Evotype: Towards the Evolution of Type Stencils

Typefaces are an essential resource employed by graphic designers. The increasing demand for innovative type design work increases the need for good technological means to assist the designer in the creation of a typeface. We present an evolutionary computation approach for the generation of type stencils to draw coherent glyphs for different characters. The proposed system employs a Genetic Algorithm to evolve populations of type stencils. The evaluation of each candidate stencil uses a hill climbing algorithm to search the best configurations to draw the target glyphs. We study the interplay between legibility, coherence and expressiveness, and show how our framework can be used in practice.Comment: EvoMUSART 2018 Best pape

Imaging Coulomb Islands in a Quantum Hall Interferometer

In the Quantum Hall regime, near integer filling factors, electrons should only be transmitted through spatially-separated edge states. However, in mesoscopic systems, electronic transmission turns out to be more complex, giving rise to a large spectrum of magnetoresistance oscillations. To explain these observations, recent models put forward that, as edge states come close to each other, electrons can hop between counterpropagating edge channels, or tunnel through Coulomb islands. Here, we use scanning gate microscopy to demonstrate the presence of quantum Hall Coulomb islands, and reveal the spatial structure of transport inside a quantum Hall interferometer. Electron islands locations are found by modulating the tunneling between edge states and confined electron orbits. Tuning the magnetic field, we unveil a continuous evolution of active electron islands. This allows to decrypt the complexity of high magnetic field magnetoresistance oscillations, and opens the way to further local scale manipulations of quantum Hall localized states

Organophosphorous pesticide breakdown products in house dust and children’s urine.

Human exposure to preformed dialkylphosphates (DAPs) in food or the environment may affect the reliability of DAP urinary metabolites as biomarkers of organophosphate (OP) pesticide exposure. We conducted a study to investigate the presence of DAPs in indoor residential environments and their association with children’s urinary DAP levels. We collected dust samples from homes in farmworker and urban communities (40 homes total, n=79 samples) and up to two urine samples from resident children ages 3-6 years. We measured six DAPs in all samples and eight DAP-devolving OP pesticides in a subset of dust samples (n=54). DAPs were detected in dust with diethylphosphate (DEP) being the most frequently detected (>=60%); detection frequencies for other DAPs were 0.05). Detection of DEP, chlorpyrifos, or diazinon, was not associated with DEP and/or DEPþdiethylthiophosphate detection in urine (Kappa coefficients=-0.33 to 0.16). Finally, estimated nondietary ingestion intake from DEP in dust was found to be <=5% of the dose calculated from DEP levels in urine, suggesting that ingestion of dust is not a significant source of DAPs in urine if they are excreted unchanged.This work was supported by EPA (RD 83171001) and NIEHS (PO1 ES009605). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the EPA, NIEHS, or other funders. Additional support was provided by an EPA STAR Doctoral Fellowship (F5D30812), the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS), and the Center for Latino Policy Research at the University of California at Berkeley

Full Genome Characterization of the Culicoides-Borne Marsupial Orbiviruses: Wallal Virus, Mudjinbarry Virus and Warrego Viruses

Viruses belonging to the species Wallal virus and Warrego virus of the genus Orbivirus were identified as causative agents of blindness in marsupials in Australia during 1994/5. Recent comparisons of nucleotide (nt) and amino acid (aa) sequences have provided a basis for the grouping and classification of orbivirus isolates. However, full-genome sequence data are not available for representatives of all Orbivirus species. We report full-genome sequence data for three additional orbiviruses: Wallal virus (WALV); Mudjinabarry virus (MUDV) and Warrego virus (WARV). Comparisons of conserved polymerase (Pol), sub-core-shell 'T2' and core-surface 'T13' proteins show that these viruses group with other Culicoides borne orbiviruses, clustering with Eubenangee virus (EUBV), another orbivirus infecting marsupials. WARV shares <70% aa identity in all three conserved proteins (Pol, T2 and T13) with other orbiviruses, consistent with its classification within a distinct Orbivirus species. Although WALV and MUDV share <72.86%/67.93% aa/nt identity with other orbiviruses in Pol, T2 and T13, they share >99%/90% aa/nt identities with each other (consistent with membership of the same virus species - Wallal virus). However, WALV and MUDV share <68% aa identity in their larger outer capsid protein VP2(OC1), consistent with membership of different serotypes within the species - WALV-1 and WALV-2 respectively

Antibodies That Induce Phagocytosis of Malaria Infected Erythrocytes: Effect of HIV Infection and Correlation with Clinical Outcomes

HIV infection increases the burden of disease of malaria in pregnancy, in part by impairing the development of immunity. We measured total IgG and phagocytic antibodies against variant surface antigens of placental-type CS2 parasites in 187 secundigravidae (65% HIV infected). In women with placental malaria infection, phagocytic antibodies to CS2VSA were decreased in the presence of HIV (p = 0.011) and correlated positively with infant birth weight (coef = 3.57, p = 0.025), whereas total IgG to CS2VSA did not. Phagocytic antibodies to CS2VSA are valuable tools to study acquired immunity to malaria in the context of HIV co-infection. Secundigravidae may be an informative group for identification of correlates of immunity

Novel rearrangements between different chromosomes with direct impact on the diagnosis of 5p- syndrome

Objectives: Copy Number Variations (CNVs) in the human genome account for common populational variations but can also be responsible for genetic syndromes depending on the affected region. Although a deletion in 5p is responsible for a syndrome with highly recognizable phenotypical features, other chromosomal abnormalities might overlap phenotypes, especially considering that most studies in 5p use traditional cytogenetic techniques and not molecular techniques. Methods: The authors have investigated 29 patients with clinical suspicion of 5p- syndrome using Chromosomal Microarray (CMA), and have gathered information on previous tests, clinical signs, symptoms, and development of the patients. Results: The results showed 23 pure terminal deletions, one interstitial deletion, one deletion followed by a&nbsp;3&nbsp;Mb duplication in 5p, three cases of 5p deletion concomitant to duplications larger than&nbsp;20&nbsp;Mb in chromosomes&nbsp;2, 9, and&nbsp;18, and one 5p deletion with a chromosome&nbsp;Y deletion. CMA showed relevant CNVs not typically associated with&nbsp;5p- that may have contributed to the final phenotype in these patients. Conclusions: The authors have identified three novel rearrangements between chromosomes&nbsp;5&nbsp;and&nbsp;2 (Patient&nbsp;27), 5&nbsp;and&nbsp;18 (Patient&nbsp;11), and&nbsp;5&nbsp;and&nbsp;Y (Patient&nbsp;22), with breakpoints and overlapped phenotypes that were not previously described. The authors also highlight the need for further molecular investigation using CMA, in different chromosomes beyond chromosome&nbsp;5 (since those cases did not show only the typical deletion expected for the 5p-&nbsp;syndrome) to explain discordant chromosomal features and overlapped phenotypes to unravel the cause of the syndrome in atypical cases

Synchronous bursts on scale-free neuronal networks with attractive and repulsive coupling

This paper investigates the dependence of synchronization transitions of bursting oscillations on the information transmission delay over scale-free neuronal networks with attractive and repulsive coupling. It is shown that for both types of coupling, the delay always plays a subtle role in either promoting or impairing synchronization. In particular, depending on the inherent oscillation period of individual neurons, regions of irregular and regular propagating excitatory fronts appear intermittently as the delay increases. These delay-induced synchronization transitions are manifested as well-expressed minima in the measure for spatiotemporal synchrony. For attractive coupling, the minima appear at every integer multiple of the average oscillation period, while for the repulsive coupling, they appear at every odd multiple of the half of the average oscillation period. The obtained results are robust to the variations of the dynamics of individual neurons, the system size, and the neuronal firing type. Hence, they can be used to characterize attractively or repulsively coupled scale-free neuronal networks with delays.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ONE [related work available at http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.4961 and http://www.matjazperc.com/

Impact of ERT and follow-up of 17 patients from the same family with a mild form of MPS II

Background: Mucopolysaccharidosis type&nbsp;II, also known as Hunter syndrome, is a rare X-linked recessive disorder caused by deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme Iduronate-2- Sulfatase (IDS), leading to progressive accumulation of Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in several organs. Over the years, Enzyme Replacement Therapy (ERT) has provided significant benefits for patients, retarding the natural progression of the disease. Results: The authors evaluated&nbsp;17&nbsp;patients from the same family with a mild form of MPS type&nbsp;II; the proband had developed acute decompensated heart failure refractory to clinical measurements at&nbsp;23&nbsp;years and needed a rather urgent heart transplant; however, he died from surgical complications shortly after the procedure. Nevertheless, subsequent to his tragic death, 16&nbsp;affected male relatives were detected after biochemical tests identifying the low or absent activity of the IDS enzyme and confirmed by molecular analysis of the IDS gene. Following diagnosis, different options of treatment were chosen: 6&nbsp;patients started ERT with Elaprase® (Idursulfase) soon after, while the other&nbsp;10&nbsp;remained without ERT. Eventually, 4&nbsp;patients in the latter group began ERT with Hunterase® (Idursulfase Beta). None presented adverse effects to either form of the enzyme. Among the&nbsp;6&nbsp;individuals without any ERT, two died of natural causes, after reaching&nbsp;70&nbsp;years. Despite the variable phenotype within the same family (mainly heart dysfunctions and carpal tunnel syndrome), all&nbsp;14&nbsp;remaining patients were alive with an independent lifestyle. Conclusion: Here, the authors report the variable progress of the disease with and without ERT in a large Brazilian family with a slowly progressive form of MPS II, harboring the same missense variant in the IDS gene