MEXIQUEÑO?: ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND IDEOLOGY IN A CASE STUDY OF DIALECT CONTACT

This study, set in an urban, predominantly Latino high school, addresses a situation of dialect contact between speakers of Puerto Rican and Mexican Spanish. Given the characteristics of this specific research context, existing models of dialect contact would have predicted the development of a linguistic phenomenon known as "koineization." This study finds that, contrary to these models, koineization is not taking place in this high school and that instead, the two dialects are remaining distinct. In this dissertation, I will first describe the unexpected social and linguistic situation found at this school. It will be shown that ethnic identity is a very salient social category, and that the cross-ethnic interaction necessary for koineization is not occurring. A linguistic analysis confirms that the two Spanish dialects are indeed remaining distinct. This dissertation proceeds to demonstrate that various social factors are extremely important to the dialect contact situation under study. Specifically, questions of ethnic identity and an ideology of essentialized difference are shown to have a powerful impact on interaction, language choice, and ultimately, koineization. It will also be seen that the uniqueness of this context—two dialects of a minority language alongside another, dominant language, English—also impacts the question of koineization. Thus, this study affords us new insights into the topic of dialect contact, and emphasizes the consideration that should be given to numerous social factors in any model of koineization. Methods of data collection in this study included semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Numerous rounds of interviews were conducted with progressively smaller groups of participants. The last phase of fieldwork consisted of a focus on twelve key participants who were representative of ethnicity, sex, and the social networks present in the school. In a fashion similar to Bailey (2002), one day was spent with each of these key participants while they carried a mini-disc recorder. The purpose of this data collection method was to obtain more insights into the natural language and interactional behavior of these key participants. Methods of data analysis were varied and included a social network analysis, a quantitative analysis of linguistic data, and discourse analysis

Paratransgenic control of vibriosis in shrimp aquaculture

Infectious diseases are an increasing threat to shrimp farming industries worldwide and account for nearly $3 billion of annual economic loss. The need to devise novel approaches against these infectious agents is pressing, as traditional methods are insufficient to ward off infections. The main aim of this study was to apply paratransgenesis to control infectious agents mediating shrimp diseases. As proof-of-concept we showed that Artemia, a food source in shrimp aquaculture, internalized bacteria expressing recombinant proteins. Stable expression and retention of these marker molecules up to 10 hours after feeding with the transgenic bacteria were evident within the gut of Artemia, coincident with the time period of highest density of internalized microorganisms. Uptake of recombinant proteins by Artemia occurred during active feeding, with their rapid depletion during a non-feeding washout phase. Bioamplification of recombinant proteins through increasing trophic levels via the paratransgenic approach was then tested. For this trials were conducted aimed at delivery of recombinant proteins to larval stages of the commercial white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, via direct feeding of transgenic bacteria or via feeding transgenic bacteria-engorged Artemia. In both trials, shrimp extracts showed recombinant protein accumulation during the active feeding phase and decrease during the washout period. From these studies we concluded that transgenic expression of proteins in bacteria can be detected through their paratransgenic expression in Artemia and shrimp, suggesting that this commonly employed feed organism could be applied to target infectious agents in shrimp mariculture. For this purpose we identified cecropin and melittin as effective antimicrobial peptides against vibrio species, and their combination was particularly potent without toxicity toward probiotic bacteria or algal feed organisms. Furthermore, unlike mellitin alone antibiotic resistance did not develop in Vibrio strains exposed to the cecropin/melittin mixture. Finally, the melittin gene was transduced into B.subtilis, and expression of significant levels of melittin was detected, although this was insufficient to cause detectable anti-vibrio activity. Optimization of B.subtilis expression for higher antimicrobial peptide production or employment of algal strains for anti-infectious molecule expression are key future directions for developing a paratransgenic approach as an environmentally sustainable disease mitigation strategy in marine aquaculture

Patent Registry Database

The purpose of the study is twofold. First, to demonstrate the ability of a database to handle a large number of patients and accompanying medical information to allow the clinician to diagnose and treat them with greater efficiency and rapidity. Secondly, to create a patient registry database for children with growth problems (St. Joseph\u27s Hospital group study). Computing trends indicate that over the next few years, computer stored medical records will become technically and economically feasible on a broad scale. Many clinical databases are already becoming available for doctors and hospitals to use. The benefits of computer-based medical records out-weigh the paper records. The main benefits are (1) improved logistics and organization of medical records to speed care and improve doctor\u27s efficiency, (2) automatic computer review of the medical record to limit errors and control costs, and (3) systemic analysis of previous clinical experience to guide future practices and policies. Paper reports may often be out of date in hospitals or in medical clinics where the patient\u27s status can change rapidly. Furthermore, unlike terminals, turnaround paper documents cannot provide reminders or error checks as data is recorded on them. The database that is chosen for this project is called Paradox for IBM PC computers. Computer stored medical records associated with each patient is best managed under a unified database structure. Of the available non-medical databases, Paradox has been proven to be cheaper, easier to learn, and maintain. Since it is a relational database, the tables are interlinked to produce the desired results. This database should help the clinician in adding new patient data and, in updating the previous patient\u27s information by using less time. In conclusion, the Paradox database has been shown to be an effective management tool for doctors to perform fast entry and easy storage of medical records, updating files simultaneously and instantaneously with the added assurance of data accuracy and efficient memory utilization

Analysis of performance of single-phase reluctance linear motor

The design and principle of operation, as well as the electromechanical phenomena of a single-phase linear reluctance motor are discussed. The motor with transverse magnetic flux consists of a primary part, which is moving and a secondary part which is stationary and does not have any windings. The motor can operate under AC or DC supply. When supplied from an AC source it must be equipped with a capacitor connected in series with the coil. In this case the motor operates on the basis of resonance in an RLC primary circuit. When supplied from a DC source it must be equipped with a controlled switch connected to the primary circuit. In this case it operates as a linear switched reluctance motor. A comparison of the motor performance operating under AC and DC supply is presented. The objectives of the project were to design the motor and to determine its performance under AC and DC supply. Design calculations were focused on determining the resistance, the inductance and the mass of the primary part. The calculations of primary winding inductance and magnetic flux density distribution were performed using finite element method. In order to determine the motor performance the simulation of motor operation under AC and DC supply was carried out using MATLAB/SIMULINK software package. For this purpose the mathematical models of the motor were defined and block diagrams were built. The simulation results presented in this thesis show a better performance of the motor when supplied from DC source. The maximum efficiency that could be obtained is 55%. A study of the influence of the switching angle on the motors electromechanical characteristics shows that the motor performs better when switched ON earlier before the motor develops the positive driving force

Colonic nitrite and immunoglobulin G levels in canine inflammatory bowel disease

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3281109

Partial Tensorized Transformers for Natural Language Processing

The transformer architecture has revolutionized Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other machine-learning tasks, due to its unprecedented accuracy. However, their extensive memory and parameter requirements often hinder their practical applications. In this work, we study the effect of tensor-train decomposition to improve the accuracy and compress transformer vision-language neural networks, namely BERT and ViT. We focus both on embedding-layer compression and partial tensorization of neural networks (PTNN) through an algorithmic approach. Our novel PTNN approach significantly improves the accuracy of existing models by up to 5%, all without the need for post-training adjustments, breaking new ground in the field of tensor decomposition.Comment: In Review under the 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligenc

Evaluation of Hepatoprotective Activity of Certain Indian Medicinal Plants using In Vitro and In Vivo Methods

A number of hepatotoxins such as viruses, bacteria, chemicals, medicines and alcohol target the liver and cause liver injury. These antioxidants are rich in natural sources of drugs, especially plants. In this aspect, plants that were chosen for the study are the rhizomes of Alpinia speciosa and roots of Valeriana wallichii. In the indigenous system of medicine Alpinia speciosa is used as an ornamental plant. Valeriana wallichii roots have numerous medicinal uses. Based on the facts of the two plants, the current study was undertaken. The study investigated hepatoprotective activities of rhizomes of Alpinia speciosa and roots of Valeriana wallichii. Phytochemical screening of various plant extracts of both the plants was carried out. The chloroform extracts of both the plants had showed good activity among all the extracts. Acute toxicity studies were carried out and the animals were found to be safe In vivo hepatoprotective activity of chloroform extracts of both the plants at two different doses (lower dose and higher doses) was determined. CEAS and CEVW possessed significant (P<0.001) hepatoprotective activity. Further attempts were made to isolate and identify the possible active principles from the chloroform extracts of Alpinia speciosa and Valeriana wallichii. The presence of active constituents (flavonoids, tannins, triterpenoids and phenolics) in these plants might be responsible for the hepatoprotective activity. Therefore, CEAS and CEVW proposed to protect the liver against the paracetamol, D-Galactosamine and ethanol induced oxidative damage. The in vivo hepatoprotective properties of these plants can consequently propose a liver protection to the population whoever consumes it and prevent liver injuries. The hepatoprotective activities of the plant extracts may be due to the presence of isolated compounds, Hesperidin and rutin from Alpinia speciosa and betulin from Valeriana wallichii and were identified by infra red spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonanace spectroscopy. These isolated compounds had acted as an antioxidant by scavenging the free radicals that had produced by the induction of hepatotoxins (paracetamol, D-Galactosamine and ethanol) and proved as an effective hepatoprotective agent. Thus the isolated compounds from the respective plants will be key leads for producing novel bioactive constituents and may possess more significance in the treatment of hepatic diseases

Efficient subsampling for exponential family models

We propose a novel two-stage subsampling algorithm based on optimal design principles. In the first stage, we use a density-based clustering algorithm to identify an approximating design space for the predictors from an initial subsample. Next, we determine an optimal approximate design on this design space. Finally, we use matrix distances such as the Procrustes, Frobenius, and square-root distance to define the remaining subsample, such that its points are "closest" to the support points of the optimal design. Our approach reflects the specific nature of the information matrix as a weighted sum of non-negative definite Fisher information matrices evaluated at the design points and applies to a large class of regression models including models where the Fisher information is of rank larger than $1$