Fish Pond Aerator Energy Source

Previous senior design projects have designed an alternative aerator system for a tilapia farm in Guatemala. Instead of using a pump to create bubbles, a water agitator was designed. Given that the cost of electricity is roughly 50% of the cost to produce tilapia, the need for this semester is to design and suggest alternative sources of energy (e.g., solar, wind, hydro energy). In addition, strategies to reduce the cost of energy (e.g., on/off cycling, demand analysis) are welcome. Finally, all these options must be evaluated through computer simulations or similar engineering analysis

Experiencing History: A Roundtable Discussion of Architecture, Theatre, and Culture of England

This presentation features a roundtable discussion among students who traveled to England during Spring Break, March 5-11, 2022. This presentation seeks to share primary and secondary research about England’s architecture and theatre, as well as additional insights about England’s culture and history gained through first-hand experiences of traveling within the city of London and to Stonehenge and Bath

Effects of Electrical and Structural Remodeling on Atrial Fibrillation Maintenance: A Simulation Study

Atrial fibrillation, a common cardiac arrhythmia, often progresses unfavourably: in patients with long-term atrial fibrillation, fibrillatory episodes are typically of increased duration and frequency of occurrence relative to healthy controls. This is due to electrical, structural, and contractile remodeling processes. We investigated mechanisms of how electrical and structural remodeling contribute to perpetuation of simulated atrial fibrillation, using a mathematical model of the human atrial action potential incorporated into an anatomically realistic three-dimensional structural model of the human atria. Electrical and structural remodeling both shortened the atrial wavelength - electrical remodeling primarily through a decrease in action potential duration, while structural remodeling primarily slowed conduction. The decrease in wavelength correlates with an increase in the average duration of atrial fibrillation/flutter episodes. The dependence of reentry duration on wavelength was the same for electrical vs. structural remodeling. However, the dynamics during atrial reentry varied between electrical, structural, and combined electrical and structural remodeling in several ways, including: (i) with structural remodeling there were more occurrences of fragmented wavefronts and hence more filaments than during electrical remodeling; (ii) dominant waves anchored around different anatomical obstacles in electrical vs. structural remodeling; (iii) dominant waves were often not anchored in combined electrical and structural remodeling. We conclude that, in simulated atrial fibrillation, the wavelength dependence of reentry duration is similar for electrical and structural remodeling, despite major differences in overall dynamics, including maximal number of filaments, wave fragmentation, restitution properties, and whether dominant waves are anchored to anatomical obstacles or spiralling freely

Identification of Genes That Promote or Antagonize Somatic Homolog Pairing Using a High-Throughput FISH–Based Screen

The pairing of homologous chromosomes is a fundamental feature of the meiotic cell. In addition, a number of species exhibit homolog pairing in nonmeiotic, somatic cells as well, with evidence for its impact on both gene regulation and double-strand break (DSB) repair. An extreme example of somatic pairing can be observed in Drosophila melanogaster, where homologous chromosomes remain aligned throughout most of development. However, our understanding of the mechanism of somatic homolog pairing remains unclear, as only a few genes have been implicated in this process. In this study, we introduce a novel high-throughput fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) technology that enabled us to conduct a genome-wide RNAi screen for factors involved in the robust somatic pairing observed in Drosophila. We identified both candidate “pairing promoting genes” and candidate “anti-pairing genes,” providing evidence that pairing is a dynamic process that can be both enhanced and antagonized. Many of the genes found to be important for promoting pairing are highly enriched for functions associated with mitotic cell division, suggesting a genetic framework for a long-standing link between chromosome dynamics during mitosis and nuclear organization during interphase. In contrast, several of the candidate anti-pairing genes have known interphase functions associated with S-phase progression, DNA replication, and chromatin compaction, including several components of the condensin II complex. In combination with a variety of secondary assays, these results provide insights into the mechanism and dynamics of somatic pairing

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

Quantitative imaging assay for NF-κB nuclear translocation in primary human macrophages

Quantitative measurement of NF-κB nuclear translocation is an important research tool in cellular immunology. Established methodologies have a number of limitations, such as poor sensitivity, high cost or dependence on cell lines. Novel imaging methods to measure nuclear translocation of transcriptionally active components of NF-κB are being used but are also partly limited by the need for specialist imaging equipment or image analysis software. Herein we present a method for quantitative detection of NF-κB rel A nuclear translocation, using immunofluorescence microscopy and the public domain image analysis software ImageJ that can be easily adopted for cellular immunology research without the need for specialist image analysis expertise and at low cost. The method presented here is validated by demonstrating the time course and dose response of NF-κB nuclear translocation in primary human macrophages stimulated with LPS, and by comparison with a commercial NF-κB activation reporter cell line