Systems Biology Graphical Notation: Activity Flow language Level 1

Standard graphical representations have played a crucial role in science and engineering throughout the last century. Without electrical symbolism, it is very likely that our industrial society would not have evolved at the same pace. Similarly, specialized notations such as the Feynmann notation or the process flow diagrams did a lot for the adoption of concepts in their own fields. With the advent of Systems Biology, and more recently of Synthetic Biology, the need for precise and unambiguous descriptions of biochemical interactions has become more pressing. While some ideas have been advanced over the last decade, with a few detailed proposals, no actual community standard has emerged. The Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) is a graphical representation crafted over several years by a community of biochemists, modellers and computer scientists. Three orthogonal and complementary languages have been created, the Process Descriptions, the Entity Relationships and the Activity Flows. Using these three idioms a scientist can represent any network of biochemical interactions, which can then be interpreted in an unambiguous way. The set of symbols used is limited, and the grammar quite simple, to allow its usage ranging from textbooks and teaching in high schools to peer reviewed articles in scientific journals. The first level of the SBGN Activity Flow language has been publicly released. Shared by the communities of biochemists, genomic scientists, theoreticians and computational biologists, SBGN languages will foster efficient storage, exchange and reuse of information on signaling pathways, metabolic networks and gene regulatory maps

Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity

The U.S. personal bankruptcy system functions as a bankruptcy system for small businesses as well as for consumers. When firms are non-corporate, debts of the firm are personal liabilities of the entrepreneur/owner. If the firm fails, the entrepreneur has an incentive to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, since both business debts and the entrepreneur's personal debts will be discharged. The entrepreneur must give up assets above a fixed bankruptcy exemption level for repayment to creditors, but future earnings are entirely exempt. Exemption levels are set by the states and they vary widely. We show that higher bankruptcy exemption levels benefit potential entrepreneurs by providing partial wealth insurance. The predicted relationship between the probability of owning a business and the exemption level is positive at low exemption levels, but may be either positive or negative at high exemption levels, depending on whether higher bankruptcy costs outweigh the gain from additional insurance. We test this prediction and find that the probability of families who are homeowners being self-employed is 35% higher if families live in states with unlimited exemptions rather than low exemptions. We also find evidence that families who are homeowners are more likely to start businesses and to organize their businesses as non-corporate rather than corporate if they live in states with high or unlimited, rather than low, bankruptcy exemptions.

Stock market firm-level information and real economic activity

We provide evidence that changes in the equity price and volatility of individual firms (measures that approximate the definition of 'granular shock' given in Gabaix, 2010) are key to improve the predictability of aggregate business cycle fluctuations in a number of countries. Specifically, adding the return and the volatility of firm-level equity prices to aggregate financial information leads to a significant improvement in forecasting business cycle developments in four economic areas, at various horizons. Importantly, not only domestic firms but also foreign firms improve business cycle predictability for a given economic area. This is not immediately visible when one takes an unconditional standpoint (i.e. an average across the sample). However, conditioning on the business cycle position of the domestic economy, the relative importance of the two sets of firms - foreign and domestic - exhibits noticeable swings across time. Analogously, the sectoral classification of the firms that in a given month retain the highest predictive power for future IP changes also varies significantly over time as a function of the business cycle position of the domestic economy. Limited to the United States, predictive ability is found to be related to selected balance sheet items, suggesting that structural features differentiate the firms that can anticipate aggregate fluctuations from those that do not help to this aim. Beyond the purely forecasting application, this finding may enhance our understanding of the underlying origins of aggregate fluctuations. We also propose to use the cross sectional stock market information to macro-prudential aims through an economic Value at Risk. JEL Classification: C53, C58, F37, G15Business cycle forecasting, granular shock, international linkages

Importance of understanding variable and transient energy demand in large multi-product industrial plants for process integration

There have been some news releases claiming that Professor Henle in Germany has found the chemical identity of UMF, and that in future chemical analysis will be used instead of assays of antibacterial activity to indicate the level of UMF in manuka honey. Both of these claims are misleading. Because the level of active substance in manuka honey is an unreliable indication of the level of antibacterial activity and can be very misleading, it is hard to see any commercial advantage for it to be used to indicate antibacterial activity other than if someone wanted to fool the consumer into thinking that the higher numbers are giving them a level of antibacterial activity that is far higher than they are really getting

M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy

This Hubble Space Telescope image of M101 showcases a spiral galaxy's well-known features. The text describes the features that are common to all spiral galaxies. In the accompanying educational activity, In Search of...Spiral Galaxies, students investigate the structure of spiral galaxies through a level 1 inquiry activity using the images and text from the lithograph and other resources. A level 1 inquiry activity can help prepare students to become independent thinkers. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

Examination of Acute Care Nurses Ability to Engage in Patient Education Related to Physical Activity as a Health Behavior

Physical activity is important for management and prevention of chronic disease. The current physical activity guidelines recommend engaging in physical activity for at least 30 minutes per day on at least 5 days a week. Acute care settings may present opportunities for patient education about physical activity. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of acute care nurses to engage in patient education regarding physical activity as a health behavior. Additionally, this study examined the influence of level of nurse training, age, personal physical activity and years of experience on these outcomes. METHODS: Nurses from an academic medical center (N=194) were surveyed. Knowledge of current physical activity guidelines, rank of importance of physical activity as a patient care activity and a healthy lifestyle behavior, and confidence to counsel patients about physical activity were queried. RESULTS: Of nurses queried, 32.5% reported days per week and 83% reported minutes per day to engage in physical activity consistent with current guidelines. Physical activity counseling was ranked least important of ten patient care activities and fifth as a healthy lifestyle behavior. The majority of nurses (51%) felt some degree of confidence to counsel patients regarding physical activity. Baccalaureate level nurses were more likely to be consistent with physical activity guidelines than master’s level nurses. Nurses <25 years of age were more current in knowledge of physical activity guidelines than nurses ≥41 years of age. Nurses who exercised were more likely to report knowing current physical activity guidelines. Reported time spent counseling patientsregarding physical activity averaged 6 minutes per patient per day. CONCLUSION: Acute care nurses are counseling patients regarding physical activity although it is ranked least important of ten patient care activities. Future research should include studying: a variety of patient populations; other hospital settings; objective measures of evaluation; and nurses’ training regarding physical activity