Gene Expression in Experimental Aortic Coarctation and Repair: Candidate Genes for Therapeutic Intervention?

Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a constriction of the proximal descending thoracic aorta and is one of the most common congenital cardiovascular defects. Treatments for CoA improve life expectancy, but morbidity persists, particularly due to the development of chronic hypertension (HTN). Identifying the mechanisms of morbidity is difficult in humans due to confounding variables such as age at repair, follow-up duration, coarctation severity and concurrent anomalies. We previously developed an experimental model that replicates aortic pathology in humans with CoA without these confounding variables, and mimics correction at various times using dissolvable suture. Here we present the most comprehensive description of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) to date from the pathology of CoA, which were obtained using this model. Aortic samples (n=4/group) from the ascending aorta that experiences elevated blood pressure (BP) from induction of CoA, and restoration of normal BP after its correction, were analyzed by gene expression microarray, and enriched genes were converted to human orthologues. 51 DEGs with \u3e6 fold-change (FC) were used to determine enriched Gene Ontology terms, altered pathways, and association with National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headers (MeSH) IDs for HTN, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CoA. The results generated 18 pathways, 4 of which (cell cycle, immune system, hemostasis and metabolism) were shared with MeSH ID’s for HTN and CVD, and individual genes were associated with the CoA MeSH ID. A thorough literature search further uncovered association with contractile, cytoskeletal and regulatory proteins related to excitation-contraction coupling and metabolism that may explain the structural and functional changes observed in our experimental model, and ultimately help to unravel the mechanisms responsible for persistent morbidity after treatment for CoA

The Effects of Culture in Anonymous Negotiations: A Four Countries Experiment

Experimental research on cross-cultural negotiations typically involves subjects negotiating in a classroom or laboratory setting. Such negotiations are brief, with a strictly imposed deadline and face-to-face. Further, the negotiations typically involve dyads from the same country. The comparisons are done on the basis of experiments replicated in several countries. Internet technologies allow for communication across the cultural frontiers. While the communication is not as rich as in the case of face-to-face discussions, it allows subjects to negotiate in an asynchronous mode and at their own pace. It is also possible to conduct anonymous negotiations for several weeks. This paper explores the implications of culture on anonymous negotiations conducted via the Web with use of INSPIRE, a Web-based negotiation support system. The negotiations involved 166 subjects from Austria, Ecuador, Finland, and Switzerland. A model to study cross-cultural negotiations is proposed and assessed based on the statistical analysis of negotiations

Symbolic computations in applied differential geometry

The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the automatic calculations in differential geometry and its applications, with emphasis on the prolongation theory of Estabrook and Wahlquist, and the calculation of invariance groups of exterior differential systems. A large number of worked examples have been included in the text to demonstrate the concrete manipulations in practice. In the appendix, a list of programs discussed in the paper is added

Tutorial on Lisp Object- Oriented Programming for Blackboard Computation (Solving the Radar Tracking Problem)

This exposition is a tutorial on how object-oriented programming in Lisp can be used for programming a blackboard. Since we have used Franz Lisp and since object oriented programming in Franz is carried out via flavors, the exposition demonstrates how flavors can be used for this purpose. The reader should note that the different approaches to object-oriented programming share considerable similarity and, therefore, the exposition should be helpful to even those who may not wish to use flavors. We have used the radar tracking problem as a ‘medium’ for explaining the concepts underlying blackboard programming. The blackboard database is constructed solely of flavors which act as data structures as well as method-bearing objects. Flavor instances form the nodes and the levels of the blackboard. The methods associated with these flavors constitute a distributed monitor and support the knowledge sources in modifying the blackboard data. A rule-based planner is used to construct knowledge source activation records from the goals residing in the blackboard. These activation records are enqueued in a cyclic queueing system. A scheduler cycles through the queues and selects knowledge sources to fir

A TUTORIAL ON LISP OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING FOR BLACKBOARD COMPUTATION (SOLVING THE RADAR TRACKING PROBLEM)

This exposition is a tutorial on how object-oriented programming (OOP) in Lisp can be used for programming a blackboard. Since we have used Common Lisp and the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS), the exposition demonstrates how object classes and the primary, before, and after methods associated with the classes can be used for this purpose. The reader should note that the different approaches to object-oriented programming share considerable similarity and, therefore, the exposition should be helpful to even those who may not wish to use CLOS. We have used the radar tracking problem as a \u27medium\u27 for explaining the concepts underlying blackboard programming. The blackboard database is constructed solely of classes which act as data structures as well as method-bearing objects. Class instances fonn the nodes and the levels of the blackboard. The methods associated with these classes constitute a distributed monitor and support the knowledge sources in modifying the blackboard data. A rule-based planner is used to construct knowledge source activation records from the goals residing in the blackboard. These activation records are enqueued in a cyclic queueing system. A scheduler cycles through the queues and selects knowledge sources to fire