Assessing the INDY Connect legislative process : theory and practice

This study investigated the effects of gender on requests in Saudi Arabic in WhatsApp. 20 males and 20 females between the ages of 18 and 25 were recruited and asked to provide the researcher with as many instances of requests as they could from messaging history. The CCSARP coding scheme was used to analyze the resulting 102 requests. It was found that the males and females were similar regarding the directness of their requests. The majority of both genders preferred to use direct strategies in requesting. They were also similar in the use of the request perspective strategies. Both genders preferred to emphasize the role of the addressee rather than avoiding imposition. As for differences, the females made more internal and external modifications to core requests compared to males. They also used more conventionally indirect requests than their male counterparts who preferred non-conventionally indirect requests.Department of Urban PlanningThesis (M.U.R.P.

Reversal and pinning of Curie point transformations in thin film piezoelectrics

The Curie point for a rhombohedral piezoelectric thin film was established by in situ micro-Raman spectroscopy. The hysteresis in phase reversal and specific thermal conditions for disrupting such reversal were determined

SNAPSHOT USA 2020: A second coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic

Managing wildlife populations in the face of global change requires regular data on the abundance and distribution of wild animals, but acquiring these over appropriate spatial scales in a sustainable way has proven challenging. Here we present the data from Snapshot USA 2020, a second annual national mammal survey of the USA. This project involved 152 scientists setting camera traps in a standardized protocol at 1485 locations across 103 arrays in 43 states for a total of 52,710 trap-nights of survey effort. Most (58) of these arrays were also sampled during the same months (September and October) in 2019, providing a direct comparison of animal populations in 2 years that includes data from both during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. All data were managed by the eMammal system, with all species identifications checked by at least two reviewers. In total, we recorded 117,415 detections of 78 species of wild mammals, 9236 detections of at least 43 species of birds, 15,851 detections of six domestic animals and 23,825 detections of humans or their vehicles. Spatial differences across arrays explained more variation in the relative abundance than temporal variation across years for all 38 species modeled, although there are examples of significant site-level differences among years for many species. Temporal results show how species allocate their time and can be used to study species interactions, including between humans and wildlife. These data provide a snapshot of the mammal community of the USA for 2020 and will be useful for exploring the drivers of spatial and temporal changes in relative abundance and distribution, and the impacts of species interactions on daily activity patterns. There are no copyright restrictions, and please cite this paper when using these data, or a subset of these data, for publication

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway activation in bladder cancer

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is a critical signal transduction pathway that regulates multiple cellular functions. Aberrant activation of this pathway has been identified in a wide range of cancers. Several pathway components including AKT, PI3K and mTOR represent potential therapeutic targets and many small molecule inhibitors are in development or early clinical trials. The complex regulation of the pathway, together with the multiple mechanisms by which it can be activated, make this a highly challenging pathway to target. For successful inhibition, detailed molecular information on individual tumours will be required and it is already clear that different tumour types show distinct combinations of alterations. Recent results have identified alterations in pathway components PIK3CA, PTEN, AKT1 and TSC1 in bladder cancer, some of which are significantly related to tumour phenotype and clinical behaviour. Co-existence of alterations to several PI3K pathway genes in some bladder tumours indicates that these proteins may have functions that are not related solely to the known canonical pathway

The genomic landscape of balanced cytogenetic abnormalities associated with human congenital anomalies

Despite the clinical significance of balanced chromosomal abnormalities (BCAs), their characterization has largely been restricted to cytogenetic resolution. We explored the landscape of BCAs at nucleotide resolution in 273 subjects with a spectrum of congenital anomalies. Whole-genome sequencing revised 93% of karyotypes and demonstrated complexity that was cryptic to karyotyping in 21% of BCAs, highlighting the limitations of conventional cytogenetic approaches. At least 33.9% of BCAs resulted in gene disruption that likely contributed to the developmental phenotype, 5.2% were associated with pathogenic genomic imbalances, and 7.3% disrupted topologically associated domains (TADs) encompassing known syndromic loci. Remarkably, BCA breakpoints in eight subjects altered a single TAD encompassing MEF2C, a known driver of 5q14.3 microdeletion syndrome, resulting in decreased MEF2C expression. We propose that sequence-level resolution dramatically improves prediction of clinical outcomes for balanced rearrangements and provides insight into new pathogenic mechanisms, such as altered regulation due to changes in chromosome topology

Advances in Electronic-Nose Technologies Developed for Biomedical Applications

The research and development of new electronic-nose applications in the biomedical field has accelerated at a phenomenal rate over the past 25 years. Many innovative e-nose technologies have provided solutions and applications to a wide variety of complex biomedical and healthcare problems. The purposes of this review are to present a comprehensive analysis of past and recent biomedical research findings and developments of electronic-nose sensor technologies, and to identify current and future potential e-nose applications that will continue to advance the effectiveness and efficiency of biomedical treatments and healthcare services for many years. An abundance of electronic-nose applications has been developed for a variety of healthcare sectors including diagnostics, immunology, pathology, patient recovery, pharmacology, physical therapy, physiology, preventative medicine, remote healthcare, and wound and graft healing. Specific biomedical e-nose applications range from uses in biochemical testing, blood-compatibility evaluations, disease diagnoses, and drug delivery to monitoring of metabolic levels, organ dysfunctions, and patient conditions through telemedicine. This paper summarizes the major electronic-nose technologies developed for healthcare and biomedical applications since the late 1980s when electronic aroma detection technologies were first recognized to be potentially useful in providing effective solutions to problems in the healthcare industry

Dilute estimates of inelastic deformation in metal-matrix composites

A micromechanical model is utilized to estimate the elastic-plastic deformation characteristics of a discontinuously reinforced composite consisting of an elastic-plastic matrix material reinforced with a dilute concentration of axisymmetric elastic inclusions. By neglecting interactions between neighbouring inclusions, the composite is modeled by considering the problem of a single inclusion embedded in an infinite matrix material. The matrix material is assumed to obey J2 flow theory with isotropic hardening. The finite element method is utilized to solve the nonlinear boundary value problem. Results are presented which illustrate the effect of reinforcement geometry on the magnitude and distribution of local matrix field quantities, both prior and subsequent to local matrix yielding. The effect of matrix yielding on the distribution of axial stress in the inclusion is also examined. A volume averaging scheme is then employed to obtain dilute estimates for the macroscopic response. Results showing the effect of reinforcement shape and volume fraction on the predicted stress-strain response of the composite are presented. It is shown that the reinforcement shape can have a significant effect on the effective properties of the composite material. © 1995