4,368 research outputs found
Autism genetics: searching for specificity and convergence.
Advances in genetics and genomics have improved our understanding of autism spectrum disorders. As many genes have been implicated, we look to points of convergence among these genes across biological systems to better understand and treat these disorders
Influent Wastewater Microbiota and Temperature Influence Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Microbial Community
Sustainable municipal wastewater recovery scenarios highlight benefits of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs). However, influences of continuous seeding by influent wastewater and temperature on attached-growth AnMBRs are not well understood. In this study, four bench-scale AnMBR operated at 10 and 25 °C were fed synthetic (SPE) and then real (PE) primary effluent municipal wastewater. Illumina sequencing revealed different bacterial communities in each AnMBR in response to temperature and bioreactor configuration, whereas differences were not observed in archaeal communities. Activity assays revealed hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was the dominant methanogenic pathway at 10 °C. The significant relative abundance of Methanosaeta at 10 °C concomitant with low acetoclastic methanogenic activity may indicate possible Methanosaeta-Geobacter direct interspecies electron transfer. When AnMBR feed was changed to PE, continual seeding with wastewater microbiota caused AnMBR microbial communities to shift, becoming more similar to PE microbiota. Therefore, influent wastewater microbiota, temperature and reactor configuration influenced the AnMBR microbial community
SZZ Unleashed: An Open Implementation of the SZZ Algorithm -- Featuring Example Usage in a Study of Just-in-Time Bug Prediction for the Jenkins Project
Numerous empirical software engineering studies rely on detailed information
about bugs. While issue trackers often contain information about when bugs were
fixed, details about when they were introduced to the system are often absent.
As a remedy, researchers often rely on the SZZ algorithm as a heuristic
approach to identify bug-introducing software changes. Unfortunately, as
reported in a recent systematic literature review, few researchers have made
their SZZ implementations publicly available. Consequently, there is a risk
that research effort is wasted as new projects based on SZZ output need to
initially reimplement the approach. Furthermore, there is a risk that newly
developed (closed source) SZZ implementations have not been properly tested,
thus conducting research based on their output might introduce threats to
validity. We present SZZ Unleashed, an open implementation of the SZZ algorithm
for git repositories. This paper describes our implementation along with a
usage example for the Jenkins project, and conclude with an illustrative study
on just-in-time bug prediction. We hope to continue evolving SZZ Unleashed on
GitHub, and warmly invite the community to contribute
A Study Of Single-Phase Flow Through Irregular Miniature Channel Cross-Sectional Geometry And Porous Media
The following thesis discusses the in-depth research pertaining to flow through square and rectangular miniature channels with abrupt expansions, contractions, and flow through porous media. Fifty five previously published sources pertaining to the research were closely examined. A closed flow testing loop was designed, constructed, and calibrated to provide the ability to test a wide variety of single and multi-phase Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in miniature channels. Over 250,000 data points were collected during the study. Single-phase water flow through 1.59 mm aluminum square channels with abrupt 4 to 1 area ratio expansion and contraction were tested for differential pressure at volumetric flow rates ranging from 1-300 ml/min. Sinle-phase water flow through 1.59 x 3.18 mm porous media test sections were also tested for differential pressure at volumetric flow rates ranging from 1-300 ml/min. The flow was driven by a highly accurate and precise syringe pump with 10 individual 0-690 kPa Honeywell pressure transducers reading local pressure at key locations along the channels allowing differential pressure to be calculated for multiple locations. Detailed analysis yielded results for a wide variety of parameters including: required power, required energy, form drag, viscous drag, correction factor selection by determining the onset of turbulence using modified Reynolds numbers, and many other critical details for accurately predicting theoretical differential pressure and overall flow behavior through a variety of miniature channels with abrupt changes in channel cross-sectional area
Snowshoe Hare and Forest Structure Relationships in Western Wyoming
Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) are a critically important prey species for Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis). Determination of snowshoe hare distribution and abundance is needed in western Wyoming for lynx conservation. We used linear regression to examine the correlations between snowshoe hare density, as determined by mark-recapture estimates, and fecal pellet plot counts on both uncleared and annually cleared plots on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, western Wyoming. We found significant correlations between hare density estimates and fecal pellet counts for both uncleared and annually cleared pellet counts; however the relationship was much stronger for annually cleared pellet counts. Adjusting the buffer size by omitting hard habitat edges (not used by hares) around the trapping grids improved correlations between hare density and fecal pellet counts further. We recommend pellet counts from annually cleared plots be used when precise estimates of snowshoe hare abundance are required. Though precision is sacrificed when using uncleared plots, they are useful as a coarse index of habitat use by hares. The derived regression equations should be used to identify foraging habitat for lynx in western Wyoming. In addition to snowshoe hares, in western Wyoming red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and grouse (Bonasa umbellus and Dendragapus obscurus) are used by Canada lynx. Whether young forests or older multi-storied forests contain more snowshoe hares, red squirrels, and grouse in western Wyoming is currently unknown. We estimated snowshoe hare density, and indexed red squirrel and forest grouse abundance in 3 classes of 30-70-year-old lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and 4 classes of mature multi-storied forest with a spruce (Picea engelmannii)-fir (Abies lasiocarpa) component. We recorded landscape and forest structure characteristics to understand how these influence lynx prey abundance. Overall, snowshoe hares, red squirrels, and forest grouse were more abundant in multi-storied forests than young forests. Forest attributes that predicted prey abundance were often more prevalent in multi-storied forests. Results from this study suggest that multi-storied forests with a spruce-fir component were disproportionately important to snowshoe hares, red squirrels, and forest grouse in western Wyoming. Canada lynx conservation efforts should focus on maintaining, enhancing, and promoting multi-storied forests in this region
Design and Evaluation of a Probabilistic Music Projection Interface
We describe the design and evaluation of a probabilistic
interface for music exploration and casual playlist generation.
Predicted subjective features, such as mood and
genre, inferred from low-level audio features create a 34-
dimensional feature space. We use a nonlinear dimensionality
reduction algorithm to create 2D music maps of
tracks, and augment these with visualisations of probabilistic
mappings of selected features and their uncertainty.
We evaluated the system in a longitudinal trial in users’
homes over several weeks. Users said they had fun with the
interface and liked the casual nature of the playlist generation.
Users preferred to generate playlists from a local
neighbourhood of the map, rather than from a trajectory,
using neighbourhood selection more than three times more
often than path selection. Probabilistic highlighting of subjective
features led to more focused exploration in mouse
activity logs, and 6 of 8 users said they preferred the probabilistic
highlighting mode
Models for construction of multivariate dependence
In this article we review models for construction of higher-dimensional dependence that have arisen recent years. A multivariate data set, which exhibit complex patterns of dependence, particularly in the tails, can be modelled using a cascade of lower-dimensional copulae. We examine two such models that differ in their construction of the dependency structure, namely the nested Archimedean constructions and the pair-copula constructions (also referred to as vines). The constructions are compared, and estimation- and simulation techniques are examined. The fit of the two constructions is tested on two different four-dimensional data sets; precipitation values and equity returns, using a state of the art copula goodness-of-fit procedure. The nested Archimedean construction is strongly rejected for both our data sets, while the pair-copula construction provides an appropriate fit. Through VaR calculations, we show that the latter does not overfit data, but works very well even out-of-sample
Bubbly Turbulent Drag Reduction Is a Boundary Layer Effect
In turbulent Taylor-Couette flow, the injection of bubbles reduces the overall drag. On the other hand, rough walls enhance the overall drag. In this work, we inject bubbles into turbulent Taylor-Couette flow with rough walls (with a Reynolds number up to 4×105), finding an enhancement of the dimensionless drag as compared to the case without bubbles. The dimensional drag is unchanged. As in the rough-wall case no smooth boundary layers can develop, the results demonstrate that bubbly drag reduction is a pure boundary layer effec
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