The volume of the moduli space of flat connections on a nonorientable 2-manifold

We compute the Riemannian volume on the moduli space of flat connections on a nonorientable 2-manifold, for a natural class of metrics. We also show that Witten's volume formula for these moduli spaces may be derived using Haar measure, and we give a new proof of Witten's volume formula for the moduli space of flat connections on an orientable surface using Haar measure.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, manuscript substantially revised. To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Brainstem atrophy in focal epilepsy destabilizes brainstem-brain interactions: Preliminary findings.

BACKGROUND: MR Imaging has shown atrophy in brainstem regions that were linked to autonomic dysfunction in epilepsy patients. The brainstem projects to and modulates the activation state of several wide-spread cortical/subcortical regions. The goal was to investigate 1. Impact of brainstem atrophy on gray matter connectivity of cortical/subcortical structures and autonomic control. 2. Impact on the modulation of cortical/subcortical functional connectivity. METHODS: 11 controls and 18 patients with non-lesional focal epilepsy (FE) underwent heart rate variability (HRV) measurements and a 3 T MRI (T1 in all subjects, task-free fMRI in 7 controls/ 12 FE). The brainstem was extracted, and atrophy assessed using deformation-based-morphometry. The age-corrected z-scores of the mean Jacobian determinants were extracted from 71 5x5x5 mm grids placed in brainstem regions associated with autonomic function. Cortical and non-brainstem subcortical gray matter atrophy was assessed with voxel-based-morphometry and mean age corrected z-scores of the modulated gray matter volumes extracted from 380 cortical/subcortical rois. The profile similarity index was used to characterize the impact of brainstem atrophy on gray matter connectivity. The fMRI was preprocessed in SPM12/Conn17 and the BOLD signal extracted from 398 ROIs (16 brainstem). A dynamic task-free analysis approach was used to identify activation states. Connectivity HRV relationship were assessed with Spearman rank correlations. RESULTS: HRV was negatively correlated with reduced brainstem right hippocampus/parahippocampus gray matter connectivity in controls (p \u3c .05, FDR) and reduced brainstem to right parietal cortex, lingual gyrus, left hippocampus/amygdala, parahippocampus, temporal pole, and bilateral anterior thalamus connectivity in FE (p \u3c .05, FDR). Dynamic task-free fMRI analysis identified 22 states. The strength of the functional brainstem/cortical connectivity of state 15 was negatively associated with HRV (r = -0.5, p = .03) and positively with decreased brainstem-cortical (0.49, p = .03) gray matter connectivity. CONCLUSION: The findings of this small pilot study suggest that impaired brainstem-cortex gray matter connectivity in FE negatively affects the brainstem\u27s ability to control cortical activation

Several Nuclear Events during Apoptosis Depend on Caspase-3 Activation but Do Not Constitute a Common Pathway

A number of nuclear events occur during apoptosis, including DNA laddering, nuclear lamina breakdown, phosphorylation of histones H2B and histone H2AX, and the tight binding to chromatin of HMGB1 and CAD, the nuclease responsible for DNA laddering. We have performed an epistasis analysis to investigate whether these events cluster together in pathways. We find that all depend directly or indirectly on caspase-3 activation. CAD activation, H2AX phosphorylation and DNA laddering cluster together into a pathway, but all other events appear to be independent of each other downstream of caspase-3, and likely evolved subject to different functional pressures

Shake It Off: Journal of eScience Librarianship Edition

This case study explores the evolution of the library published Journal of eScience Librarianship (JeSLIB), as it evolves to continue to serve librarians faced with the many challenges of a data driven environment. JeSLIB is an open access, peer-reviewed journal published by the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The library publishes JeSLIB through its eScholarship@UMMS repository on the bepress Digital Commons platform. JeSLIB was at the forefront of thinking about the “library as scholarly publisher” and sought to fill a need for librarians to learn about new challenges related to scientific research data. The journal’s team of librarian editors has acquired new skills and expertise in all facets of scholarly publishing to the benefit of the library. Running a publishing program can serve as a critical tool to help librarians cultivate new partnerships and roles. In response to the changing scholarly communication landscape and developments in open access publishing, the Journal of eScience Librarianship must react accordingly in order to remain relevant. JeSLIB is proactively responding to shifts in community needs including reworking its scope, updating journal policies, acknowledging peer-reviewers, and changing the default Creative Commons Licensing terms. Through this presentation, the editors will share their experiences supporting open access of research, rethinking scholarly publishing, and advancing scientific communication

The virtual microscopy database—sharing digital microscope images for research and education

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146335/1/ase1774_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146335/2/ase1774.pd

Best Practices for Data Sharing and Deposit for Librarian Authors

Sharing data is now encouraged by major funding agencies, and many journals require it as a prerequisite for publication. While many of the hard science journals have implemented ‘Data Deposit Requirements’ and ‘Policies’, in the Library Science literature, publishers are beginning to move titles into open access journals, but data deposit requirements are just beginning to be addressed. Librarian authors will increasingly find themselves having to comply with data sharing policies. In this webinar, we look at examples from the Journal of the Medical Library Association and the Journal of eScience Librarianship and discuss best practices in data deposit

A comparison of PBDE serum concentrations in Mexican and Mexican-American children living in California.

BackgroundPolybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), which are used as flame retardants, have been found to be higher in residents of California than of other parts of the United States.ObjectivesWe aimed to investigate the role of immigration to California on PBDE levels in Latino children.MethodsWe compared serum PBDE concentrations in a population of first-generation Mexican-American 7-year-old children (n = 264), who were born and raised in California [Center for Health Analysis of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) study], with 5-year-old Mexican children (n = 283), who were raised in the states in Mexico where most CHAMACOS mothers had originated (Proyecto Mariposa).ResultsOn average, PBDE serum concentrations in the California Mexican-American children were three times higher than their mothers' levels during pregnancy and seven times higher than concentrations in the children living in Mexico. The PBDE serum concentrations were higher in the Mexican-American children regardless of length of time their mother had resided in California or the duration of the child's breast-feeding. These data suggest that PBDE serum concentrations in these children resulted primarily from postnatal exposure.ConclusionsLatino children living in California have much higher PBDE serum levels than their Mexican counterparts. Given the growing evidence documenting potential health effects of PBDE exposure, the levels in young children noted in this study potentially present a major public health challenge, especially in California. In addition, as PBDEs are being phased out and replaced by other flame retardants, the health consequences of these chemical replacements should be investigated and weighed against their purported fire safety benefits