During 1967-68 experiments to determine the comparative effect of various nitrogenous fertilizers on soil reaction and soil aggregation of the Fox sandy loam, the Lincoln loam and the Lincoln clay loam were carried out in the pedology Laboratory of the Department of Geography, McMaster University. The soil samples were taken from the Horticultural Experiment Station, Simcoe, Ontario. A review of literature is presented in Chapter II. Chapter III discusses experimental techniques, results and a discussion of problems encountered. Chapter IV summarizes the results of the survey and analyses. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The problem of segmenting linearly ordered data is frequently encountered in time-series analysis, computational biology, and natural language processing. Segmentations obtained independently from replicate data sets or from the same data with different methods or parameter settings pose the problem of computing an aggregate or consensus segmentation. This Segmentation Aggregation problem amounts to finding a segmentation that minimizes the sum of distances to the input segmentations. It is again a segmentation problem and can be solved by dynamic programming. The aim of this contribution is (1) to gain a better mathematical understanding of the Segmentation Aggregation problem and its solutions and (2) to demonstrate that consensus segmentations have useful applications. Extending previously known results we show that for a large class of distance functions only breakpoints present in at least one input segmentation appear in the consensus segmentation. Furthermore, we derive a bound on the size of consensus segments. As show-case applications, we investigate a yeast transcriptome and show that consensus segments provide a robust means of identifying transcriptomic units. This approach is particularly suited for dense transcriptomes with polycistronic transcripts, operons, or a lack of separation between transcripts. As a second application, we demonstrate that consensus segmentations can be used to robustly identify growth regimes from sets of replicate growth curves.

Bien que connu en tant que pathogène bactérien porcin majeur et agent zoonotique responsable principalement de méningites, septicémies et de morts soudaines, Streptococcus suis a également été isolé chez une variété d’autres animaux tels que les ruminants. Malgré sa diversité génotypique et sérologique, des études taxonomiques récentes ont mené à la reclassification de 6 de ses sérotypes dont le sérotype 33, maintenant dénommé comme nouvelle espèce Streptococcus ruminantium. Contrairement à S. suis, S. ruminantium a principalement été décrit chez les ruminants comme pathogène responsable de diverses manifestations cliniques telles que des endocardites et des arthrites. En raison de sa description récente, plusieurs lacunes concernant ses caractéristiques biologiques et pathologiques demeurent. De plus, S. suis et S. ruminantium sont très difficiles à différencier l’un de l’autre par l’entremise des tests biochimiques traditionnellement utilisés dans les laboratoires de diagnostic. Ainsi, plusieurs souches de S. suisisolées de ruminants malades avant la mise à jour de la classification, s’avèrent mal identifiées. D’où la raison pour laquelle l’importance étiologique de S. ruminantium chez les ruminants reste incertaine. Pour y remédier, 14 isolats de S. suis provenant d’échantillons cliniques chez des ruminants au Canada, ont été reclassifiés en S. ruminantium selon les nouvelles analyses génétiques moléculaires décrites. À ces derniers s’ajoutent 7 isolats de S. ruminantium provenant de cas d’endocardites bovines au Japon, qui ont été également davantage caractérisés génotypiquement et phénotypiquement et leurs interactions avec différentes cellules de l’hôte ont été évaluées. En résumé, on a pu démontrer que tous les isolats étaient faiblement voire non encapsulés avec une surface cellulaire hydrophobe, ils avaient une grande capacité d’auto-agrégation et une habileté à produire du biofilm. Ces phénotypes pourraient contribuer à la pathogénèse de l’infection en intensifiant la capacité d’adhésion et d’invasion des cellules épithéliales et endothéliales et en augmentant la résistance à l’effet bactéricide du sang entier et à la phagocytose par les cellules immunitaires de l’hôte. Cependant, certains isolats étaient plus susceptibles que d’autres à la phagocytose, suggérant que d’autres mécanismes de protection seraient impliqués dans cette étape. Ainsi, cette étude aide à améliorer notre connaissance sur la pathogénicité et la virulence de S. ruminantium pour les maladies chez les ruminants. / Although Streptococcus suis is known as a major swine bacterial pathogen and zoonotic agent mainly responsible for meningitis, septicemia, and sudden death, it has also been isolated from a variety of other animals including ruminants. Despite its genotypical and serological diversity, recent taxonomic studies led to the reclassification of 6 S. suis serotypes such as S. suis serotype 33 currently renamed as the novel species Streptococcus ruminantium. Unlike S. suis, S. ruminantium has been mainly described in ruminants as a cause of endocarditis and arthritis. Because of its recent description, information on its biological and pathological characteristics remains unclear. Moreover, S. suis and S. ruminantium are not easily differentiated by traditional biochemical tests done in diagnostic laboratories. Hence, some S. suis isolates recovered from diseased ruminants before the updated classification, have been misidentified. Consequently, the aetiological importance of S. ruminantium in ruminants remains unknown. To address this,14 S. suis isolates from clinical samples of ruminants in Canada have been reclassified, based on the new genetic molecular testing described for the identification of S. ruminantium. In addition of them, 7 S. ruminantium isolates from bovine endocarditis in Japan, were further genotypically and phenotypically characterized and their interactions with various host cells were studied. Overall, we demonstrated that all isolates were poorly or non-capsulated with a high cell surface hydrophobicity, had a high capacity of self-aggregation and the ability to produce biofilm. These biological phenotypes might contribute to the pathogenesis of the infection by enhancing the adhesion/invasion capacity of both epithelial and endothelial cells, and by increasing the resistance to whole blood killing and phagocytosis by host immune cells. However, some isolates were more susceptible to the phagocytosis than others suggesting that other protective mechanisms might be implicated in this step. Taken together, this study will help to increase our understanding of the pathogenicity and the virulence of S. ruminantium in ruminant diseases.

As infrastructures and software grow in complexity the need to keep track of things becomes important. It is the job of log aggregation solutions to condense log data into a form that is easier to search, visualize, and analyze. There are many log aggregation solutions out there today with various pros and cons to fit the various types of data and architectures. This makes the choice of selecting a log aggregation solution an important one. This thesis analyzes two full-stack log aggregation solutions, Elastic stack and SigNoz, with the goal of evaluating how the ingestion and storage components of the two stacks perform with smaller and larger amounts of data. The evaluation of these solutions was done by ingesting log files of varying sizes into them while tracking their performance. These performance metrics were then analyzed to find similarities and differences. The thesis found that SigNoz featured a higher CPU usage on average, faster processing times, and lower memory usage. Elastic stack was found to do more processing and indexing on the data, requiring more memory and storage space to allow for more detailed searchability of the ingested data. This also meant that there was a larger storage space requirement for Elastic stack than SigNoz to store the ingested logs. The hope of this thesis is that these findings can be used to provide insight into the area and aid those choosing between the two solutions in making a more informed decision.

[pt] O planejamento de estruturas push-pull tem levado a compostos com propriedades fotofísicas interessantes. Isto inclui a Emissão Induzida por Agregação (AIE) e a Emissão Melhorada Induzida por Agregação (AIEE), que são importantes para emissão em estado sólido e, portanto, para aplicações em dispositivos optoeletrônicos. Visando AIEE, novos compostos fluorescentes com características D-Pi-A e D-A-D foram planejados. Usando ferramentas computacionais, foram feitas simulações para calcular as propriedades teóricas dos compostos desenhados e validar se eram apropriadas para o desenvolvimento sucessivo das rotas sintéticas. No presente trabalho, duas novas séries de derivados de piridina3,5-dicarbonitrilo difenil-substituído (PPC) e derivados de 2,1,3- benzothiadiazol fluorenil-substituído (FL-BTD) foram sintetizados usando estruturas D-Pi-A e D-A-D, respectivamente. As estratégias sintéticas usadas para a sínteses dos novos compostos incluem reações multicomponente de Hantzsch (na produção do principal intermediário na série PPC), assim como reações de acoplamento cruzado C-C catalisadas por paládio, incluindo Heck, Sonogashira e Suzuki e acoplamentos N-C via reação Buchwald-Hartwig para a obtenção dos produtos. Um total de seis novos derivados de PPC, foram obtidos e caracterizados, com rendimentos de 35 a 73 por cento, e quatro novos derivados de BTD com rendimentos de reação de 39 a 95 por cento são reportados. Experimentos de espectroscopia foram realizados para a avaliação das propriedades fotofísicas dos novos derivados de PPC e BTD, abrangendo medidas de absorção, emissão, e de rendimento quântico fluorescente (Rendimento quântico de fluorescência). Os compostos apresentaram altos Rendimentos quânticos de fluorescência em solução, até 0,71 na série PPC e até 0,67 na série FL-BTD, exibindo band gaps adequados para sua aplicação como camadas emissoras em OLEDs. O comportamento no estado agregado dos derivados de PPC e BTD foi avaliado, quatro compostos exibiram aumento de luminescência em soluções THF contendo fração de água (fw) de 70 por cento até maior que 90 por cento, indicando as propriedades AIEE. Um dos compostos da série PPC, MT-PPC, apresentou AIE com indução da florescência na mistura com fw 80 por cento. Na série BTD, destacou-se o derivado FL-BTD-OAM com AIEE e Rendimento quântico de fluorescência significativo, assim, um OLED foi construído utilizando-o como camada emissora, obtendo resultados promissores com um dispositivo operando com alto brilho (luminância de 6450 cd m-2), boa irradiação (503 mW cm-2) e eficiência de corrente razoável (0,84 cd/A). / [en] The design of push-pull structures has led to compounds with interesting photophysical properties. This includes Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE) and Aggregation-induced Enhanced Emission (AIEE), which are important for emission in solid state and therefore for applications in optoelectronic devices. Aiming AIEE, new fluorescent compounds with D-Pi-A and D-A-D characteristics were designed. Using computational tools, simulations were made to calculate their theoretical properties and validate if were appropriate for the successive development of the synthetic routes. The present work reports two new series of diphenyl-substituted pyridine3,5-dicarbonitrile (PPC) derivatives and fluorenyl-substituted 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (FL-BTD) derivatives, synthetized using D-Pi-A and D-AD structures, respectively. The compounds presented high fluorescence quantum yields in solution, up to 0.71 in the PPC series and up to 0.67 in the FL-BTD series, displaying suitable band gaps for application as emitting layers in OLEDs. Five compounds displayed enhancement of luminescence in THF solutions containing water fraction (fw) from 70 percent up to bigger than 90 percent, indicating AIEE properties. Among these, the derivative FL-BTD-OAM stood out, and an OLED device was built using it as an emitting layer, obtaining promising results with a device operating with high bright (luminance of 6450 cd m-2), good irradiance (503 mW cm-2) and reasonable current efficiency (0.84 cd/A).

A common optimization technique in data warehouse environments is the use of materialized aggregates. Aggregate processing becomes complex, if partitions of aggregates or queries are materialized and reused later. Most problematic are the implication problems regarding the restriction predicates. We show that in the presence of hierarchies in a multidimensional environment an efficient algorithm can be given to construct - or to derive - an aggregate from one or more overlapping materialized aggregate partitions (set-derivability).

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.