Promoting Engaged Scholarship Among Undergraduate University Students

The School Research Partnership (SRP) is an engaged scholarship program that promotes collaboration among undergraduate students, community partners, and university advisors. In this case study, we describe the Research Consultation Project (RCP), an undergraduate student independent study project that uses a community-based research approach to connect students, faculty, and community partners to help address critical societal issues. In the RCP, undergraduate students function as research consultants for representatives of local school districts or leaders of other community agencies and organizations such as a county commissioner or a nonprofit focused on post-secondary education opportunities for youth. The students work under the supervision of an advisor to address questions posed by the policymaker or practitioner. RCP meets different but complementary needs of the students and partners in ways that bridge student academic and applied learning, research, policy, and practice

Summed Parallel Infinite Impulse Response (SPIIR) Filters For Low-Latency Gravitational Wave Detection

With the upgrade of current gravitational wave detectors, the first detection of gravitational wave signals is expected to occur in the next decade. Low-latency gravitational wave triggers will be necessary to make fast follow-up electromagnetic observations of events related to their source, e.g., prompt optical emission associated with short gamma-ray bursts. In this paper we present a new time-domain low-latency algorithm for identifying the presence of gravitational waves produced by compact binary coalescence events in noisy detector data. Our method calculates the signal to noise ratio from the summation of a bank of parallel infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. We show that our summed parallel infinite impulse response (SPIIR) method can retrieve the signal to noise ratio to greater than 99% of that produced from the optimal matched filter. We emphasise the benefits of the SPIIR method for advanced detectors, which will require larger template banks.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, for PR

Teacher Use of Computer-Assisted Instruction for Young Inattentive Students: Implications for Implementation and Teacher Preparation

Teacher preparation and training appear limited in the area of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) as well as more general instruction and management for students with disabilities including those with attention problems. Research suggests that CAI is a promising intervention for young inattentive students, with several inherent advantages; however, there are a number of implementation challenges that may interfere with more extensive and effective use in the classroom. Lessons learned from a recent randomized controlled trial of a CAI intervention highlight some of these challenges and suggest strategies for addressing them. Implications for instruction are discussed with regard to selection of appropriate CAI programs, integration into the classroom, and strengthening teachers’ more general management skills for inattentive students. Recommendations for pre-service training and professional development in CAI are provided

Asymptotic information leakage under one-try attacks

We study the asymptotic behaviour of (a) information leakage and (b) adversary’s error probability in information hiding systems modelled as noisy channels. Specifically, we assume the attacker can make a single guess after observing n independent executions of the system, throughout which the secret information is kept fixed. We show that the asymptotic behaviour of quantities (a) and (b) can be determined in a simple way from the channel matrix. Moreover, simple and tight bounds on them as functions of n show that the convergence is exponential. We also discuss feasible methods to evaluate the rate of convergence. Our results cover both the Bayesian case, where a prior probability distribution on the secrets is assumed known to the attacker, and the maximum-likelihood case, where the attacker does not know such distribution. In the Bayesian case, we identify the distributions that maximize the leakage. We consider both the min-entropy setting studied by Smith and the additive form recently proposed by Braun et al., and show the two forms do agree asymptotically. Next, we extend these results to a more sophisticated eavesdropping scenario, where the attacker can perform a (noisy) observation at each state of the computation and the systems are modelled as hidden Markov models

DREADD activation of pedunculopontine cholinergic neurons reverses motor deficits and restores striatal dopamine signaling in parkinsonian rats

The brainstem-based pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) traditionally associates with motor function, but undergoes extensive degeneration during Parkinson’s disease (PD), which correlates with axial motor deficits. PPN-Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) can alleviate certain symptoms, but its mecha-nism(s) of action remains unknown. We previously characterized rats hemi-intranigrally injected with the proteasomal inhibitor lactacystin, as an accurate preclinical model of PD. Here we used a combination of chemogenetics with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging for in vivo in-terrogation of discrete neural networks in this rat model of PD. Stimulation of excitatory DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) expressed within PPN cholinergic neurons activated residual nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons to produce pro-found motor recovery, which correlated with striatal dopamine efflux as well as restored dopamine receptor (DR) 1- and DR2-based medium spiny neuron (MSN) activity, as was ascertained with c-Fos-based immunohistochemistry and stereological cell counts. By revealing that the improved axi-al-related motor functions seen in PD patients receiving PPN-DBS may be due to stimulation of remaining PPN cholinergic neurons interacting with dopaminergic ones in both the Substantia Nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the striatum, our data strongly favor the PPN cholinergic-midbrain dopaminergic connectome as mechanism for PPN-DBS’s therapeutic effects. These findings have implications for refining PPD-DBS as a promising treatment modality available to PD patients

The novel mu-opioid antagonist, GSK1521498, reduces ethanol consumption in C57BL/6J mice.

RATIONALE Using the drinking-in-the-dark (DID) model, we compared the effects of a novel mu-opioid receptor antagonist, GSK1521498, with naltrexone, a licensed treatment of alcohol dependence, on ethanol consumption in mice. OBJECTIVE We test the ability of GSK1521498 to reduce alcohol consumption and compare its intrinsic efficacy to that of naltrexone by comparing the two drugs at doses matched for equivalent receptor occupancy. METHODS Thirty-six C57BL/6J mice were tested in a DID procedure. In 2-day cycles, animals experienced one baseline, injection-free session, and one test session when they received two injections, one of test drug and one placebo. All animals received GSK1521498 (0, 0.1, 1 and 3 mg/kg, i.p., 30 min pre-treatment) and naltrexone (0, 0.1, 1 and 3 mg/kg, s.c. 10 min pre-treatment) in a cross-over design. Receptor occupancies following the same doses were determined ex vivo in separate groups by autoradiography, using [3H]DAMGO. Binding in the region of interest was measured integrally by computer-assisted microdensitometry and corrected for non-specific binding. RESULTS Both GSK1521498 and naltrexone dose-dependently decreased ethanol consumption. When drug doses were matched for 70-75 % receptor occupancy, GSK1521498 3 mg/kg, i.p., caused a 2.5-fold greater reduction in alcohol consumption than naltrexone 0.1 mg/kg, s.c. Both GSK1521498 and naltrexone significantly reduced sucrose consumption at a dose of 1 mg/kg but not 0.1 mg/kg. In a test of conditioned taste aversion, GSK1521498 (3 mg/kg) reduced sucrose consumption 24 h following exposure to a conditioning injection. CONCLUSIONS Both opioid receptor antagonists reduced alcohol consumption but GK1521498 has higher intrinsic efficacy than naltrexone

Reductions of Hidden Information Sources

In all but special circumstances, measurements of time-dependent processes reflect internal structures and correlations only indirectly. Building predictive models of such hidden information sources requires discovering, in some way, the internal states and mechanisms. Unfortunately, there are often many possible models that are observationally equivalent. Here we show that the situation is not as arbitrary as one would think. We show that generators of hidden stochastic processes can be reduced to a minimal form and compare this reduced representation to that provided by computational mechanics--the epsilon-machine. On the way to developing deeper, measure-theoretic foundations for the latter, we introduce a new two-step reduction process. The first step (internal-event reduction) produces the smallest observationally equivalent sigma-algebra and the second (internal-state reduction) removes sigma-algebra components that are redundant for optimal prediction. For several classes of stochastic dynamical systems these reductions produce representations that are equivalent to epsilon-machines.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; 30 citations; Updates at http://www.santafe.edu/~cm

DNA Looping Kinetics Analyzed Using Diffusive Hidden Markov Model

Tethered particle experiments use light microscopy to measure the position of a micrometer-sized bead tethered to a microscope slide via a ~micrometer length polymer, in order to infer the behavior of the invisible polymer. Currently, this method is used to measure rate constants of DNA loop formation and breakdown mediated by repressor protein that binds to the DNA. We report a new technique for measuring these rates using a modified hidden Markov analysis that directly incorporates the diffusive motion of the bead, which is an inherent complication of tethered particle motion because it occurs on a time scale between the sampling frequency and the looping time. We compare looping lifetimes found with our method, which are consistent over a range of sampling frequencies, to those obtained via the traditional threshold-crossing analysis, which vary depending on how the raw data are filtered in the time domain. Our method does not involve such filtering, and so can detect short-lived looping events and sudden changes in looping behavior.Comment: 3 page pdf including 3 figures corrections: 2nd page, 1st column, values of diffusion coefficient, spring constant and the decay time were typed incorrectly. No conlcusions were affecte

The Prevalence of ADHD in a Population-Based Sample

Few studies of ADHD prevalence have used population-based samples, multiple informants, and DSM-IV criteria. In addition, children who are asymptomatic while receiving ADHD mediction often have been misclassified. Therefore, we conducted a population-based study to estimate the prevalence of ADHD in elementary school children using DSM-IV critera

Thermal imaging is a non-invasive alternative to PET-CT for measurement of brown adipose tissue activity in humans

Background Obesity and its metabolic consequences are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) utilises glucose and free fatty acids to produce heat, thereby increasing energy expenditure. Effective evaluation of human BAT stimulators is constrained by current standard BAT assessment methods as positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) requires exposure to high doses of ionising radiation. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a potential non-invasive, safe alternative, although direct corroboration with PET-CT has not previously been established. Methods IRT and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) PET-CT data from 8 healthy male participants subjected to water jacket cooling were directly compared. Thermal images (TIs) were geometrically transformed to overlay PET-CT-derived maximum intensity projection (MIP) images from each subject and the areas of greatest intensity of temperature and glucose-uptake within the supraclavicular regions compared. Relationships between supraclavicular temperatures from IRT (TSCR) and the maximum rate of glucose uptake (MR(gluc)) from PET-CT were determined. Results Glucose uptake on MR(gluc)MIP was positively correlated with change in TSCR relative to a reference region (r² = 0.721; p=0.008). Spatial overlap between areas of maximal MR(gluc)MIP and maximal TSCR was 29.5±5.1%. Prolonged cooling to 60 minutes was associated with further TSCR rise compared with cooling to 10 minutes. Conclusions The supraclavicular hotspot identified on IRT closely corresponds to the area of maximal uptake on PET-CT-derived MR(gluc)MIP images. Greater increases in relative TSCR were associated with raised glucose uptake. IRT should now be considered a suitable method for measuring BAT activation, especially in populations where PET-CT is not feasible, practical or repeatable