Do you have a source for that?: Understanding the challenges of collaborative evidence-based journalism

WikiTribune is a pilot news service, where evidence-based articles are co-created by professional journalists and a community of volunteers using an open and collaborative digital platform. The WikiTribune project is set within an evolving and dynamic media landscape, operating under principles of openness and transparency. It combines a commercial for-profit business model with an open collaborative mode of production with contributions from both paid professionals and unpaid volunteers. This descriptive case study captures the first 12-months of WikiTribune's operations to understand the challenges and opportunities within this hybrid model of production. We use the rich literature on Wikipedia to understand the WikiTribune case and to identify areas of convergence and divergence, as well as avenues for future research. Data was collected on news articles with a focus on the time it takes for an article to reach published status, the number and type of contributors typically involved, article activity and engagement levels, and the types of topics covered

Nanolaminate Mirrors With "Piston" Figure-Control Actuators

Efforts are under way to develop a special class of thin-shell curved mirrors for high-resolution imaging in visible and infrared light in a variety of terrestrial or extraterrestrial applications. These mirrors can have diameters of the order of a meter and include metallic film reflectors on nanolaminate substrates supported by multiple distributed piezoceramic gpiston h-type actuators for micron-level figure control. Whereas conventional glass mirrors of equivalent size and precision have areal mass densities between 50 and 150 kg/sq m, the nanolaminate mirrors, including not only the reflector/ shell portions but also the actuators and the backing structures needed to react the actuation forces, would have areal mass densities that may approach .5 kg/m2. Moreover, whereas fabrication of a conventional glass mirror of equivalent precision takes several years, the reflector/shell portion of a nanolaminate mirror can be fabricated in less than a week, and its actuation system can be fabricated in 1 to 2 months. The engineering of these mirrors involves a fusion of the technological heritage of multisegmented adaptive optics and deformable mirrors with more recent advances in metallic nanolaminates and in mathematical modeling of the deflections of thin, curved shells in response to displacements by multiple, distributed actuators. Because a nanolaminate shell is of the order of 10 times as strong as an otherwise identical shell made of a single, high-strength, non-nanolaminate metal suitable for mirror use, a nanolaminate mirror can be made very thin (typically between 100 and 150 m from the back of the nanolaminate substrate to the front reflecting surface). The thinness and strength of the nanolaminate are what make it possible to use distributed gpiston h-type actuators for surface figure control with minimal local concentrated distortion (called print-through in the art) at the actuation points

Citizen participation in news

The process of producing news has changed significantly due to the advent of the Web, which has enabled the increasing involvement of citizens in news production. This trend has been given many names, including participatory journalism, produsage, and crowd-sourced journalism, but these terms are ambiguous and have been applied inconsistently, making comparison of news systems difficult. In particular, it is problematic to distinguish the levels of citizen involvement, and therefore the extent to which news production has genuinely been opened up. In this paper we perform an analysis of 32 online news systems, comparing them in terms of how much power they give to citizens at each stage of the news production process. Our analysis reveals a diverse landscape of news systems and shows that they defy simplistic categorisation, but it also provides the means to compare different approaches in a systematic and meaningful way. We combine this with four case studies of individual stories to explore the ways that news stories can move and evolve across this landscape. Our conclusions are that online news systems are complex and interdependent, and that most do not involve citizens to the extent that the terms used to describe them imply

The balance of expression of PTPN22 splice forms is significantly different in rheumatoid arthritis patients compared with controls

Complex disease is characterized by the interplay of multiple genetic and environmental factors. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a complex autoimmune disease with a pronounced genetic component, mainly due to HLA-DRB1 gene, but also a multitude of loci outside the HLA region. In this work we strive to contribute to the understanding of the functional involvement of these susceptibility loci in the pathogenesis of RA. This study is based on a large material of whole blood samples and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from RA patients and matched healthy controls from Sweden. The main methods used in this work included probe-based genotyping and gene-expression assays, cell cultures, RNA-sequencing, gene-gene interaction and pathway analysis, as well as a plethora of common molecular genetics and bioinformatics methods. We investigated the role of expression of known genetic risk factors PTPN22 and PTPN2 in RA, with a special attention to the splicing profile of these genes. Our data indicates significant differences in the expression ratio of splice variants for PTPN22 in whole blood samples from RA patients and healthy controls. For PTPN2 we demonstrate a significant difference in the relative mRNA expression of' transcript TC48 in PBMCs of healthy controls and RA patients. Additionally, we identified new susceptibility SNPs in the PTPN2 locus: rs657555 and rs11080606, by addressing the interaction of PTPN2 variants with HLA-DRB1 shared-epitope (SE) alleles in autoantibody positive RA patients in two independent cohorts. In this work, we also address the functional genetic role of the members of the MAP signaling pathway upstream of p38 and JNK – crucial enzymes in RA – with a regard to splicing profile and their connection to HLA-DRB1. We found a significant statistical interaction for rs10468473 from MAP2K4 locus with SE alleles in autoantibody-positive RA. Importantly, individuals heterozygous for rs10468473 demonstrated higher expression of total MAP2K4 mRNA in blood, compared to A-allele homozygous. We also describe a novel, putatively translated RNA splice form of MAP2K4, that is differentially expressed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 88 RA cases and controls, and is modulated in response to TNF in Jurkat cell line. Finally, we performed an expression analysis of multiple validated RA risk loci, and pathway analysis to assess functional relationship between RA susceptibility genes and predict new potential study candidates. New candidate molecules suggested by the pathway analysis, genes ERBB2 and HSPB1, as well as HLA-DRB1, were differentially expressed between RA patients and healthy individuals in RNA-seq data. ERBB2 expression profile was similar in whole blood of both treated and untreated patients compared to healthy individuals. A similar expression profile was replicated for ERBB2 in PBMCs in an independent material. In this work, we approached the task of elucidating the functional aspects of genetic susceptibility of RA, by integrating genetic epidemiology, transcriptomics, proteomics, cellmodels, and bioinformatics. We maintain, that such integrative approach provides the rationale to prioritize genes and genetic events for further functional studies. Our findings also outline the need to consider potential clinical significance of alternative splicing in gene expression studies

Cytochrome P450-derived epoxyeicosatrienoic acids and coronary artery disease in humans: a targeted metabolomics study

Cytochrome P450 (CYP)-derived epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) exhibit potent cardiovascular protective effects in preclinical models, and promoting the effects of EETs has emerged as a potential therapeutic strategy for coronary artery disease (CAD). The relationship between circulating EET levels and CAD extent in humans, however, remains unknown. A panel of free (unesterified) plasma eicosanoid metabolites was quantified in 162 patients referred for coronary angiography, and associations with extent of CAD [no apparent CAD (N = 39), nonobstructive CAD (N = 51), and obstructive CAD (N = 72)] were evaluated. A significant relationship between free EET levels and CAD extent was observed (P = 0.003) such that the presence of obstructive CAD was associated with lower circulating EET levels. This relationship was confirmed in multiple regression analysis where CAD extent was inversely and significantly associated with EET levels (P = 0.013), and with a biomarker of EET biosynthesis (P < 0.001), independent of clinical and demographic factors. Furthermore, quantitative enrichment analysis revealed that these associations were the most pronounced compared with other eicosanoid metabolism pathways. Collectively, these findings suggest that the presence of obstructive CAD is associated with lower EET metabolite levels secondary to suppressed EET biosynthesis. Novel strategies that promote the effects of EETs may have therapeutic promise for patients with obstructive CAD

Certified DNA Reference Materials to Compare HER2 Gene Amplification Measurements Using Next-Generation Sequencing Methods

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Materials 2373 is a set of genomic DNA samples prepared from five breast cancer cell lines with certified values for the ratio of the HER2 gene copy number to the copy numbers of reference genes determined by real-time quantitative PCR and digital PCR. Targeted-amplicon, whole-exome, and whole-genome sequencing measurements were used with the reference material to compare the performance of both the laboratory steps and the bioinformatic approaches of the different methods using a range of amplification ratios. Although good reproducibility was observed in each next-generation sequencing method, slightly different HER2 copy numbers associated with platform-specific biases were obtained. This study clearly demonstrates the value of Standard Reference Materials 2373 as reference material and as a calibrator for evaluating assay performance as well as for increasing confidence in reporting HER2 amplification for clinical applications

Custom Integrated Circuits

Contains reports on six research projects.U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Grant AFOSR-86-0164)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-80-C-0622)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS-83-10941

Catching Element Formation In The Act

Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation. The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide set of astrophysical questions.Comment: 14 pages including 3 figure

All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory: Exploring the Extreme Multimessenger Universe

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO) is a probe class mission concept that will provide essential contributions to multimessenger astrophysics in the late 2020s and beyond. AMEGO combines high sensitivity in the 200 keV to 10 GeV energy range with a wide field of view, good spectral resolution, and polarization sensitivity. Therefore, AMEGO is key in the study of multimessenger astrophysical objects that have unique signatures in the gamma-ray regime, such as neutron star mergers, supernovae, and flaring active galactic nuclei. The order-of-magnitude improvement compared to previous MeV missions also enables discoveries of a wide range of phenomena whose energy output peaks in the relatively unexplored medium-energy gamma-ray band