Signaling networks have a crucial role in every aspect of plant communication with the environment. There is significant interest in identifying signal transduction pathways governing CW homeostasis in interactions with pathogens and symbionts. In previous work, our lab has demonstrated that the RAF-like Integrin-Linked Kinase 1 (ILK1) is a negative regulator of FLS2 (Flagellin Sensing2)-mediated signaling, required for defense against a low-virulence P. syringae T3SS-mutant, and modulating cellular ion homeostasis through functional interactions with Ca2+ sensor CML9 and HAK5 K+ transporter (Brauer et al., 2016). In this work we revealed that ILK1 homologs, ILK4 and ILK5, are required for plant response to PAMPs (elf18) and plant damage-associated molecules (pep1) but not flg22. Specifically, we found that ilk4 and ilk5 were unable to undergo priming for Pattern-Triggered Immunity (PTI) with elf18 and pep1 and showed increased susceptibility to virulent P.syringae pv.tomato DC3000. A global transcriptomic analysis revealed the role of ILK1 in modulating the temporal dynamics and range of Arabidopsis transcriptional re-programming postlg22 treatment. In the absence of the PAMP challenge, ilk1-1 showed derepression of a sector of PTI, osmotic and ionic stress, and iron starvation transcriptional programs. Postlg22 challenge, genes for innate immunity, microtubule (MT) structure and movement, CW biosynthesis, and plant growth were differentially regulated in ilk1-1 compared to wt. Phenotyping of ilk1-1 alongside ilk4, ilk5, and OE-ILK5 mutant lines revealed significant de-regulation of induction of defense genes, upregulation of auxin (SAURs) genes, and repression of tubulins and MT-motor protein genes. Moreover, the mutants showed abnormal insensitivity to MT-depolymerizing treatments and defective root growth and displayed CW-specific defects (i.e., ectopic lignin accumulation in the xylem and defects in the pectin-rich seed mucilage). We postulate that ILKs are components of a CW-integrity signaling pathway that suppresses PTI and facilitates CW biosynthesis during normal growth, whereas post-pathogen challenge this pathway is required for defensive re-modeling of the CW and MT cytoskeleton and resumption of plant growth.

Across the Deep South: A Linked Story Collection focuses on the establishment and reestablishment of themes that reflect the mutability of characters over time, along with the equally mutable notion of identity found within the cultural context of the modern Southern United States. The stories follow the paradigm of Sherwood Anderson’s linked story collection Winesburg, Ohio in that character and geographical location combine over the course of multiple stories to recontextualize theme and character development through intertextual cohesiveness. Preceding the collection of stories is a critical introduction that considers the linked story collection as an independent form of fiction occupying a distinct space between the non-interrelated short story collection and the novel.

No / It is becoming increasingly popular to expose government and citywide sensor data as linked data. Linked data appears to offer a great potential for exploratory search in supporting smart city goals of helping users to learn and make sense of complex and heterogeneous data. However, there are no systematic user studies to provide an insight of how browsing through linked data can support exploratory search. This paper presents a user study that draws on methodological and empirical underpinning from relevant exploratory search studies. The authors have developed a linked data browser that provides an interface for user browsing through several datasets linked via domain ontologies. In a systematic study that is qualitative and exploratory in nature, they have been able to get an insight on central issues related to exploratory search and browsing through linked data. The study identifies obstacles and challenges related to exploratory search using linked data and draws heuristics for future improvements. The authors also report main problems experienced by users while conducting exploratory search tasks, based on which requirements for algorithmic support to address the observed issues are elicited. The approach and lessons learnt can facilitate future work in browsing of linked data, and points at further issues that have to be addressed.

The purpose of this study was to explore through qualitative inquiry the views of selected superintendents about administrative issues involving school-linked service integration. Research questions for the study included (1) What views emerge when superintendents discuss school-linked service integration? (2) What aspects of school-linked service integration do superintendents identify as most beneficial? (3) What administrative issues of school-linked service integration do superintendents identify as most challenging? (4) What aspects of background, experience, or educational philosophy emerge when superintendents describe their views about administrative issues of school-linked service integration? The study was exploratory and followed an iterative or self-correcting design. Nine superintendents were selected through expert nomination. Superintendents represented small, medium, and large school districts to allow exploration of possible differences and similarities within divergent settings. The superintendents were interviewed using standardized open-ended interviews. Categorical coding and examination of emerging patterns were employed as primary modes of data analysis. The findings suggest that the superintendents in this study viewed school-linked service integration as schools and community agencies working in partnerships to provide a variety of services for the community and its children. According to the superintendents, these partnerships were beneficial when they lent support to the school's academic mission and enhanced the school district's financial capacity to meet the needs of its students. Participation in such partnerships was seen as labor-intensive. The amount of time required to alter operational procedures, to negotiate resource sharing, and to build trust among the participants was identified as the most challenging aspect of school-linked service integration. Consequently, these superintendents characterized their role in school-linked service integration as being either one of a developer or a facilitator. The superintendents viewed their primary role as one of implementing the policy of the school board. Incorporated into each one of the superintendents' educational philosophies was a belief about the superintendent's accountability to promote improved student achievement. / Ed. D.

This study describes the evolution of a nonprofit corporation, The Cottage Family and Child Care Center, from its conceptual stage in 1989 through its institutional stage (or first two years of operation) in 1994 in order to identify the ingredients required to create and to sustain a viable educational organization. Research questions for the study included: (1) What were the environmental conditions that necessitated the creation of a parent and child center? (2) What was the vision of the leaders? (3) In what way did diverse groups come together on this project, and why were they able to join forces and to work together toward a common goal? (4) What were the major challenges along the continuum from conception to completion of two years of operation, and how were they handled? The research method employed was an interpretive study of a single case. Qualitative interviewing of five founders of the organization was the primary method for obtaining data. Additional sources of data included legal documents of the nonprofit organization, newsletters, personal calendars of the researcher, foundation proposals for funding, and "before" and "after" photographs of the site. Data analysis included a multistage process of reading verbatim transcripts of the long interviews until categories and patterns were distinguished and themes were identified. The findings suggest that vision, money, power, trust, expertise, contacts, time, risk-taking, and tenacity are required for a collaborative venture in creating a new organization. The theories that emerged from the data can be categorized as: the significance of serendipity, the role of specific leaders in emerging settings, and the conundrum of collaborative education. Implications of the findings for future initiatives include: the benefit of out-of-the-box thinking, the need for collaborative outreach, the value of disciplined passion, the diverse role of the university, and the importance of funding. The research contributes to the general field of organization study, especially the birth and early stages in the life cycle of an organization. It also gives both a developmental description and a theoretical overlay of one organization's efforts to collaborate with other nonprofit organizations in an attempt to address the needs of the at-risk child in a holistic, comprehensive, and preventive manner. / Ed. D.

Yes / Well-defined N,N’-(dimethylamino)ethyl acrylate (DMAEA) functionalized polymeric stars have been synthesized via an arm-first approach. Utilizing reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, linear homopolymers (PEGA, PHEA) were chain extended with DMAEA and a divinyl crosslinker to produce a series of crosslinked polymeric stars. These stars were characterized using a range of techniques including NMR, SEC, DLS and TEM analysis. The hydrolytic behavior of the DMAEA when tethered within a micellar core was investigated by1 H NMR spectroscopy and was found to be strongly dependent on temperature. At elevated temperatures either a higher crosslinking density or a longer arm length was found to offer greater protection to the amine resulting in slower hydrolysis, with hydrolysis found to level off at a lower final percentage hydrolysis. In contrast, the composition and nature of the arm was found to have little impact on the hydrolysis, with the same trends relating to the effect of temperature and crosslinking density observed with a linear (HEA) and a brush (PEGA) arm. Additionally, the release of DMAE from the polymeric stars was successfully confirmed through the use of an enzymatic assay, producing a concentration of DMAE in good agreement with the theoretical concentration based on the 1H NMR spectroscopic analysis. / Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), EPSRC

The research employs descriptive research methods to investigate the supply and demand dynamics of structured settlement markets, wherein individuals enter into contractual agreements to settle a personal injury case through the delivery of an annuity issued by a highly rated insurance carrier. This dissertation examines the characteristics of structured settlement markets, their similarities to other markets, and investor behavior under different macroeconomic conditions. The dissertation draws on data from public sources, market indexes, and existing literature on similar topics from other asset classes (Commercial Mortgage-backed Securities (CMBS) & High Yield Bonds). The data analysis will take a top-down approach using quantitative research methods. The motivation for this research study is to enhance visibility into the structured settlement market relevant to practitioners and influence future research on structured settlements and similar investments. / Business Administration/Risk Management and Insurance

[pt] O objetivo desta dissertação é melhorar a busca por palavra-chave em formato RDF. Propomos uma abordagem escalável, baseada numa representação tensorial, que permite o armazenamento distribuído e, como consequência, o uso de técnicas de paralelismo para agilizar a busca sobre grandes bases de RDF, em particular, as publicadas como Linked Data. Um volume sem precedentes de informação está sendo disponibilizado seguindo os princípios de Linked Data, formando o que chamamos de Web of Data. Esta informação, tipicamente codificada como triplas RDF, costuma ser representada como um grafo, onde sujeitos e objetos são vértices, e predicados são arestas ligando os vértices. Em consequência da ampla adoção de mecanismos de busca na World Wide Web, usuários estão familiarizados com a busca por palavra-chave. No caso de grafos RDF, no entanto, a extração de uma partição coerente de grafos para enriquecer os resultados da busca é uma tarefa cara, demorada, e cuja expectativa do usuário é de que seja executada em tempo real. Este trabalho tem como objetivo o tratamento deste problema. Parte de uma solução proposta recentemente prega a indexação do grafo RDF como uma matriz esparsa, que contém um conjunto de informações pré-computadas para agilizar a extração de seções do grafo, e o uso de consultas baseadas em tensores sobre a matriz esparsa. Esta abordagem baseada em tensores permite que se tome vantagem de técnicas modernas de programação distribuída, e.g., a utilização de bases de dados não-relacionais fracionadas e o modelo de MapReduce. Nesta dissertação, propomos o desenho e exploramos a viabilidade da abordagem baseada em tensores, com o objetivo de construir um depósito de dados distribuído e agilizar a busca por palavras-chave com uma abordagem paralela. / [en] The goal of this dissertation is to improve RDF keyword search. We propose a scalable approach, based on a tensor representation that allows for distributed storage, and thus the use of parallel techniques to speed up the search over large linked data sets, in particular those published as Linked Data. An unprecedented amount of information is becoming available following the principles of Linked Data, forming what is called the Web of Data. This information, typically codified as RDF subject-predicate-object triples, is commonly abstracted as a graph which subjects and objects are nodes, and predicates are edges connecting them. As a consequence of the widespread adoption of search engines on the World Wide Web, users are familiar with keyword search. For RDF graphs, however, extracting a coherent subset of data graphs to enrich search results is a time consuming and expensive task, and it is expected to be executed on-the-fly at user prompt. The dissertation s goal is to handle this problem. A recent proposal has been made to index RDF graphs as a sparse matrix with the pre-computed information necessary for faster retrieval of sub-graphs, and the use of tensor-based queries over the sparse matrix. The tensor approach can leverage modern distributed computing techniques, e.g., nonrelational database sharding and the MapReduce model. In this dissertation, we propose a design and explore the viability of the tensor-based approach to build a distributed datastore and speed up keyword search with a parallel approach.

Dada a grande quantidade de conteúdo criado por usuários na Web, uma proposta para ajudar na busca e organização é a criação de sistemas de anotações (tagging systems), normalmente na forma de palavras-chave, extraídas do próprio conteúdo ou sugeridas por visitantes. Esse trabalho aplica um algoritmo de mineração de dados em um banco de dados RDF, contendo instâncias que podem fazer referências à rede Linked Data do DBpedia, para recomendação de tags utilizando as medidas de similaridade taxonômica, relacional e literal de descrições RDF. O banco de dados utilizado é o Arquigrafia, um sistema de banco de dados na Web cujo objetivo é catalogar imagens de projetos arquitetônicos, e que permite que visitantes adicionem tags às imagens. Foram realizados experimentos para a avaliação da qualidade das recomendações de tags realizadas considerando diferentes modelos do Arquigrafia incluindo o modelo estendido do Arquigrafia que faz referências ao DBpedia. Os resultados mostram que a qualidade da recomendação de determinadas tags pode melhorar quando consideramos diferentes modelos (com referências à rede Linked Data do DBpedia) na fase de aprendizado. / Given the huge content created by users in the Web, a way to help in search and organization is the creation of tagging systems, usually in a keyword form (extracted from the Web content or suggested by users). This work applies a data mining algorithm in a RDF database, which contain instances that can reference the DBpedia Linked Data repository, to recommend tags using the taxonomic, relational and literal similarities from RDF descriptions. The database used is the Arquigrafia, a database system available in the Web which goal is to catalog architecture projects, and it allows a user to add tags to images. Experiments were performed to evaluate the quality of the tag recommendations made considering differents models of Arquigrafia\'s database, including an extended model which has references to DBpedia. The results shown that the quality of the recommendations of some tags can be improved when we consider different models (with references to DBpedia Linked Data repository) in the learning phase.

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