The Design and Construction of a Radio Telescope

Two architectural engineering students and an electrical engineering student worked together to design and build a radio telescope that is capable of using hydrogen line astronomy to map the galaxy. The telescope is made entirely out of aluminum, which, combined with small deflection limits, made for an iterative design process that focused primarily on constructability and supporting the desired outcomes of the electrical side

The usage of Arabic in the Durban metropolitan municipality area : finding possible ways and means of enhancing its usage and status.

Thesis (M.A.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.This dissertation is an investigation of the status and the extent to which the Arabic language is put to use in the Durban Metropolitan Area in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. A quantitative socio-linguistic overview of the Arabic language at the grassroots level is the main aim of this study. The study examines the Arabic language by placing it against a wide frame of reference and compels the researcher to place it in a broader comparative perspective with other dominant languages in Durban. As we have reached a decade of explicit vocabulary development in linguistics, it seems appropriate to reflect on the power of language to express modern discourse in demonstrating the parameters in which the Arabic language is maintained in Durban. When South Africa became a fully independent democratic state in 1994, all languages were liberated. The challenge for Arabic language practice and policy makes for a wider frame of reference for the promotion of the Arabic language in emancipation. The phenomenon that is relevant to the study is researched for the particular situation under investigation. Within this framework the data collection techniques, namely, interviewing, observation and questionnaires were used to gather information. While the secondary data was taken from research done by Arabic scholars and Arabic language promoters, the primary data was gathered from residents of Durban. The primary data was then analyzed and the extent to which the Arabic language is put to use is presented

Optimizing the compactness of political districts in Oklahoma

This work explores a mathematical optimization model to determine the optimal political districts for a state. Originally created in 1965 by Hess et al, the model assigns each population unit (such as a county) in the state to a population unit that is designated by the model to be the district center. In this way, it determines optimally compact political districts. Compactness is based on two constraints: the distance between a population unit and the population unit that is its potential district center, and the population of each county.This work applies the Hess model to Oklahoma, using Python and Gurobi to implement the model. ArcMap was used to visualize the results of this implementation. In addition to applying the Hess model to Oklahoma, this work explores the effect of population bound variations in each district. Political districts should be as equal as possible, especially congressional districts (the focus of this research). However, this model does not allow exact equality. Therefore, experimentation was required to determine the level of population equality that also allowed the districts to be connected (another requirement of political districts). In addition, visual compactness is compared with population-weighted compactness. Because the population is a variable included in the objective function, it has a significant effect on the results of the model. If population is removed from the objective function, the district compactness is defined entirely by distance.Through my research, I created a Python program that calculated optimal political district centers for Oklahoma and assigned each county in Oklahoma to its ideal center based on distance between and population of the counties. I also created a map in ArcGIS to visualize the districts created from this program. In addition, I experimented with the parameters and constraints included in the program to determine their effect on the districting solution.Lew Wentz FoundationIndustrial Engineering and Managemen

Help seeking behaviour and risk in the context of female fertility

Parenthood is a life goal desired by the majority of young people. However, not all couples who desire a pregnancy will achieve one spontaneously and a proportion of couples will need medical help to resolve underlying fertility problems. However previous research has highlighted a lack of fertility awareness in the general population. The aim of the studies to be presented in this thesis was to better understand help seeking behaviour in the context of fertility problems, establish risk factors associated with fertility potential, and identify targets for public health campaigns to improve fertility health related behaviour. The results from the current set of studies demonstrated that infertility is a prevalent problem in society with around 9% of the adult population affected. Given that parenthood is a desired goal by the majority of adults, it was therefore surprising to find that on average just over 50% of people with fertility problems seek any medical advice or care with an even smaller number receiving treatments. A key factor associated with fertility self-care and the initiation of treatment (when needed) was knowledge about fertility and the potential for successful treatment because such knowledge helps people take care of their fertility and reduces fear of diagnosis if a problem conceiving arises. Although young people (future parents) know that negative lifestyle factors can reduce fertility, they falsely believe in fertility myths and the power of being healthy. Finally, the risk factors associated with reduced female fertility potential were established. The majority of these risk factors have the ability to be modified and even prevented and thus offer the opportunity to develop a tool for women to assess their own fertility potential, and take more responsibility and control over their fertility health. Overall, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates that raising public awareness about fertility health issues is key in helping women understand that their current actions can impact on their future life goals and to help those experiencing fertility problems to act in a timely manner to seek the medical advice and help they may require.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Help seeking behaviour and risk in the context of female fertility

Parenthood is a life goal desired by the majority of young people. However, not all couples who desire a pregnancy will achieve one spontaneously and a proportion of couples will need medical help to resolve underlying fertility problems. However previous research has highlighted a lack of fertility awareness in the general population. The aim of the studies to be presented in this thesis was to better understand help seeking behaviour in the context of fertility problems, establish risk factors associated with fertility potential, and identify targets for public health campaigns to improve fertility health related behaviour. The results from the current set of studies demonstrated that infertility is a prevalent problem in society with around 9% of the adult population affected. Given that parenthood is a desired goal by the majority of adults, it was therefore surprising to find that on average just over 50% of people with fertility problems seek any medical advice or care with an even smaller number receiving treatments. A key factor associated with fertility self-care and the initiation of treatment (when needed) was knowledge about fertility and the potential for successful treatment because such knowledge helps people take care of their fertility and reduces fear of diagnosis if a problem conceiving arises. Although young people (future parents) know that negative lifestyle factors can reduce fertility, they falsely believe in fertility myths and the power of being healthy. Finally, the risk factors associated with reduced female fertility potential were established. The majority of these risk factors have the ability to be modified and even prevented and thus offer the opportunity to develop a tool for women to assess their own fertility potential, and take more responsibility and control over their fertility health. Overall, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates that raising public awareness about fertility health issues is key in helping women understand that their current actions can impact on their future life goals and to help those experiencing fertility problems to act in a timely manner to seek the medical advice and help they may require

How can we augment the few that remain? Using stable population dynamics to aid reintroduction planning of an iteroparous species

Restoration of depleted populations is an important method in biological conservation. Reintroduction strategies frequently aim to restore stable, increasing, self-sustaining populations. Knowledge of asymptotic system dynamics may provide advantage in selecting reintroduction strategies. We introduce interactive software that is designed to identify strategies for release of females that are immediately aligned with stable population dynamics from species represented by 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-stage life history strategies. The software allows managers to input a matrix of interest, the desired number of breeding females, and the desired management timeline, and calls upon stable population theory to give release strategies that are in concert with both stable population status and the management goals. We demonstrate how the software can aid in assessing various strategies ahead of a hypothetical restoration. For the purpose of demonstration of the tool only, we use published vital rates of an ungulate species, but remark that the selection of species for demonstration is not central to the use of this tool. Adaption of this tool to real-life restorations of any 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-stage iteroparous species may aid in understanding how to minimize undesirable recovery complications that may naturally arise from transient population dynamics. The software is freely available at: https//cwhl.vet.cornell.edu/tools/stapopd

The Armadillo Repeat Protein PF16 Is Essential for Flagellar Structure and Function in Plasmodium Male Gametes

Malaria, caused by the apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium, threatens 40% of the world\u27s population. Transmission between vertebrate and insect hosts depends on the sexual stages of the life-cycle. The male gamete of Plasmodium parasite is the only developmental stage that possesses a flagellum. Very little is known about the identity or function of proteins in the parasite\u27s flagellar biology. Here, we characterise a Plasmodium PF16 homologue using reverse genetics in the mouse malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei. PF16 is a conserved Armadillo-repeat protein that regulates flagellar structure and motility in organisms as diverse as green algae and mice. We show that P. berghei PF16 is expressed in the male gamete flagellum, where it plays a crucial role maintaining the correct microtubule structure in the central apparatus of the axoneme as studied by electron microscopy. Disruption of the PF16 gene results in abnormal flagellar movement and reduced fertility, but does not lead to complete sterility, unlike pf16 mutations in other organisms. Using homology modelling, bioinformatics analysis and complementation studies in Chlamydomonas, we show that some regions of the PF16 protein are highly conserved across all eukaryotes, whereas other regions may have species-specific functions. PF16 is the first ARM-repeat protein characterised in the malaria parasite genus Plasmodium and this study opens up a novel model for analysis of Plasmodium flagellar biology that may provide unique insights into an ancient organelle and suggest novel intervention strategies to control the malaria parasite

Assessing the applicability of terrestrial laser scanning for mapping englacial conduits

his is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is included and the original work is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.The morphology of englacial drainage networks and their temporal evolution are poorly characterised, particularly within cold ice masses. At present, direct observations of englacial channels are restricted in both spatial and temporal resolution. Through novel use of a terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) system, the interior geometry of an englacial channel in Austre Brøggerbreen, Svalbard, was reconstructed and mapped. Twenty-eight laser scan surveys were conducted in March 2016, capturing the glacier surface around a moulin entrance and the uppermost 122 m reach of the adjoining conduit. The resulting point clouds provide detailed 3-D visualisation of the channel with point accuracy of 6.54 mm, despite low (<60%) overall laser returns as a result of the physical and optical properties of the clean ice, snow, hoar frost and sediment surfaces forming the conduit interior. These point clouds are used to map the conduit morphology, enabling extraction of millimetre-to-centimetre scale geometric measurements. The conduit meanders at a depth of 48 m, with a sinuosity of 2.7, exhibiting teardrop shaped cross-section morphology. This improvement upon traditional surveying techniques demonstrates the potential of TLS as an investigative tool to elucidate the nature of glacier hydrological networks, through reconstruction of channel geometry and wall composition.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: explaining the 'inverse intervention law'

Attempts to record, understand and respond to variations in child welfare and protection reporting, service patterns and outcomes are international, numerous and longstanding. Reframing such variations as an issue of inequity between children and between families opens the way to a new approach to explaining the profound difference in intervention rates between and within countries and administrative districts. Recent accounts of variation have frequently been based on the idea that there is a binary division between bias and risk (or need). Here we propose seeing supply (bias) and demand (risk) factors as two aspects of a single system, both framed, in part, by social structures. A recent finding from a study of intervention rates in England, the 'inverse intervention law', is used to illustrate the complex ways in which a range of factors interact to produce intervention rates. In turn, this analysis raises profound moral, policy, practice and research questions about current child welfare and child protection services

Implementation of exon arrays: alternative splicing during T-cell proliferation as determined by whole genome analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The contribution of alternative splicing and isoform expression to cellular response is emerging as an area of considerable interest, and the newly developed exon arrays allow for systematic study of these processes. We use this pilot study to report on the feasibility of exon array implementation looking to replace the 3' <it>in vitro </it>transcription expression arrays in our laboratory.</p> <p>One of the most widely studied models of cellular response is T-cell activation from exogenous stimulation. Microarray studies have contributed to our understanding of key pathways activated during T-cell stimulation. We use this system to examine whole genome transcription and alternate exon usage events that are regulated during lymphocyte proliferation in an attempt to evaluate the exon arrays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Peripheral blood mononuclear cells form healthy donors were activated using phytohemagglutinin, IL2 and ionomycin and harvested at 5 points over a 7 day period. Flow cytometry measured cell cycle events and the Affymetrix exon array platform was used to identify the gene expression and alternate exon usage changes. Gene expression changes were noted in a total of 2105 transcripts, and alternate exon usage identified in 472 transcript clusters. There was an overlap of 263 transcripts which showed both differential expression and alternate exon usage over time. Gene ontology enrichment analysis showed a broader range of biological changes in biological processes for the differentially expressed genes, which include cell cycle, cell division, cell proliferation, chromosome segregation, cell death, component organization and biogenesis and metabolic process ontologies. The alternate exon usage ontological enrichments are in metabolism and component organization and biogenesis. We focus on alternate exon usage changes in the transcripts of the spliceosome complex. The real-time PCR validation rates were 86% for transcript expression and 71% for alternate exon usage.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study illustrates that the Exon array technology has the potential to provide information on both transcript expression and isoform usage, with very little increase in expense.</p