Unsupervised vector-based classification of single-molecule charge transport data

The stochastic nature of single-molecule charge transport measurements requires collection of large data sets to capture the full complexity of a molecular system. Data analysis is then guided by certain expectations, for example, a plateau feature in the tunnelling current distance trace, and the molecular conductance extracted from suitable histogram analysis. However, differences in molecular conformation or electrode contact geometry, the number of molecules in the junction or dynamic effects may lead to very different molecular signatures. Since their manifestation is a priori unknown, an unsupervised classification algorithm, making no prior assumptions regarding the data is clearly desirable. Here we present such an approach based on multivariate pattern analysis and apply it to simulated and experimental single-molecule charge transport data. We demonstrate how different event shapes are clearly separated using this algorithm and how statistics about different event classes can be extracted, when conventional methods of analysis fail

Spectacular Violence: The Affective Registers of Black Bodies’ Matter

This thesis functions parenthetically within and between several essays of James Baldwin’s: most notably, “Everybody’s Protest Novel” and “The Price of the Ticket.” Its aim is to rigorously interrogate what I limn affective registers. My polemic aggressively pursues Baldwin’s scathing critique of sentimentalist discourses that extend, I argue, from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and are extended, therefrom, into a revivifying barrage of white savior complexes, ostentatious yard signs and progressive liberal tropes that attempt to mask the cruelty and spectacular violence endemic to and instantiated by sentimentality. Given the aforementioned, this thesis holds a further, and much heavier contention: it follows that sentimentality is not only indexed by a kind of “spectacular violence” enacted upon Black bodies, but also that sentimentality is the discursive container constructing a form of emotionality simultaneously articulated through and by a certain metaphoricity located in the terminological markers and epistemic ruptures effecting the distanciation of white subjects/gazes from the metaphoricity of objects that are both constructed by and within the discourse of spectacular violence. Therefore, the intentionally aggressive polemic this thesis pursues demands an evisceration of the psychic dimensions found within this peculiar brand of white (American) sentimentality—that which, as Teju Coles reminds us, “supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.

On integrability of the differential constraints arising from the singularity analysis

Integrability of the differential constraints arising from the singularity analysis of two (1+1)-dimensional second-order evolution equations is studied. Two nonlinear ordinary differential equations are obtained in this way, which are integrable by quadratures in spite of very complicated branching of their solutions.Comment: arxiv version is already offcia

Comparison of the learning effectiveness of computer-based and conventional experiments in science education

No Abstract Available South African Journal of Education Vol.25(1) 2005: 50-5

A lower body mass index is associated with cardiomyopathy in people with HIV infection: Evidence from a case comparison study

The cause of cardiomyopathy in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains largely unknown, although a number of predisposing factors have been identified. Malnutrition has been postulated to be a contributory factor, but the association of anthropometric measures of nutritional status with HIV-associated cardiomyopathy has not been established. Method. We investigated the association between anthropometric measures of nutritional status and cardiomyopathy in HIV-positive individuals in a cross-sectional case comparison study. Results. Seventeen cases of HIV-associated cardiomyopathy and a comparison group of 18 HIV-positive individuals without cardiomyopathy were studied. There was no significant difference between the two groups in age, gender, CD4 cell count, HIV RNA viral load or World Health Organization (WHO) clinical stage of HIV disease. Patients with HIV-associated cardiomyopathy had evidence of undernutrition compared with HIV-infected people without cardiomyopathy, as evidenced by a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) (20.9 kg/m2 v. 27.0 kg/m2, p=0.02), mid-upper arm circumference (26.2 cm v. 27.3 cm, p=0.02), and bone-free arm muscle area (26.7 cm2 v. 32.8 cm2, p=0.02). However, in a multivariate stepwise logistic regression model, a lower BMI was the only independent anthropometric risk factor for cardiomyopathy (odds ratio 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.64 - 0.97, p=0.02). Conclusion. A lower BMI is associated with cardiomyopathy in people who are living with HIV