Live edges: all possible adjacencies

Edge is a deceptive word. It suggests lines, borders, designations—a kind of certainty. I see edge instead as a porous adjacency—the noise at the intersection of planes that adds meaning, rather than separation. Live Edges is a design research practice that is hyperobservational and multi-planar. Equal parts training ground and methodology, what began as an effort to derive graphic form from the intangible qualities of place developed into an approach to parsing complexity. Setting locality as my origin point, signifiers of place—materiality, behavior, orientation, architectural form—serve as catalysts for graphic response. I interpret landscape in order to construct my own, testing methods for framing that employ rhythm and topography across multiple surfaces (physical or virtual), to construct immersive experiences. My methodology is structured around a set of relationships and across a spectrum, from place toward process—from specific to abstract, structural to sensorial, interior to exterior, contained to fluid. The work modulates along these variants, simultaneously addressing dimension, clarity, and poetics, and bringing structure to the amorphous. I build up from and into surfaces, blurring the flat and spatial as a tool for tension, interest, and layered meaning. Informed by architectural practice and theory, Live Edges considers context and scale, and observantly prods the edges, addresses the gaps, and uncovers every facet of terrain in research and form. The act of mining for nuance, combined with an agile approach to framing, constructs a process that is broadly translatable

Strategies for Proper Security Practices in Small Financial Institutions

Financial institutions remain high targets for threat actors because of potentially lucrativefinancial gains from security breaches. Information technology (IT) security professionals in financial institutions are concerned about weak security strategies that could lead to security breaches. Grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM), the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies IT security professionals use to implement proper security practices to prevent security breaches. The participants were three IT security professionals from three different financial institutions that oversee the implementation of security policies and procedures. Data collection involved conducting semi-structured interviews and public documents. Through thematic analysis, four themes were identified: layered security, security auditing, technology adaptive, and vendor relationships. Recommendations are for IT security professionals to implement security in layers, review existing security controls and technology with current available market trends, and audit existing security controls to identify gaps with industry standards. The implications for positive social change include potential guidance for IT security professionals to able to strengthen an organizations security posture to better protect resources, intellectual property, and safeguard customer data from threat actor

Strategies for Proper Security Practices in Small Financial Institutions

Financial institutions remain high targets for threat actors because of potentially lucrativefinancial gains from security breaches. Information technology (IT) security professionals in financial institutions are concerned about weak security strategies that could lead to security breaches. Grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM), the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies IT security professionals use to implement proper security practices to prevent security breaches. The participants were three IT security professionals from three different financial institutions that oversee the implementation of security policies and procedures. Data collection involved conducting semi-structured interviews and public documents. Through thematic analysis, four themes were identified: layered security, security auditing, technology adaptive, and vendor relationships. Recommendations are for IT security professionals to implement security in layers, review existing security controls and technology with current available market trends, and audit existing security controls to identify gaps with industry standards. The implications for positive social change include potential guidance for IT security professionals to able to strengthen an organizations security posture to better protect resources, intellectual property, and safeguard customer data from threat actor

Extension of the Time-Spectral Approach to Overset Solvers for Arbitrary Motion

Forced periodic flows arise in a broad range of aerodynamic applications such as rotorcraft, turbomachinery, and flapping wing configurations. Standard practice involves solving the unsteady flow equations forward in time until the initial transient exits the domain and a statistically stationary flow is achieved. It is often required to simulate through several periods to remove the initial transient making unsteady design optimization prohibitively expensive for most realistic problems. An effort to reduce the computational cost of these calculations led to the development of the Harmonic Balance method [1, 2] which capitalizes on the periodic nature of the solution. The approach exploits the fact that forced temporally periodic flow, while varying in the time domain, is invariant in the frequency domain. Expanding the temporal variation at each spatial node into a Fourier series transforms the unsteady governing equations into a steady set of equations in integer harmonics that can be tackled with the acceleration techniques afforded to steady-state flow solvers. Other similar approaches, such as the Nonlinear Frequency Domain [3,4,5], Reduced Frequency [6] and Time-Spectral [7, 8, 9] methods, were developed shortly thereafter. Additionally, adjoint-based optimization techniques can be applied [10, 11] as well as frequency-adaptive methods [12, 13, 14] to provide even more flexibility to the method. The Fourier temporal basis functions imply spectral convergence as the number of harmonic modes, and correspondingly number of time samples, N, is increased. Some elect to solve the equations in the frequency domain directly, while others choose to transform the equations back into the time domain to simplify the process of adding this capability to existing solvers, but each harnesses the underlying steady solution in the frequency domain. These temporal projection methods will herein be collectively referred to as Time-Spectral methods. Time-Spectral methods have demonstrated marked success in reducing the computational costs associated with simulating periodic forced flows, but have yet to be fully applied to overset or Cartesian solvers for arbitrary motion with dynamic hole-cutting. Overset and Cartesian grid methodologies are versatile techniques capable of handling complex geometry configurations in practical engineering applications, and the combination of the Time-Spectral approach with this general capability potentially provides an enabling new design and analysis tool. In an arbitrary moving-body scenario for these approaches, a Lagrangian body moves through a fixed Eulerian mesh and mesh points in the Eulerian mesh interior to the solid body are removed (cut or blanked), leaving a hole in the Eulerian mesh. During the dynamic motion some gridpoints in the domain are blanked and do not have a complete set of time-samples preventing a direct implementation of the Time-Spectral method. Murman[6] demonstrated the Time-Spectral approach for a Cartesian solver with a rigid domain motion, wherein the hole cutting remains constant. Similarly, Custer et al. [15, 16] used the NASA overset OVERFLOW solver and limited the amount of relative motion to ensure static hole-cutting and interpolation. Recently, Mavriplis and Mundis[17] demonstrated a qualitative method for applying the Time-Spectral approach to an unstructured overset solver for arbitrary motion. The goal of the current work is to develop a robust and general method for handling arbitrary motion with the Time-Spectral approach within an overset or Cartesian mesh method, while still approaching the spectral convergence rate of the original Time-Spectral approach. The viscous OVERFLOW solver will be augmented with the new Time-Spectral algorithm and the capability of the method for benchmark problems in rotorcraft and turbomachinery will be demonstrated. This abstract begins with a brief synopsis of the Time-Spectral approach for overset grids and provides details of e current approach to allow for arbitrary motion. Model problem results in one and two dimensions are included to demonstrate the viability of the method and the convergence properties. Section IV briefly outlines the implementation into the OVERFLOW solver, and the abstract closes with a description of the benchmark test cases which will be included in the final paper

Host phenotype characteristics and MC1R in relation to early-onset basal cell carcinoma.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) incidence is increasing, particularly among adults under the age of 40 years. Pigment-related characteristics are associated with BCC in older populations, but epidemiologic studies among younger individuals and analyses of phenotype-genotype interactions are limited. We examined self-reported phenotypes and melanocortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R) variants in relation to early-onset BCC. BCC cases (n=377) and controls with benign skin conditions (n=390) under the age of 40 years were identified through Yale's Dermatopathology database. Factors most strongly associated with early-onset BCC were skin reaction to first summer sun for 1 hour (severe sunburn vs. tan odds ratio (OR)=12.27, 95% confidence interval (CI)=4.08-36.94) and skin color (very fair vs. olive OR=11.06, 95% CI=5.90-20.74). Individuals with two or more MC1R non-synonymous variants were 3.59 times (95% CI=2.37-5.43) more likely to have BCC than those without non-synonymous variants. All host characteristics and MC1R were more strongly associated with multiple BCC case status (37% of cases) than a single BCC case status. MC1R, number of moles, skin reaction to first summer sun for 1 hour, and hair and skin color were independently associated with BCC. BCC risk conferred by MC1R tended to be stronger among those with darker pigment phenotypes, traditionally considered to be at low risk of skin cancer

Successful renal re-transplantation in the presence of pre-existing anti-DQ5 antibodies when there was zero mismatch at class I human leukocyte antigen A, B, & C: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Hyperacute rejection may be prevented by avoiding the transplantation of kidneys into patients with pre-existing anti-donor Class I human leukocyte antigen antibodies. However, the role of anti-donor-Class II-human leukocyte antigen-DQ antibodies is not established. The question is ever more relevant as more sensitive cross-matching techniques detect many additional antibodies during the final crossmatch. We now report successful renal transplantation of a patient who had pre-existing antibodies against his donor's human leukocyte antigen-DQ5.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>Our patient, a Caucasian man, was 34 years of age when he received his first deceased donor renal transplant. After 8 years, his first transplant failed from chronic allograft dysfunction and an earlier bout of Banff 1A cellular rejection. The second deceased donor kidney transplant was initially allocated to the patient due to a 0 out of 6 mismatch. The B cell crossmatch was mildly positive, while the T Cell crossmatch was negative. Subsequent assays showed that the patient had preformed antibodies for human leukocyte antigen DQ5 against his second donor. Despite having preformed antibodies against the donor, the patient continues to have excellent allograft function two years after his second renal transplant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presence of pre-existing antibodies against human leukocyte antigen DQ5 does not preclude transplantation. The relevance of having other antibodies against class II human leukocyte antigens prior to transplantation remains to be studied.</p

Identification of Class I HLA T Cell Control Epitopes for West Nile Virus

The recent West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak in the United States underscores the importance of understanding human immune responses to this pathogen. Via the presentation of viral peptide ligands at the cell surface, class I HLA mediate the T cell recognition and killing of WNV infected cells. At this time, there are two key unknowns in regards to understanding protective T cell immunity: 1) the number of viral ligands presented by the HLA of infected cells, and 2) the distribution of T cell responses to these available HLA/viral complexes. Here, comparative mass spectroscopy was applied to determine the number of WNV peptides presented by the HLA-A*11:01 of infected cells after which T cell responses to these HLA/WNV complexes were assessed. Six viral peptides derived from capsid, NS3, NS4b, and NS5 were presented. When T cells from infected individuals were tested for reactivity to these six viral ligands, polyfunctional T cells were focused on the GTL9 WNV capsid peptide, ligands from NS3, NS4b, and NS5 were less immunogenic, and two ligands were largely inert, demonstrating that class I HLA reduce the WNV polyprotein to a handful of immune targets and that polyfunctional T cells recognize infections by zeroing in on particular HLA/WNV epitopes. Such dominant HLA/peptide epitopes are poised to drive the development of WNV vaccines that elicit protective T cells as well as providing key antigens for immunoassays that establish correlates of viral immunity. © 2013 Kaabinejadian et al