Teaching computer hardware and organization using PIC-based projects

Until recently, it has been difficult to motivate students to learn about computer hardware because students find the subject rather dry and theoretical. We have prepared a series of interesting projects that give students a hands-on introduction to computer hardware and organisation. Our projects are designed around the PIC16F84, a powerful 8-bit microcontroller chip that sells for less than $10. The projects are suitable for classroom use in introductory-level courses about computer hardware. The effectiveness of these projects has been evaluated both formally by students (student-evaluation forms) and informally through discussion within the teaching team. The feedback from students indicates that the development and the implementation of the projects were successful. This paper describes the details of the projects completed to date, their overall effectiveness and our plans for further projects

AGS Position Statement: Making Medical Treatment Decisions for Unbefriended Older Adults

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135987/1/jgs14586_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135987/2/jgs14586.pd

A systematic review of the use of an expertise-based randomised controlled trial design

Acknowledgements JAC held a Medical Research Council UK methodology (G1002292) fellowship, which supported this research. The Health Services Research Unit, Institute of Applied Health Sciences (University of Aberdeen), is core-funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. Views express are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Formulas and Asymptotics for the Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process

This is an expanded version of a series of lectures delivered by the second author in June, 2009. It describes the results of three of the authors' papers on ASEP, from the derivation of exact formulas for configuration probabilities, through Fredholm determinant representation, to asymptotics for ASEP with step initial condition establishing KPZ universality. Although complete proofs are in general not given, at least the main elements of them are.Comment: 25 pages. Version 2 corrects an error in Section II.

Dietary Intake and Arsenic Methylation in a U.S. Population

Millions of people worldwide are exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water, and ingestion of inorganic arsenic (InAs) has been associated with increased risks of cancer. The primary metabolic pathway of ingested InAs is methylation to monomethyl arsenic (MMA) and dimethyl arsenic (DMA). However, people vary greatly in the degree to which they methylate InAs, and recent evidence suggests that those who excrete high proportions of ingested arsenic as MMA are more susceptible than others to arsenic-caused cancer. To date, little is known about the factors that determine interindividual differences in arsenic methylation. In this study, we assessed the effect of diet on arsenic metabolism by measuring dietary intakes and urinary arsenic methylation patterns in 87 subjects from two arsenic-exposed regions in the western United States. Subjects in the lower quartile of protein intake excreted a higher proportion of ingested InAs as MMA (14.6 vs. 11.6%; p = 0.01) and a lower proportion as DMA (72.3 vs. 77.0%; p = 0.01) than did subjects in the upper quartile of protein intake. Subjects in the lower quartile of iron, zinc, and niacin intake also had higher urinary percent MMA and lower percent DMA levels than did subjects with higher intakes of these nutrients. These associations were also seen in multivariate regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, smoking, and total urinary arsenic. Given the previously reported links between high percent MMA and increased cancer risks, these findings are consistent with the theory that people with diets deficient in protein and other nutrients are more susceptible than others to arsenic-caused cancer

An epigenetic clock for human skeletal muscle.

BACKGROUND: Ageing is associated with DNA methylation changes in all human tissues, and epigenetic markers can estimate chronological age based on DNA methylation patterns across tissues. However, the construction of the original pan-tissue epigenetic clock did not include skeletal muscle samples and hence exhibited a strong deviation between DNA methylation and chronological age in this tissue. METHODS: To address this, we developed a more accurate, muscle-specific epigenetic clock based on the genome-wide DNA methylation data of 682 skeletal muscle samples from 12 independent datasets (18-89 years old, 22% women, 99% Caucasian), all generated with Illumina HumanMethylation (HM) arrays (HM27, HM450, or HMEPIC). We also took advantage of the large number of samples to conduct an epigenome-wide association study of age-associated DNA methylation patterns in skeletal muscle. RESULTS: The newly developed clock uses 200 cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotides to estimate chronological age in skeletal muscle, 16 of which are in common with the 353 cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotides of the pan-tissue clock. The muscle clock outperformed the pan-tissue clock, with a median error of only 4.6 years across datasets (vs. 13.1 years for the pan-tissue clock, P < 0.0001) and an average correlation of ρ = 0.62 between actual and predicted age across datasets (vs. ρ = 0.51 for the pan-tissue clock). Lastly, we identified 180 differentially methylated regions with age in skeletal muscle at a false discovery rate < 0.005. However, gene set enrichment analysis did not reveal any enrichment for gene ontologies. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a muscle-specific epigenetic clock that predicts age with better accuracy than the pan-tissue clock. We implemented the muscle clock in an r package called Muscle Epigenetic Age Test available on Bioconductor to estimate epigenetic age in skeletal muscle samples. This clock may prove valuable in assessing the impact of environmental factors, such as exercise and diet, on muscle-specific biological ageing processes

Cross validation of bi-modal health-related stress assessment

This study explores the feasibility of objective and ubiquitous stress assessment. 25 post-traumatic stress disorder patients participated in a controlled storytelling (ST) study and an ecologically valid reliving (RL) study. The two studies were meant to represent an early and a late therapy session, and each consisted of a "happy" and a "stress triggering" part. Two instruments were chosen to assess the stress level of the patients at various point in time during therapy: (i) speech, used as an objective and ubiquitous stress indicator and (ii) the subjective unit of distress (SUD), a clinically validated Likert scale. In total, 13 statistical parameters were derived from each of five speech features: amplitude, zero-crossings, power, high-frequency power, and pitch. To model the emotional state of the patients, 28 parameters were selected from this set by means of a linear regression model and, subsequently, compressed into 11 principal components. The SUD and speech model were cross-validated, using 3 machine learning algorithms. Between 90% (2 SUD levels) and 39% (10 SUD levels) correct classification was achieved. The two sessions could be discriminated in 89% (for ST) and 77% (for RL) of the cases. This report fills a gap between laboratory and clinical studies, and its results emphasize the usefulness of Computer Aided Diagnostics (CAD) for mental health care

Precalibrating an intermediate complexity climate model

Credible climate predictions require a rational quantification of uncertainty, but full Bayesian calibration requires detailed estimates of prior probability distributions and covariances, which are difficult to obtain in practice. We describe a simplified procedure, termed precalibration, which provides an approximate quantification of uncertainty in climate prediction, and requires only that uncontroversially implausible values of certain inputs and outputs are identified. The method is applied to intermediate-complexity model simulations of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and confirms the existence of a cliff-edge catastrophe in freshwaterforcing input space. When uncertainty in 14 further parameters is taken into account, an implausible, AMOC-off, region remains as a robust feature of the model dynamics, but its location is found to depend strongly on values of the other parameters

Comparative study of imaging at 3.0 T versus 1.5 T of the knee

The objectives of the study were to compare MR imaging at 1.5 and 3.0 T in the same patients concerning image quality and visualization of cartilage pathology and to assess diagnostic performance using arthroscopy as a standard of reference. Twenty-six patients were identified retrospectively as having comparative 1.5 and 3.0 T MR studies of the knee within an average of 102 days. Standard protocols included T1-weighted and fat-saturated intermediate-weighted fast spin-echo sequences in three planes; sequence parameters had been adjusted to account for differences in relaxation at 3.0 T. Arthroscopy was performed in 19 patients. Four radiologists reviewed each study independently, scored image quality, and analyzed pathological findings. Sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies in diagnosing cartilage lesions were calculated in the 19 patients with arthroscopy, and differences between 1.5 and 3.0 T exams were compared using paired Student’s t tests with a significance threshold of p &lt; 0.05. Each radiologist scored the 3.0 T studies higher than those obtained at 1.5 T in visualizing anatomical structures and abnormalities (p &lt; 0.05). Using arthroscopy as a standard of reference, diagnosis of cartilage abnormalities was improved at 3.0 T with higher sensitivity (75.7% versus 70.6%), accuracy (88.2% versus 86.4%), and correct grading of cartilage lesions (51.3% versus 42.9%). Diagnostic confidence scores were higher at 3.0 than 1.5 T (p &lt; 0.05) and signal-to-noise ratio at 3.0 T was approximately twofold higher than at 1.5 T. MRI at 3.0 T improved visualization of anatomical structures and improved diagnostic confidence compared to 1.5 T. This resulted in significantly better sensitivity and grading of cartilage lesions at the knee

"A calorie is a calorie" violates the second law of thermodynamics

The principle of "a calorie is a calorie," that weight change in hypocaloric diets is independent of macronutrient composition, is widely held in the popular and technical literature, and is frequently justified by appeal to the laws of thermodynamics. We review here some aspects of thermodynamics that bear on weight loss and the effect of macronutrient composition. The focus is the so-called metabolic advantage in low-carbohydrate diets – greater weight loss compared to isocaloric diets of different composition. Two laws of thermodynamics are relevant to the systems considered in nutrition and, whereas the first law is a conservation (of energy) law, the second is a dissipation law: something (negative entropy) is lost and therefore balance is not to be expected in diet interventions. Here, we propose that a misunderstanding of the second law accounts for the controversy about the role of macronutrient effect on weight loss and we review some aspects of elementary thermodynamics. We use data in the literature to show that thermogenesis is sufficient to predict metabolic advantage. Whereas homeostasis ensures balance under many conditions, as a general principle, "a calorie is a calorie" violates the second law of thermodynamics