Development and analysis of trapped field magnets in electromechanical devices

High temperature superconducting trapped field magnets (TFM) offer great potential as an alternative to 2>d generation YBCO wire, both in cost and performance. Attention is given to the calculation of current distribution within YBCO disks at partial and full activation and comparing this to experimental values. The best results are obtained by treating the current as a sequence of nested current rings. The fields are computed by integrating the elliptic integrals representing the fields from these rings and using variable metric optimization to choose the ring radii to best match the activation field over the on-activated material. A technique for treating the sub-regions of the TFM as voltage fed coils appears most expeditious for computing forces.Center for Electromechanic

My Path to Pharmacy School

came from Trinidad, and when I started I had no idea of how to approach the process. I depended on the advisors and people on the same path to guide me. This was not the best approach. I should have done my own research and mapped out my own path. But I was determined to become a pharmacist and I completed my prerequisites as required for the COP at that time....or so I thought. I was not a competitive candidate and my first application left me devastated. However I learned what I needed to do. I worked on my GPA (3.3 is a minimum) and I got active in organizations. Pre-Pharmacy was one organization I got active with, and with each activity I participated in, I added it to my CV. I applied again. I had my application ready on time and with a better GPA and my extra-curricular activities, I felt confident. I followed up with my applications with the multiple schools and once again, I was unsuccessful. I thought, maybe this is not for me, but thought to try one last time. This time I continued with my previous plan, but I tried my hand at networking. This was key. I went to the admission offices, I got familiar with the staff, I did the little stuff, I stopped by professors’ offices to say hello, and discuss my game plan, went out on lunches and dinners, I used my boss at the HPD library to recommend me to my interviewers, and finally, I succeeded. I got into NSU COP (I accepted) and several other colleges and graduated

Understanding the Development of Tissue Engineered Blood Vessels

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world. In the United States alone, the American Heart Association estimates the cost of treating CVD in 2009 to be $475.3 billion. Suitable autologous blood vessels are often scarce, especially for patients who require multiple procedures. There is a global demand for improved, biocompatible vascular conduits to address these shortcomings. Biodegradable tubular scaffolds are currently being evaluated as vascular grafts in the surgical treatment of cardiovascular disease. Seeding scaffolds with bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMCs) prior to implantation has been shown to significantly improve outcomes. However, the role these cells play is poorly understood. Various inferior vena cava (IVC) interposition models in recipient mouse models were used to evaluate the developmental remodeling process of engineered blood vessels. Detailed analysis of vascular graft morphology and CT imaging provide standardization of graft analysis for various TEVG models. Seeding scaffolds with BMCs significantly improved patency rates and graft development. However, seeded BMCs did not directly contribute to the cellularity of the developing vessel, and were not detectable by three weeks. Rather, BMCs were found to produce significant amounts of various cytokines in response to the scaffold biomaterials, resulting in early recruitment of recipient mouse monocytes to the scaffold and subsequent improvement in vascular neotissue formation. A series of cell-tracking experiments demonstrate vascular cell in-growth from adjacent vascular tissue. These results indicate that engineered blood vessels mature through an early cytokine induced inflammatory response that induces native tissue regeneration

Chromosome organization in 4D: insights from C. elegans development

Eukaryotic genome organization is ordered and multilayered, from the nucleosome to chromosomal scales. These layers are not static during development, but are remodeled over time and between tissues. Thus, animal model studies with high spatiotemporal resolution are necessary to understand the various forms and functions of genome organization in vivo. In C. elegans, sequencing- and imaging-based advances have provided insight on how histone modifications, regulatory elements, and large-scale chromosome conformations are established and changed. Recent observations include unexpected physiological roles for topologically associating domains, different roles for the nuclear lamina at different chromatin scales, cell-type-specific enhancer and promoter regulatory grammars, and prevalent compartment variability in early development. Here, we summarize these and other recent findings in C. elegans, and suggest future avenues of research to enrich our in vivo knowledge of the forms and functions of nuclear organization

Multiplex DNA fluorescence in situ hybridization to analyze maternal vs. paternal C. elegans chromosomes

Recent advances in high-throughput microscopy have paved the way to study chromosome organization at the single-molecule level and have led to a better understanding of genome organization in space and time. During development, distinct maternal and paternal contributions ensure the formation of an embryo proper, yet little is known about the organization of chromosomes inherited from mothers versus fathers. To tackle this question, we have modified single-molecule chromosome tracing to distinguish between the chromosomes of two well-studied strains of C. elegans called Bristol and Hawai'ian. We find that chromosomes from these two strains have similar folding patterns in homozygous hermaphrodites. However, crosses between Bristol and Hawai'ian animals reveal that the paternal chromosome adopts the folding parameters of the maternal chromosome in embryos. This is accomplished by an increase in the polymer step size and decompaction of the chromosome. The data indicate that factors from the mother impact chromosome folding in trans. We also characterize the degree of intermixing between homologues within the chromosome territories. Sister chromosomes overlap frequently in C. elegans embryos, but pairing between homologues is rare, suggesting that transvection is unlikely to occur. This method constitutes a powerful tool to investigate chromosome architecture from mothers and fathers

Ultrastructural correlates of axons and synapses belonging to different circuits in ferret primary visual cortex

The goal of this study was to determine differences in distinctive layers of mammalian primary visual cortex through analysis of their ultrastructural characteristics. Characterizing brain circuitry using 3-dimensional reconstruction of electron microscopy images, and subsequent ultrastructural analysis of axonal populations provides us with a better understanding of the connectivity of the neural circuits. By quantifying ultrastructural differences in axonal processes such as synaptic densities, types of synapses and their post-synaptic densities (PSDs), mitochondrial volumes, synaptic vesicle aggregates, dendritic targets, and bouton volumes, we aimed to understand whether differences in anatomical specializations among different cortical layers could underlie differences in function of cells in those layers. We used focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIBSEM) to analyze layers 3 and 4 of the ferret primary visual cortex neuropil. We analyzed FIBSEM images using AMIRA software, which allowed accurate evaluation of neuronal tissues by generating 3-dimensional reconstructions of axonal processes and their targets from serial individual EM images of brain tissue. We used these reconstructions to identify and quantify various neuronal circuit elements. In lower and upper layer 4, half the population of boutons had volumes larger than 0.4 μm3 ; while the majority of the boutons observed in layer 3 were smaller; however, this layer contained the largest measured boutons in this study. We found in all layers, most PSDs had an asymmetric profile, with fewer being perforated or symmetric. Boutons in lower layer 4 had 1 to 4 synapses, upper layer 4 and layer 3 had up to 3 synapses per bouton. Furthermore, all layers contained more boutons with single asymmetric synapses and mitochondria; however, layer 4 had more boutons that produced multiple asymmetric synapses than layer 3. In all layers, as bouton volume increased, mitochondrial volume increased, leading to a roughly constant proportion of bouton volume occupied by mitochondria. No trend was seen between synaptic area and bouton volume. In upper layer 4 and layer 3 volume occupied by vesicles docked near the presynaptic membrane increased as bouton volume increased. These findings create a more detailed description of visual cortex circuitry. This will contribute to understanding neural correlates of normal function in the brain, providing a basis to examine how connectivity is altered in aberrant populations, and a better comprehension of the etiology of neurological diseases

Financial Fraud Detection and Data Mining of Imbalanced Databases using State Space Machine Learning

Risky decisions made by humans exhibit characteristics common to each decision. The related systems experience repeated abuse by risky humans and their actions collude to form a systemic behavioural set. Financial fraud is an example of such risky behaviour. Fraud detection models have drawn attention since the financial crisis of 2008 because of their frequency, size and technological advances leading to financial market manipulation. Statistical methods dominate industrial fraud detection systems at banks, insurance companies and financial marketplaces. Most efforts thus far have focused on anomaly detection problems and simple rules in the academic literature and industrial setting. There are unsolved issues in modeling the behaviour of risky agents in real-world financial markets using machine learning. This research studies the challenges posed by fraud detection, including the problem of imbalanced class distributions, and investigates the use of Reinforcement Learning (RL) to model risky human behaviour. Models have been developed to transform the relevant financial data into a state-space system. Reinforcement Learning agents uncover the decision-making processes by risky humans and derive an optimal path of behaviour at the end of the learning process. States are weighted by risk and then classified as positive (risky) or negative (not-risky). The positive samples are composed of features that represent the hidden information underlying the risky behaviour. Reinforcement Learning is implemented as unsupervised and supervised models. The unsupervised learning agent searches for risky behaviour without any previous knowledge of the data; it is not “trained” on data with true class labels. Instead, the RL learner relates samples through experience. The supervised learner is trained on a proportion (e.g. 90%) of the data with class labels. It derives a policy of optimal actions to be taken at each state during the training stage. One policy is selected from several learning agents and then the model is exposed to the other proportion (e.g. 10%) of data for classification. RL is hybridized with a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) in the supervised learning model to impose a probabilistic framework around the risky agent’s behaviour. We first study an insider trading example to demonstrate how learning algorithms can mimic risky agents. The classification power of the model is further demonstrated by applying it to a real-world based database for debit card transaction fraud. We then apply the models to two problems found in Statistics Canada databases: heart disease detection and female labour force participation. All models are evaluated using appropriate measures for imbalanced class problems: “sensitivity” and “false positive”. Sensitivity measures the number of correctly classified positive samples (e.g. fraud) as a proportion of all positive samples in the data. False positive counts the number of negative samples classified positive as a proportion of all negative samples in the data. The intent is to maximize sensitivity and minimize the false positive rate. All models show high sensitivity rates while exhibiting low false positive rates. These two metrics are ideal for industrial implementation because of high levels of identification at a low cost. Fraud detection rate is the focus with detection rates of 75-85% proving that RL is a superior method for data mining of imbalanced databases. By solving the problem of hidden information, this research can facilitate the detection of risky human behaviour and prevent it from happening

Anti-Americanism in Pakistan: An Analysis of Pakistani Elite Opinions Regarding the United States and Drone Strikes in 2010

In 2010, 122 drone strikes occurred in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, resulting in 849 civilian and militant casualties. Although the Pakistani government did little to protest against the use of drones, Pakistani elite opinion was complex in its response to both America and drone strikes. This paper argues that drone strikes made Pakistan’s elite more critical of America and drones during this period, and that civilian casualties most strongly influenced these opinions. This paper analyzes the rhetoric used in hundreds of English and Urdu Pakistani newspaper articles in order to understand the sentiments of Pakistan’s elite societal members toward America and the drone program. This paper finds that due to several influential factors, particularly civilian casualties, both drone strikes in Pakistan as well as sentiments toward America were discussed in negative, positive, and neutral terms, resulting in a highly multifaceted understanding of Pakistani elite opinion.Honors Thesi

A Celebration of Cultural Heritages

The City of Brampton, Ontario is one of Canada's fastest growing and most diverse communities. Today, 40% of Brampton's population is comprised of emigrates from foreign countries. These diverse communities must co-exist if a truly multi-cultural society is to be achieved. This thesis is "committed to the preservation, development and celebration of the cultural heritages of the diverse ethnic communities of Brampton." 'Carabram,' an annual Multi-Cultural Festival, has long been a Brampton tradition. However, currently Carabram has neither a permanent infrastructure nor a central location for its celebration. This thesis promotes that there be a unifying place for this celebration of diversity. Visitors will gain a better understanding of cultural differences and learn to appreciate these differences. It is a place where various cultures can co-exist and a place where cultural individualism is encouraged. Its main objective is to create an exhibition arena that celebrates Brampton's diversity