Fractional dynamics in liquid manipulation

This paper presents a fractional calculus perspective in the study of signals captured during the movement of a mechanical manipulator carrying a liquid container. In order to study the signals an experimental setup is implemented. The system acquires data from the sensors, in real time, and, in a second phase, processes them through an analysis package. The analysis package runs off-line and handles the recorded data. The results show that the Fourier spectrum of several signals presents a fractional behavior. The experimental study provides useful information that can assist in the design of a control system and the trajectory planning to be used in reducing or eliminating the effect of vibrations.

Geospatial data harmonization from regional level to european level: a usa case in forest fire data

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Depreciation manipulation and its impact on firms' returns

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

A system’s approach to cache hierarchy-aware decomposition of data-parallel computations

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Rational manipulation of mRNA folding free energy allows rheostat control of pneumolysin production by Streptococcus pneumoniae

Rational manipulation of mRNA folding free energy allows rheostat control of pneumolysin production by Streptococcus pneumoniae

Testing kin selection with sex allocation data in eusocial hymenoptera

Sex allocation data in eusocial Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps) provide an excellent opportunity to assess the effectiveness of kin selection, because queens and workers differ in their relatedness to females and males. The first studies on sex allocation in eusocial Hymenoptera compared population sex investment ratios across species. Female-biased investment in monogyne (= with single-queen colonies) populations of ants suggested that workers manipulate sex allocation according to their higher relatedness to females than males (relatedness asymmetry). However, several factors may confound these comparisons across species. First, variation in relatedness asymmetry is typically associated with major changes in breeding system and life history that may also affect sex allocation. Secondly, the relative cost of females and males is difficult to estimate across sexually dimorphic taxa, such as ants. Thirdly, each species in the comparison may not represent an independent data point, because of phylogenetic relationships among species. Recently, stronger evidence that workers control sex allocation has been provided by intraspecific studies of sex ratio variation across colonies. In several species of eusocial Hymenoptera, colonies with high relatedness asymmetry produced mostly females, in contrast to colonies with low relatedness asymmetry which produced mostly males. Additional signs of worker control were found by investigating proximate mechanisms of sex ratio manipulation in ants and wasps. However, worker control is not always effective, and further manipulative experiments will be needed to disentangle the multiple evolutionary factors and processes affecting sex allocation in eusocial Hymenoptera.

Field Data Acquisition Technologies for Iowa Transportation Agencies, HR-366 August 1994

This report describes the results of the research project investigating the use of advanced field data acquisition technologies for lowa transponation agencies. The objectives of the research project were to (1) research and evaluate current data acquisition technologies for field data collection, manipulation, and reporting; (2) identify the current field data collection approach and the interest level in applying current technologies within Iowa transportation agencies; and (3) summarize findings, prioritize technology needs, and provide recommendations regarding suitable applications for future development. A steering committee consisting oretate, city, and county transportation officials provided guidance during this project. Technologies considered in this study included (1) data storage (bar coding, radio frequency identification, touch buttons, magnetic stripes, and video logging); (2) data recognition (voice recognition and optical character recognition); (3) field referencing systems (global positioning systems [GPS] and geographic information systems [GIs]); (4) data transmission (radio frequency data communications and electronic data interchange); and (5) portable computers (pen-based computers). The literature review revealed that many of these technologies could have useful applications in the transponation industry. A survey was developed to explain current data collection methods and identify the interest in using advanced field data collection technologies. Surveys were sent out to county and city engineers and state representatives responsible for certain programs (e.g., maintenance management and construction management). Results showed that almost all field data are collected using manual approaches and are hand-carried to the office where they are either entered into a computer or manually stored. A lack of standardization was apparent for the type of software applications used by each agency--even the types of forms used to manually collect data differed by agency. Furthermore, interest in using advanced field data collection technologies depended upon the technology, program (e.g.. pavement or sign management), and agency type (e.g., state, city, or county). The state and larger cities and counties seemed to be interested in using several of the technologies, whereas smaller agencies appeared to have very little interest in using advanced techniques to capture data. A more thorough analysis of the survey results is provided in the report. Recommendations are made to enhance the use of advanced field data acquisition technologies in Iowa transportation agencies: (1) Appoint a statewide task group to coordinate the effort to automate field data collection and reporting within the Iowa transportation agencies. Subgroups representing the cities, counties, and state should be formed with oversight provided by the statewide task group. (2) Educate employees so that they become familiar with the various field data acquisition technologies.

Manipulation of salicylate content in Arabidopsis thaliana by the expression of an engineered bacterial salicylate synthase.

Salicylic acid (SA) plays a central role as a signalling molecule involved in plant defense against microbial attack. Genetic manipulation of SA biosynthesis may therefore help to generate plants that are more disease-resistant. By fusing the two bacterial genes pchA and pchB from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which encode isochorismate synthase and isochorismate pyruvate-lyase, respectively, we have engineered a novel hybrid enzyme with salicylate synthase (SAS) activity. The pchB-A fusion was expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana under the control of the constitutive cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter, with targeting of the gene product either to the cytosol (c-SAS plants) or to the chloroplast (p-SAS plants). In p-SAS plants, the amount of free and conjugated SA was increased more than 20-fold above wild type (WT) level, indicating that SAS is functional in Arabidopsis. P-SAS plants showed a strongly dwarfed phenotype and produced very few seeds. Dwarfism could be caused by the high SA levels per se or, perhaps more likely, by a depletion of the chorismate or isochorismate pools of the chloroplast. Targeting of SAS to the cytosol caused a slight increase in free SA and a significant threefold increase in conjugated SA, probably reflecting limited chorismate availability in this compartment. Although this modest increase in total SA content did not strongly induce the resistance marker PR-1, it resulted nevertheless in enhanced disease resistance towards a virulent isolate of Peronospora parasitica. Increased resistance of c-SAS lines was paralleled with reduced seed production. Taken together, these results illustrate that SAS is a potent tool for the manipulation of SA levels in plants.

Manipulation of adenovirus early region 1 rescue plasmids by homologous recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The manipulation of large (>10 kb) plasmid systems amplifies problems common to traditional cloning strategies. Unique or rare restriction enzyme recognition sequences are uncommon and very rarely located in opportunistic locations. Making site-specific deletions and insertions in larger plasmids consequently leads to multiple step cloning strategies that are often limited by time-consuming, low efficiency linker insertions or blunt-end cloning strategies. Manipulation ofthe adenovirus genome and the genomes ofother viruses as bacterial plasmids are systems that typify such situations. Recombinational cloning techniques based on homologous recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that circumvent many ofthese common problems have been developed. However, these techniques are rarely realistic options for such large plasmid systems due to the above mentioned difficulties associated with the addition ofrequired yeast DNA replication, partitioning and selectable marker sequences. To determine ifrecombinational cloning techniques could be modified to simplify the manipulation of such a large plasmid system, a recombinational cloning system for the creation of human adenovirus EI-deletion rescue plasmids was developed. Here we report for the first time that the 1,456 bp TRP1/ARS fragment ofYRp7 is alone sufficient to foster successful recombinational cloning without additional partitioning sequences, using only slight modifications of existing protocols. In addition, we describe conditions for efficient recombinational cloning involving simultaneous deletion of large segments ofDNA (>4.2 kb) and insertion of donor fragment DNA using only a single non-unique restriction site. The discovery that recombinational cloning can foster large deletions has been used to develop a novel recombiliational cloillng technique, selectable inarker 'kilockouf" recombinational cloning, that uses deletion of a yeast selectable marker coupled with simultaneous negative and positive selection to reduce background transformants to undetectable levels. The modification of existing protocols as described in this report facilitates the use of recombinational cloning strategies that are otherwise difficult or impractical for use with large plasmid systems. Improvement of general recombinational cloning strategies and strategies specific to the manipulation ofthe adenovirus genome are considered in light of data presented herein.

Sexual selections in the northern fall field cricket, Gryllus pennsylvanicus: a manipulation of the adult sex ratio

The operational sex ratio has long been considered an important constraint on the structure of mating systems. The effects of an experimentally manipulated sex ratio on mating behavior and selection were investigated in a polygynous species, Gryllus pennsylvanicus, where the potential exists for spatial/temporal fluctuations in sex ratio of field populations. Four different sex ratios (males: females, 5:0, 5:2, 5:5, 5:10) were investigated. Observations were conducted in late summer over two field seasons, from 2400 h , to 1000 h EST. Several male characters thought to be associated with male reproduc.tive success were studied: calling duration, searching distance, weight, fighting behavior, courtship frequency, and mating success. Variance in male mating success was used as the indicator for the opportunity for sexual selection. Total selection was estimated as the univariate regression coefficient between relative fitness and the character of interest, while direct selection was estimated as standardized partial regression coefficients generated from a multiple regression of relative fitness on each character. The opportunity for sexual selection was highest at 5:2 and lowest at 5:10. The frequency of fighting behavior was highest at 5:2 and 5:5. Fighting ability (% wins) was determined to be an important correlate of male body weight. Direct selection for increased male body weight was detected at 5:2, while total selection for body weight was seen at 5:5. Selection on male body weight was not detected at 5: 10. Calling duration decreased as sex ratio became more female-biased. Total and direct selection were detected for increased calling at 5:2, only total selection for calling was seen at 5:5, whereas direct selection against calling was detected at 5: 10. Searching distance also decreased as sex ratio became more female-biased, however no form of selection was detected for searching at any of the sex ratios. Data are discussed in terms of sexual selection on male reproductive tactics, the mating system and maintenance of genetic variation in male reproductive behavior.

Manipulation of the ubiquitin-proteasome system by HIV-1 : role of the accessory protein Vpr

Le virus de l’immunodéficience humaine de type 1 (VIH-1), l’agent étiologique du SIDA, est un rétrovirus complexe arborant plusieurs protéines accessoires : Nef, Vif, Vpr, et Vpu. Celles-ci sont impliquées dans la modulation de la réplication virale, dans l’évasion immunitaire et dans la progression de la pathogenèse du SIDA. Dans ce contexte, il a été démontré que la protéine virale R (Vpr) induit un arrêt de cycle cellulaire en phase G2. Le mécanisme par lequel Vpr exerce cette fonction est l’activation, ATR (Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related)-dépendante, du point de contrôle de dommage à l’ADN, mais les facteurs et mécanismes moléculaires directement impliqués dans cette activité demeurent inconnus. Afin d’identifier de nouveaux facteurs cellulaires interagissant avec Vpr, nous avons utilisé une purification d’affinité en tandem (TAP) pour isoler des complexes protéiques natifs contenant Vpr. Nous avons découvert que Vpr s’associait avec CRL4A(VprBP), un complexe cellulaire d’E3 ubiquitine ligase, comprenant les protéines Cullin 4A, DDB1 (DNA damage-binding protein 1) et VprBP (Vpr-binding protein). Nos études ont mis en évidence que le recrutement de la E3 ligase par Vpr était nécessaire mais non suffisant pour l’induction de l’arrêt de cycle cellulaire en G2, suggérant ainsi que des événements additionnels seraient impliqués dans ce processus. À cet égard, nous apportons des preuves directes que Vpr détourne les fonctions de CRL4A(VprBP) pour induire la polyubiquitination de type K48 et la dégradation protéosomale de protéines cellulaires encore inconnues. Ces événements d’ubiquitination induits par Vpr ont été démontrés comme étant nécessaire à l’activation d’ATR. Finalement, nous montrons que Vpr forme des foyers ancrés à la chromatine co-localisant avec VprBP ainsi qu’avec des facteurs impliqués dans la réparation de l’ADN. La formation de ces foyers représente un événement essentiel et précoce dans l’induction de l’arrêt de cycle cellulaire en G2. Enfin, nous démontrons que Vpr est capable de recruter CRL4A(VprBP) au niveau de la chromatine et nous apportons des preuves indiquant que le substrat inconnu ciblé par Vpr est une protéine associée à la chromatine. Globalement, nos résultats révèlent certains des ménanismes par lesquels Vpr induit des perturbations du cycle cellulaire. En outre, cette étude contribue à notre compréhension de la modulation du système ubiquitine-protéasome par le VIH-1 et son implication fonctionnelle dans la manipulation de l’environnement cellulaire de l’hôte.

Some concepts and models usefulninthe analysis of discrete life time data

This thesis entitled Reliability Modelling and Analysis in Discrete time Some Concepts and Models Useful in the Analysis of discrete life time data.The present study consists of five chapters. In Chapter II we take up the derivation of some general results useful in reliability modelling that involves two component mixtures. Expression for the failure rate, mean residual life and second moment of residual life of the mixture distributions in terms of the corresponding quantities in the component distributions are investigated. Some applications of these results are also pointed out. The role of the geometric,Waring and negative hypergeometric distributions as models of life lengths in the discrete time domain has been discussed already. While describing various reliability characteristics, it was found that they can be often considered as a class. The applicability of these models in single populations naturally extends to the case of populations composed of sub-populations making mixtures of these distributions worth investigating. Accordingly the general properties, various reliability characteristics and characterizations of these models are discussed in chapter III. Inference of parameters in mixture distribution is usually a difficult problem because the mass function of the mixture is a linear function of the component masses that makes manipulation of the likelihood equations, leastsquare function etc and the resulting computations.very difficult. We show that one of our characterizations help in inferring the parameters of the geometric mixture without involving computational hazards. As mentioned in the review of results in the previous sections, partial moments were not studied extensively in literature especially in the case of discrete distributions. Chapters IV and V deal with descending and ascending partial factorial moments. Apart from studying their properties, we prove characterizations of distributions by functional forms of partial moments and establish recurrence relations between successive moments for some well known families. It is further demonstrated that partial moments are equally efficient and convenient compared to many of the conventional tools to resolve practical problems in reliability modelling and analysis. The study concludes by indicating some new problems that surfaced during the course of the present investigation which could be the subject for a future work in this area.

Investigations On The Development Of An Ann Model & Visual Manipulation Approach For 2-D Dft Computation In Image Processing

This thesis is an outcome of the investigations carried out on the development of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to implement 2-D DFT at high speed. A new definition of 2-D DFT relation is presented. This new definition enables DFT computation organized in stages involving only real addition except at the final stage of computation. The number of stages is always fixed at 4. Two different strategies are proposed. 1) A visual representation of 2-D DFT coefficients. 2) A neural network approach. The visual representation scheme can be used to compute, analyze and manipulate 2D signals such as images in the frequency domain in terms of symbols derived from 2x2 DFT. This, in turn, can be represented in terms of real data. This approach can help analyze signals in the frequency domain even without computing the DFT coefficients. A hierarchical neural network model is developed to implement 2-D DFT. Presently, this model is capable of implementing 2-D DFT for a particular order N such that ((N))4 = 2. The model can be developed into one that can implement the 2-D DFT for any order N upto a set maximum limited by the hardware constraints. The reported method shows a potential in implementing the 2-D DF T in hardware as a VLSI / ASIC

ApoE genotype, cardiovascular risk and responsiveness to dietary fat manipulation

Cardiovascular risk is determined by the complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. The apoE genotype represents the most-widely-studied single nucleotide polymorphism in relation to CVD risk, with >3600 publications cited in PubMed. Although originally described as a mediator of lipoprotein metabolism, the lipoprotein-independent functions of apoE are being increasingly recognised, with limited data available on the potential impact of genotype on these metabolic processes. Furthermore, although meta-analyses suggest that apoE4 carriers may have a 40-50% increased CVD risk, the associations reported in individual studies are highly heterogeneous and it is recognised that environmental factors such as smoking status and dietary fat composition influence genotype-phenotype associations. However, information is often derived from observational studies or small intervention trials in which retrospective genotyping of the cohort results in small group sizes in the rarer E2 and E4 subgroups. Either larger well-standardised intervention trials or smaller trials with prospective recruitment according to apoE genotype are needed to fully establish the impact of diet on genotype-CVD associations and to establish the potential of dietary strategies such as reduced total fat, saturated fat, or increased antioxidant intakes to counteract the increased CVD burden in apoE4 carriers.

Habitat manipulation in lowland rice-coconut cropping systems of the Philippines: an effective rodent pest management strategy?

BACKGROUND: Reduction of vegetation height is recommended as a management strategy for controlling rodent pests of rice in South-east Asia, but there are limited field data to assess its effectiveness. The breeding biology of the main pest species of rodent in the Philippines, Rattus tanezumi, suggests that habitat manipulation in irrigated rice–coconut cropping systems may be an effective strategy to limit the quality and availability of their nesting habitat. The authors imposed a replicated manipulation of vegetation cover in adjacent coconut groves during a single rice-cropping season, and added artificial nest sites to facilitate capture and culling of young. RESULTS: Three trapping sessions in four rice fields (two treatments, two controls) adjacent to coconut groves led to the capture of 176 R. tanezumi, 12Rattus exulans and seven Chrotomysmindorensis individuals. There was no significant difference in overall abundance between crop stages or between treatments, and there was no treatment effect on damage to tillers or rice yield. Only two R. tanezumi were caught at the artificial nest sites. CONCLUSION: Habitat manipulation to reduce the quality of R. tanezumi nesting habitat adjacent to rice fields is not effective as a lone rodent management tool in rice–coconut cropping systems.