The number of illnesses attributable to antibiotic resistant bacterial infections are on the rise. According to the CDC, by 2050, complications due to antibiotic resistant infections are set to become the most prevalent cause of death worldwide, overtaking both cancer and heart disease in number. We are required to look for supplements to aid antibiotics in the fight against bacteria because it's becoming increasingly clear that antibiotics alone will fail in the face of multidrug-resistant strains. Bacteriophages are natural killers of bacteria and can thus be weaponized to treat multidrug-resistant infections. When a phage is discovered, our databases need to contain as much information about that family of phage as possible, including genomic analysis and host range. The Vi01-like phage family is an important family of Enterobacteriaceae phages that infect many clinically relevant bacterial species like Salmonella typhimurium, Cronobacter sakazaki, Citrobacter freundii, and Shigella boydii, but were heretofore highly uncharacterized. This research began with the isolation, genome assembly, and annotation of six phages within a single family, the Vi01-like phage family, which had previously been described in the work of other researchers. The following research is a careful look into the genomic identity of the Vi01-like phages. The phages were analyzed using standard -omic approaches, focusing on genomic and proteomic characterization. While their proteomes are largely uncharacterized, mass spectrometry analysis confirmed the presence of five hypothetical proteins in the virion. Several of these proteins form a putative operon that suggests a ferritin-mediated entry system on the Vi01-like phage family tail. No dependence on this pathway was observed, however. While unable to infect every genus of Enterobacteriaceae tested, these phages are extraordinarily broad ranged, demonstrating the ability to infect Salmonella enterica, Citrobacter freundii, and Erwinia amylora with generally high efficiency. Upon inspection, the tail spike proteins of the Vi01-like phages, unique in their number within each genome, may be an important contributor to the wide range of bacterial hosts. The results of this research are currently being prepared for submission or are under review for publication.

l evaluated the hypothesis that juveniles of species whose tail is important for predator deflection should allocate energy preferentially to tail growth at the expense of body growth. Relative linear tail growth (linear tail growth/linear body growth) and relative mass tail growth (tail mass growth/body mass growth) were measured for juveniles of two species of skinks: <u>Eumeces Fasciatus</u> that use the tail for predator deflection, and <u>Chalcides ocellatus</u> that does not use the tail for predator deflection. Experimental conditions produced an energy limiting situation under which the priority of energy allocation to tail regeneration should be exhibited. For <u>E. fasciatus</u>, relative linear tail growth was higher for the energy limited than control group and for the tail-removal than the tailed lizards. For <u>C. ocellatus</u>, relative linear tail growth was not affected by energy level but was lower for tail-removal than tailed lizards. For both species, relative tail mass growth was lower for the tail-removal than tailed lizards. The greater relative linear tail growth of regenerating than normal tails of <u>E. fasciatus</u> supports the hypothesis that rapid tail regeneration is important for a species whose tail is used for predator deflection. However, the low rate of tail regenerartion in mass suggests that mass gains in the regeneration process. In contrast, lower relative linear and mass tail growth of <u>C. ocellatus</u> that were regenerating tails suggests that tail regeneration has a low priority for this species. / Master of Science

This thesis aims to classify the Aerodynamics of a pigeon’s tail. In this thesis two differenttheoretical solutions are implemented to solve the aerodynamics. The first is by analysingequations created by Polhamus [1], and the second theoretical analysis is done by digitalizingmoment coefficient curves by Winter [2]. The equation for the moment coefficient cm is shownin equation 1, here M is the moment q the dynamic pressure, S the wings polanform area,and c the chord leangth. A practical experiment is conducted on the pigeon’s tail where theaerodynamic forces are measured in a wind tunnel. The experimental setup included motiontracking to analyze the Angle of Attack of the tail in the wind tunnel, a force sensor, anda servo to set the angle of attack. The resulting curves show that there should exist a peakaerodynamic performance at around 30◦ spread angle and 30◦ angle of attack. The peak is found in both the theoretical and the experimental analysis. / Denna avhandling syftar till att klassificera aerodynamiken hos en duvas svans. I denna uppsatsimplementeras två olika teoretiska lösningar för att approximera aerodynamiken. Den första är genom att analysera ekvationer skapade av Polhamus [1], och den andra teoretiska analysen görs genom att digitalisera momentkoefficientkurvor av Winter [2]. Ekvationen för momentkoefficienten cm visas i ekvationen 1, här är M momentet q det dynamiska trycket, S vingarnas planformarea och c Vingprofillangden. Ett praktiskt experiment genomförs på duvans svans där de aerodynamiska krafterna mäts i en vindtunnel. Den experimentella uppställningen inkluderade rörelsespårning för att analysera anfallsvinkeln för svansen i vindtunneln, en kraftsensor och en servo för att ställa in attackvinkeln. De resulterande kurvorna visar att det borde finnas en topp aerodynamisk prestanda vid runt 30◦ spridningsvinkel och 30◦ anfallsvinkel. Toppen finns i både den teoretiska och den experimentella analysen.

Yes / In this study, the evolution process of the swallow-tailed flip bucket water nappe entering into the plunge pool is simulated by using the standard 𝑘-𝜀 turbulence model and the volume of fluid method. The effects of the upstream opening width ratio and downstream bucket angle on the flow pattern, the unit discharge distribution and the impact pressure distribution are studied. Based on the numerical results, the inner and outer jet trajectories are proposed by using the data. Results show that the longitudinal stretching length decreases with the increase of the upstream opening width ratio, and increases with the increase of the downstream bucket angle. The water nappe enters the plunge pool in a long strip shape. Thus, the unit discharge distribution of water nappe entry is consistent with the pressure distribution at the plunge pool bottom. The upstream opening width ratio and downstream bucket angle should be chosen as their intermediate values in order to have a uniform discharge distribution and to reduce the pressure peak at the plunge pool floor, which is effectively to avoid instability and destruction of plunge pool floor. / National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 51625901) and National Nature Science Foundation of China (No: 51579165).

There have been proposals of many parity inducing techniques like Forward ErrorCorrection (FEC) which try to cope the problem of channel induced errors to alarge extent if not completely eradicate. The convolutional codes have been widelyidentified to be very efficient among the known channel coding techniques. Theprocess of decoding the convolutionally encoded data stream at the receiving nodecan be quite complex, time consuming and memory inefficient.This thesis outlines the implementation of multistandard soft decision viterbidecoder and word length effects on it. Classic Viterbi algorithm and its variantsoft decision viterbi algorithm, Zero-tail termination and Tail-Biting terminationfor the trellis are discussed. For the final implementation in C language, the "Zero-Tail Termination" approach with soft decision Viterbi decoding is adopted. Thismemory efficient implementation approach is flexible for any code rate and anyconstraint length.The results obtained are compared with MATLAB reference decoder. Simulationresults have been provided which show the performance of the decoderand reveal the interesting trade-off of finite word length with system performance.Such investigation can be very beneficial for the hardware design of communicationsystems. This is of high interest for Viterbi algorithm as convolutional codes havebeen selected in several famous standards like WiMAX, EDGE, IEEE 802.11a,GPRS, WCDMA, GSM, CDMA 2000 and 3GPP-LTE.

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o efeito dos sistemas de recomendação em um site de vinhos, verificando se os resultados estão de acordo com a teoria long tail. Esta proposição prevê que em mercados online, os produtos de nicho podem representar uma parcela significativa do resultado de uma empresa. Uma das formas de explorar estas fontes de receitas é pelo uso adequado de sistemas de recomendação que auxiliem o consumidor a encontrar o que deseja. Neste trabalho são efetuados dois estudos de caso, o primeiro utiliza o coeficiente Gini para comparar a distribuição das vendas de duas empresas, sendo uma delas de comércio eletrônico, o segundo estudo de caso seleciona quatro tipos de sistemas de recomendação e compara seus desempenhos na sugestão de vinhos. Os resultados indicam que ocorre um comportamento do tipo long tail nas vendas da loja virtual e que os sistemas de recomendação baseados nos gostos de outras pessoas são os preferidos. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-20T19:24:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Antonio Regis Nodari.pdf: 1570446 bytes, checksum: 4592a5c6268d0bfe3c10cd8a58315c8f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-20T19:24:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Antonio Regis Nodari.pdf: 1570446 bytes, checksum: 4592a5c6268d0bfe3c10cd8a58315c8f (MD5)

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o efeito dos sistemas de recomendação em um site de vinhos, verificando se os resultados estão de acordo com a teoria long tail. Esta proposição prevê que em mercados online, os produtos de nicho podem representar uma parcela significativa do resultado de uma empresa. Uma das formas de explorar estas fontes de receitas é pelo uso adequado de sistemas de recomendação que auxiliem o consumidor a encontrar o que deseja. Neste trabalho são efetuados dois estudos de caso, o primeiro utiliza o coeficiente Gini para comparar a distribuição das vendas de duas empresas, sendo uma delas de comércio eletrônico, o segundo estudo de caso seleciona quatro tipos de sistemas de recomendação e compara seus desempenhos na sugestão de vinhos. Os resultados indicam que ocorre um comportamento do tipo long tail nas vendas da loja virtual e que os sistemas de recomendação baseados nos gostos de outras pessoas são os preferidos.

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The thesis focuses on the analysis of the impact of the inflation uncertainty on the reinsurance pricing, particularly on its measures of risk. Vector autoregression models are used to predict the medium-term inflation and simulate different inflation paths. The consideration of various scenarios of future inflation captured by the stochastic modelling increases the value at risk (VaR) and the tail value of risk (TVaR) of mean ceded loss to the reinsurer. The thesis founds that the inflation uncertainty measured by the stochastic inflation matters and it is important from risk management and hedging perspectives. As a result, additional loadings could be added to the price for the mitigation of the inflation risk. Although the effect of stochasticity of the future inflation is not significant on mean loss, it is the case for the risk of measures, especially for the contracts with high retention relatively to the underlying exposure. JEL Classification F12, F21, F23, H25, H71, H87 Keywords reinsurance pricing, inflation forecasting, inflation risk, long-tail line of business Title Macroeconomic Uncertainty: An Exogenous Risk in Reinsurance Pricing

The design, analysis, construction and flight testing of a miniature Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) tail-sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) prototype is presented in detail. Classic aircraft design methods were combined with numerical analysis to estimate the aircraft performance and flight characteristics. The numerical analysis employed a propeller blade-element theory coupled with momentum equations to predict the influence of a propeller slipstream on the freestream flow field, then the aircraft was analyzed using 3-D vortex lifting-line theory to model finite wings immersed in the flow field. Four prototypes were designed, built, and tested and the evolution of these prototypes is presented. The final prototype design is discussed in detail. A method for sizing control surfaces for a tail-sitter was defined. The final prototype successfully demonstrated controllability both in horizontal flight and vertical flight. Significant contributions included the development of a control system that was effective in hover as well as descending vertical flight, and the development of a strong but light weight airframe. The aircraft had a payload weight fraction of 14.5% and a maximum dimension of one meter, making it the smallest tail-sitter UAV to carry a useful payload. This project is expected to provide a knowledge base for the future design of small electric VTOL tail-sitter aircraft and to provide an airframe for future use in tail-sitter research.