapters. We begin the second chapter by exploring methods used to mitigate data storage expense, a widespread issue as automated methods quickly amass vast amounts of data which can be expensive and impractical to manage. Importantly I explain how these data management practices are often used without known consequence, something I then address. Specifically, I present evidence that the most used data reduction methods (namely compression and temporal subsetting) have a surprisingly small impact on the information content of recorded sound compared to the method of analysis. This work also adds to the increasing evidence that deep learning-based methods of environmental sound quantification are more powerful and robust to experimental variation than more traditional acoustic indices. In the latter chapters, I focus on using multichannel acoustic recording for sound-source localisation. Knowing where a sound originated has a range of ecological uses, including counting individuals, locating threats, and monitoring habitat use. While an exciting application of acoustic technology, spatial acoustics has had minimal uptake owing to the expense, impracticality and inaccessibility of equipment. In my third chapter, I introduce MAARU (Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit), a low-cost, easy-to-use and accessible solution to this problem. I explain the software and hardware necessary for spatial recording and show how MAARU can be used to localise the direction of a sound to within ±10˚ accurately. In the fourth chapter, I explore how MAARU devices deployed in the field can be used for enhanced ecosystem monitoring by spatially clustering individuals by calling directions for more accurate abundance approximations and crude species-specific habitat usage monitoring. Most literature on spatial acoustics cites the need for many accurately synced recording devices over an area. This chapter provides the first evidence of advances made with just one recorder. Finally, I conclude this thesis by restating my aims and discussing my success in achieving them. Specifically, in the thesis’ conclusion, I reiterate the contributions made to the field as a direct result of this work and outline some possible development avenues.Open Acces