TRPA1 mediates sensation of the rate of temperature change in Drosophila larvae.

Avoidance of noxious ambient heat is crucial for survival. A well-known phenomenon is that animals are sensitive to the rate of temperature change. However, the cellular and molecular underpinnings through which animals sense and respond much more vigorously to fast temperature changes are unknown. Using Drosophila larvae, we found that nociceptive rolling behavior was triggered at lower temperatures and at higher frequencies when the temperature increased rapidly. We identified neurons in the brain that were sensitive to the speed of the temperature increase rather than just to the absolute temperature. These cellular and behavioral responses depended on the TRPA1 channel, whose activity responded to the rate of temperature increase. We propose that larvae use low-threshold sensors in the brain to monitor rapid temperature increases as a protective alert signal to trigger rolling behaviors, allowing fast escape before the temperature of the brain rises to dangerous levels

URBAN SPRAWL AND OBESITY

In the U.S., urban sprawl and the rise in obesity rates have been two powerful trends during the latter half of the 20th century. Previous empirical work has found that obesity rates are influenced by labor market outcomes that are fundamentally shaped by the spatial pattern of developed land. We examine these potential linkages in an urban spatial model augmented to include time allocation and weight. Residents maximize utility defined over housing, weight, and food subject to a fixed time budget allocated to commuting, calorie expenditure, and work. We examine how weight is affected by commuting distance, food prices, and the rate of calorie expenditure; how a reduction in transportation costs affects weight throughout the city; and how initial weight affects location decisions. We identify, and explore the significance of, the conditions under which weight gain is associated with common features of sprawl.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Breathing Signature as Vitality Score Index Created by Exercises of Qigong: Implications of Artificial Intelligence Tools Used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Rising concerns about the short- and long-term detrimental consequences of administration of conventional pharmacopeia are fueling the search for alternative, complementary, personalized, and comprehensive approaches to human healthcare. Qigong, a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine, represents a viable alternative approach. Here, we started with the practical, philosophical, and psychological background of Ki (in Japanese) or Qi (in Chinese) and their relationship to Qigong theory and clinical application. Noting the drawbacks of the current state of Qigong clinic, herein we propose that to manage the unique aspects of the Eastern 'non-linearity' and 'holistic' approach, it needs to be integrated with the Western "linearity" "one-direction" approach. This is done through developing the concepts of "Qigong breathing signatures," which can define our life breathing patterns associated with diseases using machine learning technology. We predict that this can be achieved by establishing an artificial intelligence (AI)-Medicine training camp of databases, which will integrate Qigong-like breathing patterns with different pathologies unique to individuals. Such an integrated connection will allow the AI-Medicine algorithm to identify breathing patterns and guide medical intervention. This unique view of potentially connecting Eastern Medicine and Western Technology can further add a novel insight to our current understanding of both Western and Eastern medicine, thereby establishing a vitality score index (VSI) that can predict the outcomes of lifestyle behaviors and medical conditions

A Suboptimality Approach to Distributed Linear Quadratic Optimal Control

This note is concerned with a suboptimal version of the distributed linear quadratic optimal control problem for multiagent systems. Given a multiagent system with identical agent dynamics and an associated global quadratic cost functional, our objective is to design distributed control laws that achieve consensus and whose cost is smaller than an a priori given upper bound, for all initial states of the network that are bounded in norm by a given radius. A centralized design method is provided to compute such suboptimal controllers, involving the solution of a single Riccati inequality of dimension equal to the dimension of the agent dynamics, and the smallest nonzero and the largest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix. Furthermore, we relax the requirement of exact knowledge of the smallest nonzero and largest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix by using only lower and upper bounds on these eigenvalues. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate our design method

Top-quark FCNC Productions at LHC in Topcolor-assisted Technicolor Model

We evaluate the top-quark FCNC productions induced by the topcolor assisted technicolor (TC2) model at the LHC. These productions proceed respectively through the parton-level processes g g -> t c_bar, c g->t, c g -> t g, c g -> t Z and c g -> t \gamma. We show the dependence of the production rates on the relevant TC2 parameters and compare the results with the predictions in the minimal supersymmetric model. We find that for each channel the TC2 model predicts a much larger production rate than the supersymmetric model. All these rare productions in the TC2 model can be enhanced above the 3-sigma sensitivity of the LHC. Since in the minimal supersymmetric model only c g -> t is slightly larger than the corresponding LHC sensitivity, the observation of these processes will favor the TC2 model over the supersymmetric model. In case of unobservation, the LHC can set meaningful constraints on the TC2 parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 4 fig