Olympia: A Musical Composition for Wind Ensemble

Olympia is a one movement musical composition to be performed by a wind ensemble. Written for the composer’s honors capstone project, Olympia is an exploration into the world of composing for large musical ensembles. The main theme, heard in the trombone solo at measure 40, is the proverbial “voice in the wilderness” that heroically comes out of chaos and is heard throughout the piece in different forms. Starting in short score with piano and percussion, the piece was then orchestrated into the final version. Written in the fall of 2011 and the spring of 2012, Olympia was rehearsed and performed by the Western Kentucky University Wind Ensemble for a premiere on April 27th, 2012

(In)dependent Contractors: Combatting Employee Misclassification in Title 26

This comment addresses the use of 26 U.S.C. § 7434 as an alternative remedy for individuals who are misclassified by their employers as independent contractors for federal tax purposes. Historically, misclassified employees have used more well-known employment laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act to sue employers who engage in employee misclassification. 26 U.S.C. § 7434 provides an underutilized, alternative means for misclassified employees to recover damages for wrongful misclassification. Originally enacted in 1996 as part of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, 26 U.S.C. § 7434 is a tax fraud statute that allows a taxpayer to seek civil damages when another person files a fraudulent information return with respect to payments purported to be made to the taxpayer. However, there is disagreement among federal courts as to whether the statute allows employees who have been misclassified as independent contractors to recover damages from their employer. This comment discusses the practical implications and drawbacks of using the statute as a remedy for misclassified employees. Further, this comment argues that the discord among federal courts should be resolved in favor of employees by allowing individuals who are misclassified to recover under the statute

The Role of Streptococcus salivarius as a Modulator of Homeostasis in the Oral Cavity

The oral cavity contains many different surfaces all colonized by prokaryotes, of which over 700 have been identified. While almost all people have some degree of plaque formation, the more concerning diseases of caries, candidiasis and periodontal disease afflict many patients and represent a major public health concern. As these are all diseases which have a component attributable to parts of the microbiota, efforts to manipulate the microbes has until recently involved use of antimicrobial agents. However, due to side effects, resistance and failure to restore homeostasis, this approach is limited. As an alternative, the administration of beneficial microbes (probiotics) has been considered. In this thesis, probiotic Streptococcus salivarius K12 and M18 and their by-products were shown to interfere with adhesion and coaggregation of pathogenic bacteria and yeast, and lower inflammatory factors. A human trial of healthy subjects showed the probiotics to be safe and not induce inflammation or disrupt the indigenous microbiota

Technology development: A partnership that makes sense

Discussed here is an approach to how academic institutions, government entities, and industrial organizations can work effectively to utilize their relative strengths to more effectively meet common goals. The discussion relates to the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) Research Institute for Computing and Information Systems (RICIS) Program to bring about this type of triad in the Clear Lake area. It is concluded that the interfaces among these groups must remain independent to maintain a healthy counterbalance to their respective entities. However, each entity can and must understand the entire mechanism to exploit each interface to the fullest. Only through such cooperation can the continued technical success of the NASA/Clear Lake area be assured

Fast maximum likelihood estimation using continuous-time neural point process models

A recent report estimates that the number of simultaneously recorded neurons is growing exponentially. A commonly employed statistical paradigm using discrete-time point process models of neural activity involves the computation of a maximum-likelihood estimate. The time to computate this estimate, per neuron, is proportional to the number of bins in a finely spaced discretization of time. By using continuous-time models of neural activity and the optimally efficient Gaussian quadrature, memory requirements and computation times are dramatically decreased in the commonly encountered situation where the number of parameters p is much less than the number of time-bins n. In this regime, with q equal to the quadrature order, memory requirements are decreased from O(np) to O(qp), and the number of floating-point operations are decreased from O(np2) to O(qp2). Accuracy of the proposed estimates is assessed based upon physiological consideration, error bounds, and mathematical results describing the relation between numerical integration error and numerical error affecting both parameter estimates and the observed Fisher information. A check is provided which is used to adapt the order of numerical integration. The procedure is verified in simulation and for hippocampal recordings. It is found that in 95 % of hippocampal recordings a q of 60 yields numerical error negligible with respect to parameter estimate standard error. Statistical inference using the proposed methodology is a fast and convenient alternative to statistical inference performed using a discrete-time point process model of neural activity. It enables the employment of the statistical methodology available with discrete-time inference, but is faster, uses less memory, and avoids any error due to discretization.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF grant DMS-1042134

Addressing barriers for bamboo:: techniques for altering cultural perception

The potential benefits of bamboo as a rapidly-renewable, low-carbon, sustainable building material are well established, yet bamboo remains underutilized globally due to laborious manual evaluation and fabrication techniques and deeply-rooted aesthetic stigmas in western culture. 5cholarship in this area has the potential to radically redefine the usage of bamboo as a cheap and sustainable material, but in practice the widespread implementation of bamboo is limited by its cultural perception. This paper examines cultural perceptions of bamboo as a cheap and informal or kitsch vernacular material, using existing scholarship and projects to analyze existing methods and attempts in practice to either elevate or transform perceptions of bamboo through built work and engineered materials. The paper posits how new research by the authors aimed at transforming the use of solid bamboo species can radically shift the way in which bamboo is perceived, transitioning from an irregular kitsch vernacular material to a refined material system that mimics accepted conventions or invents new vernaculars

P53 and the formation of functional corticotropic adenomas

BACKGROUND: P53 is a tumor suppressor protein that acts to regulate the cell cycle and, therefore, regulate cell division processes and cell death processes. P53 mutations are classified as either contact mutations, where changes are found in the residues that contact with DNA, or structural mutations, where changes cause either a full or partial distortion of the conformation. Certain “hotspot” mutations have been identified, and these abolish the functionality of p53 as a tumor suppressor. P53’s function as a tumor suppressor is two-fold. It induces cellular apoptosis and affects the cell cycle. The DREAM complex (dimerization partner, RB-like, E2F and multi-vulval Class B complex) works by repression of gene expression or activation of gene expression. Indirectly, p53 activates this DREAM complex to repress cell cycle genes by replacing the activating complex. Human pituitary adenomas, the second most common intracranial tumors, usually form from different cell types in the anterior pituitary. If these adenomas secrete a pituitary hormone (GH, PRL, ACTH, or TSH), they are termed clinically functioning. If not, they are deemed clinically nonfunctioning. Pituitary tumors have a diverse genetic background, which include germline genetic defects, tumor genetic defects, and somatic genetic changes. Human pituitary carcinomas are much more rare than pituitary adenomas, and they are only usually diagnosed due to the pituitary tumor being noncontiguous with the sella turcica region and/or metastasis of the pituitary tumor. Because of the rarity of these, the genetics of these tumors is not well-documented, and the plan of treatment is diverse. In particular, corticotropic tumors are pituitary adenomas or pituitary carcinomas that are either clinically functioning, which secrete adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), or silent, which do not secrete ACTH. If the tumor is functioning, many patients have symptoms of Cushing’s disease (CD) due to the hypersecretion of ACTH, which triggers an increase in hormone production downstream hormone production. OBJECTIVE: This thesis seeks to describe a cohort of patients with functional corticotropic tumors and patients with silent (nonfunctioning) corticotropic tumors. In this cohort of patients, this thesis strives to find the gene mutations in this cohort to find a correlation between TP53 gene mutations that would affect the functionality of the p53 protein and the formation of corticotropic adenomas. METHODS: A total of 38 tumor samples from 36 patients between the ages of 20 and 79 were studied for somatic mutations. By way of whole-exome sequencing with normal DNA pairs, somatic mutations for each of the samples were determined. Along with somatic mutations, some samples were sequenced for germline mutations. RNA sequencing was completed to find somatic mutations and check the gene expression and gene transcription to compare to the somatic mutations found by way of whole-exome sequencing. Each of the somatic mutations found for TP53 were verified by ClinVar and COSMIC databases. RESULTS: From whole-exome sequencing, three samples out of the 38 samples were found to contain somatic mutations in the TP53 gene. In sample 29, two missense somatic mutations were found. First, in codon 743 (c.943G>A), this mutation produced the variant p53 protein, R248Q, a “hotspot” mutation. Second, in codon 523 (c.523C>T), this mutation produced the variant p53 protein, R175C. In sample 30, a missense mutation was found in codon 641 (c.641A>G), which produced the variant p53 protein, H214R. Last, in sample 36, a splice donor mutation was found in nucleotide 993 (c.993+1G>A), the variant located on intron 9 altered the consensus splice donor site. This resulted in an inclusion on intron 9 between exon 9 and exon 10, which produces a disrupted p53 protein. CONCLUSION: No patients with Cushing’s disease were found to have TP53 mutations, and 3 out of the 14 patients classified as silent corticotrophs had somatic mutations in the TP53 gene. Due to finding three patients that have a somatic mutation in the TP53 gene, and that, in each of these cases, the pituitary adenomas are all silent and aggressive, we can conclude that there is a correlation between TP53 gene mutations that produce an ineffective p53 protein and the formation of aggressive corticotropic adenomas

Optimised multi-camera systems for dimensional control in factory environments

As part of the United Kingdom’s Light Controlled Factory project, University College London aims to develop a large-scale multi-camera system for dimensional control tasks in manufacturing, such as part assembly and tracking. Accuracy requirements in manufacturing are demanding, and improvements in the modelling and analysis of both camera imaging and the measurement environment are essential. A major aspect to improved camera modelling is the use of monochromatic imaging of retro-reflective target points, together with a camera model designed for a particular illumination wavelength. A small-scale system for laboratory testing has been constructed using eight low-cost monochrome cameras with C-mount lenses on a rigid metal framework. Red, green and blue monochromatic light-emitting diode ring illumination has been tested, with a broadband white illumination for comparison. Potentially, accuracy may be further enhanced by the reduction in refraction errors caused by a non-homogeneous factory environment, typically manifest in varying temperatures in the workspace. A refraction modelling tool under development in the parallel European Union LUMINAR project is being used to simulate refraction in order to test methods which may be able to reduce or eliminate this effect in practice

Food from faeces:Evaluating the efficacy of scat DNA metabarcoding in dietary analyses

Scat DNA metabarcoding is increasingly being used to track the feeding ecology of elusive wildlife species. This approach has greatly increased the resolution and detection success of prey items contained in scats when compared with other classical methods. However, there have been few studies that have systematically tested the applicability and reliability of this approach to study the diet of large felids species in the wild. Here we assessed the effectiveness of this approach in the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus. We tested how scat degradation, meal size, prey species consumed and feeding day (the day a particular prey was consumed) influenced prey DNA detection success in captive cheetahs. We demonstrated that it is possible to obtain diet information from 60-day old scats using genetic approaches, but the efficiency decreased over time. Probability of species-identification was highest for food items consumed one day prior to scat collection and the probability of being able to identify the species consumed increased with the proportion of the prey consumed. Detection success varied among prey species but not by individual cheetah. Identification of prey species using DNA detection methods from a single consumption event worked for samples collected between 8 and 72 hours post-feeding. Our approach confirms the utility of genetic approaches to identify prey species in scats and highlight the need to account for the systematic bias in results to control for possible scat degradation, feeding day, meal size and prey species consumed especially in the wild-collected scats

Novel Subtype-Specific Genes Identify Distinct Subpopulations of Callosal Projection Neurons

Little is known about the molecular development and heterogeneity of callosal projection neurons (CPN), cortical commissural neurons that connect homotopic regions of the two cerebral hemispheres via the corpus callosum and that are critical for bilateral integration of cortical information. Here we report on the identification of a series of genes that individually and in combination define CPN and novel CPN subpopulations during embryonic and postnatal development. We used in situ hybridization analysis, immunocytochemistry, and retrograde labeling to define the layer-specific and neuron-type-specific distribution of these newly identified CPN genes across different stages of maturation. We demonstrate that a subset of these genes (e.g., Hspb3 and Lpl) appear specific to all CPN (in layers II/III and V–VI), whereas others (e.g., Nectin-3, Plexin-D1, and Dkk3) discriminate between CPN of the deep layers and those of the upper layers. Furthermore, the data show that several genes finely subdivide CPN within individual layers and appear to label CPN subpopulations that have not been described previously using anatomical or morphological criteria. The genes identified here likely reflect the existence of distinct programs of gene expression governing the development, maturation, and function of the newly identified subpopulations of CPN. Together, these data define the first set of genes that identify and molecularly subcategorize distinct populations of callosal projection neurons, often located in distinct subdivisions of the canonical cortical laminae.Stem Cell and Regenerative BiologyOther Research Uni