Intersection theory and the Horn inequalities for invariant subspaces

We provide a direct, intersection theoretic, argument that the Jordan models of an operator of class C_{0}, of its restriction to an invariant subspace, and of its compression to the orthogonal complement, satisfy a multiplicative form of the Horn inequalities, where `inequality' is replaced by `divisibility'. When one of these inequalities is saturated, we show that there exists a splitting of the operator into quasidirect summands which induces similar splittings for the restriction of the operator to the given invariant subspace and its compression to the orthogonal complement. The result is true even for operators acting on nonseparable Hilbert spaces. For such operators the usual Horn inequalities are supplemented so as to apply to all the Jordan blocks in the model

Wendy and Min: A Theatrical Response to British Chinese Acculturation, Identity and Cultural Hybridity

This PhD thesis comprises two components. The first part, Wendy and Min, represents the creative practice, a theatrical play dramatising the lives of the under-represented, diverse British Chinese community. The play explores inter-generational tensions arising from different degrees of acculturation and assimilation, cultural identity, and hybridity, as well as intra-racial tensions, intra-racial hierarchies, and intra-ethnic othering. The second part is a supporting essay divided into four main sections. The essay provides historical context for the play and offers a historical review of the settlement of the Chinese in Britain and the representation of the British Chinese on stage. In addition, it details a review of dramatic and literary sources that helped shape artistic decisions in the play’s plot, characterisation, dramatic structure, and style. Wendy and Min uses a character-driven, three-generation structure to interrogate the tensions arising from different degrees of generational acculturation and assimilation. The grandparents are first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong and Singapore/Malaysia. The second-generation parents are British-born or substantially brought up in the UK. The daughters, Wendy and Lisa are third-generation and British-born. Using the setting of a wedding and its various rituals, the play examines how different degrees of acculturation create ambiguity and fluidity in the British Chinese identity and how it is negotiated and articulated within the family when Wendy (Min), the protagonist, chooses to marry Peter, a mainland Chinese PhD student. Given the diversity of the British Chinese community, my own experience as a second- generation British-born Chinese of Malaysian descent living in Singapore would have been insufficient to create authentic, complex, and compelling characters. I did not want to resort to mythical, stereotypical, or hackneyed representations. I wanted to create characters that were contemporary and real and resonated with the audience. Therefore, in creating Wendy and Min in addition to my personal experience and those of my family and friends, I also used historical, social, and cultural studies, social media, anecdotal evidence, radio and informal interviews, and historical and contemporary British Chinese literary and dramatic works. This comprehensive approach detailed in the supporting essay gives me some confidence that although the creative piece is fictional, my myriad artistic choices are grounded in substance. In this way, I hope to create a piece that offers a more nuanced and complex representation of the British Chinese community, specifically, the second and third-generation British Chinese whose narratives are under-represented and seldom documented

Auditor changes and debt financing : evidence from China

The role of independent auditors is to ensure the accuracy and the credibility of the financial statements. Independent auditors help in reducing agency costs and serve as a monitoring function for creditors. A change in an auditor–client relationship may provide useful information to creditors. Creditors may consider the signal of auditor changes, which affects information risks, as a factor in determining the terms of debts. After several major audit scandals, awareness of the importance of audit quality has increased. Audit partner changes and audit firm changes have been implemented in some jurisdictions to enhance the audit quality. Since China requires disclosure by signing partners’ names on audit reports, audit partner rotations can be identified. The direction of audit firm changes can be downward, lateral, and upward audit firm changes. In this thesis, the effects on debt financing of auditor changes at both audit firm and audit partner levels in different directions are comprehensively investigated. This thesis addresses the importance of understanding the association between audit firm/ partner changes and debt financing. I find that, overall, auditor changes worsen debt financing in various situations. The findings of this thesis should have important implications for investors, corporate financial managers, and regulators

Structural Analysis of a Peptide (CTLTTKLYC) that Interacts with Newcastle Disease Virus

A peptide with the sequence Cys-Thr-Leu-Thr-Thr-Lys-Leu-Tyr-Cys (CTLTTKLYC) has previously been identified to inhibit the propagation of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) in embryonated chicken eggs and tissue culture. It has two different dissociation constants (&"I), in which the first constant can be used as a determinant to classifjr NDV strains into two groups: the velogenic strains in the first group, whereas the mesogenic and lentogenic strains are in the second group. The peptide, C 1T 2L3 P T5K 6 L7 Y8 C9 ,d isplayed on the pIII protein of a filamentous M13 phage was mutated by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis in order to identify the amino acid residues involved in the interactions with NDV. Mutations of Cys at first position (c')a nd Lys at the sixth position of the peptide ( K ~t)o Ala (A), which produced mutants C'A and K~Ad,i d not affect the binding between the peptide and the virus significantly, but substitution of Tyr at eighth position (Y8) alone with Ala (A) dramatically reduced the interaction. This suggests that y8 couid play an important role in the peptide-virus interaction. Double mutations were carried out on K~ and y8 to produce mutants K~A-Y~AK,~ R-Y~AK,~ A-Y'F, and K ~ - Y ~ Fto, determine whether the mutated amino acids could improve the binding capability. However, the mutations did not improve the binding capability significantly. Fmoc-solid phase peptide synthesis was employed to synthesize the peptide, CTLTTKLYC. Crude peptide was purified with HPLC and analysed with a mass spectrometer. The secondary structure of the peptide was analysed with circular dichroism (CD) and the three dimensional conformation of the peptide was determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and molecular modelling. A mixture conformation of p-turn and P-sheet (intermolecular interaction) was observed for the linear peptide by using CD. However, the three-dimensional structure of the linear peptide could not be arrived due to the mixture of conformation which made the sequence assignment of NMR extremely difficult. On the other hand, the disulfide-constrained cyclic peptide, which has a more rigid structure, exhibited only a P-turn structure. Two models were obtained: one of it consists of a p-turn and a distorted p-turn, while the other structure is an extended structure

What Does the New Economy Mean to Malaysian Tellers?

The rise of the New Economy has restructured work, necessitated changing skills requirements, as well as spurred new training needs amongst employees. Such new skills and training needs are prerequisites to survive and thrive in the New Economy. Importantly, these skills and training are also prerequisites for upward mobility in a system of inequality. This paper illustrates the case of Malaysian tellers as the Malaysian banking industry operates in the New Economy. Although the New Economy and the emergence of the sales culture requires Malaysian tellers to be more knowledgeable, this paper argues that due to their unionised status and given their positions at the bottom rung of the occupational hierarchy, tellers in Malaysia are disadvantaged and often excluded in the process of training and knowledge acquisition

Change Detection For Autocorrelated Time Series

The objective of this thesis is to develop methodology for detecting parameter changes at unknown times in regression models with autocorrelated errors. This methodology has many applications including quality control, environmental monitoring and medical research.;Limit processes of partial sums of residuals from stationary time series are first derived, and these results are applied to obtain limit processes of partial sums of regression residuals with stationary error structure. A class of statistics based on these partial sums is proposed for detection of time series interventions occurring at unknown times. It is shown that the large sample effects of autocorrelation on change detection statistics for regression can be accounted for by adjustment to the white noise case. The change detection statistics for regression with white noise error structures are applied to the cases with stationary processes. The asymptotic distributions of change detection statistics for AR(1) model is shown to be that of Cramer-von Mises type functionals on Brownian Bridge type processes. Selected quantiles are tabulated for a variety of these statistics.;The methodology is then applied to a hydrology example. Areas for further development are discussed

Cyclin B1 mediates the effect of UCHL1 in promoting cell cycle progression in uterine papillary serous carcinoma

Uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC) is an aggressive form of endometrial cancer with poor survival rates and a high risk of recurrence. The rarity of UPSC poses challenges to the discovery of novel targeted therapies. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to identify novel therapeutic targets that could aid in the management of UPSC. To do so, we began with the relatively large cohort of UPSC cases in the TCGA data set, which was used to identify differentially expressed genes between UPSC and low-grade endometrioid endometrial carcinoma (EEC) and normal tissue. We identified Ubiquitin Carboxyl-Terminal Hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) to be a gene of interest, as it was significantly upregulated in UPSC and correlated with poorer overall survival. These findings were validated through immunohistochemical analysis of an independent cohort of tumor samples. Due to its role as a deubiquitinating enzyme, we hypothesized that UCHL1 contributes to UPSC tumor progression by modulating the protein stability of target genes. To test this hypothesis, we first examined the functional role of UCHL1 in UPSC progression. Subsequently, we found that UCHL1 silencing reduced cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. The treatment of UPSC-bearing mice with the UCHL1-specific inhibitor LDN-57444 via intraperitoneal injection also reduced tumor growth and increased overall survival times. Next, we found that the effect of UCHL1 on increased cell proliferation was due to its ability to stabilize cyclin B1 protein, an essential protein in mitotic progression. Specifically, we demonstrated that UCHL1 and cyclin B1 interact with each other in both the cytoplasm and nuclear space prior to mitosis. UCHL1 silencing increased the deubiquitination of cyclin B1, suggesting that UCHL1 counteracts the ubiquitination of cyclin B1 by the anaphase-promoting complex. Accordingly, UCHL1 silencing slowed the progression of cells into mitosis. Taken together, our findings indicate that UCHL1 impairs the degradation of cyclin B1, leading to uncontrolled cell cycle progression. In summary, we have identified UCHL1 as a prognostic marker for UPSC and a viable therapeutic target