Statistics of correlated percolation in a bacterial community

Signal propagation over long distances is a ubiquitous feature of multicellular communities, but cell-to-cell variability can cause propagation to be highly heterogeneous. Simple models of signal propagation in heterogenous media, such as percolation theory, can potentially provide a quantitative understanding of these processes, but it is unclear whether these simple models properly capture the complexities of multicellular systems. We recently discovered that in biofilms of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, the propagation of an electrical signal is statistically consistent with percolation theory, and yet it is reasonable to suspect that key features of this system go beyond the simple assumptions of basic percolation theory. Indeed, we find here that the probability for a cell to signal is not independent from other cells as assumed in percolation theory, but instead is correlated with its nearby neighbors. We develop a mechanistic model, in which correlated signaling emerges from cell division, phenotypic inheritance, and cell displacement, that reproduces the experimentally observed correlations. We find that the correlations do not significantly affect the spatial statistics, which we rationalize using a renormalization argument. Moreover, the fraction of signaling cells is not constant in space, as assumed in percolation theory, but instead varies within and across biofilms. We find that this feature lowers the fraction of signaling cells at which one observes the characteristic power-law statistics of cluster sizes, consistent with our experimental results. We validate the model using a mutant biofilm whose signaling probability decays along the propagation direction. Our results reveal key statistical features of a correlated signaling process in a multicellular community. More broadly, our results identify extensions to percolation theory that do or do not alter its predictions and may be more appropriate for biological systems.P50 GM085764 - NIGMS NIH HHS; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; R01 GM121888 - NIGMS NIH HHSPublished versio

Development of Aluminum LEKIDs for Balloon-Borne Far-IR Spectroscopy

We are developing lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) designed to achieve background-limited sensitivity for far-infrared (FIR) spectroscopy on a stratospheric balloon. The Spectroscopic Terahertz Airborne Receiver for Far-InfraRed Exploration (STARFIRE) will study the evolution of dusty galaxies with observations of the [CII] 158 $\mu$m and other atomic fine-structure transitions at $z=0.5-1.5$, both through direct observations of individual luminous infrared galaxies, and in blind surveys using the technique of line intensity mapping. The spectrometer will require large format ($\sim$1800 detectors) arrays of dual-polarization sensitive detectors with NEPs of $1 \times 10^{-17}$ W Hz$^{-1/2}$. The low-volume LEKIDs are fabricated with a single layer of aluminum (20 nm thick) deposited on a crystalline silicon wafer, with resonance frequencies of $100-250$ MHz. The inductor is a single meander with a linewidth of 0.4 $\mu$m, patterned in a grid to absorb optical power in both polarizations. The meander is coupled to a circular waveguide, fed by a conical feedhorn. Initial testing of a small array prototype has demonstrated good yield, and a median NEP of $4 \times 10^{-18}$ W Hz$^{-1/2}$.Comment: accepted for publication in Journal of Low Temperature Physic

Student Participation in School Control in the Junior High Schools of Indianapolis, Indiana

The adolescent period in life offers the most fertile field of opportunity for the development of good citizenship, but it requires leaders of ability, patience, and deep seated convictions to accomplish the task

Evaluating Accomplished Teaching: Report of a Pilot Study into Means of Investigating the Impact of Accomplished Teaching on Pupils’ Learning in the Context of the Chartered Teacher Initiative in Scotland

No abstract available

Synthetic biology and the conservation of biodiversity

AbstractSynthetic biology is a broad and fast-moving field of innovation involving the design and construction of new biological parts, and the redesign of existing, natural biological systems to address real world problems. It has many potential applications that may change human relations to the natural world. Synthetic biology is virtually unknown to the conservation community. Based on a meeting in 2013 that brought together these two communities we consider first the differences between the two fields, and second the kinds of opportunities and risks that arise.This is the accepted manuscript of a paper published in Oryx (Redford KH, Adams W, Carlson R, Mace GM, Ceccarelli B, Oryx 2014, 48 (3), 330-336, doi:10.1017/S0030605314000040)

Use of MMG signals for the control of powered orthotic devices: Development of a rectus femoris measurement protocol

Copyright © 2009 Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society (RESNA). This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Assistive Technology, 21(1), 1 - 12, 2009, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10400430902945678.A test protocol is defined for the purpose of measuring rectus femoris mechanomyographic (MMG) signals. The protocol is specified in terms of the following: measurement equipment, signal processing requirements, human postural requirements, test rig, sensor placement, sensor dermal fixation, and test procedure. Preliminary tests of the statistical nature of rectus femoris MMG signals were performed, and Gaussianity was evaluated by means of a two-sided Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. For all 100 MMG data sets obtained from the testing of two volunteers, the null hypothesis of Gaussianity was rejected at the 1%, 5%, and 10% significance levels. Most skewness values were found to be greater than 0.0, while all kurtosis values were found to be greater than 3.0. A statistical convergence analysis also performed on the same 100 MMG data sets suggested that 25 MMG acquisitions should prove sufficient to statistically characterize rectus femoris MMG. This conclusion is supported by the qualitative characteristics of the mean rectus femoris MMG power spectral densities obtained using 25 averages

Optimisation of variables for studying dilepton transverse momentum distributions at hadron colliders

In future measurements of the dilepton ($Z/\gamma^*$) transverse momentum, \Qt, at both the Tevatron and LHC, the achievable bin widths and the ultimate precision of the measurements will be limited by experimental resolution rather than by the available event statistics. In a recent paper the variable \at, which corresponds to the component of \Qt\ that is transverse to the dilepton thrust axis, has been studied in this regard. In the region, \Qt\ $<$ 30 GeV, \at\ has been shown to be less susceptible to experimental resolution and efficiency effects than the \Qt. Extending over all \Qt, we now demonstrate that dividing \at\ (or \Qt) by the measured dilepton invariant mass further improves the resolution. In addition, we propose a new variable, \phistarEta, that is determined exclusively from the measured lepton directions; this is even more precisely determined experimentally than the above variables and is similarly sensitive to the \Qt. The greater precision achievable using such variables will enable more stringent tests of QCD and tighter constraints on Monte Carlo event generator tunes.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 table