Formalization and visualization of domain-specific software architectures

This paper describes a domain-specific software design system based on the concepts of software architectures engineering and domain-specific models and languages. In this system, software architectures are used as high level abstractions to formulate a domain-specific software design. The software architecture serves as a framework for composing architectural fragments (e.g., domain objects, system components, and hardware interfaces) that make up the knowledge (or model) base for solving a problem in a particular application area. A corresponding software design is generated by analyzing and describing a system in the context of the software architecture. While the software architecture serves as the framework for the design, this concept is insufficient by itself for supplying the additional details required for a specific design. Additional domain knowledge is still needed to instantiate components of the architecture and develop optimized algorithms for the problem domain. One possible way to obtain the additional details is through the use of domain-specific languages. Thus, the general concept of a software architecture and the specific design details provided by domain-specific languages are combined to create what can be termed a domain-specific software architecture (DSSA)

TT2NE: A novel algorithm to predict RNA secondary structures with pseudoknots

We present TT2NE, a new algorithm to predict RNA secondary structures with pseudoknots. The method is based on a classification of RNA structures according to their topological genus. TT2NE guarantees to find the minimum free energy structure irrespectively of pseudoknot topology. This unique proficiency is obtained at the expense of the maximum length of sequence that can be treated but comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms shows that TT2NE is a very powerful tool within its limits. Analysis of TT2NE's wrong predictions sheds light on the need to study how sterical constraints limit the range of pseudoknotted structures that can be formed from a given sequence. An implementation of TT2NE on a public server can be found at http://ipht.cea.fr/rna/tt2ne.php

Cooking up a Nation: Food, Culture, and Identity in the Early American Republic

Post-Revolutionary American food, common and genteel, acted as both a construct of and contributor to the development of an American national identity as well as a national culinary identity. From 1796 and into the early nineteenth century, Americans actively strove to distinguish themselves from their British backgrounds. As a result, the public discourse of American food shifted to reflect new values of simplicity and equality. Additionally, a new American cuisine began to take shape which embraced native crops, linking those who consumed them to the American soil, and ultimately, the new nation. Through the presence of particular dishes at politically oriented gatherings, American foods, and the values attached to them, became part of a public, democratic discourse, which shaped how Americans understood themselves and their nation

Bible garage

[ABSTRACT ONLY; NO FULL TEXT] This thesis is a collection of poems all addressing various identifiers in my life, such as religious upbringing, familial myth and relationships, gender performance, and other people which I have identified myself through. Throughout, the "I / i" of the poems is simultaneously abstracted, negated, and fully embraced, as this "I / i" comes up against god, myth, gender expectations, and a "you." This is shown particularly in the title poem, "bible garage," which takes the image of stacked boxes of Gideon bibles in a garage and deconstructs or works around everything that stems from thinking about these boxes. For example: stacking blocks in a kindergarten class, the death of a family pet, and my portrayal as baby Jesus in a church play. There are a few recurring poetic techniques throughout the collection, such as the three "Suite" poems which stem from a childhood image and simultaneously comment on both the writing process and memory through strikethrough, repetition, and reversal. Then there are the poems all titled "whisper," which serve as interstitial moments that embrace a more intimate register than many of the other poems and continue the discussions found throughout the collection. Essential to the collection are the experiments in form, such as the stacked "boxes" of "bible garage," the visual triptych representation of "Triptych," or the erasure of a biblical passage in "Have mercy on." While working primarily through subversion, of both technique and specificity, and the attempt at negation of all the identity markers, the collection itself discovers an embrace of everything discussed: nothing is negated because the negation implies acknowledgement. As pointed out in one of the boxes of "bible garage," this collection descends from the multiple definitions of a word such as "around": "so as to encircle or enclose / so as to avoid or get past."California State University, Northridge. Department of English

The Difference in Maximal Voluntary Ventilation in Trained Persons and Untrained Persons

The purpose of this test was to determine if trained subjects have better MVV performance than untrained subjects. MVV is typically higher in young, aerobically trained athletes who have non-restrive or obstructive lung conditions and whose respiratory muscles are well trained (Beam & Adams, 2014). Hypothesis:It was hypothesized that the trained males will have higher MVV values than untrained females, trained females, and untrained males .https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/exercise-science-research-proposal-posters/1071/thumbnail.jp

Comprehension: A Study of the Interpretation of Identical Reading Selections by Fifth Grade Students from Different Cultural Environments.

It was the purpose of this study to ascertain the reading comprehension of randomly selected fifth grade students who had all read identical reading selections of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and who were asked to respond orally to open-ended questions. The investigator hypothesized that children from different cultural backgrounds would bring different interpretations to identical reading selections when these children were asked open-ended questions

Conducting Business in Network Centric Collaborative Environments

The development of the World Wide Web (or Internet) has provided the ability to connect the entire world together. Thousands of web servers located around the world allow users to connect and communicate with one another. Additionally, a huge transaction-based product sales business has evolved, via the Internet. for many, the next generation of the Internet needs to focus on collections of servers and users working collectively together to solve problems. Grids and the Global Information Grid (GIG) are terms associated with enabling technologies that provide the framework for collections of servers and users to work together. Network Centric Operations and/or Network Centric Warfare are terms that refer to the actual concepts, applications, and processes that will execute on the GIG and solve real world problems. Moving to this next generation Internet provides many exciting opportunities as well as many difficult challenges. This year\u27s panel will explore these opportunities and challenges from several different perspectives: government, defense industry, commercial industry and academia

New insights into the fundamental role of topological constraints as a determinant of two-way junction conformation

Recent studies have shown that topological constraints encoded at the RNA secondary structure level involving basic steric and stereochemical forces can significantly restrict the orientations sampled by helices across two-way RNA junctions. Here, we formulate these topological constraints in greater quantitative detail and use this topological framework to rationalize long-standing but poorly understood observations regarding the basic behavior of RNA two-way junctions. Notably, we show that the asymmetric nature of the A-form helix and the finite length of a bulge provide a physical basis for the experimentally observed directionality and bulge-length amplitude dependence of bulge induced inter-helical bends. We also find that the topologically allowed space can be modulated by variations in sequence, particularly with the addition of non-canonical GU base pairs at the junction, and, surprisingly, by the length of the 5′ and 3′ helices. A survey of two-way RNA junctions in the protein data bank confirms that junction residues have a strong preference to adopt looped-in, non-canonically base-paired conformations, providing a route for extending our bulge-directed framework to internal loop motifs and implying a simplified link between secondary and tertiary structure. Finally, our results uncover a new simple mechanism for coupling junction-induced topological constraints with tertiary interactions

Streambank and Road Erosion in Harford County

Final project for URSP688L: Recent Developments in Urban Studies: Planning Technologies (Fall 2018). University of Maryland, College Park.As part of the Fall 2018 URSP 688L Planning Technology class, students from the graduate Community Planning program at the University of Maryland worked with the Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS) program to use applied computer mapping tools to address a streambank erosion project in Harford County, Maryland. Working with ArcGIS, our team identified vulnerable roadways in Harford County at risk from streambank erosion. Using the software’s tools, our team identified a total of 438 vulnerable roadways, which were then ranked by their total potential risk. Our team presented this information and ranking system so Harford County could address these roadways. It is our hope that this information proves useful to the County to address issues before they occur. We provided the County with a geodatabase that contains final spatial information, additional shapefiles that outline our technical process, and a metadata file. We also created an online presentation, which is accessible through ArcGIS Online at: https://arcg.is/1zKviX.Harford Count

A post-outbreak assessment of exposure proximity and Ebola virus disease-related stigma among community members in Kono District, Sierra Leone: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundBased on findings from other contexts, informed by intergroup contact theory, that more contact is associated with less stigma, we hypothesized that community members with greater exposure to cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were less likely to report EVD-related stigma towards EVD survivors. We assessed personal stigmatizing attitudes towards Ebola survivors, which reflects personal fear and judgement, as well as perceived stigma towards EVD survivors, which reflects an individual's perception of the attitudes of the community towards a stigmatized group.MethodsFrom September 2016 to July 2017, we conducted a cross-sectional, community-based study of EVD-related stigma among individuals who did not contract Ebola in four EVD-affected rural communities of Kono District, Sierra Leone. We identified individuals from all quarantined households and obtained a random sample of those who were unexposed. Exposed individuals either lived in a quarantined household or were reported to have been in contact with an EVD case. Our explanatory variable was proximity to an EVD case during the outbreak. Our primary outcome was stigma towards EVD survivors, measured by a 6-item adapted HIV-related stigma index validated in Zambia and South Africa, with 1 item reflecting personal stigmatizing attitudes and 5 items reflecting perceived community stigma. The 6-item EVD stigma index had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.82). We used modified Poisson and negative binomial regression models, adjusting for potential confounders, to estimate the association between exposure proximity and EVD stigma.ResultsWe interviewed 538 participants aged 12 to 85 years. Most (57%) had been quarantined. Over one-third (39%) reported personal stigmatizing attitudes or perceived community stigma; the most frequently endorsed item was fear and judgment towards EVD survivors. Having contact with someone with EVD was significantly associated with a lower likelihood of perceived community stigma (prevalence ratio [PR], 0.26; 95% CI, 0.13-0.54) and personal stigmatizing attitudes (PR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.29-0.65). In contrast, being quarantined was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of perceived community stigma (PR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.5-10.1).ConclusionsIn this cross-sectional study, we found evidence of an inverse relationship between EVD-related stigma and contact with an EVD case. This finding substantiates intergroup contact theory and may form the basis for anti-stigma interventions