Evidence of the Poisson/Gaudin-Mehta phase transition for banded matrices on global scales

We prove that the Poisson/Gaudin--Mehta phase transition conjectured to occur when the bandwidth of an $N \times N$ symmetric banded matrix grows like $\sqrt N$ is observable as a critical point in the fourth moment of the level density for a wide class of symmetric banded matrices. A second critical point when the bandwidth grows like ${2 \over 5} N$ leads to a new conjectured phase transition in the eigenvalue localization, whose existence we demonstrate in numerical experiments

Looking Out for the Illinois Home Buyer: Analyzing the Court’s Narrow Approach in Kalkman v. Nedved, 2013 IL App (3d) 120800, 991 N.E.2d 889

For many, purchasing a home is the ultimate American dream. But for some, this experience can turn into a nightmare full of unexpected repairs and unforeseen headaches. Although lawmakers have made strides to protect home buyers (e.g.,enacting Illinois\u27 Residential Real Property Disclosure Act), this dream-gone-bad dilemma continues to be a real concern in Illinois. Still today, many unsuspecting home buyers are saddled with costly defects and deteriorating conditions that were never disclosed by sellers at the time of purchase. For example, in a case of first impression, the Illinois Third District Court, in Kalkman v. Nedved, recently held that a seller is not obligated to disclose defective windows or doors in a home, even if those defects are known to the seller. This Note examines the majority\u27s decision and argues that the court was incorrect in holding that a seller’s duty to disclose defects in a property’s walls did not also require a seller to disclose defects in windows or doors. Specifically, the court should have focused on the functional definition of the terms in the statute to carry out its purpose, which is to ensure home buyers are protected from unknown conditions that materially affect various functions of the residence. As a result, Kalkman court essentially creates a loophole that permits home sellers to knowingly withhold information about defects in a home—such as leaky windows or doors that do not seal properly—that could significantly affect its value

Getting Drunk Drivers Off Illinois Roadways: Addressing the Split of Authority Regarding 911 Tips & Investigatory Traffic Stops

Getting drunk drivers off the road continues to be a major policy goal for police departments and the citizens they aim to protect. This is especially true in Illinois, where the number of motorists killed by drunk drivers every year remains a prevalent concern. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has failed to provide much guidance, many state courts and at least one federal circuit court have determined that police officers can pull over a suspected drunk driver based solely on a 911 caller\u27s tip. That said, Illinois has yet to fully adopt this open-minded approach, which has left the courts, attorneys, and police officers with a patchwork of authorities regarding the issue. This Comment will argue that the Illinois Supreme Court should adopt a clear drunk driving standard; one that allows police officers—based solely on a 911 caller’s tip—to pull over a suspected driver without having to independently observe the driver commit a traffic offense or otherwise engage in some other criminal activity. In short, this blanket rule would allow all Illinois police officers responding to a 911 call alleging drunk driving to pull over a suspect without having to independently observe erratic driving, avoiding a potentially-fatal outcome for the suspected drunk driver and other law-abiding motorists

Telescoper: de novo assembly of highly repetitive regions.

MotivationWith advances in sequencing technology, it has become faster and cheaper to obtain short-read data from which to assemble genomes. Although there has been considerable progress in the field of genome assembly, producing high-quality de novo assemblies from short-reads remains challenging, primarily because of the complex repeat structures found in the genomes of most higher organisms. The telomeric regions of many genomes are particularly difficult to assemble, though much could be gained from the study of these regions, as their evolution has not been fully characterized and they have been linked to aging.ResultsIn this article, we tackle the problem of assembling highly repetitive regions by developing a novel algorithm that iteratively extends long paths through a series of read-overlap graphs and evaluates them based on a statistical framework. Our algorithm, Telescoper, uses short- and long-insert libraries in an integrated way throughout the assembly process. Results on real and simulated data demonstrate that our approach can effectively resolve much of the complex repeat structures found in the telomeres of yeast genomes, especially when longer long-insert libraries are used.AvailabilityTelescoper is publicly available for download at sourceforge.net/p/[email protected] informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

Metabolic theory of ecology successfully predicts distinct scaling of ectoparasite load on hosts.

The impacts of parasites on hosts and the role that parasites play in ecosystems must be underlain by the load of parasites in individual hosts. To help explain and predict parasite load across a broad range of species, quantitative theory has been developed based on fundamental relationships between organism size, temperature and metabolic rate. Here, we elaborate on an aspect of that scaling theory for parasitism, and test a previously unexplored prediction, using new data for total ectoparasite load from 263 wild birds of 42 species. We reveal that, despite the expected substantial variation in parasite load among individual hosts, (i) the theory successfully predicts the distinct increase of ectoparasite load with host body size, indicating the importance of geometric scaling constraints on access to host resources, (ii) ectoparasite load appears ultimately limited by access-not to host space-but to host energy, and (iii) there is a currency-dependent shift in taxonomic dominance of parasite load on larger birds. Hence, these results reveal a seemingly new macroecological pattern, underscore the utility of energy flux as a currency for parasitism and highlight the promise of using scaling theory to provide baseline expectations for parasite load for a diversity of host species

Equilibrium moisture and drying kinetics modelling of macroalgae species Ulva ohnoi and Oedogonium intermedium

Algae-based products have applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries, bioremediation of waste streams and biofuel production. Drying has been recognised to constitute the largest energy cost in algae processing, yet there is limited data or modelling characterising the drying kinetics of macroalgae. This research modelled the equilibrium moisture content of two macroalgae species, Ulva ohnoi, a saltwater alga and Oedogonium intermedium, a freshwater alga. The Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer model was found to best represent experimental equilibrium moisture contents. Drying rate curves obtained under both convective and radiative conditions were fitted to an analytical solution of Fick’s second law, including the modelled equilibrium moisture values. Effective diffusivity values for the two species are presented

F-18-FDG and C-11-choline positron emission tomography in human esophago-gastric cancer : prediction of response to therapy

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mind the Gap: Integration of International Students

The international mobilisation of tertiary students is increasing from 0.8 million in 1975 to 3.5 million worldwide by 2016 (OECD, 2018). This increasingly fluid student migration, supported with various European initiatives, the Erasmus exchange program (since 1987) and the Bologna Declaration (since 1999), have influenced the profile of students within the Irish higher education system. By 2016, international students comprised 5.1% of total tertiary students in Ireland (OECD, 2018). According to Irish and UK research, lecturers have an important role in facilitating integration (British Council, 2014; Irish Council for International Students, 2017). However, for most faculty, the term internationalisation of the curriculum was unfamiliar (Clarke, Hui Yang & Harmon, 2018) and faculty also had mixed views on a need to explicitly address cultural and language issues in their learning outcomes or assessment tasks. Although some faculty viewed intercultural training as important most had not received this kind of support (Clarke et al., 2018). This report focuses on the integration challenges international students face, and what best-practice recommendations are available to assist lecturers in aiding integration