Value Assessment of Orphan Drugs and Treatments for Rare Diseases

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Immigrant's Sense of Belonging to Chinatown-International District, the Changing Neighborhood

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Borderless Fandom and Contemporary Popular Cultural Scene in Chinese Cyberspace

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Birth-death processes with disaster and instantaneous resurrection

A new structure with the special property that instantaneous resurrection and mass disaster are imposed on an ordinary birth-death process is considered. Under the condition that the underlying birth-death process is exit or bilateral, we are able to give easily checked existence criteria for such Markov processes. A very simple uniqueness criterion is also established. All honest processes are explicitly constructed. Ergodicity properties for these processes are investigated. Surprisingly, it can be proved that all the honest processes are not only recurrent but also ergodic without imposing any extra conditions. Equilibrium distributions are then established. Symmetry and reversibility of such processes are also investigated. Several examples are provided to illustrate our results.

A voice unknown: Undercurrents in Mussorgsky's 'Sunless'

Mussorgsky's Sunless cycle is aesthetically and stylistically an anomalous member of his oeuvre. Its notably effaced, pared-down, and withdrawn qualities present challenges to critical interpretation. Its uniqueness, however, renders it a crucial work for furnishing the fullest possible picture of Mussorgsky as a creative artist. The author of its texts, Golenishchev-Kutuzov (whose relationship with Mussorgsky at the time of its writing possibly extended beyond the platonic) has been identified by recent scholarship as an essential eye-witness for those to whom Stasov's populist characterization of the composer does not ring entirely true. Golenishchev-Kutuzov believed that in Sunless Mussorgsky first revealed his authentic artistic self. According to Golenishchev-Kutuvoz, Mussorgsky regarded his signal achievement in Sunless to have been the eradication of all elements other than feeling. In other words, he had thrown off the stylistic shackles imposed by the aesthetics of realism and relied entirely on intuitive harmonic invention as the sole conveyor of a purely subjective, affective meaning in the cycle. This hypothesis forms the point of departure for an investigation of select numbers of the cycle. Analysis reveals that the affective aspect is riot the only significant element operative. Alongside remnants of the realist style, there is evidence, of varying degrees of subtlety, for a knowing use of symmetrical pitch organization. Mussorgsky not only adapted the usual referential attachments of symmetrically based chromaticism-typically found in Russian operas of the second half of the nineteenth century-he also, through extremely simple but effective means, synthesized the intuitive harmonic and rational symmetrical elements of the cycle's pitch organization so that the latter emerges seamlessly out of the former. This remarkable synthesis ensures the cycle's uniformity of tone while also allowing for a reading that extends beyond the generally affective to the symbolically more specific. This symbolic level of reading offers several interpretative possibilities, one of which may refer even to the relationship of the poet and the composer. Irrespective of such potentials for interpretation, the most significant achievement in the cycle remains the synthesis of the intuitive/affective and rational/symbolic elements of its organization. Songs 1, 2, 3, and 6 of the cycle are considered in detail.

Do expert drivers have a reduced illusion of superiority?

It is well established that people tend to rate themselves as better than average across many domains. To maintain these illusions, it is suggested that people distort feedback about their own and others' performance. This study examined expert/novice differences in self-ratings when people compared themselves with others of the same level of expertise and background as themselves. Given that a key expert characteristic is increased self-monitoring, we predicted that experts in a domain may have a reduced illusion of superiority because they are more aware of their actual ability. We compared expert police drivers with novice police drivers and found that this prediction was not supported. Expert police drivers rated themselves as superior to equally qualified drivers, to the same degree as novices, Cohen's d = .03 ns. Despite their extensive additional training and experience, experts still appear to be as susceptible to illusions of superiority Lis everyone else. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new system of variational inclusions with (H,eta)-monotone operators in Hilbert spaces

In this paper, we introduce and study a new system of variational inclusions involving (H, eta)-monotone operators in Hilbert space. Using the resolvent operator associated with (H, eta)monotone operators, we prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions for this new system of variational inclusions. We also construct a new algorithm for approximating the solution of this system and discuss the convergence of the sequence of iterates generated by the algorithm. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Versatile peptide dendrimers for nucleic acid delivery

Dendrimers are nonviral vectors that have attracted interest on account of a number of features. They are structurally versatile because their size, shape, and surface charge can be selectively altered. Here we examine the functions of a new family of composite dendrimers that were synthesized with lipidic amino acid cores. These dendrimers are bifunctional because they are characterized by positively charged (lysine) modules for interaction with nucleic acids and neutral lipidic moieties for membrane lipid-bilayer transit. We assessed their structure-function correlations by a combination of molecular and biophysical techniques. Our assessment revealed an unexpected pleitropy of functions subserved by these vectors that included plasmid and oligonucleotide delivery. We also generated a firefly luciferase cell line in which we could modulate luciferase activity by RNA interference. We found that these vectors could also mediate RNA suppression of luciferase expression by delivering double-stranded luciferase transcripts generated in vitro. The structural uniqueness of these lipidic peptide dendrimers coupled with their ease and specificity of assembly and the versatility in their choice of cargo, puts them in a new category of macromolecule carriers. These vectors, therefore, have potential applications as epigenetic modifiers of gene function. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.

Global behavior of positive solutions of nonlinear three-point boundary value problems

We investigate the structure of the positive solution set for nonlinear three-point boundary value problems of the form u('') + h(t) f(u) = 0, u(0) = 0, u(1) = lambdau(eta), where eta epsilon (0, 1) is given lambda epsilon (0, 1/n) is a parameter, f epsilon C ([0, infinity), [0, infinity)) satisfies f (s) > 0 for s > 0, and h epsilon C([0, 1], [0, infinity)) is not identically zero on any subinterval of [0, 1]. Our main results demonstrate the existence of continua of positive solutions of the above problem. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some twisted results

The Drinfeld twist for the opposite quasi-Hopf algebra, H-COP, is determined and is shown to be related to the (second) Drinfeld twist on a quasi-Hopf algebra. The twisted form of the Drinfeld twist is investigated. In the quasi-triangular case, it is shown that the Drinfeld u-operator arises from the equivalence of H-COP to the quasi-Hopf algebra induced by twisting H with the R-matrix. The Altschuler-Coste u-operator arises in a similar way and is shown to be closely related to the Drinfeld u-operator. The quasi-cocycle condition is introduced and is shown to play a central role in the uniqueness of twisted structures on quasi-Hopf algebras. A generalization of the dynamical quantum Yang-Baxter equation, called the quasi-dynamical quantum Yang-Baxter equation, is introduced.

A First Order Predicate Logic Formulation of the 3D Reconstruction Problem and its Solution Space

This paper defines the 3D reconstruction problem as the process of reconstructing a 3D scene from numerous 2D visual images of that scene. It is well known that this problem is ill-posed, and numerous constraints and assumptions are used in 3D reconstruction algorithms in order to reduce the solution space. Unfortunately, most constraints only work in a certain range of situations and often constraints are built into the most fundamental methods (e.g. Area Based Matching assumes that all the pixels in the window belong to the same object). This paper presents a novel formulation of the 3D reconstruction problem, using a voxel framework and first order logic equations, which does not contain any additional constraints or assumptions. Solving this formulation for a set of input images gives all the possible solutions for that set, rather than picking a solution that is deemed most likely. Using this formulation, this paper studies the problem of uniqueness in 3D reconstruction and how the solution space changes for different configurations of input images. It is found that it is not possible to guarantee a unique solution, no matter how many images are taken of the scene, their orientation or even how much color variation is in the scene itself. Results of using the formulation to reconstruct a few small voxel spaces are also presented. They show that the number of solutions is extremely large for even very small voxel spaces (5 x 5 voxel space gives 10 to 10(7) solutions). This shows the need for constraints to reduce the solution space to a reasonable size. Finally, it is noted that because of the discrete nature of the formulation, the solution space size can be easily calculated, making the formulation a useful tool to numerically evaluate the usefulness of any constraints that are added.

Matching commercial clips from TV streams using a unique, robust and compact signature

One of critical challenges in automatic recognition of TV commercials is to generate a unique, robust and compact signature. Uniqueness indicates the ability to identify the similarity among the commercial video clips which may have slight content variation. Robustness means the ability to match commercial video clips containing the same content but probably with different digitalization/encoding, some noise data, and/or transmission and recording distortion. Efficiency is about the capability of effectively matching commercial video sequences with a low computation cost and storage overhead. In this paper, we present a binary signature based method, which meets all the three criteria above, by combining the techniques of ordinal and color measurements. Experimental results on a real large commercial video database show that our novel approach delivers a significantly better performance comparing to the existing methods.

Searching oligo sets of human chromosome 12 using evolutionary strategies

DNA microarray is a powerful tool to measure the level of a mixed population of nucleic acids at one time, which has great impact in many aspects of life sciences research. In order to distinguish nucleic acids with very similar composition by hybridization, it is necessary to design probes with high specificities, i.e. uniqueness, and also sensitivities, i.e., suitable melting temperature and no secondary structure. We make use of available biology tools to gain necessary sequence information of human chromosome 12, and combined with evolutionary strategy (ES) to find unique subsequences representing all predicted exons. The results are presented and discussed.

A CONSTRUÇÃO DO CURRÍCULO HUMANIZADOR NA EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL: um estudo a partir de experiências concretas

O presente trabalho procura analisar e avaliar os mecanismos que favorecem ou dificultam a participação de famílias e outros atores que compõem o cenário educativo como coautores no processo de construção do projeto político pedagógico das instituições de educação infantil, bem como identificar e analisar práticas educacionais democráticas voltadas à garantia de uma escola pública de qualidade para a infância. O estudo bibliográfico apresenta reflexões sobre os impactos dos condicionantes sociais, culturais e econômicos da sociedade contemporânea na construção dos currículos escolares. Procura também analisar a contribuição da educação escolar na construção e na consolidação dos princípios da sociedade democrática. A pesquisa de campo lança mão de relato de quatro experiências concretas (denominadas "episódios") sobre trabalho coletivo, vivenciadas pela autora em diferentes espaços e tempos, todas na educação pública no município de São Paulo. Embora cada episódio esteja contextualizado em determinado tempo e espaço, envolvendo ainda a singularidade de seus atores sociais, são retomados neste trabalho os princípios convergentes que nortearam cada experiência a partir das categorias visão totalizadora, visão interdisciplinar, visão holística e visão heurística. Complementarmente, a análise documental utilizou as atas do Conselho de Escola do período 2007-2011 de uma Escola Municipal de Educação Infantil do município de São Paulo. A opção por estes documentos como instrumentos para análise justifica-se por se constituir o Conselho de Escola um dos espaços institucionalizados de discussão e tomada de decisões em que todos os segmentos da escola encontram-se representados. Assim, tendo como pano de fundo deste estudo a prática da gestão democrática, a análise de tais documentos permite melhor compreensão sobre as possibilidades e os limites que se estabelecem num colegiado de caráter deliberativo, diante de sua sujeição à administração pública. Os procedimentos metodológicos foram pensados no sentido de se identificar, compreender e compartilhar práticas que colaborem para a construção de uma pedagogia humanizadora, levando em conta as dimensões humanas em toda a sua complexidade.  

ENTRE NÚMEROS E PALAVRAS: DIFERENÇAS QUE COLIDEM NO FRACASSO ESCOLAR

Esta dissertação - Entre números e palavras: diferenças que colidem no fracasso escolar - procura observar, inicialmente, as diretrizes curriculares e os sistemas avaliativos, com ênfase sobre o Currículo Oficial, instituído em 2008, e o Sistema de Avaliação do Rendimento Escolar (SARESP) do Estado de São Paulo, para, posteriormente, buscar compreender as relações que se estabelecem quando observados pelo discurso dos professores, que em sala de aula são o ponto de contato entre o currículo e os alunos. Para tanto, além da análise dos documentos curriculares e dos sistemas de avaliação oficiais, referendamo-nos em pressupostos teóricos relacionados ao campo curricular, tendo como principal viés os conceitos de Capital Cultural e Habitus desenvolvidos por Pierre Bourdieu. A partir destas discussões e conceitos se organizam as entrevistas realizadas com professores de Língua Portuguesa do 9º ano do ensino fundamental da rede pública do Estado de São Paulo, em que buscamos problematizar o Currículo Oficial, as metas e resultados de desempenho estabelecidos pelo SARESP, as relações de poder e ideologia presentes nas diretrizes curriculares no encontro com o Capital Cultual dos alunos. Deste modo, este estudo observa um amplo conjunto de práticas que mobilizam as ações educativas, com reflexos sobre o funcionamento da escola, bem como sobre os professores e os alunos; bem como, problematiza a constituição de diretrizes curriculares, o estabelecimento de currículos oficiais e sua unicidade, os resultados advindos das avaliações sistêmicas, as relações de poder e ideologias que atravessam os documentos oficiais e sua influência sobre a formação escolar dos alunos.