Creating Entertaining Animations for Safety Education

There has been previous research on how to make animation entertaining and engaging for a variety of industries, not just for the entertainment industry. There has also been an extensive use of imagination in books, film, and animations that are meant to bring excitement to stories. In order to make the animations entertaining for industries other than entertainment, I am presenting a methodology to use traditional storytelling techniques for safety education, where technical information and/or directions need to be expressed in a creative way. My goal is to provide a foundation of knowledge that could help artists create interesting and engaging visual stories based on any script, which can lead to the creation of entertaining animations for safety education. My research work is based on a project given by the Texas Department of Transportation that included creating seven individual 2D safety education animations. The animations were about mice siblings, Harley and Hobbit, who learn new safety lessons and procedures. As I worked on the storyboards for the animations, I thought about several methods to make the safety animations more entertaining, such as establishing a relationship between characters, incorporating dynamic compositions, establishing familiar settings, and incorporating imagination sequences. Overall, by combining traditional concepts used in entertainment animations and implementing new methods for creating engaging stories, I hope to make the educational animations informative and fun to watch

Creating Entertaining Animations for Safety Education

There has been previous research on how to make animation entertaining and engaging for a variety of industries, not just for the entertainment industry. There has also been an extensive use of imagination in books, film, and animations that are meant to bring excitement to stories. In order to make the animations entertaining for industries other than entertainment, I am presenting a methodology to use traditional storytelling techniques for safety education, where technical information and/or directions need to be expressed in a creative way. My goal is to provide a foundation of knowledge that could help artists create interesting and engaging visual stories based on any script, which can lead to the creation of entertaining animations for safety education. My research work is based on a project given by the Texas Department of Transportation that included creating seven individual 2D safety education animations. The animations were about mice siblings, Harley and Hobbit, who learn new safety lessons and procedures. As I worked on the storyboards for the animations, I thought about several methods to make the safety animations more entertaining, such as establishing a relationship between characters, incorporating dynamic compositions, establishing familiar settings, and incorporating imagination sequences. Overall, by combining traditional concepts used in entertainment animations and implementing new methods for creating engaging stories, I hope to make the educational animations informative and fun to watch

Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Latency Locus Compensates for Interleukin-6 in Initial B Cell Activation

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is considered a proliferation and survival factor for B cells. To assess the role of IL-6 in Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) latency, KSHV latency locus-transgenic mice (referred to as latency mice) lacking IL-6 were evaluated. IL-6 −/− latency mice had the same phenotypes as the latency mice, i.e., increased frequency of marginal zone B cells, hyperplasia, and hyperglobulinemia, indicating that the KSHV latency locus, which includes all viral microRNAs (miRNAs), can compensate for lack of IL-6 in premalignant B cell activation

Studying Functions of All Yeast Genes Simultaneously

A method of studying the functions of all the genes of a given species of microorganism simultaneously has been developed in experiments on Saccharomyces cerevisiae (commonly known as baker's or brewer's yeast). It is already known that many yeast genes perform functions similar to those of corresponding human genes; therefore, by facilitating understanding of yeast genes, the method may ultimately also contribute to the knowledge needed to treat some diseases in humans. Because of the complexity of the method and the highly specialized nature of the underlying knowledge, it is possible to give only a brief and sketchy summary here. The method involves the use of unique synthetic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences that are denoted as DNA bar codes because of their utility as molecular labels. The method also involves the disruption of gene functions through deletion of genes. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a particularly powerful experimental system in that multiple deletion strains easily can be pooled for parallel growth assays. Individual deletion strains recently have been created for 5,918 open reading frames, representing nearly all of the estimated 6,000 genetic loci of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Tagging of each deletion strain with one or two unique 20-nucleotide sequences enables identification of genes affected by specific growth conditions, without prior knowledge of gene functions. Hybridization of bar-code DNA to oligonucleotide arrays can be used to measure the growth rate of each strain over several cell-division generations. The growth rate thus measured serves as an index of the fitness of the strain

Reengineering Aircraft Structural Life Prediction Using a Digital Twin

Reengineering of the aircraft structural life prediction process to fully exploit advances in very high performance digital computing is proposed. The proposed process utilizes an ultrahigh fidelity model of individual aircraft by tail number, a Digital Twin, to integrate computation of structural deflections and temperatures in response to flight conditions, with resulting local damage and material state evolution. A conceptual model of how the Digital Twin can be used for predicting the life of aircraft structure and assuring its structural integrity is presented. The technical challenges to developing and deploying a Digital Twin are discussed in detail

Burden of respiratory viral infection in persons with human immunodeficiency virus

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of respiratory viral infections (RVI) in persons living with HIV (PLH) admitted with a respiratory complaint using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and primer-independent next-generation sequencing (NGS). Of 82 subjects, respiratory viruses were the most common pathogen identified in 27 (33%), followed by fungus and bacteria in 8 (10%) and 4 (5%) subjects, respectively. Among subjects with RVI, 11 (41%) required ICU admission and 16 (59%) required mechanical ventilation. The proportion of respiratory viruses identified, and the associated complicated hospital course highlights the significant role that RVIs play in the lung health of PLH

A phase 1b/pharmacokinetic trial of PTC299, a novel post-transcriptional VEGF inhibitor, for AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma: AIDS Malignancy Consortium trial 059

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS). We administered PTC299, a post-transcriptional inhibitor of pathogenic VEGF, to persons with HIV-related KS. Seventeen participants received three different doses of PTC299. Adverse events typically observed with VEGF-inhibition were absent. Three participants had partial tumor responses and 11 had stable disease. There were no differences in exposure to PTC299 by antiretroviral regimen. Serum VEGF, but not KSHV DNA, decreased on treatment. Given redundancies in the VEGF feedback loop, future trials should consider combining PTC299 with agents that inhibit different pathways implicated in KS and KSHV proliferation

mTOR Inhibitors Block Kaposi Sarcoma Growth by Inhibiting Essential Autocrine Growth Factors and Tumor Angiogenesis

Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS) originates from endothelial cells and it is one of the most overt angiogenic tumors. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV and the Kaposi Sarcoma-associated Herpes Virus (KSHV) are endemic, KS is the most common cancer overall, but model systems for disease study are insufficient. Here we report the development of a novel mouse model of KS where KSHV is retained stably and tumors are elicited rapidly. Tumor growth was sensitive to specific allosteric inhibitors (rapamycin, CCI-779, RAD001) of the pivotal cell growth regulator mTOR. Inhibition of tumor growth was durable up to 130 days and reversible. mTOR blockade reduced VEGF secretion and formation of tumor vasculature. Together, the results demonstrated that mTOR inhibitors exert a direct anti-KS effect by inhibiting angiogenesis and paracrine effectors, suggesting their application as a new treatment modality for KS and other cancers of endothelial origin

Prevalence and architecture of de novo mutations in developmental disorders.

The genomes of individuals with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders are enriched in damaging de novo mutations (DNMs) in developmentally important genes. Here we have sequenced the exomes of 4,293 families containing individuals with developmental disorders, and meta-analysed these data with data from another 3,287 individuals with similar disorders. We show that the most important factors influencing the diagnostic yield of DNMs are the sex of the affected individual, the relatedness of their parents, whether close relatives are affected and the parental ages. We identified 94 genes enriched in damaging DNMs, including 14 that previously lacked compelling evidence of involvement in developmental disorders. We have also characterized the phenotypic diversity among these disorders. We estimate that 42% of our cohort carry pathogenic DNMs in coding sequences; approximately half of these DNMs disrupt gene function and the remainder result in altered protein function. We estimate that developmental disorders caused by DNMs have an average prevalence of 1 in 213 to 1 in 448 births, depending on parental age. Given current global demographics, this equates to almost 400,000 children born per year

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk