The ACCENT Policy Wizard

The ACCENT project (Advanced Component Control Enhancing Network Technologies) developed a practical and comprehensive policy system for call control/Internet telephony. The policy system has subsequently been extended for management of sensor networks/wind farms and of home care/telecare. This report focuses on a web-based policy wizard that acts as the primary interface between end users and the policy system. The policy wizard has an intimate knowledge of the APPEL policy language (Adaptable and Programmable Policy Environment and Language). The wizard allows end users to create policies using nearnatural language without knowing or seeing XML, and to upload them to the policy system. The wizard also provides a number of convenience functions such as predefined policy templates, editing and activating existing policies, and defining policy variables. Relative to the version of December 2005, this Technical Report has been updated as follows to reflect changes in the policy wizard: - The whole report has been updated to reflect later work on the PROSEN and MATCH projects. As a result, the ACCENT and APPEL acronyms have changed. Call control, however, remains are the primary illustration of the approach in this report. - Chapter 1 is now named ‘Introduction’, and a brief ‘Conclusion’ chapter has been added in section 4. - Chapter 2 has been updated to sheet screenshots of the new policy wizard. The wizard now handles resolution policies. - The wizard now makes use of ontologies, as described briefly in section 3.1. All domain-specific knowledge is held outside the wizard, so that largely common code can be used across all domains. As a result, the wizard configuration now also refers to the POPPET server. - Section 3.6 describes a new code structure that allows different versions of the wizard to coexist. - A brief explanation has been given in section 3.8 of what is involved in supporting a new application domain with the wizard

HDAC inhibitors increase NRF2-signaling in tumour cells and blunt the efficacy of co-adminstered cytotoxic agents

The NRF2 signalling cascade provides a primary response against electrophilic chemicals and oxidative stress. The activation of NRF2-signaling is anticipated to have adverse clinical consequences; NRF2 is activated in a number of cancers and, additionally, its pharmacological activation by one compound can reduce the toxicity or efficiency of a second agent administered concomitantly. In this work, we have analysed systematically the ability of 152 research, pre-clinical or clinically used drugs to induce an NRF2 response using the MCF7-AREc32 NRF2 reporter. Ten percent of the tested drugs induced an NRF2 response. The NRF2 activators were not restricted to classical cytotoxic alkylating agents but also included a number of emerging anticancer drugs, including an IGF1-R inhibitor (NVP-AEW541), a PIM-1 kinase inhibitor (Pim1 inhibitor 2), a PLK1 inhibitor (BI 2536) and most strikingly seven of nine tested HDAC inhibitors. These findings were further confirmed by demonstrating NRF2-dependent induction of endogenous AKR genes, biomarkers of NRF2 activity. The ability of HDAC inhibitors to stimulate NRF2-signalling did not diminish their own potency as antitumour agents. However, when used to pre-treat cells, they did reduce the efficacy of acrolein. Taken together, our data suggest that the ability of drugs to stimulate NRF2 activity is common and should be investigated as part of the drug-development process

Explosive Radiation of Malpighiales Supports a Mid-Cretaceous Origin of Modern Tropical Rain Forests

Fossil data have been interpreted as indicating that Late Cretaceous tropical forests were open and dry adapted and that modern closed-canopy rain forest did not originate until after the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary. However, some mid-Cretaceous leaf floras have been interpreted as rain forest. Molecular divergence-time estimates within the clade Malpighiales, which constitute a large percentage of species in the shaded, shrub, and small tree layer in tropical rain forests worldwide, provide new tests of these hypotheses. We estimate that all 28 major lineages (i.e., traditionally recognized families) within this clade originated in tropical rain forest well before the Tertiary, mostly during the Albian and Cenomanian (112 - 94 Ma). Their rapid rise in the mid-Cretaceous may have resulted from the origin of adaptations to survive and reproduce under a closed forest canopy. This pattern may also be paralleled by other similarly diverse lineages and supports fossil indications that closed-canopy tropical rain forests existed well before the K/T boundary. This case illustrates that dated phylogenies can provide an important new source of evidence bearing on the timing of major environmental changes, which may be especially useful when fossil evidence is limited or controversial.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

APPEL: An Adaptable and Programmable Policy Environment and Language

The Accent project (Advanced Component Control Enhancing Network Technologies) developed a practical and comprehensive policy system for call control/Internet telephony. The policy system has subsequently been extended for management of sensor networks/wind farms and of home care/telecare. This report focuses on Appel (Adaptable and Programmable Policy Environment and Language). It provides an overview of the language, and presents the language in XML schema form. The core language has been instantiated for call control, for sensor networks, and for home care. Sample goals and policies of different kinds are provided to illustrate these applications

Policy Conflict Filtering for Call Control

Policies exhibit conflicts much as features exhibit interaction. Since policies are defined by end users, the combinatorial problems involved in detecting conflicts are substantially worse than for detecting feature interactions. A new, ontology-driven method is defined for automatically identifying potential conflicts among policies. This relies on domain knowledge to annotate policy actions with their effects. Conflict filtering is performed offline, but supports conflict detection and resolution online. The technique has been implemented in the RECAP tool (Rigorously Evaluated Conflicts Among Policies). Subject to user guidance, this tool filters conflicting pairs of actions and automatically generates resolutions. The approach is generic, but is illustrated with the APPEL policy language for call control. The technique has improved the scalability of conflict handling, and has reduced the effort required of the previous manual approach

Issue Voting: An Empirical Examination of Individually Necessary and Jointly Sufficient Conditions

This paper argues that six conditions must be met to conclude that issue voting exists: (1) candidates must take different positions on the issues of the day; (2) the campaign issues must be salient to the voter; (3) voters must have a position on the issue; (4) voters must accurately perceive candidate positions; (5) issue-based candidate evaluations must be consistent with vote intention; and (6) vote intention must be based on a previously established issue evaluation not vice versa. This study estimates the number of voters who were able to meet these conditions for issue voting during the 1972 presidential election campaign.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Radial Glial Dependent and Independent Dynamics of Interneuronal Migration in the Developing Cerebral Cortex

Interneurons originating from the ganglionic eminence migrate tangentially into the developing cerebral wall as they navigate to their distinct positions in the cerebral cortex. Compromised connectivity and differentiation of interneurons are thought to be an underlying cause in the emergence of neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia. Previously, it was suggested that tangential migration of interneurons occurs in a radial glia independent manner. Here, using simultaneous imaging of genetically defined populations of interneurons and radial glia, we demonstrate that dynamic interactions with radial glia can potentially influence the trajectory of interneuronal migration and thus the positioning of interneurons in cerebral cortex. Furthermore, there is extensive local interneuronal migration in tangential direction opposite to that of pallial orientation (i.e., in a medial to lateral direction from cortex to ganglionic eminence) all across the cerebral wall. This counter migration of interneurons may be essential to locally position interneurons once they invade the developing cerebral wall from the ganglionic eminence. Together, these observations suggest that interactions with radial glial scaffold and localized migration within the expanding cerebral wall may play essential roles in the guidance and placement of interneurons in the developing cerebral cortex

Enhancing LibGuides Usability and Discoverability Within a Complex Library Presence

At the University of Michigan Library, we use Springshare’s LibGuides to manage subject, course, and specialized information guides comprising thousands of individual web pages. While LibGuides can be used to build a robust library website, complete with features for managing electronic reserves and databases, we maintain it as a supplementary tool focused around instruction and guidance. LibGuides is one of several open-source and proprietary components making up our library’s complex web presence. In such a complex online environment, it can be challenging to make LibGuides content discoverable and to present it as a functional, integral part of the whole. Doing so, however, is critical if we are to efficiently connect users to relevant information resources. In the following chapter, we will share examples of how we have integrated LibGuides into our library website and learning management systems (LMS) in order to facilitate access to content through search and discovery.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136549/1/Enhancing LibGuides Usability and Discoverability Within a Complex Library Presence.pdfDescription of Enhancing LibGuides Usability and Discoverability Within a Complex Library Presence.pdf : Book Chapte

Heart Failure in Humans Reduces Contractile Force in Myocardium from Both Ventricles

This study measured how heart failure affects the contractile properties of the human myocardium from the left and right ventricles. The data showed that maximum force and maximum power were reduced by approximately 30% in multicellular preparations from both ventricles, possibly because of ventricular remodeling (e.g., cellular disarray and/or excess fibrosis). Heart failure increased the calcium (Ca2+) sensitivity of contraction in both ventricles, but the effect was bigger in right ventricular samples. The changes in Ca2+ sensitivity were associated with ventricle-specific changes in the phosphorylation of troponin I, which indicated that adrenergic stimulation might induce different effects in the left and right ventricles