Meta-analytic framework for efficiently identifying progression groups in highway condition analysis

The minimum message length two-dimensional segmenter (MML2DS) criterion is a powerful technique for road condition data analysis developed at the Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre (NTEC), University of Nottingham. The criterion analyses condition data sets by simultaneously identifying optimum trends in condition progression, the position in time and space of maintenance interventions, longitudinal segments within links, and the error likelihood of each measurement. This is done in an unsupervised manner through classification and regression models on the basis of the minimum message length (MML) metric. Use of MML, however, often requires an exhaustive comparison of all possible models, which naturally raises considerable search-control issues. This is precisely the case with the MML2DS approach. This paper presents an efficient meta-analytic framework for controlling the generation of progression groups, which considerably reduces the search space before the application of MML2DS. This is achieved by identifying founder sets of longitudinal segments, around which families of segments are likely to be formed. An effective subset of these families is then selected, after which the MML2DS criterion is used as the final arbiter to determine ultimate model configurations and fits. This approach has proved to be very powerful, resulting in significant improvements in efficiency to the effect that accurate results are obtained in a few minutes where it previously took weeks with much smaller data sets. The indications are that this approach can be applied to other techniques besides MML2DS

The Imprinted Retrotransposon-Like Gene PEG11 (RTL1) Is Expressed as a Full-Length Protein in Skeletal Muscle from Callipyge Sheep

peer-reviewedMembers of the Ty3-Gypsy retrotransposon family are rare in mammalian genomes despite their abundance in invertebrates and some vertebrates. These elements contain a gag-pol-like structure characteristic of retroviruses but have lost their ability to retrotranspose into the mammalian genome and are thought to be inactive relics of ancient retrotransposition events. One of these retrotransposon-like elements, PEG11 (also called RTL1) is located at the distal end of ovine chromosome 18 within an imprinted gene cluster that is highly conserved in placental mammals. The region contains several conserved imprinted genes including BEGAIN, DLK1, DAT, GTL2 (MEG3), PEG11 (RTL1), PEG11as, MEG8, MIRG and DIO3. An intergenic point mutation between DLK1 and GTL2 causes muscle hypertrophy in callipyge sheep and is associated with large changes in expression of the genes linked in cis between DLK1 and MEG8. It has been suggested that over-expression of DLK1 is the effector of the callipyge phenotype; however, PEG11 gene expression is also strongly correlated with the emergence of the muscling phenotype as a function of genotype, muscle type and developmental stage. To date, there has been no direct evidence that PEG11 encodes a protein, especially as its anti-sense transcript (PEG11as) contains six miRNA that cause cleavage of the PEG11 transcript. Using immunological and mass spectrometry approaches we have directly identified the full-length PEG11 protein from postnatal nuclear preparations of callipyge skeletal muscle and conclude that its over-expression may be involved in inducing muscle hypertrophy. The developmental expression pattern of the PEG11 gene is consistent with the callipyge mutation causing recapitulation of the normal fetal-like gene expression program during postnatal development. Analysis of the PEG11 sequence indicates strong conservation of the regions encoding the antisense microRNA and in at least two cases these correspond with structural or functional domains of the protein suggesting co-evolution of the sense and antisense genes

Construction and validation of a Bovine Innate Immune Microarray

BACKGROUND: Microarray transcript profiling has the potential to illuminate the molecular processes that are involved in the responses of cattle to disease challenges. This knowledge may allow the development of strategies that exploit these genes to enhance resistance to disease in an individual or animal population. RESULTS: The Bovine Innate Immune Microarray developed in this study consists of 1480 characterised genes identified by literature searches, 31 positive and negative control elements and 5376 cDNAs derived from subtracted and normalised libraries. The cDNA libraries were produced from 'challenged' bovine epithelial and leukocyte cells. The microarray was found to have a limit of detection of 1 pg/μg of total RNA and a mean slide-to-slide correlation co-efficient of 0.88. The profiles of differentially expressed genes from Concanavalin A (ConA) stimulated bovine peripheral blood lymphocytes were determined. Three distinct profiles highlighted 19 genes that were rapidly up-regulated within 30 minutes and returned to basal levels by 24 h; 76 genes that were up-regulated between 2–8 hours and sustained high levels of expression until 24 h and 10 genes that were down-regulated. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR on selected genes was used to confirm the results from the microarray analysis. The results indicate that there is a dynamic process involving gene activation and regulatory mechanisms re-establishing homeostasis in the ConA activated lymphocytes. The Bovine Innate Immune Microarray was also used to determine the cross-species hybridisation capabilities of an ovine PBL sample. CONCLUSION: The Bovine Innate Immune Microarray has been developed which contains a set of well-characterised genes and anonymous cDNAs from a number of different bovine cell types. The microarray can be used to determine the gene expression profiles underlying innate immune responses in cattle and sheep

Individual Differences and Heritability of Thinking Styles and Working Memory Capacity: A Dual-process Perspective

Dual process theories propose that human decision-making involves the interplay of two distinct information processing systems, or modes of thinking: rational (logical) and experiential (intuitive). Previous research shows that individuals differ in their preferred modes of thinking and that these preferences for rationality and/or experientiality are believed to be predictive of a range of behaviours. Moreover, preference for rational thinking is believed to be intimately linked with working memory capacity (WMC). Three studies reported in this thesis investigated thinking styles, their relationship to WMC, their heritability and the extent to which they were associated with reasoning and decision-making performance across a range of tasks

An Always Correlated gene expression landscape for ovine skeletal muscle, lessons learnt from comparison with an “equivalent” bovine landscape

BACKGROUND: We have recently described a method for the construction of an informative gene expression correlation landscape for a single tissue, longissimus muscle (LM) of cattle, using a small number (less than a hundred) of diverse samples. Does this approach facilitate interspecies comparison of networks? FINDINGS: Using gene expression datasets from LM samples from a single postnatal time point for high and low muscling sheep, and from a developmental time course (prenatal to postnatal) for normal sheep and sheep exhibiting the Callipyge muscling phenotype gene expression correlations were calculated across subsets of the data comparable to the bovine analysis. An “Always Correlated” gene expression landscape was constructed by integrating the correlations from the subsets of data and was compared to the equivalent landscape for bovine LM muscle. Whilst at the high level apparently equivalent modules were identified in the two species, at the detailed level overlap between genes in the equivalent modules was limited and generally not significant. Indeed, only 395 genes and 18 edges were in common between the two landscapes. CONCLUSIONS: Since it is unlikely that the equivalent muscles of two closely related species are as different as this analysis suggests, within tissue gene expression correlations appear to be very sensitive to the samples chosen for their construction, compounded by the different platforms used. Thus users need to be very cautious in interpretation of the differences. In future experiments, attention will be required to ensure equivalent experimental designs and use cross-species gene expression platform to enable the identification of true differences between different species

Climate Change: Scenarios & Impacts for Ireland (2000-LS-5.2.1-M1) ISBN:1-84095-115-X

The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) is the most authoritative assessment of global climate change to date. Produced by several hundred leading scientists in various areas of climate studies, its principal conclusions include the following: • Global average temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C since 1860 with accelerated warming apparent in the latter decades of the 20th century. A further increase of 1.5–6.0°C from 1990 to 2100 is projected, depending on how emissions of greenhouse gases increase over the period. • The 20th century was the warmest of the last millennium in the Northern Hemisphere, with the 1990s being the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year. Warming has been more pronounced at night than during the day. • Reductions in the extent of snow cover of 10% have occurred in the past 40 years, with a widespread retreat also of mountain glaciers outside the polar regions. Sea-ice thickness in the Arctic has declined by about 40% during late summer/early autumn, though no comparable reduction has taken place in winter. In the Antarctic, no similar trends have been observed. One of the most serious impacts on global sea level could result from a catastrophic failure of grounded ice in West Antarctica. This is, however, considered unlikely over the coming century. • Global sea level has risen by 0.1–0.2 m over the past century, an order of magnitude larger than the average rate over the past three millennia. A rise of approximately 0.5 m is considered likely during the period 1990–2100. • Precipitation has increased over the land masses of the temperate regions by 0.5–1.0% per decade. Frequencies of more intense rainfall events appear to be increasing also in the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, decreases in rainfall over the tropics have been observed, though this trend has weakened in recent years. More frequent warm-phase El Niño events are occurring in the Pacific Basin. Precipitation increases are projected, particularly for winter, for middle and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and for Antarctica. • No significant trends in the tropical cyclone climatology have been detected. These global trends have implications for the future course of Ireland’s climate which it is judicious to anticipate. This report presents an assessment of the magnitude and likely impacts of climate change in Ireland over the course of the current century. It approaches this by establishing scenarios for future Irish climate based on global climate model projections for the middle and last quarter of the present century. These projections are then used to assess probable impacts in key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, water resources, the coastal and marine environments and on biodiversity. The purpose of the report is to firstly identify where vulnerability to climate change exists in Ireland and what adjustments are likely in the operation of environmental systems in response to such changes. In some sectors, e.g. agriculture, some new opportunities may arise. In other instances, e.g. water resource management, long-term planning strategies will be necessary to mitigate adverse impacts. Long lead times for adjustment characterise many sectors, e.g. forestry, and it is important to provide as much advance warning of likely changes as possible to enable adaptation to commence early. By anticipating change it may be possible to minimise adverse impacts and to maximise positive aspects of global climate change

Climate Change: Scenarios & Impacts for Ireland (2000-LS-5.2.1-M1) ISBN:1-84095-115-X

The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) is the most authoritative assessment of global climate change to date. Produced by several hundred leading scientists in various areas of climate studies, its principal conclusions include the following: • Global average temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C since 1860 with accelerated warming apparent in the latter decades of the 20th century. A further increase of 1.5–6.0°C from 1990 to 2100 is projected, depending on how emissions of greenhouse gases increase over the period. • The 20th century was the warmest of the last millennium in the Northern Hemisphere, with the 1990s being the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year. Warming has been more pronounced at night than during the day. • Reductions in the extent of snow cover of 10% have occurred in the past 40 years, with a widespread retreat also of mountain glaciers outside the polar regions. Sea-ice thickness in the Arctic has declined by about 40% during late summer/early autumn, though no comparable reduction has taken place in winter. In the Antarctic, no similar trends have been observed. One of the most serious impacts on global sea level could result from a catastrophic failure of grounded ice in West Antarctica. This is, however, considered unlikely over the coming century. • Global sea level has risen by 0.1–0.2 m over the past century, an order of magnitude larger than the average rate over the past three millennia. A rise of approximately 0.5 m is considered likely during the period 1990–2100. • Precipitation has increased over the land masses of the temperate regions by 0.5–1.0% per decade. Frequencies of more intense rainfall events appear to be increasing also in the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, decreases in rainfall over the tropics have been observed, though this trend has weakened in recent years. More frequent warm-phase El Niño events are occurring in the Pacific Basin. Precipitation increases are projected, particularly for winter, for middle and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and for Antarctica. • No significant trends in the tropical cyclone climatology have been detected. These global trends have implications for the future course of Ireland’s climate which it is judicious to anticipate. This report presents an assessment of the magnitude and likely impacts of climate change in Ireland over the course of the current century. It approaches this by establishing scenarios for future Irish climate based on global climate model projections for the middle and last quarter of the present century. These projections are then used to assess probable impacts in key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, water resources, the coastal and marine environments and on biodiversity. The purpose of the report is to firstly identify where vulnerability to climate change exists in Ireland and what adjustments are likely in the operation of environmental systems in response to such changes. In some sectors, e.g. agriculture, some new opportunities may arise. In other instances, e.g. water resource management, long-term planning strategies will be necessary to mitigate adverse impacts. Long lead times for adjustment characterise many sectors, e.g. forestry, and it is important to provide as much advance warning of likely changes as possible to enable adaptation to commence early. By anticipating change it may be possible to minimise adverse impacts and to maximise positive aspects of global climate change

Climate Change: Scenarios & Impacts for Ireland (2000-LS-5.2.1-M1) ISBN:1-84095-115-X

The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) is the most authoritative assessment of global climate change to date. Produced by several hundred leading scientists in various areas of climate studies, its principal conclusions include the following: • Global average temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C since 1860 with accelerated warming apparent in the latter decades of the 20th century. A further increase of 1.5–6.0°C from 1990 to 2100 is projected, depending on how emissions of greenhouse gases increase over the period. • The 20th century was the warmest of the last millennium in the Northern Hemisphere, with the 1990s being the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year. Warming has been more pronounced at night than during the day. • Reductions in the extent of snow cover of 10% have occurred in the past 40 years, with a widespread retreat also of mountain glaciers outside the polar regions. Sea-ice thickness in the Arctic has declined by about 40% during late summer/early autumn, though no comparable reduction has taken place in winter. In the Antarctic, no similar trends have been observed. One of the most serious impacts on global sea level could result from a catastrophic failure of grounded ice in West Antarctica. This is, however, considered unlikely over the coming century. • Global sea level has risen by 0.1–0.2 m over the past century, an order of magnitude larger than the average rate over the past three millennia. A rise of approximately 0.5 m is considered likely during the period 1990–2100. • Precipitation has increased over the land masses of the temperate regions by 0.5–1.0% per decade. Frequencies of more intense rainfall events appear to be increasing also in the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, decreases in rainfall over the tropics have been observed, though this trend has weakened in recent years. More frequent warm-phase El Niño events are occurring in the Pacific Basin. Precipitation increases are projected, particularly for winter, for middle and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and for Antarctica. • No significant trends in the tropical cyclone climatology have been detected. These global trends have implications for the future course of Ireland’s climate which it is judicious to anticipate. This report presents an assessment of the magnitude and likely impacts of climate change in Ireland over the course of the current century. It approaches this by establishing scenarios for future Irish climate based on global climate model projections for the middle and last quarter of the present century. These projections are then used to assess probable impacts in key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, water resources, the coastal and marine environments and on biodiversity. The purpose of the report is to firstly identify where vulnerability to climate change exists in Ireland and what adjustments are likely in the operation of environmental systems in response to such changes. In some sectors, e.g. agriculture, some new opportunities may arise. In other instances, e.g. water resource management, long-term planning strategies will be necessary to mitigate adverse impacts. Long lead times for adjustment characterise many sectors, e.g. forestry, and it is important to provide as much advance warning of likely changes as possible to enable adaptation to commence early. By anticipating change it may be possible to minimise adverse impacts and to maximise positive aspects of global climate change

Climate Change: Scenarios & Impacts for Ireland (2000-LS-5.2.1-M1) ISBN:1-84095-115-X

The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) is the most authoritative assessment of global climate change to date. Produced by several hundred leading scientists in various areas of climate studies, its principal conclusions include the following: • Global average temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C since 1860 with accelerated warming apparent in the latter decades of the 20th century. A further increase of 1.5–6.0°C from 1990 to 2100 is projected, depending on how emissions of greenhouse gases increase over the period. • The 20th century was the warmest of the last millennium in the Northern Hemisphere, with the 1990s being the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year. Warming has been more pronounced at night than during the day. • Reductions in the extent of snow cover of 10% have occurred in the past 40 years, with a widespread retreat also of mountain glaciers outside the polar regions. Sea-ice thickness in the Arctic has declined by about 40% during late summer/early autumn, though no comparable reduction has taken place in winter. In the Antarctic, no similar trends have been observed. One of the most serious impacts on global sea level could result from a catastrophic failure of grounded ice in West Antarctica. This is, however, considered unlikely over the coming century. • Global sea level has risen by 0.1–0.2 m over the past century, an order of magnitude larger than the average rate over the past three millennia. A rise of approximately 0.5 m is considered likely during the period 1990–2100. • Precipitation has increased over the land masses of the temperate regions by 0.5–1.0% per decade. Frequencies of more intense rainfall events appear to be increasing also in the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, decreases in rainfall over the tropics have been observed, though this trend has weakened in recent years. More frequent warm-phase El Niño events are occurring in the Pacific Basin. Precipitation increases are projected, particularly for winter, for middle and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and for Antarctica. • No significant trends in the tropical cyclone climatology have been detected. These global trends have implications for the future course of Ireland’s climate which it is judicious to anticipate. This report presents an assessment of the magnitude and likely impacts of climate change in Ireland over the course of the current century. It approaches this by establishing scenarios for future Irish climate based on global climate model projections for the middle and last quarter of the present century. These projections are then used to assess probable impacts in key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, water resources, the coastal and marine environments and on biodiversity. The purpose of the report is to firstly identify where vulnerability to climate change exists in Ireland and what adjustments are likely in the operation of environmental systems in response to such changes. In some sectors, e.g. agriculture, some new opportunities may arise. In other instances, e.g. water resource management, long-term planning strategies will be necessary to mitigate adverse impacts. Long lead times for adjustment characterise many sectors, e.g. forestry, and it is important to provide as much advance warning of likely changes as possible to enable adaptation to commence early. By anticipating change it may be possible to minimise adverse impacts and to maximise positive aspects of global climate change