Chromatin organization as a possible factor in the control of susceptibility to radiation-induced AML in mice

2010 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document

The Role of Experimenting with the Human Voice in Film Music in the Representation of the Human/Alien Divide:the Case of Arrival (2016)

This article focuses on the musical dimension of experimentation in the creative space of science fiction film, concerning its uncanny, new and fantastic places, and otherworldly encounters within fictional, but possible worlds. The aim is to consider the function and potential of the audible – to examine how sound is used in the filmic exploration of the boundaries between the human and the alien (the unknown). More particularly, we are interested in the role that human voice-like and human vocal sounds can play in this divide, as we believe manipulations with such audible qualities contribute greatly to the emotional dimension of cinematic stories of otherworldly encounters. For that purpose, we concentrate on Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016) and its soundtrack composed by Jóhann Jóhannsson, who resorts to different singing practices and vocal techniques to accompany a story charting the territories between the human and the alien

Option framing and Markov chain: A descriptive approach in a state-space modeling of customer behavior

In the field of marketing, option framing is a product or service configuration where the consumers customize the package they wish to procure either by adding options to a base model, an initial configuration with a minimum number of essential features, or by subtracting options from a fully-loaded model, a product or service configuration with both essential and all of the optional features. Additive framing is selecting features to augment the base model, while subtractive framing is deselecting features from the fully-loaded model. A focal issue for companies that could possibly offer such products or services with option framing is finding out which process, additive or subtractive framing, is bound to give a final configuration with more features. The scenarios of option framing can be described by a finite Markov chain process. The Markov chain attempts to capture the decision process of the two types of framing through the estimated probabilities of movement from one phase to the other. In each of the decision phases, the key measure is the number of features in the configuration and the transition probabilities. The option framing is used on an actual study, where the empirical results verify the theories favoring subtractive framing, such as differential loss aversion and anchoring-adjustment theories. Separate Markov chains are evaluated for additive and subtractive framing, with the final configurations of the product or service package, along with the corresponding number of options, as main results

The Dynamics of Circular Migration in Southern Europe: An Example of Social Innovation

During economic crises, governments establish policies that facilitate the creation of jobs, goods and services that make their economies more resilient. Often, this requires innovative social programs that match global migratory trends to local labor demand. The implementation of such programs requires a significant degree of innovation that requires models that can capture the complexity involved. To explore this phenomenon, we provide a multi-disciplinary view of innovative social programs that shed light on the dynamic characteristics of the political, social, technological and economic aspects of circular migration. Our focus is a case study of the European Union-funded circular migration program to support the strawberry harvest in the province of Huelva in Spain. Covering the time period of 1999-2011, this paper provides a system dynamics model to represent the key elements that led to the success of circular migration from the standpoint of economic and social change. The model helps explain the key factors that make the program robust under recent economic crisis conditions. Based on a qualitative analytical approach, the model demonstrates how adaptive policies can enable macroeconomic equilibrium in environments where circular migration can be implemented. We also show that circular migration is not an impediment to economic recovery, in fact, it helps stabilize the labor supply in times of high uncertainty

Characterization of Boron Nitride Thin Films on Silicon (100) Wafer.

Cubic boron nitride (cBN) thin films offer attractive mechanical and electrical properties. The synthesis of cBN films have been deposited using both physical and chemical vapor deposition methods, which generate internal residual, stresses that result in delamination of the film from substrates. Boron nitride films were deposited using electron beam evaporation without bias voltage and nitrogen bombardment (to reduce stresses) were characterize using FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM, and AFM techniques. In addition, a pin-on-disk tribological test was used to measure coefficient of friction. Results indicated that samples deposited at 400°C contained higher cubic phase of BN compared to those films deposited at room temperature. A BN film containing cubic phase deposited at 400°C for 2 hours showed 0.1 friction coefficient

Characterising delamination in composite materials : a combined genetic algorithm - finite element approach

A novel delamination identification technique based on a low-population genetic algorithm for the quantitative characterisation of a single delamination in composite laminated panels is developed, and validated experimentally The damage identification method is formulated as an inverse problem through which system parameters are identified. The input of the inverse problem, the central geometric moments (CGM), is calculated from the surface out-of-plane displacements measurements of a delaminated panel obtained from Digital Speckle Pattern Interferometry (DSPI). The output parameters, the planar location, size and depth of the flaw, are the solution to the inverse problem to characterise an idealised elliptical flaw. The inverse problem is then reduced to an optimisation problem where the objective function is defined as the L2 norm of the difference between the CGM obtained from a finite element (FE) model with a trial delamination and the moments computed from the DSPI measurements. The optimum crack parameters are found by minimising the objective function through the use of a low-population real-coded genetic algorithm (LARGA). DSPI measurements of ten delaminated T700/LTM-45EL carbon/epoxy laminate panels with embedded delaminations are used to validate the methodology presented in this thesis.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Delincuencia en Chile : un analisis regional.

125 p.En los Últimos años, se ha dado una creciente preocupación por la delincuencia que afecta a la sociedad chilena, para lo cual han existido un sin número de estudios encargados de explicar los factores de esta, en base a datos psicológicos, sociales entre otros, de manera tal, de poder encontrar una forma eficaz para disminuir las tasas de delincuencia. A partir del año 1968, Becker, S. realizó un estudio en el cual toma la delincuencia como un mercado, regido por las mismas reglas económicas que afectan a cualquier otro mercado de bienes y10 servicio. Para lo cual toma al delincuente o actor del delito como una persona racional al momento de ejercer dicha actividad, tomando en cuenta los beneficios y costos, de manera de maximizar así su función de utilidad. El panel de datos utilizados en este estudio corresponde a los años 1992-2003 los cuales se presentan en forma anual y por región, siendo la región número 13 la Metropolitana. Los output que utilizamos en este modelo corresponden a las Denuncias y Causas Terminadas las cuales usan como base los Delitos de Mayor Connotación Social (DMCS) que son Robo que incluye robo con fuerza y robo con violencia, Hurto, Violación, Homicidio y Droga. Si bien este último no corresponde a una DMCS se utiliza en este estudio para compensar la escasez de datos en el delito de lesiones. Este estudio atenta principalmente a determinar el nivel de generación de delincuencia que tiene cada región de Chile. Además identificar y analizar cuales son los factores que influyen en la delincuencia de manera de entender y a la vez de disminuirla en nuestro país. Estos resultados se obtuvieron gracias al uso de una Frontera de Distancia Estocástica de Producción de forma Cobb- Douglas, para esto se utilizó el análisis factorial, de manera de encontrar las variables más relevantes para nuestro estudio las cuales se agruparon en 5 factores que explicaban un 80% de variabilidad del modelo. Los resultados de este estudio muestran que la región que genera más delincuencia es la región de Valparaíso, en Chile y la región que genera menor delincuencia es la región de Aisén

Patterns of phytoplankton size structure and productivity in contrasting open-ocean environments

A total of 94 vertical profiles of size-fractionated chlorophyll a concentration and primary production rate were obtained along a meridional transect from the United Kingdom to the Falkland Islands (50°N to 50°S) during 4 cruises carried out in April and October 1996 and in April and October 1997. This data set allowed us to characterize the patterns of phytoplankton size-structure and productivity in temperate, oligotrophic, upwelling and equatorial regions. On average, picophytoplankton (0.2 to 2 µm) accounted for 56 and 71% of the total integrated carbon (C) fixation and autotrophic biomass, respectively. Enhanced biomass and productivity contributions by nano- and microplankton took place in the temperate regions and in the upwelling area off Mauritania. Small (<2 µm in diameter) phytoplankton cells should not be regarded as a background, relatively invariant component of the microbial community, given that most of the latitudinal variability in total photoautotrophic biomass and production was driven by changes in the picophytoplankton. In temperate regions and in the upwelling area off Mauritania, small (<2 µm) and large (>2 µm) phytoplankton accounted for a proportion of total biomass that was similar to their shares of productivity. In the oligotrophic and equatorial regions, in contrast, large phytoplankton tended to account for a fraction of the total production that was significantly higher than their share of the biomass. We found that the equatorial upwelling causes an increase in phytoplankton biomass and productivity without altering the typical size structure found in less productive regions such as the subtropical gyres. In the oligotrophic ocean, significant changes in C fixation rates take place without accompanying variations in the magnitude of the phytoplankton standing stocks or the size structure of the microbial community

Instantaneous respiratory rate estimation from multilead ECG delineation using VCG directions on fiducial points

The main purpose of this work is the estimation of the respiratory rate (¿rR) from the electrocardiogram (ECG). In this study, the tr was estimated from the same Fit directions of maximum projection (FD) used for multi lead ECG automatic delineation (ML). A previously developed and validated methodology for boundaries location was extended to include wave peaks and estimate FD. The median of power spectral density obtained over the directions based on QRS complex main peak, T wave peak and end spatial loops was used for tr estimation. In a control database, the proposed method yielded more accurate tr estimates (mean absolute error (MAE), 2.64 bpm, SD=3.92)than the estimates based on the single-lead ECG R-peak amplitude (MAE values from 3.29 to 5.26 bpm, SD > 5) and RR series (2.89 to 3.66 bpm, SD >4.6), close to results from EDR method (2.89 bpm, SD=3.63)

Os intelectuais e sua produtividade

Analisa o papel dos intelectuais na perspectiva de uma sociologia da ciência. O crescimento exponencial e a saturação são recolocados como fenômenos burocráticos da pós-modernidade. A pós-modernidade é enfocada principalmente nos seus aspectos infra-estruturais de produção, circulação e consumo. Palavras-chave Produtividade. Pós-modernidade: Sociologia da Ciência. Intelectuais. Intellectuals and their productivity Abstract Intellectual workers are analysed in a sociology of science perspective. Science productivity with its two phenomena – exponential growth and saturation are seen as bureaucratic phenomena of post-modernity in its infra-structure aspects of production, circulation and consumption. Keywords Productivity; Post-modemity. Sociology of science.Intellectual workers