Tactile Presentation of Network Data: Text, Matrix or Diagram?

Visualisations are commonly used to understand social, biological and other kinds of networks. Currently, we do not know how to effectively present network data to people who are blind or have low-vision (BLV). We ran a controlled study with 8 BLV participants comparing four tactile representations: organic node-link diagram, grid node-link diagram, adjacency matrix and braille list. We found that the node-link representations were preferred and more effective for path following and cluster identification while the matrix and list were better for adjacency tasks. This is broadly in line with findings for the corresponding visual representations.Comment: To appear in the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020

Dynamic modelling of competitive elution of activated carbon in columns using neural networks

In previous papers the mechanism and dynamics of the elution of gold cyanide from activated carbon have been investigated in detail. Sub processes such as the pre-soaking step, the degradation of cyanide, the elution of the spectator cations, the associated shift in the equilibrium of adsorption or desorption as a result of the removal of cations, the reactivation of the carbon surface, and the elution of gold cyanide have been explained quantitatively to some extent, although further work is evidently required Previous work has also shown that equilibrium conditions may be' assumed when adsorption is weak, hence when aggressive pre-soaking conditions have been used. However, these studies have not taken the competitive effect of base metals into account, although this is known to have an adverse effect on the efficiency of gold elution. The present study has shown quantitatively that copper has a significant effect on the recovery of gold. Nickel and silver also have a detrimental effect, but only if they are present as high loadings. In contrast, the elution of the base metals is to a large degree unaffected by the elution of gold. It is shown in this paper that the multi-component equilibrium relationship between the spectator cations and the various metal cyanides can be very complex, and perhaps ill-defined. In such circumstances it is preferable to use a non-parametric technique such as a back-propagation neural network to represent such an equilibrium relationship. Owing to the difficulty of estimating the final conditions of the pre-soaking step, it is not always possible to predict the exact level of equilibrium. Therefore, it could be necessary in practice to adjust the equilibrium predicted by a neural net by a factor which is dependent on the conditions of pre-soaking. © 1995.Articl

Neurotrophic factors, their receptors, and the signal transduction pathways they activate

Our studies of the spatiotemporal availability of neurotrophic factors, coupled with tagged ligand binding assays that identify cells bearing receptors for these factors, should lead toward defining the physiological roles of these molecules in the animal. The use of the tagged ligands to identify factor-responsive cell lines has also provided new model systems for the examination of ligand-receptor interactions, as well as for the study of the subsequent induction of intracellular response pathways. To obtain insights into such intracellular pathways, we have molecularly cloned genes encoding a family of serine-threonine protein kinases, most closely related to kinases involved in the yeast response to pheromones. These kinases may be crucial regulators of early steps in the response of mammalian cells to neurotrophic factors as well as other extracellular signals

Expressive Pointcuts for Increased Modularity

Abstract. In aspect-oriented programming, pointcuts are used to describe cross-cutting structure. Pointcuts that abstract over irrelevant implementation details are clearly desired to better support maintainability and modular reasoning. We present an analysis which shows that current pointcut languages support lo-calization of crosscutting concerns but are problematic with respect to infor-mation hiding. To cope with the problem, we present a pointcut language that exploits information from different models of program semantics, such as the execution trace, the syntax tree, the heap, static type system, etc., and supports abstraction mechanisms analogous to functional abstraction. We show how this raises the abstraction level and modularity of pointcuts and present first steps toward an efficient implementation by means of a static analysis technique.

The effects of morphine, naloxone, and κ opioid manipulation on endocrine functioning and social behavior in monogamous titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus)

The μ opioid receptor (MOR) and κ opioid receptor (KOR) have been implicated in pair-bond formation and maintenance in socially monogamous species. Utilizing monogamous titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus), the present study examined the potential role opioids play in modulating the response to separation, a potent challenge to the pair-bond. In Experiment 1, paired male titi monkeys were separated from their pair-mate for 30-minutes and then received saline, naloxone (1.0 mg/kg), morphine (0.25 mg/kg), or the KOR agonist, U50,488 (0.01, 0.03, or 0.1 mg/kg) in a counter-balanced fashion, immediately prior to a 30-minute reunion with their mate. Blood samples were collected immediately prior to and after the reunion. Males receiving morphine approached females less, initiated contact less, and females broke contact with the males less. The increase in cortisol in response to naloxone was greater compared to vehicle, and the increase in cortisol in response to the high dose of U50,488 compared to vehicle approached significance. In Experiment 2, paired males were treated with the KOR antagonist, GNTI (0.1, 0.3, or 1.0 mg/kg), or saline 24 h prior to a 60-min separation from their mate. Blood samples were collected at the time of injection and immediately before and after separation. Administration of the low dose of GNTI decreased the locomotor component of the separation response compared to vehicle. The present study found that the opioid system is involved in both the affiliative and separation distress components of a pair-bond, and these components are regulated by different opioid receptors