Active templates: Manipulating pointers with pictures

Active templates are a semi-automatic visual mechanism for generating algorithms for manipulating pointer-based data structures. The programmer creates a picture showing the affected part of a data structure before and after a general-case manipulation. Code for the operation is compiled directly from the picture, which also provides the development environment with enough information to generate, automatically, a series of templates for other similar pictures, each describing a different configuration which the data structure may possess. The programmer completes the algorithm by creating matching after-pictures for each of these cases. At every stage, most of the picture-generation is automatic. Much of the tedious detail of conventional pointer-based data-structure manipulation, such as maintenance of current pointers, is unnecessary in a system based on active templates

Detecting early signs of depressive and manic episodes in patients with bipolar disorder using the signature-based model

Recurrent major mood episodes and subsyndromal mood instability cause substantial disability in patients with bipolar disorder. Early identification of mood episodes enabling timely mood stabilisation is an important clinical goal. Recent technological advances allow the prospective reporting of mood in real time enabling more accurate, efficient data capture. The complex nature of these data streams in combination with challenge of deriving meaning from missing data mean pose a significant analytic challenge. The signature method is derived from stochastic analysis and has the ability to capture important properties of complex ordered time series data. To explore whether the onset of episodes of mania and depression can be identified using self-reported mood data.Comment: 12 pages, 3 tables, 10 figure

LoCoH: nonparameteric kernel methods for constructing home ranges and utilization distributions.

Parametric kernel methods currently dominate the literature regarding the construction of animal home ranges (HRs) and utilization distributions (UDs). These methods frequently fail to capture the kinds of hard boundaries common to many natural systems. Recently a local convex hull (LoCoH) nonparametric kernel method, which generalizes the minimum convex polygon (MCP) method, was shown to be more appropriate than parametric kernel methods for constructing HRs and UDs, because of its ability to identify hard boundaries (e.g., rivers, cliff edges) and convergence to the true distribution as sample size increases. Here we extend the LoCoH in two ways: "fixed sphere-of-influence," or r-LoCoH (kernels constructed from all points within a fixed radius r of each reference point), and an "adaptive sphere-of-influence," or a-LoCoH (kernels constructed from all points within a radius a such that the distances of all points within the radius to the reference point sum to a value less than or equal to a), and compare them to the original "fixed-number-of-points," or k-LoCoH (all kernels constructed from k-1 nearest neighbors of root points). We also compare these nonparametric LoCoH to parametric kernel methods using manufactured data and data collected from GPS collars on African buffalo in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Our results demonstrate that LoCoH methods are superior to parametric kernel methods in estimating areas used by animals, excluding unused areas (holes) and, generally, in constructing UDs and HRs arising from the movement of animals influenced by hard boundaries and irregular structures (e.g., rocky outcrops). We also demonstrate that a-LoCoH is generally superior to k- and r-LoCoH (with software for all three methods available at http://locoh.cnr.berkeley.edu)

WINNING WITHOUT WARRING?: THE GEOSTRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS OF CHINA'S FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS ON SOUTHEAST ASIA AND SOUTH CHINA SEA SOVEREIGNTY DISPUTES

Convention holds that China’s deepening investments and growing trade imbalances in Southeast Asian countries has increased regional economic dependency on China. Less clear is whether increased Chinese investments have softened Southeast Asia’s positions toward China in general, and specifically, on South China Sea (SCS) sovereignty disputes. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of China's Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI), this thesis examines whether a correlation exists between China’s investments in key Southeast Asia states and achieving a favorable, China-advantaged position on both. China’s investments in Southeast Asia have transformed from securing energy and mineral resources prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), to focused infrastructure investments post-GFC. This shift is emblematic of China’s imperative to export industrial overcapacity and to leverage vast foreign currency reserves to satiate structural economic inefficiencies. This manifested in quantum BRI and OFDI expenditures to the region - and in mutual, economic dependencies between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, these investments have not been uniformly embraced across states, nor across domestic political power lines; pitting central government zeal for politico-economic rent seeking against provincial and local power brokers who are crowded out of the inclusive economic benefits of private sector participation, labor, and revenue generation. This dichotomy cross-cuts the notion that China’s flood of regional investments yields preferential advantage with recipient states and mollifies SCS sovereignty disputes. In fact, the reverse is true. China’s unilateral action on bilateral SCS issues further emboldens sub-national political opposition who view national-level, elite leaders’ embrace of China’s economic incentives as non-equitable and high risk. China’s BRI and OFDI serve only as a veneer to the underlying complexity that juxtaposes regional states’ economic development and national security as they relate bilaterally to China. China’s SCS assertiveness is countervailing its economic carrots - and steeling regional states against firmly bandwagoning to China’s orbit

The Dominion Range Ice Core, Queen Maud Mountains, Antarctica - General Site and Core Characteristics with Implications

The Transantarctic Mountains of East Antarctica provide a new milieu for retrieval of ice-core records. We report here on the initial findings from the first of these records, the Dominion Range ice-core record. Sites such as the Dominion Range are valuable for the recovery of records detailing climate change, volcanic activity, and changes in the chemistry of the atmosphere. The unique geographic location of this site and a relatively low accumulation rate combine to provide a relatively long record of change for this potentially sensitive climatic region. As such, information concerning the site and general core characteristics are presented, including ice surface, ice thickness, bore-hole temperature, mean annual net accumulation, crystal size, crystal fabric, oxygen-isotope composition, and examples of ice chemistry and isotopic composition of trapped gases

Ice-core Records and Ozone Depletion—Potential for a Proxy Ozone Record

Time-series of the ionic composition in polar ice cores can provide detailed direct and proxy records of seasonal to Millenial scale fluctuations in climate, atmospheric chemistry, and volcanic activity. Even though problems of species-source links and air/snow fractionation have not all been entirely resolved,the fact remains that ice cores currently hold the best hope of retrieving detailed paleo-atmospheric records. While direct links between the chemistry in ice cores and the ozone depletion phenomenon cannot be guaranteed, ice-core records provide the only means by which signals related to the ozone cycle can be produced for pre-measurement periods or for unmonitored sites. We propose that measurements of nitrate and/or chloride in polar snow/ice samples may provide proxy records of ozone depletion because of the role these species play in the ozone cycle (e.g., see summary review by Schoeberl and Krueger 1986). Heterogeneous chemical reactions in the ant-arctic atmosphere involving catalyzing agents such as chlorine monoxide, bromine monoxide, and/or nitrogen oxides are known to be effective in reducing ozone concentrations through their effect on the general reaction: oxygen plus ozone forms 202(e.g., McElroy et al. 1986a). Removal of nitrogen oxides by condensation from polar stratospheric clouds (e.g., Toon et al.1986; McElroy et al. 1986b; Crutzen and Arnold 1986) triggered particularly by cooling in the stratosphere helps set the stage for more efficient removal of ozone by reactions with chlorine monoxide and bromine monoxide (e.g., McElroy et al. 1986a). These reactions may result in increased concentrations of nitrate and chloride in polar snow/ice cores

Improving the recording of surgical drain output.

Monitoring the output from surgical drains is an important part of post-operative care and is often undertaken poorly. Failure to have accurate documentation of daily outputs may delay the removal of drains and increase the risk of complications. Following discussions with medical and nursing staff we listed eight key criteria that should be routinely monitored for surgical drains. A baseline measurement demonstrated only 20% compliance with these criteria. As such we decided to design a chart, after discussing with the multidisciplinary team, with adequate space to document drain output clearly. Post-intervention data collection showed a reasonable uptake of the chart (70%) with overall criteria compliance increasing to 55%. We made further interventions designed to raise awareness of the chart, which increased chart uptake to 79% and compliance to 63%, leading to the adoption of the chart by the department. Twelve months after introducing the chart we conducted a final data collection which demonstrated the chart was now being used in 100% of patients and that overall criteria compliance had increased to 78%. While some of the key criteria are still not documented for all patients, we have demonstrated that the introduction of a simple and well-designed drain chart can significantly improve the documentation of drain output, thereby improving patient safety and discharge efficiency.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the 'Additional Links' above to access the full text via the publisher's site.Published

A Northern Hemisphere Volcanic Chemistry Record (1869-1984) and Climatic Implications using a South Greenland Ice Core

The effect of volcanic emISSIOn of acidic aerosols on climate is well documented. The presence of acid droplets in the stratosphere can reduce transmissivity and hence decrease surface temperatures. Since the amount and chemical composition of erupted material has important effects on regional climate, knowledge of past volcanic events is of extreme importance. Detailed glaciochemical records provide the only milieu wherein the geochemistry of paleovolcanic events can be fully documented. We present a detailed sulfate and chloride record from an ice core drilled at site 20 D, 40 km SW of Dye 3 in southern Greenland. The record spans the time period 1869-1984 with chemical analyses of approximately eight samples per year. Time series decomposition and locally weighted scatter plot smoothing techniques were used to extract long term trends from the data so that individual volcanic eruptions could be documented. A number of events identified here have been unnoticed previously and a high percentage of the major chemical signatures documenting these events is associated with large decreases in temperature in the latitudinal zone 60-90° N. Many authors have pointed out that the amount of volcanic acids such as HCI and H2S04 injected into the atmosphere has a very important influence on global climate, yet this volcanic input has been difficult to quantify prior to ~1960. Our data help to alleviate this problem. These individual events can be compared to available frost tree ring data from North America, further establishing a volcanism—climatic linkage