343 research outputs found

    Changing Sources of Magma Generation Beneath Intra-Oceanic Islands Arcs: An Insight From the Juvenile Kohistan Island Arc, Pakistan Himalaya

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    The Kohistan arc, situated in the Pakistan Himalaya, is a Cretaceous intraoceanic island arc which was initiated during the northward movement of the Indian Plate. The arc was sutured to Asia at ca. 100 Ma. It was subsequently tilted northward when underplated by Indian continental crust during the early stages of India–Asia collision. Deep erosion of this tilted section provides a spectacular section through the whole arc sequence and offers a profound insight into the mechanisms of early stages of arc formation. Geochemical analysis and rare earth element modelling of basaltic sequences which date from the intraoceanic stages of arc development allow identification of three main magma source types in the mantle beneath the juvenile arc. The ‘E-type’ Kamila Amphibolites, with a MORB-type chemistry, form the intraoceanic basement to the arc. The ‘D-type’ Kamila Amphibolites are the earliest of the arc volcanic rocks. These were extracted from a primitive spinel-bearing mantle source, above a north-dipping subduction zone. The stratigraphically younger basalts of the Jaglot Group and Ghizar Formation of the Chalt Volcanic Group were derived from partial melting of a garnet-bearing source at greater depth. The Hunza Formation of the Chalt Volcanic Group contains the youngest mafic volcanic rocks of the intraoceanic arc. Although coeval with the Ghizar Formation of the Chalt Volcanic Group, they were generated by melting of a depleted, spinel-bearing mantle source rock and were erupted into a spatially and temporally restricted back-arc basin developed behind the volcanic front. The Chalt Volcanic Group was therefore formed from two different, adjacent, mantle source regions active at the same time. Results of REE modelling are consistent with models for intraoceanic arc formation in which the earliest volcanic rocks are derived from shallow level spinel-bearing peridotite, and later ones from a deeper garnet-bearing source. This is consistent with the melt region becoming deeper with time as subduction continues. A two-stage model is proposed for the back-arc basalts of the Hunza Formation in which a mantle source, depleted from a previous melting event, is underplated beneath the arc and later remelted during decompression as a consequence of extension and rifting of the arc

    The role of the narrator in narrative inquiry in education: construction and co-construction in two case studies

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    This paper explores narratives as an effective means of capturing multiple identities of research participants in complex social environments in education research. In doing so, it explores the role of the narrator in two case studies in two modes of narrative inquiry. Both studies present narratives of young people, focusing on multiple identities which are influenced by a variety of cultural and sub-cultural contexts which the participants inhabit to varying degrees. In the first case study, the researcher is the narrator; in the second, it is the research participants. The paper uses the two case studies to discuss three challenging areas in narrative research: participant voice, contextual complexities and researcher positionality and how the researcher responds to these challenges through construction and co-construction of the narratives. The authors share their strategies for addressing these three challenges in relation to the role of the narrator

    Rule-based interactive assisted reinforcement learning

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    Reinforcement Learning (RL) has seen increasing interest over the past few years, partially owing to breakthroughs in the digestion and application of external information. The use of external information results in improved learning speeds and solutions to more complex domains. This thesis, a collection of five key contributions, demonstrates that comparable performance gains to existing Interactive Reinforcement Learning methods can be achieved using less data, sourced during operation, and without prior verifcation and validation of the information's integrity. First, this thesis introduces Assisted Reinforcement Learning (ARL), a collective term referring to RL methods that utilise external information to leverage the learning process, and provides a non-exhaustive review of current ARL methods. Second, two advice delivery methods common in ARL, evaluative and informative, are compared through human trials. The comparison highlights how human engagement, accuracy of advice, agent performance, and advice utility differ between the two methods. Third, this thesis introduces simulated users as a methodology for testing and comparing ARL methods. Simulated users enable testing and comparing of ARL systems without costly and time-consuming human trials. While not a replacement for well-designed human trials, simulated users offer a cheap and robust approach to ARL design and comparison. Fourth, the concept of persistence is introduced to Interactive Reinforcement Learning. The retention and reuse of advice maximises utility and can lead to improved performance and reduced human demand. Finally, this thesis presents rule-based interactive RL, an iterative method for providing advice to an agent. Existing interactive RL methods rely on constant human supervision and evaluation, requiring a substantial commitment from the advice-giver. Rule-based advice can be provided proactively and be generalised over the state-space while remaining flexible enough to handle potentially inaccurate or irrelevant information. Ultimately, the thesis contributions are validated empirically and clearly show that rule-based advice signicantly reduces human guidance requirements while improving agent performance.Doctor of Pholosoph

    Human Engagement Providing Evaluative and Informative Advice for Interactive Reinforcement Learning

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    Reinforcement learning is an approach used by intelligent agents to autonomously learn new skills. Although reinforcement learning has been demonstrated to be an effective learning approach in several different contexts, a common drawback exhibited is the time needed in order to satisfactorily learn a task, especially in large state-action spaces. To address this issue, interactive reinforcement learning proposes the use of externally-sourced information in order to speed up the learning process. Up to now, different information sources have been used to give advice to the learner agent, among them human-sourced advice. When interacting with a learner agent, humans may provide either evaluative or informative advice. From the agent's perspective these styles of interaction are commonly referred to as reward-shaping and policy-shaping respectively. Evaluation requires the human to provide feedback on the prior action performed, while informative advice they provide advice on the best action to select for a given situation. Prior research has focused on the effect of human-sourced advice on the interactive reinforcement learning process, specifically aiming to improve the learning speed of the agent, while reducing the engagement with the human. This work presents an experimental setup for a human-trial designed to compare the methods people use to deliver advice in term of human engagement. Obtained results show that users giving informative advice to the learner agents provide more accurate advice, are willing to assist the learner agent for a longer time, and provide more advice per episode. Additionally, self-evaluation from participants using the informative approach has indicated that the agent's ability to follow the advice is higher, and therefore, they feel their own advice to be of higher accuracy when compared to people providing evaluative advice.Comment: 33 pages, 15 figure

    Unicycling and identity : narratives of motivation in young riders

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    This ethnographic study explores the unusual, lifestyle sport of unicycling with a particular focus on young riders. It arises from the author's own immersion in a unicycling culture over some 8 years, and from answers to the 3, primarily educational, questions which this involvement prompted; these concern concepts of motivation; identity; and ach/evemenf. The questions themselves provide the basis tor tne design oT tne study ana tne consequent analysis or data

    Optimisation of the PFC functional

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    In this thesis we develop and analyse gradient-fl ow type algorithms for minimising the Phase Field Crystal (PFC) functional. The PFC model was introduced by Elder et al [EKHG02] as a simple method for crystal simulation over long time-scales. The PFC model has been used to simulate many physical phenomena including liquid-solid transitions, grain boundaries, dislocations and stacking faults and is an area of active physics and numerical analysis research. We consider three continuous gradient fl ows for the PFC functional, the L2-, H-1- and H2-gradient fl ows. The H-1-gradient flow, known as the PFC equation, is the typical flow used for the PFC model. The L2-gradient flow is known as the Swift-Hohenberg equation. The H2-gradient ow appears to be a novel feature of this thesis and will motivate our development of a line search algorithm. We analyse two methods of time discretisation for our gradient fl ows. Firstly, we develop a steepest descent algorithm based on the H2-gradient fl ow. We further develop a convex-concave splitting of the PFC functional, recently proposed by Elsey and Wirth [EW13], to discretise the L2- and H-1-gradient flows. We are able to prove energy stability of both our steepest descent algorithm and the convex-concave splitting scheme of [EW13]. We then use the Lojasiewicz gradient inequality (first developed in [ Loj62]) to prove that all three schemes converge to equilibrium. For numerical simulations we undertake spatial discretisation of our schemes using Fourier spectral methods. We consider a number of implementation issues for our fully discrete algorithms including a striking issue that occurs when the number of spatial grid points is low. We then perform several numerical tests which indicate that our new steepest descent algorithm performs well compared with the schemes of [EW13] and even compared with a Newton type scheme (the trust region method)

    Effective leadership in multi-ethnic schools: school community perspectives and their leadership implications

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    A project report for the National College for School Leadership, exploring issues of effective leadership in ethnically diverse schools. The paper collates the views of school leaders, staff, students and community representatives

    Pericytes:The lung-forgotten cell type

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    Pericytes are a heterogeneous population of mesenchymal cells located on the abluminal surface of microvessels, where they provide structural and biochemical support. Pericytes have been implicated in numerous lung diseases including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and allergic asthma due to their ability to differentiate into scar-forming myofibroblasts, leading to collagen deposition and matrix remodelling and thus driving tissue fibrosis. Pericyte-extracellular matrix interactions as well as other biochemical cues play crucial roles in these processes. In this review, we give an overview of lung pericytes, the key pro-fibrotic mediators they interact with, and detail recent advances in preclinical studies on how pericytes are disrupted and contribute to lung diseases including PAH, allergic asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Several recent studies using mouse models of PAH have demonstrated that pericytes contribute to these pathological events; efforts are currently underway to mitigate pericyte dysfunction in PAH by targeting the TGF-β, CXCR7, and CXCR4 signalling pathways. In allergic asthma, the dissociation of pericytes from the endothelium of blood vessels and their migration towards inflamed areas of the airway contribute to the characteristic airway remodelling observed in allergic asthma. Although several factors have been suggested to influence this migration such as TGF-β, IL-4, IL-13, and periostin, recent evidence points to the CXCL12/CXCR4 pathway as a potential therapeutic target. Pericytes might also play an essential role in lung dysfunction in response to ageing, as they are responsive to environmental risk factors such as cigarette smoke and air pollutants, which are the main drivers of COPD. However, there is currently no direct evidence delineating the contribution of pericytes to COPD pathology. Although there is a lack of human clinical data, the recent available evidence derived from in vitro and animal-based models shows that pericytes play important roles in the initiation and maintenance of chronic lung diseases and are amenable to pharmacological interventions. Therefore, further studies in this field are required to elucidate if targeting pericytes can treat lung diseases.</p

    Targeting Inflammatory Mediator Signalling in Pericytes to Resolve Tissue Fibrosis

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    The migration of pericytes from the vasculature towards the inflamed airway is a key contributor to airway remodelling, a hallmark of allergic asthma. However, the mechanisms contributing to this event are not yet known. Various growth factors, cytokines and matrikines have been linked to airway remodelling or allergic asthma, although how they interact with pericytes and effect their migration is yet to be determined. These factors may be useful, druggable targets for future asthma treatments. Pericyte migration was observed via Transwell and scratch assays and the expression of indicators of fibrosis including periostin and N-cadherin were assessed via immunostaining and ELISA and the IL-13 inhibitor cinnamaldehyde was explored as a drug to target this migration. In order to better observe pericyte uncoupling from endothelial cells and their subsequent migration, 3D co-cultures of pericytes and endothelial cells were constructed via magnetic levitation and analysed using immunostaining. As an in vivo corollary, the house dust mite mouse model of allergic asthma was utilised and lung tissue, tracheobronchial whole mounts, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and whole lung digests were harvested and used to assess the effect of the CXCL12 neutraligand LIT-927 on airway remodelling. The results demonstrate increased pericyte migration following treatment with TGF-β, EGF or periostin and under inflammatory conditions in vivo. The impact of periostin was further explored, with the expression of periostin by pericytes increased by TGF-β and periostin secretion driven by IL-13, which was successfully inhibited with cinnamaldehyde treatment. Spheroids of pericytes and endothelial cells were successfully constructed, although further optimisation of the staining method is needed. CXCL12 neutralization with LIT-927 was found to reduce symptoms of respiratory distress and impede the uncoupling of pericytes while not affecting the immune response or the expression of CXCR4 on pericytes. Overall, cinnamaldehyde and LIT-927 are promising future drugs for treating allergic asthma
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