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

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

Service Quality from the Other Side: Information Systems Management at Duquesne Light

Service organizations are continuously endeavoring to improve their quality of service as it is of paramount importance to them. Despite the importance of understanding the relationship of service quality and information systems, this research has not been pursued extensively. This study has addressed this gap in the research literature and studied how information systems impacts service quality. A research model is developed based on IS success model. System quality, information quality, user IT characteristics, employee IT performance and technical support are identified as important elements that influence service quality. An in-depth case study from the electric utility industry is used to investigate the impact