The effect of oestrogen on cerebrovascular regulation in eumenorrheic women : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Figures 1 (=Vselja et al., 2014 Fig 1) and 2 (=Ainslie & Duffin, 2009 Fig 2) were removed for copyright reasons. Figure 6 remains for the sake of clarity.Women experience fluctuating sex hormone concentrations throughout their lifetime and while their role in reproduction is well documented, there is little knowledge of the effects of the changing hormone concentrations on women’s cerebrovascular health. Therefore, this study examined dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) in 10 healthy eumenorrheic women (28 ± 7 years) volunteers. The participants dCA was examined at three different phases of the menstrual cycle: early follicular (EF; when oestrogen and progesterone concentrations are low), late follicular (LF; oestrogen concentrations are high, while progesterone remains steady), and mid-luteal (ML; oestrogen and progesterone concentrations are high). The dCA was assessed using the autoregulatory index (AI) of forced changes in blood pressure (BP) and mean middle cerebral blood velocity (MCAv) response, induced during phases of the Valsalva manoeuvre (VM). The VM is a four-phase manoeuvre that produces hyper- and hypotensive changes to blood pressure (BP): phase I (initial increase in BP), phase IIa (initial decrease in BP), phase IIb (stabilisation of BP), phase III (decrease in BP after cessation of breath-hold), and phase IV (overshoot in BP recovery). Resting mean arterial blood pressure (MAP, P= 0.409), MCAv (P= 0.635), and cerebrovascular conductance index (CVCi, P= 0.984) were not different throughout all trials. The partial pressure of endtidal carbon dioxide (PETCO₂) was unchanged between the trials (P = 0.907). The VM induced middle cerebral artery velocity mean (MCAvmean) differences between trials (interaction: P = 0.039), MCAv during mid-luteal (ML; 58 ± 15 cm/s) showed a significant difference to early follicular (EF; 51 ± 14 cm/s, P = 0.013) and late follicular (LF; 49 ± 15 cm/s, P = 0.024) during phase IIb of the VM. There were no differences in MAP (P = 0.233) and CVCi (P = 0.808) during the VM throughout the trials. AI presented no difference during phase II of the VM (P= 0.354), however, phase IV did show a trend (P= 0.086). The results of this study indicate that circulating ovarian hormone concentrations may regulate responses to dynamic cerebrovascular challenges

Conjugate gradient sparse solvers: performance-power characteristics

We characterize the performance and power attributes of the conjugate gradient (CG) sparse solver which is widely used in scientific applications. We use cycle-accurate sim-ulations with SimpleScalar and Wattch, on a processor and memory architecture similar to the configuration of a node of the BlueGene/L. We first demonstrate that substantial power savings can be obtained without performance degra-dation if low power modes of caches can be utilized. We next show that if Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS) can be used, power and energy savings are possible, but these are realized only at the expense of performance penalties. We then consider two simple memory subsystem optimiza-tions, namely memory and level-2 cache prefetching. We demonstrate that when DVS and low power modes of caches are used with these optimizations, performance can be im-proved significantly with reductions in power and energy. For example, execution time is reduced by 23%, power by 55 % and energy by 65 % in the final configuration at 500MHz relative to the original at 1GHz. We also use our codes and the CG NAS benchmark code to demonstrate that performance and power profiles can vary significantly depending on matrix properties and the level of code tun-ing. These results indicate that architectural evaluations can benefit if traditional benchmarks are augmented with codes more representative of tuned scientific applications.

Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Filsafat Ilmu Pengetahuan

332 Ha

GÜNDELİK YAŞAMIN GÜZELLİK ALGISI'NIN TİYATRODA ELEŞTİRİSİ: ÇİRKİN

İdeal güzellikle eş görülen sanatın içine çirkinin girmesi süreci yüzyıllar sürdü. Öte yandangüzel ve çirkin karşıtlığı her daim hem estetiğin ve sanatın hem de gündelik yaşamın ana akslarındanbirisi olmayı sürdürdü. Güzellik ve onun üzerine dönen endüstri, çağdaş dünyaya adını tarihte enbüyük kar getiren sektörlerden birisi olarak kazıdı. Öyle ki kent mobilyalarından, bulaşık makinesinekadar herşey güzellikle olan ilişkisi içinde kendine pazar bulmaya başladı. Kapitalist dünyanıntüketim çılgınlığının doruğu, güzelliğe yapılan maddi ve manevi yatırımlarla pompalandı. Sadecekadın güzelliği değil, erkek güzelliği de bundan payını fazlasıyla aldı.Yeni kuşak Alman yazarlarının en önde gelenlerinden birisi olan Marius von Mayenburg"Çirkin" adlı oyununda, hayatın her alanına yayılarak insanları "güzel" bir kabuğa dönüştüren bufuryayı son derece sert bir toplumsal çözümleme ve eleştiriyle birlikte kaleme almıştır. Çirkin-güzeltüketim-ahlak-kapitalizm-sistem ekseninde ilerleyen ve ülkemizde de büyük ilgi gören bu oyun,niteliksel yöntemle, dramaturjik formalist analizle incelenerek, yazarın oluşturduğu bireyden sistemeuzanan çürümenin ve çirkinleşmenin bir çözümlemesi yapılacaktır. Güzelliğin çağdaş dünyadaki yıkıcıetkilerinin kapitalizmin hastalıklarından birisine dönüşmesi süreci, kendisi de güzelin malzemesi olandram sanatından bir örnek vasıtasıyla aktarılacaktır.İdeal güzellikle eş görülen sanatın içine çirkinin girmesi süreci yüzyıllar sürdü. Öte yandangüzel ve çirkin karşıtlığı her daim hem estetiğin ve sanatın hem de gündelik yaşamın ana akslarındanbirisi olmayı sürdürdü. Güzellik ve onun üzerine dönen endüstri, çağdaş dünyaya adını tarihte enbüyük kar getiren sektörlerden birisi olarak kazıdı. Öyle ki kent mobilyalarından, bulaşık makinesinekadar herşey güzellikle olan ilişkisi içinde kendine pazar bulmaya başladı. Kapitalist dünyanıntüketim çılgınlığının doruğu, güzelliğe yapılan maddi ve manevi yatırımlarla pompalandı. Sadecekadın güzelliği değil, erkek güzelliği de bundan payını fazlasıyla aldı.Yeni kuşak Alman yazarlarının en önde gelenlerinden birisi olan Marius von Mayenburg"Çirkin" adlı oyununda, hayatın her alanına yayılarak insanları "güzel" bir kabuğa dönüştüren bufuryayı son derece sert bir toplumsal çözümleme ve eleştiriyle birlikte kaleme almıştır. Çirkin-güzeltüketim-ahlak-kapitalizm-sistem ekseninde ilerleyen ve ülkemizde de büyük ilgi gören bu oyun,niteliksel yöntemle, dramaturjik formalist analizle incelenerek, yazarın oluşturduğu bireyden sistemeuzanan çürümenin ve çirkinleşmenin bir çözümlemesi yapılacaktır. Güzelliğin çağdaş dünyadaki yıkıcıetkilerinin kapitalizmin hastalıklarından birisine dönüşmesi süreci, kendisi de güzelin malzemesi olandram sanatından bir örnek vasıtasıyla aktarılacaktır

Anatomy of the nasal passages of three species of Australian bats in relation to water loss

A previous study found substantial variation in rates of water loss in three species of Australian bats, with the orange leafnosed bat (Rhinonycteris aurantius) having a rate more than twice that of the large bentwing bat (Miniopterus schreibersii) and the ghost bat (Macroderma gigas). Using histological sections, we examined the nasal passages of these species to determine whether any of the species have complex turbinals that may function to reduce respiratory water loss. M. schreibersii has the most complex nasal passages, and R. aurantius has the simplest. Calculations indicate that the respiratory water loss of R. aurantius and M. schreibersii are similar, but this indicates that the nasal turbinals of M. schreibersii function to conserve pulmonary water given that the metabolic rate, and therefore respiratory frequency, is higher in M. schreibersii. R. aurantius and M. gigas echolocate by emitting pulses from the nostrils whereas M. schreibersii emits pulses from the mouth. The structure of the nasal passages of nasal emitters is constrained by the demands of echolocation, and this may preclude the development of complex turbinal arrangements required for the conservation of respiratory water