Beneficial Aerodynamic Effect of Wing Scales on the Climbing Flight of Butterflies

It is hypothesized that butterfly wing scale geometry and surface patterning may function to improve aerodynamic efficiency. In order to investigate this hypothesis, a method to measure butterfly flapping kinematics optically over long uninhibited flapping sequences was developed. Statistical results for the climbing flight flapping kinematics of 11 butterflies, based on a total of 236 individual flights, both with and without their wing scales, are presented. Results show, that for each of the 11 butterflies, the mean climbing efficiency decreased after scales were removed. Data was reduced to a single set of differences of climbing efficiency using are paired t-test. Results show a mean decrease in climbing efficiency of 32.2% occurred with a 95% confidence interval of 45.6%–18.8%. Similar analysis showed that the flapping amplitude decreased by 7% while the flapping frequency did not show a significant difference. Results provide strong evidence that butterfly wing scale geometry and surface patterning improve butterfly climbing efficiency. The authors hypothesize that the wing scale\u27s effect in measured climbing efficiency may be due to an improved aerodynamic efficiency of the butterfly and could similarly be used on flapping wing micro air vehicles to potentially achieve similar gains in efficiency

Exploring First Responders\u27 Use and Perceptions on Continuous Health and Environmental Monitoring

First responders lose their lives in the line of duty each year, and many of these deaths result from strenuous physical exertion and exposure to harmful environmental agents. Continuous health monitoring may detect diseases and alert the first responder when vital signs are reaching critical levels. However, continuous monitoring must be acceptable to first responders. The purpose of this study was to discover first responders\u27 current use of wearable technology, their perceptions of what health and environmental indicators should be monitored, and who should be permitted to monitor them. The survey was sent to 645 first responders employed by 24 local fire department stations. A total of 115 (17.8%) first responders answered the survey and 112 were used for analysis. Results found first responders perceived a need for health and environmental monitoring. The health and environmental indicators that respondents perceived as most important for monitoring in the field were heart rate (98.2%) and carbon monoxide (100%), respectively. Overall, using and wearing monitoring devices was not age-dependent and health and environmental concerns were important for first responders at any stage of their career. However, current wearable technology does not seem to be a viable solution for first responders due to device expense and durability issues

Indiana Center for Brain Rehabilitation, Advanced Imaging, and Neuroscience (ICBRAIN): An IUPUI Signature Center Initiative

poster abstractThe Mission of the Indiana Center for Brain Rehabilitation, Advanced Imaging, and Neuroscience (ICBRAIN) is: to develop and disseminate techniques and methodologies for advanced neuroimaging and precision behavioral measurement to evaluate novel rehabilitation interventions for people with acquired brain injury. Traumatic and other types of acquired brain injury (ABI) affect millions of U.S. citizens each year, many of whom experience persistent disabilities. For example, among the estimated 1.4 million civilians who sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year, 50,000 die and a minimum of 80,000 sustain injuries of sufficient severity to require extended rehabilitation. The current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have increased awareness and mobilized interest in medical treatment and rehabilitation for returning soldiers with TBI (designated as the “signature injury” of these conflicts). A 2008 study by the RAND corporation based on a random sample of 1,965 veterans estimated that, among 1.64 million returning veterans, approximately 320,000 experienced a probable TBI (19%). Over the past decade there has been a notable rise in research activities to address serious gaps in the knowledge base of ABI, including neuroimaging, outcome measurement, and intervention studies to change function. However, brain injury researchers have not yet established solid links between these research agendas. Such links are crucial for moving the evidence base forward to improve treatment outcomes. ICBRAIN will fill this gap in neuroscience by bringing together an interdisciplinary team of clinical researchers to (1) advance basic science and clinical knowledge to the next level of integration, (2) translate the knowledge gained directly into clinical care for improved patient outcomes, and (3) use the newly integrated knowledge to drive the leading edge of future research. ICBRAIN represents a unique collaboration among established clinical rehabilitation and measurement researchers in PM&R and at RHI and established researchers at the IU Center for Neuroimaging

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 16, No. 3

• Reminiscences of a Boyhood in Reading, 1883-1890 • Preserving York\u27s Architectural Heritage • Jordan Museum of the Twenty • Pennsylvania Broadsides: II • Memoirs of a Lutheran Minister, 1850-1881 • Notes and Documents: Nicknames from a Mennonite Family • The Crafts at Newport • Anglicizing the Pennsylvania Dutch, 1966 and 1875 • Nicknames: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire #3https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1027/thumbnail.jp

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 16, No. 1

• Indian Readers and Healers by Prayer • Bayard Taylor\u27s Portrait of Pennsylvania Quakerism • Gypsy Stories from the Swatara Valley • Stump-Pulling • Occult Tales from Union County • Beekeeping and Bee Lore in Pennsylvania • New Materials on the 18th Century Emigration from the Speyer State Archives • The Snake-Bitten Dutchman • Notes and Documents: A Letter to Germany (1806) ; Midwestern Diary of Joel Vale Garretson (1863-1864) • Questionnaire on Hominyhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1025/thumbnail.jp

In vivo Observation of Tree Drought Response with Low-Field NMR and Neutron Imaging

Using a simple low-field NMR system, we monitored water content in a livingtree in a greenhouse over two months. By continuously running thesystem, we observed changes in tree water content on a scale of halfan hour. The data showed a diurnal change in water content consistentboth with previous NMR and biological observations. Neutron imaging experiments showthat our NMR signal is primarily due to water being rapidly transported through the plant, and not to other sources of hydrogen, such as water in cytoplasm, or water in cell walls. After accountingfor the role of temperature in the observed NMR signal, we demonstratea change in the diurnal signal behavior due to simulated drought conditionsfor the tree. These results illustrate the utility of our system toperform noninvasive measurements of tree water content outside of a temperature controlled environment

CG dinucleotide clustering is a species-specific property of the genome

Cytosines at cytosine-guanine (CG) dinucleotides are the near-exclusive target of DNA methyltransferases in mammalian genomes. Spontaneous deamination of methylcytosine to thymine makes methylated cytosines unusually susceptible to mutation and consequent depletion. The loci where CG dinucleotides remain relatively enriched, presumably due to their unmethylated status during the germ cell cycle, have been referred to as CpG islands. Currently, CpG islands are solely defined by base compositional criteria, allowing annotation of any sequenced genome. Using a novel bioinformatic approach, we show that CG clusters can be identified as an inherent property of genomic sequence without imposing a base compositional a priori assumption. We also show that the CG clusters co-localize in the human genome with hypomethylated loci and annotated transcription start sites to a greater extent than annotations produced by prior CpG island definitions. Moreover, this new approach allows CG clusters to be identified in a species-specific manner, revealing a degree of orthologous conservation that is not revealed by current base compositional approaches. Finally, our approach is able to identify methylating genomes (such as Takifugu rubripes) that lack CG clustering entirely, in which it is inappropriate to annotate CpG islands or CG clusters

High-resolution genome-wide cytosine methylation profiling with simultaneous copy number analysis and optimization for limited cell numbers

Many genome-wide assays involve the generation of a subset (or representation) of the genome following restriction enzyme digestion. The use of enzymes sensitive to cytosine methylation allows high-throughput analysis of this epigenetic regulatory process. We show that the use of a dual-adapter approach allows us to generate genomic representations that includes fragments of <200 bp in size, previously not possible when using the standard approach of using a single adapter. By expanding the representation to smaller fragments using HpaII or MspI, we increase the representation by these isoschizomers to more than 1.32 million loci in the human genome, representing 98.5% of CpG islands and 91.1% of refSeq promoters. This advance allows the development of a new, high-resolution version of our HpaII-tiny fragment Enrichment by Ligation-mediated PCR (HELP) assay to study cytosine methylation. We also show that the MspI representation generates information about copy-number variation, that the assay can be used on as little as 10 ng of DNA and that massively parallel sequencing can be used as an alternative to microarrays to read the output of the assay, making this a powerful discovery platform for studies of genomic and epigenomic abnormalities