Urbanization and Green Spaces—A Study on Jnana Bharathi Campus, Bangalore University

Global warming is amongst the most alarming problems of the new era. Carbon emission is evidently the strongest fundamental factor for global warming. So increasing carbon emission is one of today’s major concerns, which is well addressed in the Kyoto Protocol. Trees are amongst the most significant elements of any landscape, because of both biomass and diversity, and their key role in ecosystem dynamics is well known. Trees absorb the atmospheric carbon dioxide and act as a carbon sink, since 50 % of biomass is carbon itself and the importance of carbon sequestration in forest areas is already accepted, and well documented. With this background, a carbon sequestration potential study was carried out in Jnana Bharathi campus, Bangalore University using the Quadrat method. The total geographical area is about 449.74 ha with a rich vegetation sector and the total amount of both above ground carbon (AGC) and below ground carbon (BGC) was estimated as an average of 54.8 t/ha. The total amount of carbon dioxide assimilated into the vegetation in terms of both above ground and below ground biomass was estimated as an average of 200.9 t/ha. Urbanization and habitat fragmentation seem to be increasing worldwide, substantiated by a case study in Bangalore City. The analysis revealed that increase in built-up area at the city level was by about 164.62 km2, while the vegetation and water bodies decreased by about 285.72 and 7.2 km2 respectively. However, Bangalore University, Jnana Bharathi campus attains a good vegetation cover and is seen as one of the ‘green lungs’ of Bangalore city

The biological origin of linguistic diversity

In contrast with animal communication systems, diversity is characteristic of almost every aspect of human language. Languages variously employ tones, clicks, or manual signs to signal differences in meaning; some languages lack the noun-verb distinction (e.g., Straits Salish), whereas others have a proliferation of fine-grained syntactic categories (e.g., Tzeltal); and some languages do without morphology (e.g., Mandarin), while others pack a whole sentence into a single word (e.g., Cayuga). A challenge for evolutionary biology is to reconcile the diversity of languages with the high degree of biological uniformity of their speakers. Here, we model processes of language change and geographical dispersion and find a consistent pressure for flexible learning, irrespective of the language being spoken. This pressure arises because flexible learners can best cope with the observed high rates of linguistic change associated with divergent cultural evolution following human migration. Thus, rather than genetic adaptations for specific aspects of language, such as recursion, the coevolution of genes and fast-changing linguistic structure provides the biological basis for linguistic diversity. Only biological adaptations for flexible learning combined with cultural evolution can explain how each child has the potential to learn any human language

Variations in Treatment Delivery for Patients with Neovascular AMD in the UK: Results from an Ophthalmology Trainee Clinical Research Network Study

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine treatment delivery patterns for patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) across the UK through an ophthalmology trainee research network delivered observational study. METHODS: Data were collected via an online tool by potential research collaborators identified by the Ophthalmology Trainee Clinical Trial Network (OCTN). Collaborators were asked to comment on periprocedural practices of treatment of nAMD in their eye unit including treatment location and injectors, clinical assessment and routine observation in patients undergoing intravitreal treatment. RESULTS: Data were available from 26 units around the United Kingdom. Survey methodology refinement was approximately 3 months, and the average response time was 4.9 ± 2.4 days. The majority of responders confirmed that treatment was undertaken as a "one-stop" service (n = 15, 58%), delivered in a clean room (n = 23, 88%). In the majority of units, doctors administered injections (n = 24, 92%), but significant treatment was also given by nurse injectors (n = 21, 81%). All collaborators reported that patients underwent visual acuity testing and optical coherence tomography imaging at all visits, but other imaging including fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) did not take place in all cases (n = 17, 65%) and only at baseline visit. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the feasibility of conducting ophthalmology trainee led and delivered observational studies. Our results show that FFA is not routinely used in the diagnosis of nAMD in the units sampled; most injections are carried out in a clean room, and ophthalmic nurses delivering injections is a highly prevalent model of care in the UK

Positivity of the English language

Over the last million years, human language has emerged and evolved as a fundamental instrument of social communication and semiotic representation. People use language in part to convey emotional information, leading to the central and contingent questions: (1) What is the emotional spectrum of natural language? and (2) Are natural languages neutrally, positively, or negatively biased? Here, we report that the human-perceived positivity of over 10,000 of the most frequently used English words exhibits a clear positive bias. More deeply, we characterize and quantify distributions of word positivity for four large and distinct corpora, demonstrating that their form is broadly invariant with respect to frequency of word use.Comment: Manuscript: 9 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures; Supplementary Information: 12 pages, 3 tables, 8 figure

Decreased 3D observer variation with matched CT-MRI, for target delineation in Nasopharynx cancer

Contains fulltext : 88137.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)PURPOSE: To determine the variation in target delineation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and the impact of measures to minimize this variation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For ten nasopharyngeal cancer patients, ten observers each delineated the Clinical Target Volume (CTV) and the CTV elective. After 3D analysis of the delineated volumes, a second delineation was performed. This implied improved delineation instructions, a combined delineation on CT and co-registered MRI, forced use of sagittal reconstructions, and an on-line anatomical atlas. RESULTS: Both for the CTV and the CTV elective delineations, the 3D SD decreased from Phase 1 to Phase 2, from 4.4 to 3.3 mm for the CTV and from 5.9 to 4.9 mm for the elective. There was an increase agreement, where the observers intended to delineate the same structure, from 36 to 64 surface % (p = 0.003) for the CTV and from 17 to 59% (p = 0.004) for the elective. The largest variations were at the caudal border of the delineations but these were smaller when an observer utilized the sagittal window. Hence, the use of sagittal side windows was enforced in the second phase and resulted in a decreased standard deviation for this area from 7.7 to 3.3 mm (p = 0.001) for the CTV and 7.9 to 5.6 mm (p = 0.03) for the CTV elective. DISCUSSION: Attempts to decrease the variation need to be tailored to the specific causes of the variation. Use of delineation instructions multimodality imaging, the use of sagittal windows and an on-line atlas result in a higher agreement on the intended target

Special Agents Can Promote Cooperation in the Population

Cooperation is ubiquitous in our real life but everyone would like to maximize her own profits. How does cooperation occur in the group of self-interested agents without centralized control? Furthermore, in a hostile scenario, for example, cooperation is unlikely to emerge. Is there any mechanism to promote cooperation if populations are given and play rules are not allowed to change? In this paper, numerical experiments show that complete population interaction is unfriendly to cooperation in the finite but end-unknown Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma (RPD). Then a mechanism called soft control is proposed to promote cooperation. According to the basic idea of soft control, a number of special agents are introduced to intervene in the evolution of cooperation. They comply with play rules in the original group so that they are always treated as normal agents. For our purpose, these special agents have their own strategies and share knowledge. The capability of the mechanism is studied under different settings. We find that soft control can promote cooperation and is robust to noise. Meanwhile simulation results demonstrate the applicability of the mechanism in other scenarios. Besides, the analytical proof also illustrates the effectiveness of soft control and validates simulation results. As a way of intervention in collective behaviors, soft control provides a possible direction for the study of reciprocal behaviors

Quercetin prevents progression of disease in elastase/LPS-exposed mice by negatively regulating MMP expression

Abstract Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by chronic bronchitis, emphysema and irreversible airflow limitation. These changes are thought to be due to oxidative stress and an imbalance of proteases and antiproteases. Quercetin, a plant flavonoid, is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. We hypothesized that quercetin reduces lung inflammation and improves lung function in elastase/lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-exposed mice which show typical features of COPD, including airways inflammation, goblet cell metaplasia, and emphysema. Methods Mice treated with elastase and LPS once a week for 4 weeks were subsequently administered 0.5 mg of quercetin dihydrate or 50% propylene glycol (vehicle) by gavage for 10 days. Lungs were examined for elastance, oxidative stress, inflammation, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity. Effects of quercetin on MMP transcription and activity were examined in LPS-exposed murine macrophages. Results Quercetin-treated, elastase/LPS-exposed mice showed improved elastic recoil and decreased alveolar chord length compared to vehicle-treated controls. Quercetin-treated mice showed decreased levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, a measure of lipid peroxidation caused by oxidative stress. Quercetin also reduced lung inflammation, goblet cell metaplasia, and mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and muc5AC. Quercetin treatment decreased the expression and activity of MMP9 and MMP12 in vivo and in vitro, while increasing expression of the histone deacetylase Sirt-1 and suppressing MMP promoter H4 acetylation. Finally, co-treatment with the Sirt-1 inhibitor sirtinol blocked the effects of quercetin on the lung phenotype. Conclusions Quercetin prevents progression of emphysema in elastase/LPS-treated mice by reducing oxidative stress, lung inflammation and expression of MMP9 and MMP12.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78260/1/1465-9921-11-131.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78260/2/1465-9921-11-131.pdfPeer Reviewe

Modelling stereotyping in cooperation systems

Cooperation is a sophisticated example of collective intelligence. This is particularly the case for indirect reciprocity, where benefit is provided to others without a guarantee of a future return. This is becoming increasingly relevant to future technology, where autonomous machines face cooperative dilemmas. This paper addresses the problem of stereotyping, where traits belonging to an individual are used as proxy when assessing their reputation. This is a cognitive heuristic that humans frequently use to avoid deliberation, but can lead to negative societal implications such as discrimination. It is feasible that machines could be equally susceptible. Our contribution concerns a new and general framework to examine how stereotyping affects the reputation of agents engaging in indirect reciprocity. The framework is flexible and focuses on how reputations are shared. This offers the opportunity to assess the interplay between the sharing of traits and the cost, in terms of reduced cooperation, through opportunities for shirkers to benefit. This is demonstrated using a number of key scenarios. In particular, the results show that cooperation is sensitive to the structure of reputation sharing between individuals