A Study of Correctional Officers and Inmates Perception Relevant to Institutional Custody and Treatment

This paper presents an exploratory study of instructional corrections policy in general and the nature of such within one state system in particular. Traditionally, correctional institutions have evolved along two lines of though - custody and treatment. However, the role of the correctional officer has formulated along only one line of though - custody. Due to the all encompassing nature of the correctional officer position, this imbalance prevents, and may even hamper, treatment potential within the institution

Utilizing Phylogenetic and Geochemical Techniques to Examine Echinoderms Through Time

Understanding biotic changes through Earth’s history has been the goal of paleobiology since the inception of the field. Advances in science and technology have progressed allowing us to reassess old questions and new questions that could have not been addressed without these new methods. Echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, etc.) appear in the fossil record during the early Cambrian and are still abundant in marine ecosystems today. This persistence through time has made echinoderms model organisms to answer questions about Earth’s past and present. Despite this role as a model organism there are many questions that remain with respect to evolutionary history and biogeochemistry of echinoderms. The research herein therefore focuses on a combination of phylogenetics and geochemistry. First, I explore the phylogenetics of Paracrinoidea. Paracrinoidea is a clade of Paleozoic echinoderms that exhibit unusual morphologies. These morphologies have hindered our understanding of their phylogenetic relationships and character evolution. This study represents the first rigorous, quantitative phylogenetic analysis of Paracrinoidea. Both a phylogenetic hypothesis and phylomorphospace were generated to inform patterns seen in morphology with an evolutionary perspective. To explore echinoderm geochemistry, I examined major and minor element inclusion in echinoderm skeletal elements from four genera of modern echinoids from the Gulf of Mexico. These echinoids show measurable variation in skeletal composition which indicates a complex relationship between skeletal element growth rate and geochemical composition. These results help inform the utility of fossil echinoderms in geochemical studies and highlights the need for continued study of elemental incorporation in echinoderm skeletal elements. Finally, I explore the geochemistry of fossil echinoderms. Fossilization and diagenetic processes can alter the original chemistry of the fossilized skeletal elements and impact their utility as seawater proxies. This study used both petrographic and geochemical techniques to assess the retention of original chemistry of fossil echinoid skeletal elements. Results highlight the need for caution and petrographic work to determine the retention of original chemistry to assess the utility of echinoderms as proxies. This work highlights the utility of echinoderms as case study organisms and the power of combined analyses to elucidate biotic changes during the Phanerozoic

The Role of Larval Thermal Tolerance in the Distribution of Blue Mussel Species within the Gulf of Maine

Two species of blue mussel, Myrilus edulis and Myrilus trossulus, are sympatric throughout much of the Canadian Maritime Provinces and into the Gulf of Maine. While the distribution of M edulis extends south to the Mid-Atlantic, that of M. trossulus ends abruptly in the Gulf of Maine. I have hypothesized that these differences in adult distribution are the result of species-specific variation in larval thermal tolerances. Previously, it has been shown that when reared at 20 OC, from 36 hour post-fertilization through settlement, M. trossulus had significantly higher mortality rates than M. edulis. This study examined whether species-specific differences in thermal tolerance vary during larval development. Larvae of both species were exposed to three experimental temperatures at three time points during development and growth and mortality were monitored. Larval thermal tolerance for both species changed significantly as a function of age. Instantaneous mortality was highest during the first ten days of development and decreased to the lowest rate during the second ten days of development. Unexpectedly, there were no significant differences in mortality between M. edulis and M. trossulus larvae in any of the age-temperature treatments used in this experiment. These results stand in contrast to those from previous experiments and raise doubt as to whether the steep thermal gradient created by the Eastern Maine Coastal Current limits the distribution of M. trossulus

Selection of reliable reference genes for quantitative real-time PCR in human T cells and neutrophils

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The choice of reliable reference genes is a prerequisite for valid results when analyzing gene expression with real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). This method is frequently applied to study gene expression patterns in immune cells, yet a thorough validation of potential reference genes is still lacking for most leukocyte subtypes and most models of their in vitro stimulation. In the current study, we evaluated the expression stability of common reference genes in two widely used cell culture models-anti-CD3/CD28 activated T cells and lipopolysaccharide stimulated neutrophils-as well as in unselected untreated leukocytes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mRNA expression of 17 (T cells), 7 (neutrophils) or 8 (unselected leukocytes) potential reference genes was quantified by reverse transcription qPCR, and a ranking of the preselected candidate genes according to their expression stability was calculated using the programs NormFinder, geNorm and BestKeeper. <it>IPO8</it>, <it>RPL13A</it>, <it>TBP </it>and <it>SDHA </it>were identified as suitable reference genes in T cells. <it>TBP</it>, <it>ACTB </it>and <it>SDHA </it>were stably expressed in neutrophils. <it>TBP </it>and <it>SDHA </it>were also the most stable genes in untreated total blood leukocytes. The critical impact of reference gene selection on the estimated target gene expression is demonstrated for <it>IL-2 </it>and <it>FIH </it>expression in T cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study provides a shortlist of suitable reference genes for normalization of gene expression data in unstimulated and stimulated T cells, unstimulated and stimulated neutrophils and in unselected leukocytes.</p

Evaluation der Niederfeldkernspintomografie in der Frühdiagnostik der rheumatoiden Arthritis

Niederfeld-MRT ist zur Frühdiagnostik sinnvoll, besonders bei klinisch unklaren Fällen. Durch das geringe FoV können betroffene Gelenke übersehen werden, auch die Interobservervariation ist größer als an Hochfeld-MRT

Berechnung und Anwendungen Approximativer Randbasen

This thesis addresses some of the algorithmic and numerical challenges associated with the computation of approximate border bases, a generalisation of border bases, in the context of the oil and gas industry. The concept of approximate border bases was introduced by D. Heldt, M. Kreuzer, S. Pokutta and H. Poulisse in "Approximate computation of zero-dimensional polynomial ideals" as an effective mean to derive physically relevant polynomial models from measured data. The main advantages of this approach compared to alternative techniques currently in use in the (hydrocarbon) industry are its power to derive polynomial models without additional a priori knowledge about the underlying physical system and its robustness with respect to noise in the measured input data. The so-called Approximate Vanishing Ideal (AVI) algorithm which can be used to compute approximate border bases and which was also introduced by D. Heldt et al. in the paper mentioned above served as a starting point for the research which is conducted in this thesis. A central aim of this work is to broaden the applicability of the AVI algorithm to additional areas in the oil and gas industry, like seismic imaging and the compact representation of unconventional geological structures. For this purpose several new algorithms are developed, among others the so-called Approximate Buchberger Möller (ABM) algorithm and the Extended-ABM algorithm. The numerical aspects and the runtime of the methods are analysed in detail - based on a solid foundation of the underlying mathematical and algorithmic concepts that are also provided in this thesis. It is shown that the worst case runtime of the ABM algorithm is cubic in the number of input points, which is a significant improvement over the biquadratic worst case runtime of the AVI algorithm. Furthermore, we show that the ABM algorithm allows us to exercise more direct control over the essential properties of the computed approximate border basis than the AVI algorithm. The improved runtime and the additional control turn out to be the key enablers for the new industrial applications that are proposed here. As a conclusion to the work on the computation of approximate border bases, a detailed comparison between the approach in this thesis and some other state of the art algorithms is given. Furthermore, this work also addresses one important shortcoming of approximate border bases, namely that central concepts from exact algebra such as syzygies could so far not be translated to the setting of approximate border bases. One way to mitigate this problem is to construct a "close by" exact border bases for a given approximate one. Here we present and discuss two new algorithmic approaches that allow us to compute such close by exact border bases. In the first one, we establish a link between this task, referred to as the rational recovery problem, and the problem of simultaneously quasi-diagonalising a set of complex matrices. As simultaneous quasi-diagonalisation is not a standard topic in numerical linear algebra there are hardly any off-the-shelf algorithms and implementations available that are both fast and numerically adequate for our purposes. To bridge this gap we introduce and study a new algorithm that is based on a variant of the classical Jacobi eigenvalue algorithm, which also works for non-symmetric matrices. As a second solution of the rational recovery problem, we motivate and discuss how to compute a close by exact border basis via the minimisation of a sum of squares expression, that is formed from the polynomials in the given approximate border basis. Finally, several applications of the newly developed algorithms are presented. Those include production modelling of oil and gas fields, reconstruction of the subsurface velocities for simple subsurface geometries, the compact representation of unconventional oil and gas bodies via algebraic surfaces and the stable numerical approximation of the roots of zero-dimensional polynomial ideals

Russische und slowakische Phraseme im Vergleich im Themenbereich Haus- und Nutztiere

Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit vergleicht russische und slowakische Phraseme im Themenbereich Haus- und Nutztiere. Der Aufbau der Arbeit gliedert sich in einen theoretischen und einen praktischen Teil. Im theoretischen Abschnitt werden die Merkmale und eine Definition der Phraseologie ausgearbeitet. Außerdem folgt eine kurze Zusammenfassung der Übersetzungstheorie mit dem Schwerpunkt auf den Problemen bei der Übersetzung von Phrasemen. Ein weiteres Kapitel wird der Entstehung von Phraseologismen gewidmet. Im praktischen Teil werden die Phraseme nach folgenden Kategorien verglichen: totale, partielle Äquivalenz und Nulläquivalenz. Am Ende der Arbeit werden die Ergebnisse in tabellarischer und ausformulierter Form zusammengefasst