Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Computer Algorithms To Elucidate Zebra Finch Reproductive Behaviour, Tanya T. Shoot, Sophie C. Edwards, Robert J. Martin, Susan D. Healy, David F. Sherry, Mark J. Daley

Western Research Forum

Birds that experience variation in climatic conditions must maintain a stable nest temperature during incubation for successful hatching of offspring. Varying nest structure and incubation behaviour may be the methods birds use to regulate nest temperature. We used a modeling approach to investigate how birds adjust incubation behaviour to ambient temperature.

Hidden Markov Models (HMM) have been used previously to predict the spatial distribution of animals based on the models’ ability to classify movement behaviour. We used a HMM to predict zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) incubation behaviour and nest structure from a nest temperature data set. The full …

Text Mining In Chinese Ancient Attires, Lu Wang

Western Research Forum

Starting from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE) when writing system appeared in China, clothing was recorded as symbols to denote social statuses. The hierarchical signification of clothing remained in the following dynasties until the end of imperial China in 1911. The imperial period produced twenty-five official dynastic histories with rich corpuses on the subject of attire, documenting regulations and prohibitions of detailed dress code, a subject being scarcely studied and treated with assumptions today. This research will use text mining tools to identify descriptive words of clothing that reflect Chinese hierarchal ideology from the twenty-five histories. The method is to …

Tinnitus And Dysfunctional Interactions Between Distributed Resting State Networks, Sivayini Kandeepan

Western Research Forum

It is known that peripheral lesions in the cochlea or the auditory nerve produce dysfunctional input to central auditory structures and induce changes in the auditory system causing tinnitus. Recently, it has been proposed that the unified percept of tinnitus could be considered as an emergent property of multiple overlapping dynamic brain networks, each encoding a specific tinnitus characteristic.

The aim of our study was to investigate the neuronal activation patterns associated with specific clinical tinnitus characteristics using fMRI. We hypothesize that tinnitus clinical characteristics could be associated with specific resting-state activity and connectivity patterns and that this could be …

Real Solution Of Dae And Pdae System, Zahra Mohammadi, Greg Reid

Western Research Forum

General systems of differential equations don't have restrictions on the number or type of equations. For example, they can be over or under-determined, and also contain algebraic constraints (e.g. algebraic equations such as in Differential-Algebraic equations (DAE) and Partial differential algebraic equations (PDAE). Increasingly such general systems arise from mathematical modeling of engineering and science problems such as in multibody mechanics, electrical circuit design, optimal control, chemical kinetics and chemical control systems. In most applications, only real solutions are of interest, rather than complex-valued solutions. Much progress has been made in exact differential elimination methods, which enable characterization of all …

A Chimeric Nucleobase - Phenylazo Derivative As An Intrinsic Nucleobase Quencher, Gyeongsu Park, Timothy Martin-Chan, Amer El Samm, Robert H.E. Hudson

Western Research Forum

Molecular beacons are important bioanalytical probes which are most often

constructed from a single-stranded oligonucleotide which has been labeled at

opposite termini with a fluorophore and a quencher. When the fluorophore and

quencher are in close proximity, no fluorescence is observed due to FRET

(Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer). DABCYL (4-dimethylaminoazobenzene-

4'-carboxylic acid) has been used as a quencher in the molecular beacon to absorbs

excitation energy from a fluorophore and to dissipate the energy as heat. However,

DABCYL is unable to form a base-pair and is conventionally placed as an overhanging

residue. This produces a derivative wherein the chromophore has …

Ceilometer Measurements From The University Of Western Ontario Of Smoke From The Extraordinary Fires Of 2017 In Western Canada, Achini J K Abayakoon Ms.

Western Research Forum

Background:

The summer of 2017 saw many fires in Western Canada. Smoke from these fires was transported by winds over to London and was measured using a Lufft CHM15k ceilometer which was installed at the Cronyn Observatory of The University of Western Ontario.

Methods:

The cloud base height can be calculated by the time taken for the backscatter signal to reach the transmitter while the backscatter effects can be used to determine the atmospheric structure using the principle of light detection and ranging (LiDAR).

Results:

Smoke particle concentrations over London, Ontario were observed within 72 hours of the fires taking …