Developing a Mammalian Behaviour Ontology

The use of the Entity + Quality (EQ) model in phenotypic descriptions is dependent on the use of specialised domain ontologies to define the entity under observation. A domain currently lacking a specialised ontology is mammalian behaviour, and so the Mammalian Behaviour Ontology is being constructed to address this. Top-level class distinctions are made between behavioural activities and behavioural functions of individuals, and those between two or more individuals. The ontology is manually developed and encourages contributions from domain experts

Assessing the Board of Immigration Appeals\u27 Social Visibility Doctrine in the Context of Human Trafficking

United States asylum law provides individuals who have been persecuted in their country of origin with residency in the United States. Membership in a “particular social group” (PSG) confers refugee status on individuals applying for asylum in the United States. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) initially defined a PSG as a group composed of members who all share an immutable characteristic, that is, an unchangeable characteristic or one so fundamental to an individual’s identity that they should not be required to change it. This test functioned well for over a decade; however, the BIA added an additional requirement to the analysis: “social visibility.” “Social visibility” requires that members possess characteristics visible and recognizable by others in the native country. Today, all but two circuits require “social visibility.” This note argues that this widespread acceptance of the “social visibility” requirement is problematic, particularly for victims of human trafficking. First, it is incredibly difficult to define public perception; therefore, it is impossible to identify when a society has confirmed the existence of a PSG. Second, “social visibility” operates to exclude deserving applicants because persecuted groups will take pains to avoid becoming socially visible. Part I presents an overview of international and domestic refugee law. Part II analyzes the current circuit split between immutable characteristic and social visibility. Part III details the problems with requiring “social visibility” and “particularity” generally and specifically for victims of human trafficking, and Part IV concludes that “immutable characteristic” strikes the proper balance between the interests of applicants and the United States legal system

Innateness as closed process invariance

Journal ArticleAlthough we are enthusiastic about a Darwinian approach to culture, we argue that the overview presented in the target article does not sufficiently emphasize the crucial explanatory role that psychology plays in the study of culture. We use a number of examples to illustrate the variety of ways by which appeal to psychological factors can help explain cultural phenomena

Defining Research Productivity: It Depends Upon Who You Are

Definitions of research productivity vary, depending upon a person\u27s position with in a university

Recommendations for HER2 testing in the UK

Determining the HER2 status of breast carcinomas is a prerequisite for the use of the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin(R)), which has recently been licensed for the treatment of metastatic disease. This necessitates a test based on archival material. The preferred analyses are immunohistochemistry with fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) as a follow up test for ambiguous results. Guidelines have been developed for standardised, well controlled procedures for the provision of reliable results. A group of three reference laboratories has been established to provide advice, quality assurance, and materials, where needed

Precise correction of lateral chromatic aberration in images

International audienceThis paper addresses the problem of lateral chromatic aberration correction in images through color planes warping. We aim at high precision (largely sub-pixel) realignment of color channels. This is achieved thanks to two ingredients: high precision keypoint detection, which in our case are disk centers, and more general correction model than what is commonly used in the literature, radial polynomial. Our setup is quite easy to implement, requiring a pattern of black disks on white paper and a single snapshot. We measure the errors in terms of geometry and of color and compare our method to three different software programs. Quantitative results on real images show that our method allows alignment of average 0.05 pixel of color channels and a residual color error divided by a factor 3 to 6

Street railway equipment

Citation: Alexander, Lizzie Bea. Problems of bread making. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1907.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: Alternating current will perhaps in time supplant direct current for traction purposes as it did in lighting, with the advent of the long distance high potential transmission, but as yet the direct current plays a very important part in both power and traction. It has however the disadvantage of being difficult to transmit long distances without great loss. This is due to the inherent limitations in the production of high voltages from the direct current generator. Commutation at voltages sufficiently high to warrant economical transmission over long distances, is extremely difficult. Sparking and other difficulties at once arise which place the voltage within the limitations mentioned. The alternating current generator has not only the advantage of higher voltage, but by means of suitable transformer devices the voltage may be raised to any desired value for economical transmission. It will be readily seen, therefore, that alternating current machinery will supplant the direct current for traction purposes. In this thesis only direct current is treated. Direct current on a small scale and for local distribution fulfills more nearly the requirements demanded for traction purposes such as is needed on railways. The discussions are confined to the electrical equipment of the car only, the mechanical construction being referred to only as needed in line with the electrical connections

Expression of RUNX1 correlates with poor patient prognosis in triple negative breast cancer

The RUNX1 transcription factor is widely recognised for its tumour suppressor effects in leukaemia. Recently a putative link to breast cancer has started to emerge, however the function of RUNX1 in breast cancer is still unknown. To investigate if RUNX1 expression was important to clinical outcome in primary breast tumours a tissue microarray (TMA) containing biopsies from 483 patients with primary operable invasive ductal breast cancer was stained by immunohistochemistry. RUNX1 was associated with progesterone receptor (PR)-positive tumours (P<0.05), more tumour CD4+(P<0.05) and CD8+(P<0.01) T-lymphocytic infiltrate, increased tumour CD138+plasma cell (P<0.01) and more CD68+macrophage infiltrate (P<0.001). RUNX1 expression did not influence outcome of oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive or HER2-positive disease, however on univariate analysis a high RUNX1 protein was significantly associated with poorer cancer-specific survival in patients with ER-negative (P<0.05) and with triple negative (TN) invasive breast cancer (P<0.05). Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analysis of cancer-specific survival showed a trend towards significance in ER-negative patients (P<0.1) and was significant in triple negative patients (P<0.05). Of relevance, triple negative breast cancer currently lacks good biomarkers and patients with this subtype do not benefit from the option of targeted therapy unlike patients with ER-positive or HER2-positive disease. Using multivariate analysis RUNX1 was identified as an independent prognostic marker in the triple negative subgroup. Overall, our study identifies RUNX1 as a new prognostic indicator correlating with poor prognosis specifically in the triple negative subtype of human breast cancer

Do social insects support Haig's kin theory for the evolution of genomic imprinting?

Although numerous imprinted genes have been described in several lineages, the phenomenon of genomic imprinting presents a peculiar evolutionary problem. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain gene imprinting, the most supported being Haig’s kinship theory. This theory explains the observed pattern of imprinting and the resulting phenotypes as a competition for resources between related individuals, but despite its relevance it has not been independently tested. Haig’s theory predicts that gene imprinting should be present in eusocial insects in many social scenarios. These lineages are therefore ideal for testing both the theory’s predictions and the mechanism of gene imprinting. Here we review the behavioral evidence of genomic imprinting in eusocial insects, the evidence of a mechanism for genomic imprinting and finally we evaluate recent results showing parent of origin allele specific expression in honeybees in the light of Haig’s theory