Tracking the Trends 2013: 12th Edition

This report contains current and historical demographic and socio-economic data from the Edmonton region. Areas of focus in this report include statistics on education and employment, the cost of living and housing, wages and incomes, poverty, government income supports, social wellbeing, and the demographics of Edmonton

Image Augmentation using Radial Transform for Training Deep Neural Networks

Deep learning models have a large number of free parameters that must be estimated by efficient training of the models on a large number of training data samples to increase their generalization performance. In real-world applications, the data available to train these networks is often limited or imbalanced. We propose a sampling method based on the radial transform in a polar coordinate system for image augmentation to facilitate the training of deep learning models from limited source data. This pixel-wise transform provides representations of the original image in the polar coordinate system by generating a new image from each pixel. This technique can generate radial transformed images up to the number of pixels in the original image to increase the diversity of poorly represented image classes. Our experiments show improved generalization performance in training deep convolutional neural networks with radial transformed images.Comment: This paper is accepted for presentation at IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (IEEE ICASSP), 201

Modulation of macrophage function and immune response by a helminth-derived cysteine protease

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science.Helminth-derived excretory/secretory (ES) products have been demonstrated to mediate the anti-inflammatory/regulatory environment associated with helminth infection (for a review see Allen et al. 2011). The ES products of helminths have been exploited for therapeutic benefit in both murine and human models of autoimmune diseases (Zaccone et al. 2003; Zheng et al. 2008; Motomura et al. 2009; Ruyssers et al. 2009; Johnston et al. 2010; Cancado et al. 2011; Carranza et al. 2012; Kuijk et al. 2012). In our laboratory, the ES products of the liver fluke trematode, Fasciola hepatica, have been shown to prevent autoimmune type 1 diabetes in a murine model (Lund et al. in preparation). Disease prevention was associated with the initiation and perpetuation of anti-inflammatory/regulatory immune responses, including the generation of alternatively activated macrophages, regulatory T cells and regulatory B cell populations (Lund et al. in preparation). Nevertheless, the individual molecular components within the ES responsible for these phenomenon are unknown. Therefore, HPLC fractionation of the ES products of Fasciola hepatica was undertaken. This revealed a number of components with immune-modulatory effects. One of these Fasciola hepatica products is a cysteine protease, cathepsin L1 (FhCL1), and in fact it comprises a large proportion of the total ES products. In mice, FhCL1 suppresses pro-inflammatory immune responses through cleavage of toll-like receptor (TLR)-3, resulting in modulation of cell signalling in peritoneal macrophages (Donnelly et al. 2010). This thesis therefore examines the effect of FhCL1 in human monocyte-derived macrophages. FhCL1 was shown to enhance expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8 in response to lipopolysaccharide. This was associated with the up-regulation of surface CD14, and the activation of TLR4 cell signalling via both the myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88)-dependent and toll-interleukin-1 receptor-domain-containing adaptor-inducing interferon-β (TRIF)-dependent signalling pathways. Furthermore, expression of IL-10 and co-stimulatory molecule CD86 was down-regulated in FhCL1-treated human monocyte-derived macrophages, and this was attributed to suppression of late endosomal TRIF-dependent signalling, with down-regulation of TRAF3. Although, FhCL1 modulated TLR signalling in human and murine macrophages, and suppressed TRIF-dependent signalling in both human and mouse macrophages, FhCL1 enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in human monocyte-derived macrophages. Therefore, FhCL1 modulates immune responses in human monocyte-derived macrophages, albeit differently from murine peritoneal macrophages. Furthermore, while FhCL1 degraded TLR3 in murine peritoneal macrophages, FhCL1 had no effect on TLR3 or TLR4 expression or localisation in human monocyte-derived macrophages. However, treatment with FhCL1 was shown to suppress the uptake of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by human macrophages, which appeared to correlate with altered α-tubulin localisation. Thus suppressed uptake of LPS correlates with the suppression of TRIF-dependent late endosomal signalling. Nanotubes are cellular protrusions which connect cells and are utilised for the transport of cellular components between cells (reviewed in Gerdes et al. 2008; and Gurke et al. 2008). An incidental finding of this study was the observation of nanotubes connecting monocyte-derived macrophages in culture, and the documented trafficking of TLR4 between human macrophages, through these nanotubes. Interestingly, LPS stimulation enhanced the movement of TLR4 into nanotubes, but this was partially suppressed by FhCL1

Conversational Agent: Developing a Model for Intelligent Agents with Transient Emotional States

The inclusion of human characteristics (i.e., emotions, personality) within an intelligent agent can often increase the effectiveness of information delivery and retrieval. Chat-bots offer a plethora of benefits within an eclectic range of disciplines (e.g., education, medicine, clinical and mental health). Hence, chatbots offer an effective way to observe, assess, and evaluate human communication patterns. Current research aims to develop a computational model for conversational agents with an emotional component to be applied to the army leadership training program that will allow for the examination of interpersonal skills in future research. Overall, the current research explores the application of the deep learning algorithm to the development of a generalized framework that will be based upon modeling empathetic conversation between an intelligent conversational agent (chatbot) and a human user in order to allow for higher level observation of interpersonal communication skills. Preliminary results demonstrate the promising potential of the seq2seq technique (e.g., through the use of Dialog Flow Chatbot platform) when applied to emotion-oriented conversational tasks. Both the classification and generative conversational modeling tasks demonstrate the promising potential of the current research for representing human to agent dialogue. However, this implementation may be extended by utilizing, a larger more high-quality dataset

Women in Kingly Genealogies: The Queens, Widows, and Prostitutes that Changed the Story

While there are creative pieces theorizing about Tamar and her inclusion in both David and Jesus’ genealogies, there is a lack of research comparing King David’s genealogy in I Chronicles 2 with the kingly genealogies of the same time. Comparing the two shows that genealogies in the surrounding nations—Assyria, Babylonia, etc.—are lacking women. In contrast, the Old Testament is filled with kingly genealogical records that list and name women. This thesis will touch on the differences and similarities between the kingly records/genealogies, theorize and explore the levirate marriage custom and matrilinear descent, and attempt to provide a better understanding of Tamar and what set Ancient Israelite society apart from the surrounding cultures

Preferred Behavioral Management Strategies of 3rd - 5th Grade Teachers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preferred behavioral management strategies among 3rd - 5th grade teachers. The study explored the main discipline problems that these teachers experience in their classrooms and how they handle them. It also explored the teachers’ opinions of the effectiveness of their preferred behavioral management strategies

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF HYDROFLUOROALKANES, AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF HALOCARBONS TO THE CHLORINE/BROMINE LOADING OF THE ATMOSPHERE

A capillary flow gas viscometer has been used to measure the shear viscosities of the hydrofluoroalkanes HFC 134a, HCFC 123, HCFC 124 and the ternary blend MP 39, at pressures up to 0.1 MPa relative to a nitrogen standard. Having applied small correction factors to the measured flow time data, the resultant viscosities are compared to those obtained by other workers (where possible) using alternative techniques. We calculate self diffusion coefficients and hard sphere collision diameters for the molecules within the rigorous Chapman-Enskog kinetic theory of gases, and calculate optimum well depths of the intermolecular interactions using the Extended Law of Corresponding States. The use of a Stockmayer potential energy function by other workers is discussed and within this, the Mason-Monchick approximation is applied to calculate the percentage effect of the dipole moment on the collision integral. In order to assess the affect to the atmospheric chlorine loading of the hydrochlorofluorocarbons measured above (HCFC 123. HCFC 124 and HCFC 22 in MP 39) as well as other halocarbons currentiy in use, two globally averaged mass balance models have been developed on a workstation spreadsheet to assess the future chlorine and bromine levels in the atmosphere and the sensitivity of those loadings to possible forcing factors. These models use production, growth, lifetime and concentration data for fourteen chlorocarbons and three bromocarbons and allow for characteristic emission profiles according to the use to which the halocarbon is applied. Current international agreement, ie. Montreal Protocol 3, is used as a reference level (in most cases), and the models have been used to assess tiiose scenarios which most influence the peak level of chlorine and bromine attained, when that peak occurs and the period of time before 'safe' levels are reached.The National Engineering Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgo