A Wavelet-Based Approach To Monitoring Parkinson's Disease Symptoms

Parkinson's disease is a neuro-degenerative disorder affecting tens of millions of people worldwide. Lately, there has been considerable interest in systems for at-home monitoring of patients, using wearable devices which contain inertial measurement units. We present a new wavelet-based approach for analysis of data from single wrist-worn smart-watches, and show high detection performance for tremor, bradykinesia, and dyskinesia, which have been the major targets for monitoring in this context. We also discuss the implication of our controlled-experiment results for uncontrolled home monitoring of freely behaving patients.Comment: ICASSP 201

The SOL Genomics Network Model: Making Community Annotation Work

The concept of community annotation is a growing discipline for achieving participation of the research community in depositing up‐to‐date knowledge in biological databases.
The Solanaceae Genomics Network ("SGN":http://sgn.cornell.edu/) is a clade‐oriented database (COD) focusing on plants of the nightshade family, including tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant, and tobacco, and is one of the bioinformatics nodes of the international tomato genome sequencing project. One of our major efforts is linking Solanaceae phenotype information with the underlying genes, and subsequently the genome. As part of this goal, SGN has introduced a database for locus names and descriptors, and a database for phenotypes of natural and induced variation. These two databases have web interfaces that allow cross references, associations with tomato gene models, and in‐house curated information of sequences, literature, ontologies, gene networks, and the Solanaceae biochemical pathways database ("SolCyc":http://solcyc.sgn.cornell.edu). All of our curator tools are open for online community annotation, through specially assigned “submitter” accounts. 

Currently the community database consists of 5,548 phenotyped accessions, and 5,739 curated loci, out of which more than 300 loci where contributed or annotated by 66 active submitters, creating a database that is truly community driven.
This framework is easily adaptable for other projects working on other taxa (for example see "http://chlamybase.org":http://chlamybase.org), greatly expanding the application of this user‐friendly online annotation system. Community participation is fostered by an active outreach program that includes contacting potential submitters via emails, at meetings and conferences, and by promoting featured user submitted annotations on the SGN homepage. The source code and database schema for all SGN functionalities are freely available. Please contact SGN at "sgn‐feedback[at]sgn.cornell.edu":mailto:[email protected] for more information

SGN Database: From QTLs to Genomes

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis is used to dissect the genetic basis underlying polygenic traits. Several public databases have been storing and making QTL data available to research communities. To our knowledge, current QTL databases rely on manual curation where curators read literature and extract relevant QTL information to store in databases. Evidently, this approach is expensive in terms of expert manpower and time use and limits the type of data that can be curated. At the Solanaceae Genomics Network (SGN) ("http://sgn.cornell.edu":http://sgn.cornell.edu), we have developed a database to store raw phenotype and genotype data from QTL studies, perform, on the fly, QTL analysis using R/QTL statistical software ("http://www.rqtl.org":http://www.rqtl.org) and visualize QTLs on a genetic map. Users can identify peak, and flanking markers for QTLs of traits of interest. The QTL database is integrated with other SGN databases (eg. Marker, BACs, and Unigenes), and analysis tools such as the Comparative Map Viewer. Using the comparative map viewer, users can compare chromosome with QTL regions to genetic maps of interest from the same or different Solanaceae species. As the tomato genome sequencing advances, users can also identify corresponding BAC sequences or locations on the tomato physical map, which can be suggestive of candidate genes for a trait of interest.

Furthermore at SGN, images, quantitative phenotype and genotype data, publications, genetic maps generated by QTL studies are displayed and available for download. Currently, data from three F2 and two backcross population QTL studies on fruit morphology traits (18 – 46 traits per population) is available at the SGN website for viewing at population, accession, and trait levels. Traits are described using ontology terms. Phenotype data is presented in tabular and graphical formats such as frequency distributions with basic descriptive statistics. Mapping data showing location of parental alleles on individual accession genetic maps is also available.

SGN is a public database hosted at Boyce Thomson Institute, Cornell University, and funded by USDA CSREES and NSF

ANGER REGULATION AND PSYCHOSIS: MECHANISMS OF IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THERAPY

Paranoia is strongly associated with anger. This relationship is found across the psychosis spectrum, including individuals at high risk of developing psychosis. The relationship is commonly addressed in the measurement of anger but is rarely addressed in clinical studies. This study explored the relationship between anger regulation and paranoid ideation as well as factors that mediate and moderate this relationship. Specifically, the study examined whether the influence of anger regulation cognitive-behavioral interventions on paranoid ideation changed as aspects of emotional awareness changed. It also examined whether interventions for anger regulation that target different phases of anger generation impacted paranoid ideation through different mechanisms - of either experiential avoidance or irrational beliefs about the need to habitually feel comfortable. Participants were undergraduate students and young adults in the general population. They completed the study through an online survey platform – Qualtrics, which randomly assigned participants to view one of three interventions: a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) a-priori intervention – that targets beliefs that occur prior to anger arousal, an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) post-hoc intervention – that targets actions after anger is aroused, or a control condition – suggesting experiencing anger naturally. Participants completed a computerized anger-induction interview and attempted to regulate their anger using the technique they learned in the intervention video. Results showed a strong positive association between levels of state anger and conviction in paranoid ideation, both at baseline and at the end of the study, following two anger regulation attempts. Furthermore, individuals with high levels of state anger and conviction in paranoid ideation were less attentive to their emotions, had less clarity of their emotions, were more likely to be experientially avoidant, and to have irrational beliefs about having to be comfortable. Despite these strong associations, the hypothesized moderation and mediation models failed to predict the outcomes of state anger and conviction in paranoid ideation, which were predicted only by clarity of emotions. Higher levels of clarity of emotions were predictive of lower state anger and less conviction in paranoid ideation. Limitations, future research, and implications for treatment are discussed

Studies on the reliability of biomarkers for alcohol use and abuse

Alcohol is consumed by the vast majority of the population, but prolonged excessive drinking is associated with various negative health and social consequences. It is therefore important to identify individuals with at-risk alcohol consumption, before it turns into abuse or dependence. Early detection of alcohol use and abuse can be done by the use of biomarkers such as ethyl glucuronide (EtG), carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), and phosphatidylethanol (PEth) that provide objective information about current consumption. However, since misleading test results can have devastating consequences, the use of reliable biomarkers is substantial. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate several factors, both clinical and analytical, that could generate erroneous test results when testing for alcohol use by these biomarkers. Measurement of urinary EtG levels was done in 482 samples using different liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry procedures. Accurate determination of EtG concentrations was done according to specific criteria suggested by international guidelines. The sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each of four methods by comparing EtG results obtained with a fifth reference method that demonstrated the highest selectivity. These results showed that meeting the guideline criteria does not always guarantee correct identification, and the likelihood of different analytical methods to provide reliable analytical results depends on the reporting limit applied. Evaluation of the analytical performance of CDT testing was done by comparing two different methods in routine use, capillary electrophoresis (CE) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Most of the problems encountered by CE could be solved by using the HPLC method, and it was therefore advised to have access to a confirmatory HPLC analysis, when a high throughput method like CE is employed. Evaluation of the clinical performance of CDT in pregnancy was done by measuring serum transferrin glycoforms in 171 samples collected from 24 healthy women during and after pregnancy. A gradual increase in the CDT (%disialotransferrin) level was observed during pregnancy, and in many subjects the level approached the upper limit of the reference interval. For use in pregnant women, the cutoff value for CDT used to detect risky drinking needs to be raised slightly to minimize the risk for falsepositive results. The possible interference by transferrin glycation on CDT testing was also evaluated. Samples subjected to in vitro glycation and samples collected from diabetic patients were tested for CDT by HPLC. No interferences were observed in samples from diabetics, which contrasted to the effect seen in vitro by transferrin glycation. The results indicated that CDT, and also PEth, are reliable markers to identify risky drinking in diabetic patients. Taken together, the results of the present studies have identified and suggested ways to overcome a number of analytical and clinical interferences with these alcohol biomarkers, and thus helped to improve their routine use

Kafka's Zoopoetics

Nonhuman figures are ubiquitous in the work of Franz Kafka, from his early stories down to his very last one. Despite their prominence throughout his oeuvre, Kafka’s animal representations have been considered first and foremost as mere allegories of intrahuman matters. In recent years, the allegorization of Kafka’s animals has been poetically dismissed by Kafka’s commentators and politically rejected by posthumanist scholars. Such critique, however, has yet to inspire either an overarching or an interdiscursive account. This book aims to fill this lacuna. Positing animal stories as a distinct and significant corpus within Kafka’s entire poetics, and closely examining them in dialogue with both literary and posthumanist analysis, Kafka’s Zoopoetics critically revisits animality, interspecies relations, and the very human-animal contradistinction in the writings of Franz Kafka. Kafka’s animals typically stand at the threshold between humanity and animality, fusing together human and nonhuman features. Among his liminal creatures we find a human transformed into vermin (in “The Metamorphosis”), an ape turned into a human being (in “A Report to an Academy”), talking jackals (in “Jackals and Arabs”), a philosophical dog (in “Researches of a Dog”), a contemplative mole-like creature (in “The Burrow”), and indiscernible beings (in “Josefine, the Singer or the Mouse People”). Depicting species boundaries as mutable and obscure, Kafka creates a fluid human-animal space, which can be described as “humanimal.” The constitution of a humanimal space radically undermines the stark barrier between human and other animals, dictated by the anthropocentric paradigm. Through denying animalistic elements in humans, and disavowing the agency of nonhuman animals, excluding them from social life, and neutralizing compassion for them, this barrier has been designed to regularize both humanity and animality. The contextualization of Kafka's animals within posthumanist theory engenders a post-anthropocentric arena, which is simultaneously both imagined and very real