A latent factor model for count data is popularly applied when deconvoluting mixed signals in biological data as exemplified by sequencing data for transcriptome or microbiome studies. Due to the availability of pure samples such as single-cell transcriptome data, the estimators can enjoy much better accuracy by utilizing the extra information. However, such an advantage quickly disappears in the presence of excessive zeros. To correctly account for such a phenomenon, we propose a zero-inflated non-negative matrix factorization that models excessive zeros in both mixed and pure samples and derive an effective multiplicative parameter updating rule. In simulation studies, our method yields smaller bias comparing to other deconvolution methods. We applied our approach to gene expression from brain tissue as well as fecal microbiome datasets, illustrating the superior performance of the approach. Our method is implemented as a publicly available R-package, iNMF. In zero-inflated non-negative matrix factorization (iNMF) for the deconvolution of mixed signals of biological data, pure-samples play a significant role by solving the identifiability issue as well as improving the accuracy of estimates. One of the main issues of using single-cell data is that the identities(labels) of the cells are not given. Thus, it is crucial to sort these cells into their correct types computationally. We propose a nonlinear latent variable model that can be used for sorting pure-samples as well as grouping mixed-samples via deep neural networks. The computational difficulty will be handled by adopting a method known as variational autoencoding. While doing so, we keep the NMF structure in a decoder neural network, which makes the output of the network interpretable.

This report investigates the relationship between the yield volatility and the price volatility in the Swedish market. The method given in our report can be used to analyze any market with appropriate data set. We have used a time-series data of interest rate yield curves from Swedish government bonds. The curves are bootstrapped from the bills and bonds. The linear interpolation on these curves results in the nodes i.e. 1Y, 2Y,..., 10Y. We also need prices for instruments. A good choice is to use the synthetic government bonds namely SE GVB 2Y, SE GVB 5Y, and SE GVB 10Y. They are issued every day with maturity 2, 5, and 10 years. We also use the time-series of these bonds. These bonds have a yearly coupon of 6%. We can get zero-coupon values of these bonds by stripping their coupons using the interest rate yield curves. We have time-series data of zero-coupon prices with maturities 2, 5, and 10 years and time-series data of interest rates with the same tenors. We can use our data to calculate their respective volatilities to investigate how they are related to each other.

<p>Ekolo&scaron;ki&nbsp; problem&nbsp; svetskih&nbsp; razmera&nbsp; predstavlja&nbsp; zagađenost&nbsp; sedimenta&nbsp; te&scaron;kim&nbsp; metalima, usled negativnih ekolo&scaron;kih efekata metala na životnu sredinu. Mnoge zemlje i regioni, kao i na&scaron;a zemlja&nbsp; suočavaju&nbsp; se&nbsp; sa&nbsp; ovom&nbsp; problematikom,&nbsp; koja&nbsp; je&nbsp; vrlo&nbsp; rasprostranjena&nbsp; usled&nbsp; sve&nbsp; brže urbanizacije&nbsp; i&nbsp; industrijalizacije,&nbsp; a&nbsp; sa&nbsp; sve&nbsp; većom&nbsp; nebrigom&nbsp; usled&nbsp; ispu&scaron;tanja&nbsp; otpadnih&nbsp; voda&nbsp; bez prethodnog&nbsp; preči&scaron;ćavanja&nbsp; u&nbsp; vodotokove.&nbsp; Prilikom&nbsp; promene&nbsp; uslova&nbsp; vodenog&nbsp; ekosistema,&nbsp; može doći do&nbsp; izluživanja&nbsp; metala&nbsp; i &scaron;tetnih efekata na&nbsp; životnu sredinu kao&nbsp; i&nbsp; na zdravlje&nbsp; ljudi. Stoga je remedijacija sedimenata zagađenih metalima ključna aktivnost u okviru procesa potpune sanacije vodenog ekosistema, a ekonomične, efikasne i ekolo&scaron;ki prihvatljive tehnike remedijacije su hitno potrebne&nbsp; i&nbsp; rado&nbsp; primenljive&nbsp; u&nbsp; tretmanu&nbsp; na&nbsp; velikoj&nbsp; skali.&nbsp; Pre&nbsp; primene&nbsp; remedijacione&nbsp; tehnike&nbsp; na velikoj skali, neophodna su ispitivanja pri laboratorijskim uslovima i pilot skali.&nbsp; Na kraju svakog uspe&scaron;nog&nbsp; laboratorijskog&nbsp; ispitivanja&nbsp; nalaze&nbsp; se&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; istraživanja.&nbsp; Pomoću&nbsp; njih&nbsp; se&nbsp; dobija&nbsp; p ravi odgovor u smislu izbora optimalne tehnologije imajući u vidu investicione i operativne tro&scaron;kove,<br />postignuti rezultat i krajnje ciljeve u pogledu upravljanja postrojenjem i otpadom. U ovom radu ispitan&nbsp; je&nbsp; potencijal&nbsp; primene&nbsp; stabilisanog&nbsp; i&nbsp; zelenom&nbsp; sinte zom&nbsp; produkovanog&nbsp; nano&nbsp; Fe(0)&nbsp; zaremedijaciju&nbsp; sedimenta&nbsp; zagađenog&nbsp; te&scaron;kim&nbsp; metalima.&nbsp; Kao&nbsp; remedijaciona&nbsp; tehnika&nbsp; odabrana&nbsp; je stabilizacija/solidifikacija,&nbsp; koja&nbsp; podrazumeva&nbsp; dodavanje&nbsp; agenasa&nbsp; za&nbsp; imobilizaciju&nbsp; metala&nbsp; u sedimentu&nbsp; sprečavajući&nbsp; time&nbsp; potencijalni&nbsp; rizik&nbsp;&nbsp; od&nbsp; izluživanja&nbsp; metala&nbsp; u&nbsp; životnu&nbsp; sredinu. Konvencionalni&nbsp; materijali&nbsp; poput&nbsp; letećeg&nbsp; pepela,&nbsp; cementa,&nbsp; gline&nbsp; se&nbsp; već&nbsp; odavno&nbsp; koriste&nbsp; u&nbsp; ovu svrhu. Kako u dana&scaron;nje vreme raste potražnja za novim, lako dostupnim agensima za stabilizaciju<br />sedimenta, do&scaron;lo se na ideju o primeni nanomaterijala na bazi gvožđa, tj. nano Fe(0) stabilisanog nativnom glinom&nbsp; i produkovanog redukcijom pomoću organskih&nbsp; molekula prirodno prisutnih u ekstraktu&nbsp; li&scaron;ća&nbsp; hrasta&nbsp; i&nbsp; crnog&nbsp; duda.&nbsp; Nanomaterijali&nbsp; su&nbsp; sintetisani&nbsp; i&nbsp; karakterisani&nbsp; različitim metodama&nbsp; i&nbsp; tehnikama.&nbsp; U&nbsp; nastavaku,&nbsp; u&nbsp; cilju&nbsp; efikasnosti&nbsp; njihove&nbsp; primene&nbsp; za&nbsp; stabilizaciju sedimenta, sprovedeni su ekstrakcioni i dinamički laboratorijski testovi izluživanja. Odabrane su sme&scaron;e sedimenta i nanomaterijala koje su pokazale najbolju efikasnost tr etmana. Nakon toga se ispitivanje&nbsp; nastavilo&nbsp; na&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; skali,&nbsp; gde&nbsp; se&nbsp; pratilo&nbsp; pona&scaron;anje&nbsp; nanomaterijala&nbsp; u&nbsp; zavisnosti&nbsp; od konvencionalnih&nbsp; materijala&nbsp; koji&nbsp; su&nbsp; već&nbsp; u&nbsp; literaturi&nbsp; dokumentovani&nbsp; kao&nbsp; efikasni&nbsp; imobilizacioni agensi. Dodatna potvrda uspe&scaron;nosti tretmana data je analizom i karakterizacijom s/s sme&scaron;a nakon pilot&nbsp; ispitivanja&nbsp; Na&nbsp; osnovu&nbsp; dobijenih&nbsp; rezultata&nbsp; proces&nbsp; se&nbsp; uspe&scaron;no&nbsp; pokazao&nbsp; pri&nbsp; laboratorijskim uslovima,&nbsp; a&nbsp; takođe&nbsp; i&nbsp; prilikom&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; tretmana,&nbsp; odnosno&nbsp; nakon&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; tretmana&nbsp; nije&nbsp; do&scaron;lo&nbsp; do povećanih koncentracija&nbsp; izluživanja metala iz s/s sme&scaron;a, kao ni degradacije sme&scaron;a nakon procesa ovlaživanja&nbsp; tokom&nbsp; &scaron;est&nbsp; meseci.&nbsp; Na&nbsp; osnovu&nbsp; toga,&nbsp; ovako&nbsp; tertirani&nbsp; sediment&nbsp; se&nbsp; može&nbsp; bezbedno odlagati&nbsp; na&nbsp; deponije,&nbsp; ili&nbsp; pak&nbsp; iskoristiti&nbsp; za&nbsp; &bdquo;kontrolisanu&ldquo;&nbsp; upotrebu,&nbsp; izgradnju&nbsp; puteva,kamenoloma, pomoćnih objekata i slično. Rezultati su doprineli u cilju trajnijeg re&scaron;avanja pitanja odlaganja&nbsp; zagađenog&nbsp; (izmuljenog)&nbsp; rečnog&nbsp; sedimenta,&nbsp; pri&nbsp; čemu&nbsp; se&nbsp; u&nbsp; procesu stabilizacije/solidifikacije&nbsp; dobijaju&nbsp; proizvodi&nbsp; sa&nbsp; dodatom&nbsp; vredno&scaron;ću&nbsp; neumanjenog&nbsp; kvaliteta .Nanomaterijali sintetisani u ovom radu na&nbsp; bazi ekstrakta li&scaron;ća biljaka doprinose kako očuvanju životne&nbsp; sredine,&nbsp; tako&nbsp; i&nbsp; ekonomičnosti&nbsp; primene&nbsp; remedijacione&nbsp; tehnike.&nbsp; Zahvaljujući&nbsp; velikoj specifičnoj&nbsp; povr&scaron;ini,&nbsp; malim&nbsp; dimenzijama&nbsp; čestica&nbsp; i&nbsp; velikom&nbsp; kapacitetu&nbsp; za&nbsp; imobilizaciju&nbsp; te&scaron;kih<br />metala predstavljaju efikasnu alternativu komercijalno dostupnim materijalima, &scaron;to ih čini veoma atraktivnim&nbsp; i&nbsp; obećavajućim&nbsp; u&nbsp; budućnosti&nbsp; pri&nbsp; tretmanu&nbsp; rečnog&nbsp; sedimenta&nbsp; zagađenog&nbsp; te&scaron;kim metalima.</p> / <p>The pollution of sediment by heavy metals represents a large environmental problem all<br />over the world.&nbsp; A&nbsp; lot of countries&nbsp; in the region&nbsp; as well as our country deal with this problem, which&nbsp; is&nbsp; widespread&nbsp; because&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; fast&nbsp; urbanization&nbsp; and&nbsp; industrialization.&nbsp; There&nbsp; is&nbsp; more&nbsp; and more&nbsp; carelessness&nbsp; about&nbsp; wastewater&nbsp; discharge&nbsp; into&nbsp; water&nbsp; flows&nbsp; without&nbsp; previous&nbsp; purification. When the conditions of the aquatic ecosystem change, metal leaching and harmful effects on the environment&nbsp; and&nbsp; human&nbsp; health&nbsp; can&nbsp; occur.&nbsp; Therefore,&nbsp; remediation&nbsp; of&nbsp; metal-contaminated sediments&nbsp; is&nbsp; crucial&nbsp; activity&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; process&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; complete&nbsp; ecosystem&nbsp; remediation.&nbsp; Cost effective, efficient and environmentally friendly remediation techniques are urgently needed and readily applicable in large-scale treatment. Before applying remediation techniques on the largescale,&nbsp; both&nbsp; laboratory&nbsp; and&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; tests&nbsp; are&nbsp; necessary.&nbsp; There&nbsp; are&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; studies&nbsp; at&nbsp; the&nbsp; end&nbsp; of&nbsp; each successful&nbsp; laboratory&nbsp; test.&nbsp; Those&nbsp; studies&nbsp; provide&nbsp; the&nbsp; right&nbsp; answer&nbsp; in&nbsp; terms&nbsp; of&nbsp; choosing&nbsp; the optimal technology, taking into account the investment and operating costs,&nbsp;&nbsp; the achieved resultand&nbsp; the&nbsp; ultimate&nbsp; goals&nbsp; in&nbsp; terms&nbsp; of&nbsp; plant&nbsp; and&nbsp; waste&nbsp; management.&nbsp; In&nbsp; this&nbsp; study,&nbsp; the&nbsp; application<br />potential of stabilized and green&nbsp; -&nbsp; synthesized&nbsp; nano Fe(0) for the remediation of&nbsp; heavy&nbsp; metal&nbsp; -contaminated&nbsp; sediment&nbsp; was&nbsp; investigated.&nbsp; Stabilization&nbsp; /&nbsp; solidification&nbsp; technique&nbsp; was&nbsp; chosen&nbsp; as remediation technique which involves the addition of metal immobilizing agents in the sediment thus preventing the potential risk of metal leaching into the environment. Conventional materials such as fly ash, cement and clay have long been used for this purpose. Nowadays there is need for new, easily accessible agents for the sediment stabilization. Therefore it came up with the idea of&nbsp; using&nbsp; iron-based&nbsp; nanomaterials,&nbsp; ie.&nbsp; nano&nbsp; Fe(0)&nbsp; stabilized&nbsp; by&nbsp; native&nbsp; cla y&nbsp; and&nbsp; produced&nbsp; by reduction&nbsp; using&nbsp; organic&nbsp; molecules&nbsp; naturally&nbsp; present&nbsp; in&nbsp; oak&nbsp; and&nbsp; black&nbsp; mulberry&nbsp; leaf&nbsp; extract. Nanomaterials have been synthesized and characterized by different methods and techniques. In order&nbsp; to&nbsp; be&nbsp; effective&nbsp; in&nbsp; their&nbsp; application&nbsp; for&nbsp; sediment&nbsp; stabilization,&nbsp; extraction&nbsp; and&nbsp; dynamic laboratory leaching tests were performed. Mixtures of sediment and nanomaterials were selected that showed the best treatment efficiency.&nbsp; After that, the examination was continued on a pilot scale, where the behavior of nanomaterials was monitored, depending on conventional materials which&nbsp; have&nbsp; already&nbsp; been&nbsp; documented&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; literature&nbsp; as&nbsp; effective&nbsp; immobilizing&nbsp; agents.Additional confirmation of treatment success was given by analysis and characterization of s / s mixtures&nbsp; after&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; testing.&nbsp; According&nbsp; to&nbsp; obtained&nbsp; results,&nbsp; the&nbsp; process&nbsp; was&nbsp; successfully demonstrated&nbsp; under&nbsp; laboratory&nbsp; conditions,&nbsp; and&nbsp; also&nbsp; during&nbsp; the&nbsp; pilot&nbsp; treatment.&nbsp; After&nbsp; the&nbsp; pilot treatment&nbsp; there&nbsp; were&nbsp; no&nbsp; increased&nbsp; concentrations&nbsp; of&nbsp; metal&nbsp; leaching&nbsp; from&nbsp; s/s&nbsp; mixtures,&nbsp; nor mixture degradation after the wetting process for six months. Based on that, the sediment treated in this way&nbsp; can&nbsp; be safely disposed of&nbsp; in&nbsp; landfills, or used&nbsp; for &quot;controlled&quot; use, construction of<br />roads,&nbsp; quarries,&nbsp; auxiliary&nbsp; facilities&nbsp; and&nbsp; etc.&nbsp; The&nbsp; results&nbsp; have&nbsp; contributed&nbsp; to the&nbsp; goal&nbsp; of&nbsp; a&nbsp; more permanent solution to the issue of disposal of polluted (slugged) river sediment, whereby in the process&nbsp; of&nbsp; stabilization/solidification,&nbsp; products&nbsp; with&nbsp; added&nbsp; value&nbsp; of&nbsp; undiminished&nbsp; quality&nbsp; are obtained. The nanomaterials synthesized in this paper on the basis of plant leaf extract contribute to both the preservation of the environment and the economy of remediation techniques. Thanks to their&nbsp; large specific&nbsp; surface area, small particle size and&nbsp; large ca pacity&nbsp; for&nbsp; immobilization of heavy&nbsp; metals,&nbsp; they&nbsp; represent&nbsp; an&nbsp; effective&nbsp; alternative&nbsp; to&nbsp; commercially&nbsp; available&nbsp;&nbsp; materials.&nbsp; It makes&nbsp; them&nbsp; very&nbsp; attractive&nbsp; and&nbsp; promising&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; future&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; treatment&nbsp; of&nbsp; river&nbsp; sediment contaminated with heavy metals.</p>

Ensuring electricity availability and acquiring access of potable water during emergencies in remote areas are becoming a global challenge around the world. Utilizing solar energy electricity generation by photovoltaics and clean water production by solar distillation have shown its great potential to meet the world’s future energy and water demands. In this work, we fabricated a photovoltaic-membrane distillation-evaporative crystallizer device (PV-MD-EC), in which high electricity generation efficiency (~15%), clean water production rate (~2.66 kg/m2 h) and salt crystallization from seawater can be achieved in such an integrated system under one sun illumination. In addition, the solar cell operates in a much lower temperature at around 48 oC, which is much lower than previous work. The advanced performance is attributed to the utilization of a highly porous and thinner hydrophobic membrane. This design provides a new strategy to address the challenge of water-energy nexus.

The occurrence of water crises in many parts of the world raises the need to consider more efficient and sustainable consumption of water resources. As such, many cities have prioritised water demand management strategies, which are based on price and non-price mechanisms. The literature shows no consensus as to which of these measures are most effective for managing residential water demand. To understand the impact and effectiveness of these mechanisms, there is a need to understand how people respond to them. This requires understanding materials, meanings and competences (skills and know how) that people have, which constitute elements of social practice. In 2017 and 2018, the City of Cape Town (CoCT) ramped up their price and non-price mechanisms to encourage people to save water in response to a severe drought. These mechanisms included water restrictions, increased water tariffs, and the Day Zero communication campaign. However, little is known about how effective these measures were at encouraging people to save water. There is no clear documentation of how the public understands, interprets and incorporates these mechanisms into their own household water use practices. This study explores the impacts and effectiveness of the City of Cape Town’s price and non-price mechanisms on household water use practices during the water crisis. Using information obtained through semi-structured interviews with 20 individuals living in houses where they paid their water bills, a version of social practice theory is used as a lens to understand how respondents interpreted and responded to these mechanisms when it comes to residential water use practices. This allows for an assessment of which of the CoCT’s actions are more effective in achieving sustainable water use practices. Results show that price mechanisms (water tariffs) were considered to be ineffective and did not encourage people to save water. Non-price mechanisms (water restrictions and Day Zero communication campaign) were seen as having more impact on respondents, encouraging water conservation behaviour; especially when it comes to household indoor water use activities related to hygiene. Compared to other studies which have used estimates for the water demand function, this study conducted interviews directly with households on the impact of the mechanisms. This enabled this study to explain how and why household water use practices change in response to these measures. Such qualitative information is important and contributes to a field that often uses quantitative data to suggest whether price or non-price mechanisms are effective.

The purpose of this investigation was to test the theoretical possibility of an investor earning a positive cash return from the activities of the stock market despite effectively holding no position at all in said market. The sample data were the daily returns for the shares of the 780 companies listed on the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), which fell within the top 500 listed companies by market capitalisation between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2017. The reversal strategy’s performance was evaluated using portfolios constructed as quantiles of 100 or 500 shares, respectively, where the investor had the option of implementing the reversal strategy immediately after an information-gathering period closed or a day thereafter. The time intervals used were 1 January 2005 to 29 September 2008 (the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average crashed by 777.68 points), 29 September 2008 to 31 December 2017 and 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2017. Of the 1000 portfolios tested in each time interval, at least 416 had positive average returns in every time interval. Of the portfolios that had positive average returns over the time intervals, at least 66 had statistically significant average returns in every time interval. The best-performing portfolio for the entire sample period was a combination of the best-performing pre-crash and post-crash portfolios - an investor who held that portfolio realised a cumulative return of approximately $61.39 for every $1 invested. The conclusion was that it was theoretically possible for an investor to earn a positive cash return from the market’s activities despite effectively holding no position at all in the market. Consequently, it was concluded that the strong form of Fama’s (1970) Efficient Market Hypothesis was disproved. Future research should include out-of-sample tests, tests that include restrictions on short selling and tests that consider the impact of trading costs on portfolio performance, to render the conclusions of this investigation more practically applicable to investors.

In 1991, A. Máté precisely calculated the first-order asymptotic behavior of the sequence of Christoffel functions associated with Szego measures on the unit circle. Our principal goal is the abstraction of his result in two directions: We compute the translated asymptotics, limn λn(µ, x + a/n), and obtain, as a corollary, a universality limit for the fairly broad class of Szego weights. Finally, we prove Máté’s result for measures supported on smooth curves in the plane. Our proof of the latter derives, in part, from a precise estimate of certain weighted means of the Faber polynomials associated with the support of the measure. Finally, we investigate a variety of applications, including two novel applications to ill-posed problems in Hilbert space and the mean ergodic theorem.

The school-to-prison pipeline is an expansive issue that impacts the educational and criminal justice systems in the United States. Traditionally, the research has linked the prevalence of the pipeline to factors based within school systems. These systemic factors include the use of zero tolerance policies, exclusionary disciplinary practices, and the presence of school resource officers. The proposed study aims to assess the impact of factors that perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline that are non-systemic in nature. For the purposes of this study, the non-systemic contributors to the school-to-prison pipeline to be assessed are parental socialization, child self-control, learned noncompliance, child resilience, child problem behaviors, and child deviance. Scales for each non-systemic contributor were created and complied into a survey instrument. The study utilized an exploratory, quantitative methodology and non-experimental research using a survey approach in a cross-sectional design to assess the perceptions of non-systemic contributors of the school-to-prison pipeline among mental health professionals who service youth at risk for justice system involvement. A sample of 71 mental health professionals participated in the study. Results indicated that resilience predicted behavior problems in schools above and beyond any other non-systemic contributor. This finding produced wide-ranging implications for the manner in which children are socialized at home and disciplined at school.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第20006号 / 農博第2190号 / 新制||農||1045(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H28||N5015(農学部図書室) / 33102 / 京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 藤原 正幸, 教授 村上 章, 准教授 宇波 耕一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(情報学) / 乙第13184号 / 論情博第94号 / 新制||情||116(附属図書館) / (主査)教授 石田 亨, 教授 中村 佳正, 教授 岡部 寿男, 教授 岡本 龍明 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DGAM