A corpus-driven discourse analysis of transcripts of Hugo Chávez’s television programme ‘Aló Presidente’

This study proposes a methodology that combines techniques from corpus linguistics with theory from the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The methodology is demonstrated using a corpus comprising transcripts of Hugo Chávez’s television programme, Aló Presidente, broadcast between January 2002 and June 2007. In this thesis, I identify a number of criticisms of CDA and suggest that corpus linguistics can be used to reduce the principle risks: over-/under-interpretation of data and ensuring that the examples used are representative. I then present a methodology designed to minimise these effects, based upon a hypothesis that semantic fields are used more frequently in periods when they are topical, and therefore one can isolate instances which were produced at times of change. I use the Aló Presidente corpus to present a detailed description of three such semantic fields and then adopt the concept of discourse strategies from the DHA to demonstrate how Chávez’s framing of the topics changes with time. This leads to a set of conclusions which seek to answer the research question: How is life in Venezuela framed as having changed under Chávez’s Presidency by reference to his Aló Presidente television programme during the period 2002-2007

Higher-dimensional solitons and black holes with a non-minimally coupled scalar field

We study higher-dimensional soliton and hairy black hole solutions of the Einstein equations non-minimally coupled to a scalar field. The scalar field has no self-interaction potential but a cosmological constant is included. Non-trivial solutions exist only when the cosmological constant is negative and the constant governing the coupling of the scalar field to the Ricci scalar curvature is positive. At least some of these solutions are stable when this coupling constant is not too large.Comment: 17 pages, revtex4, 21 figures, minor changes to match published versio

Maternal glucose and fatty acid kinetics and infant birth weight in obese women with type 2 diabetes

The objectives of this study were 1) to describe maternal glucose and lipid kinetics and 2) to examine the relationships with infant birth weight in obese women with pregestational type 2 diabetes during late pregnancy. Using stable isotope tracer methodology and mass spectrometry, maternal glucose and lipid kinetic rates during the basal condition were compared in three groups: lean women without diabetes (Lean, n = 25), obese women without diabetes (OB, n = 26), and obese women with pregestational type 2 diabetes (OB+DM, n = 28; total n = 79). Glucose and lipid kinetics during hyperinsulinemia were also measured in a subset of participants (n = 56). Relationships between maternal glucose and lipid kinetics during both conditions and infant birth weight were examined. Maternal endogenous glucose production (EGP) rate was higher in OB+DM than OB and Lean during hyperinsulinemia. Maternal insulin value at 50% palmitate R(a) suppression (IC50) for palmitate suppression with insulinemia was higher in OB+DM than OB and Lean. Maternal EGP per unit insulin and plasma free fatty acid concentration during hyperinsulinemia most strongly predicted infant birth weight. Our findings suggest maternal fatty acid and glucose kinetics are altered during late pregnancy and might suggest a mechanism for higher birth weight in obese women with pregestational diabetes

The 5'-3' exoribonuclease Pacman (Xrn1) regulates expression of the heat shock protein Hsp67Bc and the microRNA miR-277-3p in Drosophila wing imaginal discs

Pacman/Xrn1 is a highly conserved exoribonuclease known to play a critical role in gene regulatory events such as control of mRNA stability, RNA interference and regulation via miRNAs. Although Pacman has been well studied in Drosophila tissue culture cells, the biologically relevant cellular pathways controlled by Pacman in natural tissues are unknown. This study shows that a hypomorphic mutation in pacman (pcm5) results in smaller wing imaginal discs. These tissues, found in the larva, are known to grow and differentiate to form wing and thorax structures in the adult fly. Using microarray analysis, followed by quantitative RT-PCR, we show that eight mRNAs were increased in level by >2 fold in the pcm5 mutant wing discs compared to the control. The levels of pre mRNAs were tested for five of these mRNAs; four did not increase in the pcm5 mutant, showing that they are regulated at the post-transcriptional level and therefore could be directly affected by Pacman. These transcripts include one that encodes the heat-shock protein Hsp67Bc, which is upregulated 11.9-fold at the post-transcriptional level and 2.3-fold at the protein level. One miRNA, miR-277-3p, is 5.6-fold downregulated at the post-transcriptional level in mutant discs, suggesting that Pacman affects its processing in this tissue. Together, these data show that a relatively small number of mRNAs and miRNAs substantially change in abundance in pacman mutant wing imaginal discs. Since Hsp67Bc is known to regulate autophagy and protein synthesis, it is possible that Pacman may control the growth of wing imaginal discs by regulating these processes

Validation of upgrade of the Geant4 Simulation Toolkit to Model the Responses from TOP and ARICH Detectors

Belle II is the next generation B-Factory experiment at the world\u27s highest luminosity accelerator the SuperKEKB collider, which is designed to collect 50 times more data than the previous generation experiments. A hallmark feature of B-Factory experiments is to use novel characteristics of Cherenkov detectors for identification of the flavor of charged particles passing through the detector. The TOP and the ARICH detectors can identify charged pions and kaons with high precision. The response to the passage of high energetic particles in the detector is modeled with the Geant4 simulation toolkit. Here we compare the performances of these two detectors of particle identification at the Belle II experiment following an upgrade of the list of physical processes simulated by the Geant4 toolkit. The new list is found to give consistent results when compared to the default list while improving the CPU requirement of the Geant4 toolkit by as much as 25%.https://ir.library.louisville.edu/uars/1022/thumbnail.jp

Efficient quantum algorithms for simulating sparse Hamiltonians

We present an efficient quantum algorithm for simulating the evolution of a sparse Hamiltonian H for a given time t in terms of a procedure for computing the matrix entries of H. In particular, when H acts on n qubits, has at most a constant number of nonzero entries in each row/column, and |H| is bounded by a constant, we may select any positive integer $k$ such that the simulation requires O((\log^*n)t^{1+1/2k}) accesses to matrix entries of H. We show that the temporal scaling cannot be significantly improved beyond this, because sublinear time scaling is not possible.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, substantial revision

Agroforestry in Madagascar: past, present, and future

Agroforestry systems promise a high multifunctionality providing cash and subsistence yields as well as other ecosystem services. Such land systems may be particularly promising for smallholders in tropical landscapes due to high labour intensity and productivity on limited land. Focusing on Madagascar, we here describe the history of agroforestry in the country and review the current literature on agroforestry outcomes as well as factors promoting and hindering agroforest establishment and maintenance. From this, we discuss the potential future of agroforestry in Madagascar. Historically, many crops farmed today in agroforestry systems were originally introduced as plantation crops, mostly in the nineteenth century. Since then, people co-opted these crops into mixed agroforestry systems, often focusing on clove, vanilla, coffee, or cocoa in combination with fruit trees or, for clove, with livestock. Other crops are also integrated, but shares are comparatively low. Overall, 27.4% of Malagasy exports are crops typically farmed in agroforestry systems, providing income for at least 500,000 farmers. Outcomes of agroforestry for biodiversity and ecosystem services are commonly researched, showing benefits over annual crops and monocultures. Social-economic outcomes, including yields, are more scarcely researched, but findings point towards financial benefits for smallholder farmers and a sense of community and collective memory. However, findings emphasize that research gaps remain in terms of geographic and crop coverage, also for ecological outcomes. Looking to the future, we highlight the need to overcome hurdles such as land tenure insecurity, financial barriers to implementation, and unstable value chains to scale agroforestry in Madagascar to the benefit of multifunctional land systems and human wellbeing