Optimal cellular mobility for synchronization arising from the gradual recovery of intercellular interactions

Cell movement and intercellular signaling occur simultaneously during the development of tissues, but little is known about how movement affects signaling. Previous theoretical studies have shown that faster moving cells favor synchronization across a population of locally coupled genetic oscillators. An important assumption in these studies is that cells can immediately interact with their new neighbors after arriving at a new location. However, intercellular interactions in cellular systems may need some time to become fully established. How movement affects synchronization in this situation has not been examined. Here we develop a coupled phase oscillator model in which we consider cell movement and the gradual recovery of intercellular coupling experienced by a cell after movement, characterized by a moving rate and a coupling recovery rate respectively. We find (1) an optimal moving rate for synchronization, and (2) a critical moving rate above which achieving synchronization is not possible. These results indicate that the extent to which movement enhances synchrony is limited by a gradual recovery of coupling. These findings suggest that the ratio of time scales of movement and signaling recovery is critical for information transfer between moving cells.Comment: 18 single column pages + 1 table + 5 figures + Supporting Informatio

TmaDB: a repository for tissue microarray data

Background: Tissue microarray (TMA) technology has been developed to facilitate large, genome-scale molecular pathology studies. This technique provides a high-throughput method for analyzing a large cohort of clinical specimens in a single experiment thereby permitting the parallel analysis of molecular alterations ( at the DNA, RNA, or protein level) in thousands of tissue specimens. As a vast quantity of data can be generated in a single TMA experiment a systematic approach is required for the storage and analysis of such data. Description: To analyse TMA output a relational database ( known as TmaDB) has been developed to collate all aspects of information relating to TMAs. These data include the TMA construction protocol, experimental protocol and results from the various immunocytological and histochemical staining experiments including the scanned images for each of the TMA cores. Furthermore the database contains pathological information associated with each of the specimens on the TMA slide, the location of the various TMAs and the individual specimen blocks ( from which cores were taken) in the laboratory and their current status i.e. if they can be sectioned into further slides or if they are exhausted. TmaDB has been designed to incorporate and extend many of the published common data elements and the XML format for TMA experiments and is therefore compatible with the TMA data exchange specifications developed by the Association for Pathology Informatics community. Finally the design of the database is made flexible such that TMA experiments from several types of cancer can be stored in a single database, which incorporates the national minimum data set required for pathology reports supported by the Royal College of Pathologists (UK). Conclusion: TmaDB will provide a comprehensive repository for TMA data such that a large number of results from the numerous immunostaining experiments can be efficiently compared for each of the TMA cores. This will allow a systematic, large-scale comparison of tumour samples to facilitate the identification of gene products of clinical importance such as therapeutic or prognostic markers. In addition this work will contribute to the establishment of a standard for reporting TMA data analogous to MIAME in the description of microarray dat

Electrode current distributions in MGD CHANNELS

Current distribution to and electric field behavior of segmented electrodes in linear magnetogasdynamic generato

Indenture, Marshall County, MS, March 1853

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aldrichcorr_c/1064/thumbnail.jp

JISC Final Report: IncReASe (Increasing Repository Content through Automation and Services)

The IncReASe (Increasing Repository Content through Automation and Services) was an eighteen month project (subsequently extended to twenty months) to enhance White Rose Research Online (WRRO)1. WRRO is a shared repository of research outputs (primarily publications) from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York; it runs on the EPrints open source repository platform. The repository was created in 2004 and had steady growth but, in common with many other similar repositories, had difficulty in achieving a “critical mass” of content and in becoming truly embedded within researchers’ workflows. The main aim of the IncReASe project was to assess ingestion routes into WRRO with a view to lowering barriers to deposit. We reviewed the feasibility of bulk import of pre-existing metadata and/or full-text research outputs, hoping this activity would have a positive knock-on effect on repository growth and embedding. Prior to the project, we had identified researchers’ reluctance to duplicate effort in metadata creation as a significant barrier to WRRO uptake; we investigated how WRRO might share data with internal and external IT systems. This work included a review of how WRRO, as an institutional based repository, might interact with the subject repository of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project addressed four main areas: (i) researcher behaviour: we investigated researcher awareness, motivation and workflow through a survey of archiving activity on the university web sites, a questionnaire and discussions with researchers (ii) bulk import: we imported data from local systems, including York’s submission data for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and developed an import plug-in for use with the arXiv2 repository (iii) interoperability: we looked at how WRRO might interact with university and departmental publication databases and ESRC’s repository. (iv) metadata: we assessed metadata issues raised by importing publication data from a variety of sources. A number of outputs from the project have been made available from the IncReASe project web site http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/increase/. The project highlighted the low levels of researcher awareness of WRRO - and of broader open access issues, including research funders’ deposit requirements. We designed some new publicity materials to start to address this. Departmental publication databases provided a useful jumping off point for advocacy and liaison; this activity was helpful in promoting awareness of WRRO. Bulk import proved time consuming – both in terms of adjusting EPrints plug-ins to incorporate different datasets and in the staff time required to improve publication metadata. A number of deposit scenarios were developed in the context of our work with ESRC; we concentrated on investigating how a local deposit of a research paper and attendant metadata in WRRO might be used to populate ESRC’s repository. This work improved our understanding of researcher workflows and of the SWORD protocol as a potential (if partial) solution to the single deposit, multiple destination model we wish to develop; we think the prospect of institutional repository / ESRC data sharing is now a step closer. IncReASe experienced some staff recruitment difficulties. It was also necessary to adapt the project to the changing IT landscape at the three partner institutions – in particular, the introduction of a centralised publication management system at the University of Leeds. Although these factors had some impact on deliverables, the aims and objectives of the project were largely achieved

Decentralization in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and Lessons for Global Policy

In 2005, the European Union introduced the largest and most ambitious emissions trading program in the world to meet its Kyoto commitments for the containment of global climate change. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has some distinctive features that differentiate it from the more standard model of emissions trading. In particular, it has a relatively decentralized structure that gives individual member states responsibility for setting targets, allocating permits, determining verification and enforcement, and making some choices about flexibility. It is also a “cap-within-a-cap,” seeking to achieve the Kyoto targets while only covering about half of EU emissions. Finally, it is a program that many hope will link with other greenhouse gas trading programs in the future—something we have not seen among existing trading systems. Examining these features coupled with recent EU ETS experience offers lessons about how cost effectiveness, equity, flexibility, and compliance fare in a multi-jurisdictional trading program, and highlights the challenges facing a global emissions trading regime.emissions trading, Kyoto Protocol, European Union, linking, climate change

Indenture, Marshall County, MS, 1 November 1856

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aldrichcorr_c/1113/thumbnail.jp

GRB Flares: UV/Optical Flaring (Paper I)

We present a new algorithm for the detection of flares in gamma-ray burst (GRB) light curves and use this algorithm to detect flares in the UV/optical. The algorithm makes use of the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) to analyze the residuals of the fitted light curve, removing all major features, and to determine the statistically best fit to the data by iteratively adding additional `breaks' to the light curve. These additional breaks represent the individual components of the detected flares: T_start, T_stop, and T_peak. We present the detection of 119 unique flaring periods detected by applying this algorithm to light curves taken from the Second Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) GRB Afterglow Catalog. We analyzed 201 UVOT GRB light curves and found episodes of flaring in 68 of the light curves. For those light curves with flares, we find an average number of ~2 flares per GRB. Flaring is generally restricted to the first 1000 seconds of the afterglow, but can be observed and detected beyond 10^5 seconds. More than 80% of the flares detected are short in duration with Delta t/t of < 0.5. Flares were observed with flux ratios relative to the underlying light curve of between 0.04 to 55.42. Many of the strongest flares were also seen at greater than 1000 seconds after the burst.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 20 pages (including 8 figures and 1 table

Rhetoric in the language of real estate marketing

“Des. Res.”, “rarely available”, “viewing essential” – these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements which contain a heady mix of euphemism, hyperbole and superlative. Of interest is whether the selling agent’s penchant for rhetoric is spatially uniform or whether there are variations across the urban system. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle and over the selling season. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat, and does it matter whether a house is marketed in the summer or winter? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the Strathclyde conurbation over the period 1999 to 2006. The analysis opens up a new avenue of research into the use of real estate rhetoric and its interaction with agency behaviour and market dynamics

The Black Man’s Experience as a Teacher in K-12: Examining the Insight, Education, and Challenges to Diversifying the Teaching Population

The K-12 teaching profession is dominated by White females, with only 2% of Black male K-12 teachers in the job. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the insight, education, and challenges Black males face to diversify the K-12 classroom. As the vital instrument of the study, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the researcher examined five New York State Black male K-12 educators to discover their perspectives and experiences regarding why Black male educators are underrepresented in the K-12 setting. Five formulated meanings emerged, representing the participants’ experience that included: (a) career motivation, (b) absence of diversity, (c) differing education experiences, (d) rewards of teaching, and (e) relationships make the experience. Five thematic clusters emerged: (a) motivational influences, (b) challenged in education, (c) different placed creates different experiences, (d) return on investment, and (e) connection through familiarity, and four themes (a) inspirational motivation, (b) individualized consideration, (c) intellectual stimulation, and (d) idealized influence. In this study, Black males were motivated to teach by teachers, counselors, and past work experiences. They felt supported in their education but felt underrepresented as a Black male, and they felt they had impacted their young Black male students. The recommendations for changes to federal, state, union, and school district practices discussed in this study can improve the diversity of the teaching workforce to include Black males contributing to the overall quality of K-12 education and student success