Reply to “Comments on “Consensus and Cooperation in Networked Multi-Agent Systems””

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State Legislative Update

This legislative analysis will look to conflict and dispute resolution in schools, along with how that conflict has been traditionally managed. Next, this article will examine some of the benefits that can be achieved by implementing forms of alternative dispute resolution in schools and the limitations to these benefits. Finally, this article will focus on the legislative response to the ever-present epidemic of conflict in our schools, including recent pieces of legislation in Louisiana and Massachusetts

State Legislative Update

This legislative analysis will look to conflict and dispute resolution in schools, along with how that conflict has been traditionally managed. Next, this article will examine some of the benefits that can be achieved by implementing forms of alternative dispute resolution in schools and the limitations to these benefits. Finally, this article will focus on the legislative response to the ever-present epidemic of conflict in our schools, including recent pieces of legislation in Louisiana and Massachusetts

Diffusion on networked systems is a question of time or structure

Network science investigates the architecture of complex systems to understand their functional and dynamical properties. Structural patterns such as communities shape diffusive processes on networks. However, these results hold under the strong assumption that networks are static entities where temporal aspects can be neglected. Here we propose a generalized formalism for linear dynamics on complex networks, able to incorporate statistical properties of the timings at which events occur. We show that the diffusion dynamics is affected by the network community structure and by the temporal properties of waiting times between events. We identify the main mechanism—network structure, burstiness or fat tails of waiting times—determining the relaxation times of stochastic processes on temporal networks, in the absence of temporal–structure correlations. We identify situations when fine-scale structure can be discarded from the description of the dynamics or, conversely, when a fully detailed model is required due to temporal heterogeneities

A Distributed Scalable Approach to Formation Control in Multi-Robot Systems

A new algorithm for the control of formations of mobile robots is presented. Formations with a triangular lattice structure are created using distributed control rules, using only local information on each robot. The overall direction of movement of the formation is not pre-established but rather results from local interactions, giving all the robots a common, self-organized heading. Experiments were done to test the algorithm, yielding results in which robots behaved as expected, moving at a reasonable speed and maintaining the desired distances among themselves. Up to seven robots were used in real experiments and up to forty in simulation

Ionophore A23187 induced reductions in toad urinary bladder epithelial cell oxidative phosphorylation and viability

The divalent cation ionophore A23187 increased oxygen consumption by isolated epithelial cells from toad urinary bladder, an increase similar to that seen with 2,4-dinitrophenol, a classic uncoupler of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. This respiratory stimulation was not seen in calcium-free incubation media. That this A23187 induced rise in cell oxygen consumption was due to a primary uncoupling action on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation rather than secondary to stimulation of cellular transport processes and mediated via increased cellular ADP levels was suggested by the ability of A23187 to release the inhibition of cellular respiration by oligomycin, an inhibitor of the mitochondrial proton ATPase which blocks the stimulation of mitochondrial respiration by ADP. Since active transepithelial ion transport and cellular energy production are closely linked processes, the uncoupling action of A23187 in the presence of extracellular calcium is sufficient to account for an acute decline in active ion transport across epithelia without invoking other calcium-mediated processes. Furthermore, isolated epithelial cells exposed to A23187 for 90 min had greater than 50% loss of viability, as measured by failure of Trypan blue exclusion. The subacute A23187 induced declines in transepithelial transport, therefore, may be secondary to its non-specific effects on cell viability.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47447/1/424_2004_Article_BF00658484.pd

Two Cellular Protein Kinases, DNA-PK and PKA, Phosphorylate the Adenoviral L4-33K Protein and Have Opposite Effects on L1 Alternative RNA Splicing

Accumulation of the complex set of alternatively processed mRNA from the adenovirus major late transcription unit (MLTU) is subjected to a temporal regulation involving both changes in poly (A) site choice and alternative 3′ splice site usage. We have previously shown that the adenovirus L4-33K protein functions as an alternative splicing factor involved in activating the shift from L1-52,55K to L1-IIIa mRNA. Here we show that L4-33K specifically associates with the catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) in uninfected and adenovirus-infected nuclear extracts. Further, we show that L4-33K is highly phosphorylated by DNA-PK in vitro in a double stranded DNA-independent manner. Importantly, DNA-PK deficient cells show an enhanced production of the L1-IIIa mRNA suggesting an inhibitory role of DNA-PK on the temporal switch in L1 alternative RNA splicing. Moreover, we show that L4-33K also is phosphorylated by protein kinase A (PKA), and that PKA has an enhancer effect on L4-33K-stimulated L1-IIIa splicing. Hence, we demonstrate that these kinases have opposite effects on L4-33K function; DNA-PK as an inhibitor and PKA as an activator of L1-IIIa mRNA splicing. Taken together, this is the first report identifying protein kinases that phosphorylate L4-33K and to suggest novel regulatory roles for DNA-PK and PKA in adenovirus alternative RNA splicing