11 research outputs found
On derivatives of polynomials over finite fields through integration
No full textIn this note, using rather elementary technique and the derived formula that relates the coefficients of a polynomial over a finite field and its derivative, we deduce many interesting results related to derivatives of Boolean functions and derivatives of mappings over finite fields. For instance, we easily identify several infinite classes of polynomials which cannot possess linear structures. The same technique can be applied for deducing a nontrivial upper bound on the degree of so-called planar mappings
Aestheticism in selected short fiction by Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield
No full textObwohl Virginia Woolf und Katherine Mansfield als bedeutende Vertreterinnen des literarischen Modernismus gelten und sich für einen radikalen Bruch mit Traditionen einsetzten, wurden ihre Einstellungen zur Kunst und dessen Rolle im Leben von den Ästhetizisten des späten 19. Jahrhunderts beeinflusst. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, zu zeigen, wie ästhetizistische Vorstellungen von Kunst, Schönheit, und ihrer Rolle im Leben in einer Auswahl von Kurzgeschichten jeder Autorin dargestellt und umgesetzt werden. Der erste Teil der Arbeit besteht aus einer kurzen Zusammenfassung der Ursprünge und Kernideen des Ästhetizismus, einem Überblick über seine wichtigsten Vertreter im 19. Jahrhundert in Großbritannien, und einer Diskussion der Fortführung ästhetizistischer Einstellungen zur Kunst und zum Leben im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, insbesondere in den theoretischen Schriften von Woolf und Mansfield. Der Hauptteil der Arbeit analysiert drei Texte jeder Autorin, „Kew Gardens“, „The String Quartet“ und „Solid Objects“ von Woolf und „Bliss“, „The Singing Lesson“ und „At the Bay“ von Mansfield, geleitet von den typisch ästhetizistischen Einstellungen und formalen Merkmalen, die zuvor erörtert wurden. Die Analyse konnte in allen Texten einen Fokus auf die formalen und stilistischen Mittel zeigen, die für ästhetizistische Literatur typisch sind, einschließlich häufiger, sinnlicher Bildsprache und Beschreibung, der intermedialen Nachahmung von Malerei und Musik, oder komplexe Symbolik, wodurch das ästhetizistische Ziel einer Einheit von Inhalt und Form erreicht wird. Weiterhin zeigte sie die Präsenz bestimmter ästhetizistischer Ideen und Werte in den implizierten Weltanschauungen der Texte auf, fand aber auch wesentliche Abweichungen von einer strikten ästhetizistischen Weltanschauung. Während in einer ansonsten chaotischen und isolierenden Welt Kunst und Schönheit als äußerst wichtig gefeiert werden, indem gezeigt wird, wie sie ein vorübergehendes Entkommen der (negativen) Realität und Erlösung bieten oder sogar zu tief berührenden ‚Augenblicken des Seins’ führen, die mit einer gewissen höheren Harmonie verbunden sind, wird auch betont, dass Kunst und Schönheit ihre Grenzen haben und nicht die einzigen Dinge sein sollten, die wir schätzen. Sowohl in Bezug auf praktische Tendenzen als auch auf implizierte Einstellungen zum Leben und der Kunst sind Woolfs und Mansfields Texte eindeutig von ästhetizistischen Ideen inspiriert, aber beide Autorinnen fügen ihre eigenen charakteristischen Perspektiven hinzu und bieten eine modernere, nuanciertere Neuinterpretation des traditionellen Ästhetizismus.Although Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield are considered major representatives of literary modernism and advocated for a radical break with traditions, their attitudes towards art and its role in life were influenced by the aestheticists of the late 19th century. It is the aim of this thesis to demonstrate how aestheticist ideas about art, beauty, and life are represented and realised in a selection of short stories by each author. The first part of the thesis consists of a brief summary of aestheticism’s origins and core ideas, an overview of its major proponents in 19th-century Britain, and a discussion of the continuation of their attitudes towards art and life in the early 20th century, in particular in Woolf’s and Mansfield’s theoretical writings. The main part analyses three texts by each author, “Kew Gardens”, “The String Quartet”, and “Solid Objects” by Woolf and “Bliss”, “The Singing Lesson”, and “At the Bay” by Mansfield, guided by the set of typical aestheticist attitudes and formal characteristics established before. The analysis was able to show a focus on the formal and stylistic devices typical of aestheticist literature in all the texts, including frequent, sensuous imagery and description, the intermedial imitation of painting and music, or complex symbolism, achieving the aestheticist goal of a unity of matter and form. Further, it demonstrated the presence of certain aestheticist ideas and values in the implied worldviews of the texts, but also found substantial points of divergence from a strict aestheticist worldview. While art and beauty are celebrated as highly important in an otherwise chaotic and isolating world, providing a temporary escape and salvation or even leading to deeply meaningful ‘moments of being’ linked to connection and some higher harmony, it is also emphasised that art and beauty have their limitations, and should not be the only things we value. Both in terms of practical tendencies and implied attitudes towards life and art, Woolf’s and Mansfield’s texts are clearly inspired by aestheticist ideas, but each writer adds their own distinctive perspective, and offers a more modern, nuanced reinterpretation of traditional aestheticism.vorgelegt von Lena Ribic, BALiteraturverzeichnis: Blätter 145-156Masterarbeit Universität Graz 202
Top predators in relation to bathymetry, ice and krill during austral winter in Marguerite Bay, Antarctica
No full textAuthor Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 55 (2008): 485-499, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2007.11.006.A key hypothesis guiding the U.S. Southern Ocean Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (U.S. SO GLOBEC) program is that deep across-shelf troughs facilitate the transport of warm and nutrient-rich waters onto the continental shelf of the Western Antarctic Peninsula, resulting in enhanced winter production and prey availability to top predators. We tested aspects of this hypothesis during austral winter by assessing the distribution of the resident pack-ice top predators in relation to these deep across-shelf troughs and by investigating associations between top predators and their prey. Surveys were conducted July-August 2001 and August-September 2002 in Marguerite Bay, Antarctica, with a focus on the main across-shelf trough in the bay, Marguerite Trough. The common pack-ice seabird species were snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea, 1.2 individuals km-2), Antarctic petrel (Thalassoica antarctica, 0.3 individuals km-2), and Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae, 0.5 individuals km-2). The most common pack-ice pinniped was crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus). During both winters, snow and Antarctic petrels were associated with low sea ice concentrations independent of Marguerite Trough, while Adélie penguins occurred in association with this trough. Krill concentrations, both shallow and deep, were also associated with Adélie penguin and snow petrel distributions. During both winters, crabeater seal occurrence was associated with deep krill concentrations and with regions of lower chlorophyll concentration. The area of lower chlorophyll concentrations occurred in an area with complex bathymetry close to land and heavy ice concentrations. Complex or unusual bathymetry via its influence on
physical and biological processes appears to be one of the keys to understanding how top predators survive during the winter in this Antarctic region.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. OPP-9910096 (to C. Ribic), OPP-9910307 (to P. Wiebe), OPP-9632763,
OPP-0120525, OPP-0217282 and OPP-0224727 (to W. Fraser), and a Fulbright Scholarship and Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-03-0212 (to G. Lawson)
FTO Gene Polymorphism and Physical Activity in Relation to Body Mass Index
No full textThe aim of this study was to determine the frequencies of alleles and genotypes of the single nucleotide
polymorphism of the FTO gene (rs17817449) and the intensity of physical activity in relation to the
BMI of subjects in the student population. Genotyping was performed using the PCR-RFLP method.
94 subjects stated that they were not physically active, 57 subjects were moderately physically active
and 52 were intensely physically active. In the total sample, the risk allele G of the investigated polymorphism rs17817449 of the FTO gene had a lower frequency (41.8%) compared to the normal allele
T (58.13%). Although a higher frequency of the risk allele G was found in the group of overweight
subjects compared to the group with BMI
0.05)
Particle export from the upper ocean over the continental shelf of the west Antarctic Peninsula: A long-term record, 1992–2007
No full textAuthor Posting. © The Author(s), 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 55 (2008): 2118-2131, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2008.04.028.Includes supplemental materialsWe report on results of a long-term (1993-2007) time series sediment trap moored at 170 m to
the west of the Antarctic Peninsula in the mid-continental shelf region (350 m depth; 64º30’ S,
66º00’ W). This is a region characterized by late spring-summer diatom blooms, moderately high
seasonal primary productivity (50-150 mmol C m-2 d-1 in December-February) and high
phytoplankton and krill biomass in the seasonal sea ice zone. The mass flux ranged from near 0
to over 1 g m-2 d-1 and was near 0 to >30% organic carbon (mean 8%). Sedimentation from the
upper ocean as estimated by the trap collections at 170 m exhibited strong seasonality with high
fluxes (1-10 mmol C m-2 d-1) in November-March following ice retreat and very low fluxes
(<0.001 mmol C m-2 d-1) during the Austral winter and under sea ice cover. An average of 85%
of the annual export of 212 mmol C m-2 occurred during the seasonal peak flux episodes. Over
the trap record, the annual peak flux episode has tended to occur later in the Austral summer,
advancing by about 40 days since 1993. The time-integrated sedimentation during the peak flux
episode was <1 – 50% of the SeaWiFS-estimated primary production (mean 4%) at the trap site
over the period 1998-2006. The elemental composition of material captured in the traps had an
average C:N:P of 212:28:1, greater than the canonical Redfield values. High C:P ratios (400-
600) corresponded with the annual flux peak, indicating preferential loss of P from the sinking
particles in the summer, ice-free period. The composition of the exported material more closely
approximated the Redfield composition during the low-flux, winter period.This research was supported by NSF Grants OPP 9011927, 9632763 and 0217282 for the
Palmer Long Term Ecological Research project
Alternative splicing and extensive RNA editing of human TPH2 transcripts.
No full textBrain serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission plays a key role in the regulation of mood and has been implicated in a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions. Tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of 5-HT. Recently, we discovered a second TPH isoform (TPH2) in vertebrates, including man, which is predominantly expressed in brain, while the previously known TPH isoform (TPH1) is primarly a non-neuronal enzyme. Overwhelming evidence now points to TPH2 as a candidate gene for 5-HT-related psychiatric disorders. To assess the role of TPH2 gene variability in the etiology of psychiatric diseases we performed cDNA sequence analysis of TPH2 transcripts from human post mortem amygdala samples obtained from individuals with psychiatric disorders (drug abuse, schizophrenia, suicide) and controls. Here we show that TPH2 exists in two alternatively spliced variants in the coding region, denoted TPH2a and TPH2b. Moreover, we found evidence that the pre-mRNAs of both splice variants are dynamically RNA-edited in a mutually exclusive manner. Kinetic studies with cell lines expressing recombinant TPH2 variants revealed a higher activity of the novel TPH2B protein compared with the previously known TPH2A, whereas RNA editing was shown to inhibit the enzymatic activity of both TPH2 splice variants. Therefore, our results strongly suggest a complex fine-tuning of central nervous system 5-HT biosynthesis by TPH2 alternative splicing and RNA editing. Finally, we present molecular and large-scale linkage data evidencing that deregulated alternative splicing and RNA editing is involved in the etiology of psychiatric diseases, such as suicidal behaviour
Germline determinants of outcome and risk in colorectal cancer
No full textGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified germline single nucleotide
polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) susceptibility.
This thesis applies the same approach to the identification of germline determinants of
prognosis in CRC, attempts to verify potential susceptibility loci, and examines the
relationship between SNPs and some forms of non-SNP based germline variation.
The GWAS for prognosis used 931 patients enrolled in the VICTOR trial in the
discovery phase, screening 309,200 autosomal SNPs for an association with disease-free
survival (DFS). Following the application of selection filters based on statistical
significance levels and performance of the genotyping, 40 SNPs were identified to be
examined in further cohorts. The verification phase consisted of 1338 patients in the
PETACC 3 trial and three population based cohorts: 899 patients from Scotland, 599
patients from Denmark, and 962 patients from Finland.
The SNPs that came closest to genome-wide significance in stage 2 and 3 CRC was
rs7556894, 15kb from Actin-related protein 2 (ARP2) on chromosome 2, part of the
ARP2/3 complex essential for cell shape and motility, with p=8.96e-07. The impact on
prognosis of rs7556894 was estimated as HR=1.52 (95% CI 1.17-1.96).
Because of the failure to reach genome-wide significance (p<1e-07), two further
approaches to the discovery phase are presented: the meta-analysis of two discovery
cohorts to increase event rate and subject numbers and a GWAS for predictive markers
for the benefit of adjuvant 5-FU chemotherapy. Formal verification of either approach
was not undertaken as part of this thesis.
Further loci were subjected to specific analyses of association with prognosis or CRC
susceptibility: rs6983267 and the previously identified CRC susceptibility loci to a survival
analysis, and not found to be associated; rs6687758, previously identified as a potential
CRC risk locus to a susceptibility verification, confirming a significant association with
HR=1.15, 95% CI 1.10-1.21, p=5.04e-08; and a variety of hypothesis driven potential
risk loci to a screen for an association with CRC susceptibility, none was found but the
LD relationship between tagSNPs and insertion/deletion polymorphisms appears to be
the same as for ‘normal’ SNPs.
Overall, the data presented in this thesis quantify further the contribution of germline
variation to CRC susceptibility, exclude a major effect of such variation on prognosis, and
verify rs6687758 as a further low-penetrance CRC susceptibility locus
