Lived experience of diabetes among older, rural people

This paper is a report of a study conducted to elucidate experiences and perceptions of self-management of diabetes as narrated by older people diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes living in a rural area

Quantum computation and the physical computation level of biological information processing

On the basis of introspective analysis, we establish a crucial requirement for the physical computation basis of consciousness: it should allow processing a significant amount of information together at the same time. Classical computation does not satisfy the requirement. At the fundamental physical level, it is a network of two body interactions, each the input-output transformation of a universal Boolean gate. Thus, it cannot process together at the same time more than the three bit input of this gate - many such gates in parallel do not count since the information is not processed together. Quantum computation satisfies the requirement. At the light of our recent explanation of the speed up, quantum measurement of the solution of the problem is analogous to a many body interaction between the parts of a perfect classical machine, whose mechanical constraints represent the problem to be solved. The many body interaction satisfies all the constraints together at the same time, producing the solution in one shot. This shades light on the physical computation level of the theories that place consciousness in quantum measurement and explains how informations coming from disparate sensorial channels come together in the unity of subjective experience. The fact that the fundamental mechanism of consciousness is the same of the quantum speed up, gives quantum consciousness a potentially enormous evolutionary advantage.Comment: 13 page

Influence of oceanography on bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) foraging in the Chukchi Sea as inferred from animal-borne instrumentation

17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2021.104434The distribution of the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Sea population of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) is largely centered in the Chukchi Sea in autumn (September–November), which is also when sea ice is at minimum extent allowing for increased ship traffic and industrial activity. Prior work paired autumn movements of bowhead whales in the Chukchi Sea with simulated hydrographic information and concluded whales followed relatively cold, saline waters of Pacific origin during migration (<0 ◦C, 31.5–34.25 psu). We attached six Satellite Relay Data Logger (SRDLs) that included miniaturized Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) sensors capable of collecting temperature (T) and salinity (S) profiles as whales dove, allowing us to verify and expand upon prior habitat studies. Areas where transiting whales stopped and lingered (presumably to feed) were associated with colder surface temperatures and lingering behavior peaked where seafloor salinity was ~33 psu. Whales were also more likely to linger in areas where density gradients were lower at the seafloor. Whales targeted colder, more saline waters of Pacific origin, in agreement with our prior work. Surface and dive behavior of whales tagged in this and other studies suggests that most feeding in the central Chukchi Sea is occurring at depths below the surface, and that surface temperature is indicative of (a proxy for) other processes occurring at depth. We suggest that colder surface temperatures are indicative of the main pathway(s) by which zooplankton are advected through the Chukchi Sea. However, because similar movement patterns in other stocks of bowhead whales have been interpreted as the avoidance of thermal stress, we suggest more research is needed on thermoregulation before this question can be resolved.Global Model Analysis programDepartment of Energy RegionalOffice of Naval Research Arctic and Global Prediction programNational Science Foundation Arctic System Science progra

GPCR-OKB: the G protein coupled receptor oligomer knowledge base

Rapid expansion of available data about G Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) dimers/oligomers over the past few years requires an effective system to organize this information electronically. Based on an ontology derived from a community dialog involving colleagues using experimental and computational methodologies, we developed the GPCR-Oligomerization Knowledge Base (GPCR-OKB). GPCR-OKB is a system that supports browsing and searching for GPCR oligomer data. Such data were manually derived from the literature. While focused on GPCR oligomers, GPCR-OKB is seamlessly connected to GPCRDB, facilitating the correlation of information about GPCR protomers and oligomers

Analysis of Gene Sets Based on the Underlying Regulatory Network

Networks are often used to represent the interactions among genes and proteins. These interactions are known to play an important role in vital cell functions and should be included in the analysis of genes that are differentially expressed. Methods of gene set analysis take advantage of external biological information and analyze a priori defined sets of genes. These methods can potentially preserve the correlation among genes; however, they do not directly incorporate the information about the gene network. In this paper, we propose a latent variable model that directly incorporates the network information. We then use the theory of mixed linear models to present a general inference framework for the problem of testing the significance of subnetworks. Several possible test procedures are introduced and a network based method for testing the changes in expression levels of genes as well as the structure of the network is presented. The performance of the proposed method is compared with methods of gene set analysis using both simulation studies, as well as real data on genes related to the galactose utilization pathway in yeast.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78147/1/cmb.2008.0081.pd

GC–MS analysis of bioactive compounds present in different extracts of rhizome of Curcuma aeruginosa Roxb.

To analyze and characterize the chemical composition of the different crude extracts from the rhizome of Curcuma aeruginosa Roxb a medicinal plant.The air-dried rhizomes were powdered and subjected to Soxhlet extraction using solvent n-hexane and Supercritical fluid extraction. Then, each of the extracts was further subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Qualitative determination of the different biologically active compounds from crude extracts of C aeruginosa Roxb using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry revealed different types of high and low molecular weight chemical entities with varying quantities present in each of the extracts. These chemical compounds are considered biologically and pharmacologically important. Furthermore, the two different extracts SCF and n-hexane possess unique physicochemical characteristics. The two extracts possess major bioactive compounds that were identified and characterized spectroscopically. Thus, identification of different biologically active compounds in the extracts of C aeruginosa Roxb warrants further biological and pharmacological studies. Keywords: Supercritical Fluid, Soxhlet extraction, GC-M

Dual capacitive-inductive nature of graphene metasurface: Transmission characteristics at low-terahertz frequencies

We report on the dual nature (capacitive and inductive) of the surface impedance of periodic graphene patches at low-terahertz frequencies. The transmission spectra of a graphene-dielectric stack shows that patterned graphene exhibits both the low-frequency (capacitive) passband of metal patch arrays and the higher-frequency (inductive) passband of metal aperture arrays in a single tunable configuration. The analysis is carried out using a transfer matrix approach with two-sided impedance boundary conditions, and the results are verified using full-wave numerical simulations

Low-terahertz transmissivity with a graphene-dielectric micro-structure

In this paper, we report on the analysis of transmissivity of electromagnetic waves through a stack of dielectric slabs loaded with atomically thin graphene sheets at low-terahertz frequencies. It is observed that the structure supports a series of bandpass regions separated by bandgap regions, similar to the case of stacked metallic meshes separated by dielectric slabs at microwave/THz frequencies or metal-dielectric stack at optical frequencies. The transmission resonances in the bandpass region are identified as coupled Fabry-Pérot resonances associated with the individual dielectric slabs loaded with graphene sheets. The study is carried out using a simple circuit theory model, with the results verified against the numerical simulations

Generalized additional boundary conditions and analytical model for multilayered mushroom-type wideband absorbers

We present an analytical model to study the reflection properties of a multilayered wire media loaded with 2-D arrays of thin imperfect conductors. Based on charge conservation, generalized additional boundary conditions (ABCs) for the interface of two uniaxial wire mediums loaded with thin arbitrary imperfect conductors at the junction are derived. It is observed that by proper selection of the structural parameters, the mushroom structure acts as a wideband absorber for an obliquely incident TM-polarized plane wave. The presented model along with the new ABCs are validated using the full-wave numerical simulations