Geolinguistics: The Incorporation of Geographic Information Systems and Science

Modern geographic information systems (GIS) and its incorporated spatial analysis tools allow sophisticated and efficient analysis of spatial data by researchers in many fields . Although the field of linguistics has long been of interest to geographers and spatial variation of language to linguists, researchers have made little use of the power of GIS and GIScience theory to address hypotheses regarding spatial variation of language and correlated physical and social variables . Discussion of modern GIS tools for spatial analysis, quantitative analysis, and cartography in geolinguistics has been largely absent from the literature . Linguists have applied GIS technology in language atlases, including recent on-line atlases; however, analytic and data processing capabilities are seldom discussed . Following a review of geolinguistics work incorporating GIS, this article discusses potentially useful GIS tools and techniques for geolinguistics . The article concludes with reflection on the future role of GIS in geolinguistic thought and practic

Single Injection Earth Return Trajectory Options for Small Spacecraft Missions to the Moon

There exist several classes of high energy trajectories that are injected from Earth centered orbits to deep space destinations and return to the vicinity of the Earth sometime later due to the direct influence of a third body perturbation. These trajectories can be designed to flyby the moon or near Earth asteroids and comets. The appealing characteristic of these trajectories is that they require a single injection maneuver at the Earth and no further translational control thereafter. A spacecraft on such a trajectory can take observations and measurements of the flyby body and download the data once it returns to the vicinity of the Earth. The return trajectory could place the spacecraft into a direct reentry path through the Earth\u27s atmosphere or an elliptical or hyperbolic Earth flyby that will be completely passive since no maneuvers are made. This type of trajectory is applicable to passive spacecraft missions such as student built micro satellites that have no on board propulsion for attitude or translational control. Issues addressed are the dispersions in the return trajectory due to errors in the injection maneuver and other orbit parameters. The characteristics of an Earth return lunar flyby mission for small satellites are discussed

Mafin: Enhancing Black-Box Embeddings with Model Augmented Fine-Tuning

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as an effective solution for mitigating hallucinations in Large Language Models (LLMs). The retrieval stage in RAG typically involves a pre-trained embedding model, which converts queries and passages into vectors to capture their semantics. However, a standard pre-trained embedding model may exhibit sub-optimal performance when applied to specific domain knowledge, necessitating fine-tuning. This paper addresses scenarios where the embeddings are only available from a black-box model. We introduce Model augmented fine-tuning (Mafin) -- a novel approach for fine-tuning a black-box embedding model by augmenting it with a trainable embedding model. Our results demonstrate that Mafin significantly enhances the performance of the black-box embeddings by only requiring the training of a small augmented model. We validate the effectiveness of our method on both labeled and unlabeled datasets, illustrating its broad applicability and efficiency

Preventing noise-induced hearing loss with a novel pharmaceutical

A targeted catalase, packaged and delivered via exosomes intranasally, provides protection for cochlear cells against oxidative stress, the kind of stress that results from loud noise exposure. It is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and does not result in negative outcomes elsewhere in the body.https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/brainscanresearchsummaries/1005/thumbnail.jp

Testability Properties of Divergent Trees

The testability of a class of regular circuits calleddivergent trees is investigated under a functional fault model. Divergent trees include such practical circuits as decoders anddemultiplexers. We prove that uncontrolled divergent trees aretestable with a fixed number of test patterns (C-testable) if andonly if the module function is surjective. Testable controlled treesare also surjective but require sensitizing vectors for errorpropagation. We derive the conditions for testing controlleddivergent trees with a test set whose size is proportional to thenumber of levels p found in the tree (L-testability). By viewing a tree as overlapping arrays of various types, we also deriveconditions for a controlled divergent tree to be C-testable. Typicaldecoders/demultiplexers are shown to only partially satisfy L- andC-testability conditions but a design modification that ensuresL-testability is demonstrated.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43009/1/10836_2004_Article_146935.pd

Propionibacterium acnes bacteriophages display limited genetic diversity and broad killing activity against bacterial skin isolates.

UnlabelledInvestigation of the human microbiome has revealed diverse and complex microbial communities at distinct anatomic sites. The microbiome of the human sebaceous follicle provides a tractable model in which to study its dominant bacterial inhabitant, Propionibacterium acnes, which is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of the human disease acne. To explore the diversity of the bacteriophages that infect P. acnes, 11 P. acnes phages were isolated from the sebaceous follicles of donors with healthy skin or acne and their genomes were sequenced. Comparative genomic analysis of the P. acnes phage population, which spans a 30-year temporal period and a broad geographic range, reveals striking similarity in terms of genome length, percent GC content, nucleotide identity (>85%), and gene content. This was unexpected, given the far-ranging diversity observed in virtually all other phage populations. Although the P. acnes phages display a broad host range against clinical isolates of P. acnes, two bacterial isolates were resistant to many of these phages. Moreover, the patterns of phage resistance correlate closely with the presence of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat elements in the bacteria that target a specific subset of phages, conferring a system of prokaryotic innate immunity. The limited diversity of the P. acnes bacteriophages, which may relate to the unique evolutionary constraints imposed by the lipid-rich anaerobic environment in which their bacterial hosts reside, points to the potential utility of phage-based antimicrobial therapy for acne.ImportancePropionibacterium acnes is a dominant member of the skin microflora and has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of acne; however, little is known about the bacteriophages that coexist with and infect this bacterium. Here we present the novel genome sequences of 11 P. acnes phages, thereby substantially increasing the amount of available genomic information about this phage population. Surprisingly, we find that, unlike other well-studied bacteriophages, P. acnes phages are highly homogeneous and show a striking lack of genetic diversity, which is perhaps related to their unique and restricted habitat. They also share a broad ability to kill clinical isolates of P. acnes; phage resistance is not prevalent, but when detected, it appears to be conferred by chromosomally encoded immunity elements within the host genome. We believe that these phages display numerous features that would make them ideal candidates for the development of a phage-based therapy for acne

Report of the Nova Scotia Independent Panel on Hydraulic Fracturing

On August 28, 2013, the Province of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Department of Energy signed an agreement with the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment at Cape Breton University to conduct an external review on the environmental, socio-economic, and health impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Simultaneously, Dr. David Wheeler, President and Vice Chancellor of Cape Breton University, was asked to convene and Chair the review and expert panel on a voluntary and unpaid basis.1 The mandate for the review was to: create a panel of technical experts based on input from the public and hire technical consultant(s) to facilitate the work of the panel; hire a part-time project administrator; conduct public consultations on the process of hydraulic fracturing with online tools and face-to-face meetings with stakeholders; and conduct a literature review on the health and socio-economic impacts of hydraulic fracturing. These activities would result in a final report to the Government of Nova Scotia with recommendations on the potential of hydraulic fracturing to develop unconventional gas and oil resources in the Province. The scope of work included, but was not limited to, the following areas of research: effects on groundwater - including both water quality and quantity issues; effects on surface water; impacts on land; management of additives to hydraulic fracturing fluids; waste management; site restoration; requirements for hydraulic fracturing design including chemicals used; and the engineered design and financial security considerations that operators are required prior to conducting activity in the Province. The intended outcome for the project was for the Province of Nova Scotia to be able to make an informed decision on the future of hydraulic fracturing activity in Nova Scotia, based on input from technical experts and the public on environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts. The original end date for the review was June 30, 2014, but the deadline was extended until August 31, 2014

Skunk River Review 2010-11, vol 23

Welcome to the 2010-2011 edition of The Skunk River Review! As the new editor of this publication, I was excited to see the number of submissions and the overwhelming enthusiasm of the students. This year\u27s publication includes work from Composition I, Composition II, Literature, and College Resources courses. Whereas The Skunk River Review is academic work that begins in the classroom, it also reflects student\u27s interests. The essays are not edited for MLA format or general errors because the publication is used as a teaching tool in many classrooms.https://openspace.dmacc.edu/skunkriver/1002/thumbnail.jp