Exploring the Fantasy World of Internet Gambling

This thesis explores the gambling activities arising from Fantasy Sports Leagues, in particular the gambling behavior of college students within these leagues. In my research, I investigated the development of the industry, the rules and surrounding internet gambling, and conducted a survey of college students over their Fantasy Sports behavior

Fault Diagnosis of Hybrid Computing Systems Using Chaotic-Map Method

Computing systems are becoming increasingly complex with nodes consisting of a combination of multi-core central processing units (CPUs), many integrated core (MIC) and graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators. These computing units and their interconnections are subject to different classes of hardware and software faults, which should be detected to support mitigation measures. We present the chaotic-map method that uses the exponential divergence and wide Fourier properties of the trajectories, combined with memory allocations and assignments to diagnose component-level faults in these hybrid computing systems. We propose lightweight codes that utilize highly parallel chaotic-map computations tailored to isolate faults in arithmetic units, memory elements and interconnects. The diagnosis module on a node utilizes pthreads to place chaotic-map threads on CPU and MIC cores, and CUDA C and OpenCL kernels on GPU blocks. We present experimental diagnosis results on five multi-core CPUs; one MIC; and, seven GPUs with typical diagnosis run-times under a minute

Stimulators and Activators of Soluble Guanylate Cyclase: Review and Potential Therapeutic Indications

The heme-protein soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is the intracellular receptor for nitric oxide (NO). sGC is a heterodimeric enzyme with α and β subunits and contains a heme moiety essential for binding of NO and activation of the enzyme. Stimulation of sGC mediates physiologic responses including smooth muscle relaxation, inhibition of inflammation, and thrombosis. In pathophysiologic states, NO formation and bioavailability can be impaired by oxidative stress and that tolerance to NO donors develops with continuous use. Two classes of compounds have been developed that can directly activate sGC and increase cGMP formation in pathophysiologic conditions when NO formation and bioavailability are impaired or when NO tolerance has developed. In this report, we review current information on the pharmacology of heme-dependent stimulators and heme-independent activators of sGC in animal and in early clinical studies and the potential role these compounds may have in the management of cardiovascular disease

Stress-Induced Anisotropic Poroelasticity in Westerly Granite

Funding Information: We thank T‐f. Wong and the associate editor for helpful reviews of this paper. We acknowledge financial support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council through Grants NE/L002485/1 to B.E., NE/S000852/1 to N.B. and NE/T007826/1 to D.H., T.M., and P.M., and the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project RockDEaF, Grant agreement 804685 to N.B.). Erratum In the originally published version of this article, the author contributions omitted coauthor Nicolas Brantut. Dr. Brantut has been added to Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, and Supervision. This version may be considered the authoritative version of record.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Microenvironmental Effect in the Progression, Metastasis, and Dormancy of Breast Cancer: A Model System within Bone Marrow

Despite diagnostic advances, breast cancer remains the most prevalent cancer among women in the United States. The armamentarium of treatment options for metastatic disease is limited and mostly ineffective with regards to eradicating cancer. However, there have been novel findings in the recent literature that substantiate the function of the microenvironment in breast cancer progression and the support of metastasis to tertiary sites such as bone marrow. The uncovered significance of the microenvironment in the pathophysiology of breast cancer metastasis has served to challenge previously widespread theories and introduce new perspectives for the future research to eradicate breast cancer. This paper delineates the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the interactions between breast cancer cells and the microenvironment in progression, metastasis, and dormancy. The information, in addition to other mechanisms described in bone marrow, is discussed in the paper