Generation of tools for expression and purification of the phage-encoded Type I restriction enzyme inhibitor, Ocr

DNA manipulation is an essential tool in molecular microbiology research that is dependent on the ability of bacteria to take up and preserve foreign DNA by horizontal gene transfer. This process can be significantly impaired by the activity of bacterial restriction modification systems; bacterial operons comprising paired enzymatic activities that protectively methylate host DNA, while cleaving incoming unmodified foreign DNA. Ocr is a phage-encoded protein that inhibits Type I restriction modification systems, the addition of which significantly improves bacterial transformation efficiency. We recently established an improved and highly efficient transformation protocol for the important human pathogen group A Streptococcus using commercially available recombinant Ocr protein, manufacture of which has since been discontinued. In order to ensure the continued availability of Ocr protein within the research community, we have generated tools and methods for in-house Ocr production and validated the activity of the purified recombinant protein.</p

On the stationarity of linearly forced turbulence in finite domains

A simple scheme of forcing turbulence away from decay was introduced by Lundgren some time ago, the `linear forcing', which amounts to a force term linear in the velocity field with a constant coefficient. The evolution of linearly forced turbulence towards a stationary final state, as indicated by direct numerical simulations (DNS), is examined from a theoretical point of view based on symmetry arguments. In order to follow closely the DNS the flow is assumed to live in a cubic domain with periodic boundary conditions. The simplicity of the linear forcing scheme allows one to re-write the problem as one of decaying turbulence with a decreasing viscosity. Scaling symmetry considerations suggest that the system evolves to a stationary state, evolution that may be understood as the gradual breaking of a larger approximate symmetry to a smaller exact symmetry. The same arguments show that the finiteness of the domain is intimately related to the evolution of the system to a stationary state at late times, as well as the consistency of this state with a high degree of isotropy imposed by the symmetries of the domain itself. The fluctuations observed in the DNS for all quantities in the stationary state can be associated with deviations from isotropy. Indeed, self-preserving isotropic turbulence models are used to study evolution from a direct dynamical point of view, emphasizing the naturalness of the Taylor microscale as a self-similarity scale in this system. In this context the stationary state emerges as a stable fixed point. Self-preservation seems to be the reason behind a noted similarity of the third order structure function between the linearly forced and freely decaying turbulence, where again the finiteness of the domain plays an significant role.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, changes in the discussion at the end of section VI, formula (60) correcte

Second-order Democratic Aggregation

Aggregated second-order features extracted from deep convolutional networks have been shown to be effective for texture generation, fine-grained recognition, material classification, and scene understanding. In this paper, we study a class of orderless aggregation functions designed to minimize interference or equalize contributions in the context of second-order features and we show that they can be computed just as efficiently as their first-order counterparts and they have favorable properties over aggregation by summation. Another line of work has shown that matrix power normalization after aggregation can significantly improve the generalization of second-order representations. We show that matrix power normalization implicitly equalizes contributions during aggregation thus establishing a connection between matrix normalization techniques and prior work on minimizing interference. Based on the analysis we present {\gamma}-democratic aggregators that interpolate between sum ({\gamma}=1) and democratic pooling ({\gamma}=0) outperforming both on several classification tasks. Moreover, unlike power normalization, the {\gamma}-democratic aggregations can be computed in a low dimensional space by sketching that allows the use of very high-dimensional second-order features. This results in a state-of-the-art performance on several datasets

Exploring Alumni Stories Through Qualitative Research

This presentation describes a project designed to connect current psychology undergraduates with alumni from the same program. Purposive sampling was used to recruit diverse alumni following different career paths (i.e., graduate school or straight to work), representing alumni who identified as first generation, nontraditional, Latina/Latino or as a student of color. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand alumni career paths and gather information about decision-making, barriers, supports, and advice for current psychology majors. Interviews were audio-taped and are currently being transcribed. Some alumni agreed to participate in an “Alumni Profile,” which highlighted specific alumni by name, shared details of individual’s specific story, and were made publicly available. The current presentation will share the experiences of the undergraduate researchers exploring qualitative research, learning about career options available after graduation, and benefits for current students

Returning children home from care: What can be learned from local authority data?

International Human Rights and child rights conventions as well as U.K. wide legislation and guidance require that children in care should be returned home to one or both parents wherever possible. Reunification with parents is the most common route out of care, but rates of re‐entry are often higher than for other exit routes. This study used 8 years of administrative data (on 2,208 care entrants), collected by one large English local authority, to examine how many children were returned home and to explore factors associated with stable reunification (not re‐entering care for at least 2 years). One‐third of children (36%) had been reunified, with adolescent entrants being the most likely age group to return home. Three quarters (75%) of reunified children had a stable reunification. In a fully adjusted regression model, age at entry, being on a care order prior to return home, staying longer in care, being of minority ethnicity, and having fewer placements in care were all significant in predicting chances of stable reunification. The results underline the importance of properly resourcing reunification services. The methods demonstrate the value to local authorities of analysing their own data longitudinally to understand the care pathways for children they look after

Comparison between REBT and Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation in the Treatment of Panic Disorder: An Empirical Study

The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of two brief treatment methods for panic disorder: Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation (VKD), neither of which have been the object of scientific enquiry. The study is a two-way between-groups pre-test/post-test experimental design with baseline and follow-up measures. An innovative four-session treatment protocol was developed for each treatment method. Eighteen participants in North-East Surrey, England, who responded to media advertisements for cognitive-behavioural treatment for panic disorder and who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia were randomly assigned to either REBT or VKD. Pre-test/post-test changes in panic were measured using the ACQ, PASQ, and HADS scales and a global panic rating measure. At post-test there was a statistically significant improvement on all measures for both groups, which was maintained at one-month follow-up. Taking into consideration limitations such as the small sample size and a short follow-up period, implications of this study and recommendations for future research are discussed

Bounding λ2 for Kähler–Einstein metrics with large symmetry groups

We calculate an upper bound for the second non-zero eigenvalue of the scalar Laplacian, λ2, for toric-Kähler–Einstein metrics in terms of the polytope data. We also give a similar upper bound for Koiso–Sakane type Kähler–Einstein metrics. We provide some detailed examples in complex dimensions 1, 2 and 3