U.S. East Coast Trough Indices at 500 hPa and New England Winter Climate Variability

Using monthly gridded 500-hPa data, two synoptic indices are defined to better understand the principle mechanisms controlling intraseasonal to multiannual winter climate variability in NewEngland (NE). The “trough axis index” (TAI) is created to quantify the mean longitudinal position of the common East Coast pressure trough, and the “trough intensity index” (TII) is calculated to estimate the relative amplitude of this trough at 42.5°N. The TAI and TII are then compared with records for NE regional winter precipitation, temperature, and snowfall with the goal of understanding physical mechanisms linking NE winter climate with regional sea surface temperatures (SST), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and the Pacific–North American (PNA) teleconnection pattern. The TAI correlates most significantly with winter precipitation at inland sites, such that a western (eastern)trough axis position is associated with greater (lower) average monthly precipitation. Also, significant correlations between the TAI and both NE regional SSTs and the NAO suggest that longitudinal shifting of the trough is one possible mechanism linking the North Atlantic with NE regional winterclimate variability. The NE winter temperature is significantly correlated with the TII, regional SSTs, and the NAO. While the PNA also correlates with the TII, NE winter climate variables are apparently unrelated to the PNA index

Multidimensional Data Visual Exploration by Interactive Information Segments

Visualization techniques provide an outstanding role in KDD process for data analysis and mining. However, one image does not always convey successfully the inherent information from high dimensionality, very large databases. In this paper we introduce VSIS (Visual Set of Information Segments), an interactive tool to visually explore multidimensional, very large, numerical data. Within the supervised learning, our proposal approaches the problem of classification by searching of meaningful intervals belonging to the most relevant attributes. These intervals are displayed as multi–colored bars in which the degree of impurity with respect to the class membership can be easily perceived. Such bars can be re–explored interactively with new values of user–defined parameters. A case study of applying VSIS to some UCI repository data sets shows the usefulness of our tool in supporting the exploration of multidimensional and very large data

The Identification of the More Important Prairie Hay Grasses of Nebraska by Their Vegetative Characters

It is convenient and sometimes necessary to identify the grasses in their vegetative stage of growth. This is especially desirable in a study of the vegetation of native hay meadows and permanent pastures. This key is prepared as a guide in the identification of the more important prairie hay grasses of Nebraska. The meadows are often harvested before the floral parts of many of the grasses appear. If it is desired, therefore, to study the botanical composition of the native meadows, it becomes necessary to rely on identification of many of the grasses by means of vegetative characters

Radio Polarization of the Young High-Magnetic-Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127

We have investigated the radio polarization properties of PSR J1119-6127, a recently discovered young radio pulsar with a large magnetic field. Using pulsar-gated radio imaging data taken at a center frequency of 2496 MHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we have determined a rotation measure for the pulsar of +842 +/- 23 rad m^-2. These data, combined with archival polarimetry data taken at a center frequency of 1366 MHz with the Parkes telescope, were used to determine the polarization characteristics of PSR J1119-6127 at both frequencies. The pulsar has a fractional linear polarization of ~75% and ~55% at 1366 and 2496 MHz, respectively, and the profile consists of a single, wide component. This pulse morphology and high degree of linear polarization are in agreement with previously noticed trends for young pulsars (e.g., PSR J1513-5908). A rotating-vector (RV) model fit of the position angle (PA) of linear polarization over pulse phase using the Parkes data suggests that the radio emission comes from the leading edge of a conal beam. We discuss PSR J1119-6127 in the context of a recent theoretical model of pulsar spin-down which can in principle be tested with polarization and timing data from this pulsar. Geometric constraints from the RV fit are currently insufficient to test this model with statistical significance, but additional data may allow such a test in the future.Comment: 9 pages, including 6 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in Ap

Impact of the European Clinical Trials Directive on prospective academic clinical trials associated with BMT

The European Clinical Trials Directive (EU 2001; 2001/20/EC) was introduced to improve the efficiency of commercial and academic clinical trials. Concerns have been raised by interested organizations and institutions regarding the potential for negative impact of the Directive on non-commercial European clinical research. Interested researchers within the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) were surveyed to determine whether researcher experiences confirmed this view. Following a pilot study, an internet-based questionnaire was distributed to individuals in key research positions in the European haemopoietic SCT community. Seventy-one usable questionnaires were returned from participants in different EU member states. The results indicate that the perceived impact of the European Clinical Trials Directive has been negative, at least in the research areas of interest to the EBMT

Anisotropic elasticity in confocal studies of colloidal crystals

We consider the theory of fluctuations of a colloidal solid observed in a confocal slice. For a cubic crystal we study the evolution of the projected elastic properties as a function of the anisotropy of the crystal using numerical methods based on the fast Fourier transform. In certain situations of high symmetry we find exact analytic results for the projected fluctuations.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Effects of Autonomy on Worker Performance

Having autonomy can produce positive effects on an individual’s well-being as well as overall job-satisfaction. Research has shown that background music influences listener attention and is associated with the listeners fondness of the music (Huang & Shih, 2011). This study investigates the effects that autonomy may also have on performance levels in the workplace. Specifically, the effects of listening to music of preference and the effects it has on attention, concentration, and enjoyment of task. In this study worker autonomy is operationally defined as preferred genre of music. Performance will be measured by participants score on a recall task that mimics a medical scenario where a healthcare worker would have to recall specific patient information. We hypothesize that participants autonomy preferred background music will have a positive effect on worker performance. If the predicted results are found, this research could be beneficial to companies that are considering implementing new policies to encourage autonomy and in turn produce greater success in the workplace

Tumor-reactive immune cells protect against metastatic tumor and induce immunoediting of indolent but not quiescent tumor cells

Two major barriers to cancer immunotherapy include tumor-induced immune suppression mediated by myeloid-derived suppressor cells and poor immunogenicity of the tumor-expressing self-antigens. To overcome these barriers, we reprogrammed tumor-immune cell cross-talk by combined use of decitabine and adoptive immunotherapy, containing tumor-sensitized T cells and CD25+ NKT cells. Decitabine functioned to induce the expression of highly immunogenic cancer testis antigens in the tumor, while also reducing the frequency of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and the presence of CD25+ NKT cells rendered T cells, resistant to remaining myeloid-derived suppressor cells. This combinatorial therapy significantly prolonged survival of animals bearing metastatic tumor cells. Adoptive immunotherapy also induced tumor immunoediting, resulting in tumor escape and associated disease-related mortality. To identify a tumor target that is incapable of escape from the immune response, we used dormant tumor cells. We used Adriamycin chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which simultaneously induce tumor cell death and tumor dormancy. Resultant dormant cells became refractory to additional doses of Adriamycin or radiation therapy, but they remained sensitive to tumor-reactive immune cells. Importantly, we discovered that dormant tumor cells contained indolent cells that expressed low levels of Ki67 and quiescent cells that were Ki67 negative. Whereas the former were prone to tumor immunoediting and escape, the latter did not demonstrate immunoediting. Our results suggest that immunotherapy could be highly effective against quiescent dormant tumor cells. The challenge is to develop combinatorial therapies that could establish a quiescent type of tumor dormancy, which would be the best target for immunotherapy

Visual Analytics for Network Security and Critical Infrastructures

A comprehensive analysis of cyber attacks is important for better understanding of their nature and their origin. Providing a sufficient insight into such a vast amount of diverse (and sometimes seemingly unrelated) data is a task that is suitable neither for humans nor for fully automated algorithms alone. Not only a combination of the two approaches but also a continuous reasoning process that is capable of generating a sufficient knowledge base is indispensable for a better understanding of the events. Our research is focused on designing new exploratory methods and interactive visualizations in the context of network security. The knowledge generation loop is important for its ability to help analysts to refine the nature of the processes that continuously occur and to offer them a better insight into the network security related events. In this paper, we formulate the research questions that relate to the proposed solution