Magnetic transition in Ni-Pt alloy Systems : Experiment and Theory

We report here the preparation and measurements on the susceptibility, sound velocity and internal friction for Ni-Pt systems. We then compare these experimental results with the first principle theoretical predictions and show that there is reasonable agreement with experiment and theory.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. submitted to Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Material

Stock Returns and Inflation: Some New Evidence

Using aggregate and industry-wise monthly UK data over a period of 44 years we examine the long run relationship between stock return index (St) and retail price index (Pt) in a VAR framework. Univariate tests confirm Pt as I(2); nevertheless pairs of St and Pt are co-integrated and share common I(1) trend. There is no evidence of shared I(2) trend. We find evidence of shifts in the co- integrating ranks and parameters, and accounting for these shifts improved estimates’ precision. The long run price elasticity of return index is consistently above unity, a finding that stands in sharp contrast to the existing ones. Overall our results suggest that tax-paying stock investors are fully insulated against inflation in the long run

Discrimination-aware data analysis for criminal intelligence

The growing use of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms in many application domains such as healthcare, business, education and criminal justice has evolved great promises as well challenges. ML pledges in proficiently analysing a large amount of data quickly and effectively by identifying patterns and providing insight into the data, which otherwise would have been impossible for a human to execute in this scale. However, the use of ML algorithms, in sensitive domains such as the Criminal Intelligence Analysis (CIA) system, demands extremely careful deployment. Data has an important impact in ML process. To understand the ethical and privacy issues related to data and ML, the VALCRI (Visual Analytics for sense-making in the CRiminal Intelligence analysis) system was used . VALCRI is a CIA system that integrated machine-learning techniques to improve the effectiveness of crime data analysis. At the most basic level, from our research, it was found that lack of harmonised interpretation of different privacy principles, trade-offs between competing ethical principles, and algorithmic opacity as concerning ethical and privacy issues among others. This research aims to alleviate these issues by investigating awareness of ethical and privacy issues related to data and ML. Document analysis and interviews were conducted to examine the way different privacy principles were understood in selected EU countries. The study takes a qualitative and quantitative research approach and is guided by various methods of analysis including interviews, observation, case study, experiment and legal document analysis. The findings of this research indicate that a lack of ethical awareness on data has an impact on ML outcome. Also, due to the opaque nature of the ML system, it is difficult to scrutinize and as a consequence, it leads to a lack of clarity in terms of how certain decisions were made. This thesis provides some novel solutions that can be used to tackle these issues

MODULATION OF THE RECEPTOR GATING MECHANISM AND ALLOSTERIC COMMUNICATION IN IONOTROPIC GLUTAMATE RECEPTORS

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) found in mammalian brain are primarily known to mediate excitatory synaptic transmission crucial for learning and memory formation. The family of iGluRs consists of AMPA receptors, NMDA receptors and kainate receptors with each member having distinct physiological role. In the recent years, significant progress has been made in understanding the biophysical, and functional properties of iGluRs. The development of Cryo-EM and X-Ray crystallography techniques have further facilitated in the structural understanding of these receptors. However, the multidomain nature, large size of the protein, complex gating mechanism and inadequate knowledge regarding the conformational dynamics of the receptors during channel gating mechanism have been some of the limiting factors in elucidating the structure-function relation of iGluRs. Thus, to understand the conformational dynamics of iGluR family and correlate to its functional behavior, I have utilized single molecule Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) and molecular dynamics simulation and specifically investigated the factors influencing gating mechanism and allosteric communication in heteromeric kainate receptor GluK2/K5 and NMDA receptor GluN1/N2A. Some of the major finding in this dissertation includes subunit arrangement of GluK2/K5 and its dynamics involved in resting and desensitized conditions. For the first time we have identified the conformational changes induced at GluK2 and GluK5 subunits in a heteromer GluK2/K5 when bound to different agonists. Utilizing MD simulations in GluN1/N2A NMDA receptors we have identified the structural pathway regarding the mechanism underlying negative cooperativity and how mutation in the receptor leads to abnormal functional behavior. These findings will allow us to understand the conformational control regarding modulation of receptor function and will serve as a basis for developing subunit and conformation-specific therapeutic drugs that can potentially control the abnormal activity of the receptors linked to several neurological diseases

Assessing spatial information access, use and sharing for catchment management in Australia

Spatial data plays an important role in many social, environmental, economic and political decisions and is increasingly acknowledged as a national resource essential for sustainable development. One of the potential areas where spatial data can make a positive impact is for improved decision making to support catchment management. Reliable spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is needed to record the environmental, social and economic dimensions of catchment management. By building an appropriate SDI, disparate spatial data can be accessed and utilised to facilitate the exchange and sharing of spatial data between stakeholders across catchment communities. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors/variables contributing to spatial information access, sharing and use across catchment management areas and evaluate the current status of spatial information access, sharing and use among Australian states from a catchment management authority perspective. A survey method was used to collect primary data from 56 regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies responsible for catchment management in Australia. Descriptive statistics method was used to show the similarities and differences among Australian states. The key factors which influence sharing and access to spatial information are also explored. We found there is significant for spatial information access, use and sharing to contribute to SDI development