5,228 research outputs found
Radial Icicle Tree (RIT): Node Separation and Area Constancy
Icicles and sunbursts are two commonly-used visual representations of trees.
While icicle trees can map data values faithfully to rectangles of different
sizes, often some rectangles are too narrow to be noticed easily. When an
icicle tree is transformed into a sunburst tree, the width of each rectangle
becomes the length of an annular sector that is usually longer than the
original width. While sunburst trees alleviate the problem of narrow rectangles
in icicle trees, it no longer maintains the consistency of size encoding. At
different tree depths, nodes of the same data values are displayed in annular
sections of different sizes in a sunburst tree, though they are represented by
rectangles of the same size in an icicle tree. Furthermore, two nodes from
different subtrees could sometimes appear as a single node in both icicle trees
and sunburst trees. In this paper, we propose a new visual representation,
referred to as \emph{radial icicle tree} (RIT), which transforms the
rectangular bounding box of an icicle tree into a circle, circular sector, or
annular sector while introducing gaps between nodes and maintaining area
constancy for nodes of the same size. We applied the new visual design to
several datasets. Both the analytical design process and user-centered
evaluation have confirmed that this new design has improved the design of
icicles and sunburst trees without introducing any relative demerit
Overcoming technophobia in poorly-educated elderly – the HELPS-seniors service learning program
Aging populations, increased incidence of chronic disease, technological advances, health-care consumerism, and rapidly escalating health care costs are driving health care into the home. Advances in the miniaturization and portability of diagnostic technologies, information technologies, remote monitoring, and long-distance care have increased the viability of home-based care. The ability of older adults to use e-health tools is a critical issue, because such tools could effectively enhance medical care for this population. However, fear of technology is more prevalent among older generations who did not grow up with computers, complicated acronyms or digital games. This paper introduces the Health Education Learning Program with Science for seniors (HELPS-seniors) program, which encourages subjects to use new self-management tools for technophobic elderly people. We then explain how to integrate HELPS-senior into a health professional service learning program, and how to train students to become empathetic and smart health promoters. The present findings support the development of service-learning projects within medical education to overcome the technophobia among the elderly
Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid induces apoptosis and sub-G1 arrest of 320 HSR colon cancer cells
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Histone deacetylases and histone acetyl transferases covalently modify histone proteins, consequentially altering chromatin architecture and gene expression.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The effects of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, a HDAC inhibitor, on 320 HSR colon cells were assessed in 320 HSR colon cancer cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Concentration and time-dependent inhibition of 320 HSR cell proliferation was observed. Treatment of 320 HSR cells with 5 μM SAHA for 72 h significantly inhibited their growth by 50% as compared to that of the control. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis demonstrated significant inhibition of cell cycle progression (sub-G1 arrest) and induction of apoptosis upon various SAHA concentrations after 48 h. In addition, the anti-apoptosis proteins, survivin and Bcl-xL, were significantly inhibited by SAHA after 72 h of treatment. Immunocytochemistry analysis revealed that SAHA-resistant cells were positive for cyclin A (85%), ki-67 (100%), p53 (100%), survivin (100%), and p21 (90%) expression. Furthermore, a significant increase cyclin A-, Ki-67-, p53-, survivin-, and p21-positive cells were noted in SAHA-resistant tumor cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results demonstrated for the first time in 320 HSR colon adenocarcinoma cells that SAHA might be considered as an adjuvant therapy for colon adenocarcinoma.</p
Arctic warming-induced cold damage to East Asian terrestrial ecosystems
The global mean temperature is increasing due to the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but paradoxically, many regions in the mid-latitudes have experienced cold winters recently. Here we analyse multiple observed and modelled datasets to evaluate links between Arctic temperature variation and cold damage in the East Asian terrestrial ecosystem. We find that winter warming over the Barents-Kara Sea has led to simultaneous negative temperature anomalies over most areas in East Asia and negative leaf area index anomalies in southern China where mostly subtropical evergreen forests are growing. In addition to these simultaneous impacts, spring vegetation activity and gross primary productivity were also reduced over evergreen and deciduous trees, and spring phenological dates are delayed. Earth System model simulations reveal that cold damage becomes stronger under greenhouse warming; therefore Arctic warming-induced cold stress should be considered in forest and carbon management strategies
Effects of photowashing treatment on electrical properties of an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistor
The changes in atomic composition and surface states at the surface of AlGaN caused by photowashing treatment were studied by synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SRPES). The effect of surface treatment on the electrical properties of AlGaN/GaN HFETs was examined by both current-voltage (I-V) and transconductance dispersion measurements. From these, the origin of changes in electrical properties caused by the photowashing treatment was proposed.open0
Dirac gaugino as leptophilic dark matter
We investigate the leptophilic properties of Dirac gauginos in an
R--symmetric N=2 supersymmetric model with extended gauge and Higgs sectors.
The annihilation of Dirac gauginos to leptons requires no chirality flip in the
final states so that it is not suppressed as in the Majorana case. This implies
that it can be sizable enough to explain the positron excess observed by the
PAMELA experiment with moderate or no boost factors. When squark masses are
heavy, the annihilation of Dirac gauginos to hadrons is controlled by their
Higgsino fraction and is driven by the and final states.
Moreover, at variance with the Majorana case, Dirac gauginos with a
non-vanishing higgsino fraction can also have a vector coupling with the
gauge boson leading to a sizable spin--independent scattering cross section off
nuclei. Saturating the current antiproton limit, we show that Dirac gauginos
can leave a signal in direct detection experiments at the level of the
sensitivity of dark matter searches at present and in the near future.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, typos corrected, final version published on
JCA
The color gradients of spiral disks in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We investigate the radial color gradients of galactic disks using a sample of
about 20,000 face-on spiral galaxies selected from the fourth data release of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR4). We combine galaxies with similar
concentration, size and luminosity to construct composite galaxies, and then
measure their color profiles by stacking the azimuthally averaged radial color
profiles of all the member galaxies. Except for the smallest galaxies (R_{50}<3
kpc), almost all galaxies show negative disk color gradients with mean g-r
gradient G_{gr}=-0.006 mag kpc^{-1} and r-z gradient G_{rz}=-0.018 mag
kpc^{-1}. The disk color gradients are independent of the morphological types
of galaxies and strongly dependent on the disk surface brightness \mu_{d}, with
lower surface brightness galactic disks having steeper color gradients. We
quantify the intrinsic correlation between color gradients and surface
brightness as G_{gr}=-0.011\mu_{d}+0.233 and G_{rz}=-0.015\mu_{d}+0.324. These
quantified correlations provide tight observational constraints on the
formation and evolution models of spiral galaxies.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in RAA (Research in
Astronomy and Astrophysics
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