A Teaching Module for Engineers on Robotic Safety: Approaches and Effectiveness

A teaching module recently developed by the authors for engineers on robotic safety using various approaches (Powerpoint presentation and written document) is described and an assessment of the effectiveness of using the module is presented. The effectiveness of the teaching module and its different approaches is assessed by using it in a class setting, and surveying the opinions of the students. The content delivery approaches and learning approaches are also assessed, based on student opinions. The teaching module is determined to be effective at promoting student learning on robotics safety, and to offer multiple useful delivery modes. The teaching module thus allows students with different learning preferences to exploit the delivery mode the find most suitable

Marketing And The Rise Of Web 2.0: Expanding Opportunity, Increasing Challenge

As the Internet has become an increasingly central element of daily life, marketers have scrambled to adapt their methods to this new medium. While early online marketing efforts consisted primarily of repackaged print materials, the rise of Web 2.0 sites with their increasingly interactive experiences has forced marketers to broaden their offerings in order to remain relevant. This analysis considers the broad dimensions of the new online marketing landscape. It assesses the major Web 2.0 sites and evaluates their current scope and reach, concluding that firms utilizing Web 2.0 tools for marketing purposes must insure consistency across their various sites, invest adequate resources to provide prompt service, and recognize that customer expectations for such service will continue to rise for the foreseeable future

Updated repeat orbit interferometry package released

RO1_PAC V2.3, a Repeat Orbit Interferometry package that allows topographic and surface change researchers to apply Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) methods, is now freely available to the community InSAR is the synthesis of conventional SAR and interferometry techniques that have been developed over several decades in radio astronomy and radar remote sensing. In recent years, it has opened entirely new application areas for radar in the Earth system sciences, including topographic mapping and geodesy. RO1_PAC, developed primarily to work with European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellite radar data, currently supports ERS-1, ERS-2, and Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS) radar data, and is configurable to work with “strip-mode” data from all existing satellite radar instruments. The first release of RO1_ PAC (V1.0) was made quietly in 2000, and roughly 30 groups in the academic and research community currently use it

Inhibition of Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 Increases the Cytotoxicity of Enzastaurin

Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) represent a spectrum of several distinct non-Hodgkin's lymphomas that are characterized by an invasion of the skin by malignant, clonal lymphocytes. Our laboratory has previously demonstrated that the protein kinase C (PKC) β inhibitor Enzastaurin increases apoptosis in malignant lymphocytes of CTCL. These results directly led to a clinical trial for Enzastaurin in CTCL in which it was well tolerated and showed modest activity. To ascertain a means of improving the efficacy of Enzastaurin, we investigated complementary signaling pathways and identified glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) as important in survival signaling in CTCL. Enzastaurin combined with GSK3 inhibitors demonstrated an enhancement of cytotoxicity. Treatment with a combination of Enzastaurin and the GSK3 inhibitor AR-A014418 resulted in upregulation of β-catenin total protein and β-catenin-mediated transcription. Inhibition of β-catenin-mediated transcription or small hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown of β-catenin decreased the cytotoxic effects of Enzastaurin plus AR-A014418. In addition, treatment with Enzastaurin and AR-A014418 decreased the mRNA levels and surface expression of CD44. shRNA knockdown of β-catenin also restored CD44 surface expression. Our observations provide a rationale for the combined targeting of PKC and GSK3 signaling pathways in CTCL to enhance the therapeutic outcome

Evaluation of complication rates after coronary artery bypass surgery using administrative data

Our objectives were (1) to determine if studying hospital complication rates after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery provides information not available when only mortality is studied, and (2) to reexplore the utility of ICD-9-CM administrative data for CABG outcomes assessment. Using data from Massachusetts, we identified CABG cohorts from 1990 and 1992 to respectively develop and validate multivariate risk adjustment models predicting in-hospital mortality and complications. The resulting models had good discrimination and calibration. In 1992, adjusted hospital complication rates ranged widely from 13.0% to 57.6%, while mortality rates ranged from 1.4% to 6.1%. Hospitals with high complication rates tended to have high mortality (r = 0.74, p = 0.006), but 2 of the 12 hospitals studied ranked quite differently when judged by complications rather than mortality. We conclude that (1) complications after CABG occur frequently and may provide information about hospital quality beyond that obtained from hospital mortality rates, and that (2) administrative data continue to be a promising resource for outcomes research

An EUV Study of the Intermediate Polar EX Hydrae

On 2000 May 5, we began a large multi-wavelength campaign to study the intermediate polar, EX Hydrae. The simultaneous observations from six satellites and four telescopes were centered around a one million second observation with EUVE. Although EX Hydrae has been studied previously with EUVE, our higher signal-to-noise observations present new results and challenge the current IP models. Previously unseen dips in the light curve are reminiscent of the stream dips seen in polar light curves. Also of interest is the temporal extent of the bulge dip; approximately 0.5 in phase, implying that the bulge extends over half of the accretion disk. We propose that the magnetic field in EX Hydrae is strong enough (a few MG) to begin pulling material directly from the outer edge of the disk, thereby forming a large accretion curtain which would produce a very broad bulge dip. This would also result in magnetically controlled accretion streams originating from the outer edge of the disk. We also present a period analysis of the photometric data which shows numerous beat frequencies with strong power and also intermittent and wandering frequencies, an indication that physical conditions within EX Hya changed over the course of the observation. Iron spectral line ratios give a temperature of log T=6.5-6.9 K for all spin phases and a poorly constrained density of n_e=10^10-10^11 cm^-3 for the emitting plasma. This paper is the first in a series detailing our results from this multi-wavelength observational campaign.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

An Exploratory, Randomized, Crossover MRI Study of Microbicide Delivery with the SILCS Diaphragm Compared to a Vaginal Applicator

Background—Microbicide gels studied for HIV prevention often are delivered via a single-use vaginal applicator. Using a contraceptive diaphragm such as the SILCS diaphragm for gel delivery could have advantages, including lower cost and additional pregnancy prevention. Study Design—We performed an exploratory, nonblinded, randomized, crossover study among healthy, sexually active, nonpregnant women. Using BufferGel®, we evaluated three microbicide delivery methods for gel distribution and retention: SILCS single-sided gel delivery, SILCS double-sided gel delivery and a vaginal applicator (without SILCS). Magnetic resonance images were taken at baseline, after gel insertion, and immediately and 6 h after simulated intercourse. Three women completed all gel delivery methods described in this article. Results—Magnetic resonance imaging analysis indicated similar gel spread in the vagina among all three methods. SILCS single-sided gel application resulted in the most consistent longitudinal coverage; SILCS double-sided gel application was the most consistent in the transverse dimension. Conclusions—Gel coverage was similar with all three methods. These results suggest that the SILCS microbicide delivery system is comparable to vaginal applicators for delivery of gel products intravaginally

Comparative NMR study of A_n-bulge loops in DNA duplexes: intrahelical stacking of A, A-A, and A-A-A bulge loops

We have prepared a series of deoxyoligonucleotide duplexes of the sequence d(G-C-A-T-C-G-X-G-C-T-A-C-G)•d(C-G-T-A-G-C-C-G-T-C), in which X represents either one (A), two (A-A), or three (A-A-A) unpaired adenine bases. Using two-dimensional proton and phosphorus NMR spectroscopy, we have characterized conformational features of these bulge-loop duplexes in solution. We find that Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding is intact for all 12 base pairs, including the GC bases that flank the bulge loop. Observation of NOE connectivities in both H_2O and D_2O allows us to unambiguously localize all of the bulged adenine residues to intrahelical positions within the duplex. This is in contrast to an earlier model for multiple-base bulge loops in DNA [Bhattacharyya, A., & Lilley, D. M. J. (1989) Nucleic Acids Res. 17, 6821-68401, in which all but the most 5’ bulged base are looped out into solution. We find that insertion of two or three bases into the duplex results in the disruption of specific sequential NOEs for the base step across from the bulge loop site on the opposite strand. This disruption is characterized by a partial shearing apart of these bases, such that certain sequential NOEs for this base step are preserved. We observe a downfield-shifted phosphorus resonance, which we assign in the A-A-A bulge duplex to the 3‘ side of the last bulged adenine residue. Proton and phosphorus chemical shift trends within the A,-bulge duplex series indicate that there is an additive effect on the structural perturbations caused by additional unpaired bases within the bulge loop. This finding parallels previous observations [Bhattacharyya, A., & Lilley, D. M. J. (1989) Nucleic Acids Res. 17, 6821-6840; Hsieh, C.-H., & Griffith, J. D. (1989) Proc. Nutl. Acud. Sci. U.S.A. 86,4833-48371 on the magnitude of the induced bending of DNA duplexes by multiple-base bulge loops

Comparative NMR study of A_n-bulge loops in DNA duplexes: intrahelical stacking of A, A-A, and A-A-A bulge loops

We have prepared a series of deoxyoligonucleotide duplexes of the sequence d(G-C-A-T-C-G-X-G-C-T-A-C-G)•d(C-G-T-A-G-C-C-G-T-C), in which X represents either one (A), two (A-A), or three (A-A-A) unpaired adenine bases. Using two-dimensional proton and phosphorus NMR spectroscopy, we have characterized conformational features of these bulge-loop duplexes in solution. We find that Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding is intact for all 12 base pairs, including the GC bases that flank the bulge loop. Observation of NOE connectivities in both H_2O and D_2O allows us to unambiguously localize all of the bulged adenine residues to intrahelical positions within the duplex. This is in contrast to an earlier model for multiple-base bulge loops in DNA [Bhattacharyya, A., & Lilley, D. M. J. (1989) Nucleic Acids Res. 17, 6821-68401, in which all but the most 5’ bulged base are looped out into solution. We find that insertion of two or three bases into the duplex results in the disruption of specific sequential NOEs for the base step across from the bulge loop site on the opposite strand. This disruption is characterized by a partial shearing apart of these bases, such that certain sequential NOEs for this base step are preserved. We observe a downfield-shifted phosphorus resonance, which we assign in the A-A-A bulge duplex to the 3‘ side of the last bulged adenine residue. Proton and phosphorus chemical shift trends within the A,-bulge duplex series indicate that there is an additive effect on the structural perturbations caused by additional unpaired bases within the bulge loop. This finding parallels previous observations [Bhattacharyya, A., & Lilley, D. M. J. (1989) Nucleic Acids Res. 17, 6821-6840; Hsieh, C.-H., & Griffith, J. D. (1989) Proc. Nutl. Acud. Sci. U.S.A. 86,4833-48371 on the magnitude of the induced bending of DNA duplexes by multiple-base bulge loops

A High Fat Diet Increases Bone Marrow Adipose Tissue (MAT) But Does Not Alter Trabecular or Cortical Bone Mass in C57BL/6J Mice

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111767/1/jcp24954.pd