I\u27m More Than the Sum of My Parts : Multiracial Identities and the Creation of Racial Meaning

This paper examines the ways that multiracial individuals understand and give meaning to their identities. Specifically, how do we—as a culture and as individuals—conceptualize and construct multiracial identities? What is the relationship between the way people identify themselves and the way they are identified by others? What do people mean when they say they are mixed race? Through a series of in-depth interviews with 11 individuals who self-identify as multiracial or mixed race, I find that racial identities are fundamentally multifaceted; they can be asserted by an individual, ascribed by an outsider, deeply rooted in culture and heritage, employed as a way of creating community, and a source of discrimination or privilege. I go on to argue that conflict between the way that someone self-identifies and the way they are identified by others can influence the way that they construct the meaning of their own identity, and the way that they present this identity to others. I draw a distinction between the concepts of multiracial identities as a blending of cultures and mixed race as a stand-alone racial category with a unique set of experiences and characteristics, and examine the purposes that these theoretical frameworks serve

An Adaptive News Video Retrieval Framework

The increasing popularity of video sharing platforms such as YouTube and Google Video increase the need to further study how users can be assisted in their search for videos they are interested in. In this demo, we present a video retrieval system which guarantees the user easy and effective access to a large news video collection. This system can be used to further study interaction methodologies, aiming for a personalised video retrieval model which adapts retrieval results to the user's interests

Aspect-based video browsing - a user study

In this paper, we present a user study on a novel video search interface based on the concept of aspect browsing. We aim to confirm whether automatically suggesting new aspects can increase the performance of an aspect-based browser. The proposed strategy is to assist the user in exploratory video search by actively suggesting new query terms and video shots. We use a clustering technique to identify potential aspects and use the results to propose suggestions to the user to help them in their search task. We evaluate this approach by analysing the users' perception and by exploiting the log files

Supporting aspect-based video browsing - analysis of a user study

In this paper, we present a novel video search interface based on the concept of aspect browsing. The proposed strategy is to assist the user in exploratory video search by actively suggesting new query terms and video shots. Our approach has the potential to narrow the "Semantic Gap" issue by allowing users to explore the data collection. First, we describe a clustering technique to identify potential aspects of a search. Then, we use the results to propose suggestions to the user to help them in their search task. Finally, we analyse this approach by exploiting the log files and the feedbacks of a user study

Changes in precipitation and river flow in northeast Turkey: associations with the North Atlantic Oscillation

This paper explores the relationships between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index and precipitation and river flow over northeast Turkey. Precipitation totals and maximum, mean and minimum river flow are analysed at the seasonal scale for 12 and 10 stations, respectively. Pearson’s and Mann-Kendall correlation tests are applied to assess relationships between the NAO index and precipitation and river flow metrics, and to detect trends in time-series. Autumn precipitation totals display significant increasing trends, especially for coastal stations, while inland stations show significant increasing trends for spring precipitation. Minimum and maximum river flow decreases significantly for spring and summer. This tendency implies varying conditions towards a drier regime. Seasonal precipitation patterns show a negative association with the NAO for December–January–February (DJF), March–April–May (MAM) and September–October–November (SON) for some stations. Positive associations between the NAO and winter-extended winter (December–March) river flows are detected for some stations in northeast Turkey

Basic Human Factors Task Data Relationships in Aerospace System Design and Development Final Report, Aug. - Dec. 1965

Basic human factors task data relationships in aerospace system design and developmen

Transcription factor target prediction using multiple short expression time series from Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND: The central role of transcription factors (TFs) in higher eukaryotes has led to much interest in deciphering transcriptional regulatory interactions. Even in the best case, experimental identification of TF target genes is error prone, and has been shown to be improved by considering additional forms of evidence such as expression data. Previous expression based methods have not explicitly tried to associate TFs with their targets and therefore largely ignored the treatment specific and time dependent nature of transcription regulation. RESULTS: In this study we introduce CERMT, Covariance based Extraction of Regulatory targets using Multiple Time series. Using simulated and real data we show that using multiple expression time series, selecting treatments in which the TF responds, allowing time shifts between TFs and their targets and using covariance to identify highly responding genes appear to be a good strategy. We applied our method to published TF - target gene relationships determined using expression profiling on TF mutants and show that in most cases we obtain significant target gene enrichment and in half of the cases this is sufficient to deliver a usable list of high-confidence target genes. CONCLUSION: CERMT could be immediately useful in refining possible target genes of candidate TFs using publicly available data, particularly for organisms lacking comprehensive TF binding data. In the future, we believe its incorporation with other forms of evidence may improve integrative genome-wide predictions of transcriptional networks

Co-morbidity burden in Parkinson’s disease : Comparison with controls and its influence on prognosis

Financial support This study was funded by Parkinson’s UK, the Scottish Chief Scientist Office, NHS Grampian endowments, the BMA Doris Hillier award, RS Macdonald Trust, the BUPA Foundation, and SPRING. The funders had no involvement in the study. Acknowledgements We acknowledge funding for the PINE study from Parkinson’s UK (G-0502, G-0914, G-1302), the Scottish Chief Scientist Office(CAF/12/05), the BMA Doris Hillier award, RS Macdonald Trust, the BUPA Foundation, NHS Grampian endowments and SPRING. We thank the patients and controls for their participation and the research staff who collected data and supported the study database.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprintPublisher PD

Interleukin-17 is required for control of chronic lung infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Chronic pulmonary infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a feature of cystic fibrosis (CF) and other chronic lung diseases. Cytokines of the IL-17 family have been proposed as important in the host response to P. aeruginosa infection through augmenting antibacterial immune responses, although their pro-inflammatory effect may contribute to lung damage that occurs as a result of chronic infection. We set out to explore the role of IL-17 in the host response to chronic P. aeruginosa infection. We used a murine model of chronic pulmonary infection with CF-related strains of P. aeruginosa. We demonstrate that IL-17 cytokine signaling is essential for survival and prevention of chronic infection at 2 weeks post-inoculation using two different P. aeruginosa strains. Following infection, there was a marked expansion of cells within mediastinal lymph nodes, comprised mainly of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs); ∼90% of IL-17 producing cells had markers consistent with Group 3 ILCs. A smaller percentage of IL-17+ cells had markers consistent with a B1 phenotype. In lung homogenates 14 days following infection, there was a significant expansion of IL-17+ cells – about 50% of these were CD3+, split equally between CD4+ Th17 cells and γδ T cells, while the CD3- IL-17+ cells were almost exclusively Group 3 ILCs. Further experiments with B cell deficient mice showed that B cell production of IL-17 or natural antibodies did not provide any defence against chronic P. aeruginosa infection. Thus, IL-17 rather than antibody is a key element in host defence against chronic pulmonary infection with P. aeruginosa