Power law Polya’s urn and fractional Brownian motion

We introduce a natural family of random walks S[subscript n] on Z that scale to fractional Brownian motion. The increments X[subscript n] := S[subscript n] − S[subscript n]−1 ∈ {±1} have the property that given {X[subscript k] : k < n}, the conditional law of X[subscript n] is that of X[subscript n−k[subscript n]] , where k[subscript n] is sampled independently from a fixed law μ on the positive integers. When μ has a roughly power law decay (precisely, when μ lies in the domain of attraction of an α-stable subordinator, for 0 < α < 1/2) the walks scale to fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter α + 1/2. The walks are easy to simulate and their increments satisfy an FKG inequality. In a sense we describe, they are the natural “fractional” analogues of simple random walk on Z.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMS-0403182)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMS-0645585)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OISE-07-30136

Eye-CU: Sleep Pose Classification for Healthcare using Multimodal Multiview Data

Manual analysis of body poses of bed-ridden patients requires staff to continuously track and record patient poses. Two limitations in the dissemination of pose-related therapies are scarce human resources and unreliable automated systems. This work addresses these issues by introducing a new method and a new system for robust automated classification of sleep poses in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment. The new method, coupled-constrained Least-Squares (cc-LS), uses multimodal and multiview (MM) data and finds the set of modality trust values that minimizes the difference between expected and estimated labels. The new system, Eye-CU, is an affordable multi-sensor modular system for unobtrusive data collection and analysis in healthcare. Experimental results indicate that the performance of cc-LS matches the performance of existing methods in ideal scenarios. This method outperforms the latest techniques in challenging scenarios by 13% for those with poor illumination and by 70% for those with both poor illumination and occlusions. Results also show that a reduced Eye-CU configuration can classify poses without pressure information with only a slight drop in its performance.Comment: Ten-page manuscript including references and ten figure

Structure-Guided Design of Fluorescent S-Adenosylmethionine Analogs for a High-Throughput Screen to Target SAM-I Riboswitch RNAs

SummaryMany classes of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)-binding RNAs and proteins are of interest as potential drug targets in diverse therapeutic areas, from infectious diseases to cancer. In the former case, the SAM-I riboswitch is an attractive target because this structured RNA element is found only in bacterial mRNAs and regulates multiple genes in several human pathogens. Here, we describe the synthesis of stable and fluorescent analogs of SAM in which the fluorophore is introduced through a functionalizable linker to the ribose. A Cy5-labeled SAM analog was shown to bind several SAM-I riboswitches via in-line probing and fluorescence polarization assays, including one from Staphylococcus aureus that controls the expression of SAM synthetase in this organism. A fluorescent ligand displacement assay was developed and validated for high-throughput screening of compounds to target the SAM-I riboswitch class

‘Silence is the sentence’: adult learners’ experiences of a co-created curriculum constructed through free writing tasks

This paper outlines the pedagogical approaches taken on a University Access course, teaching predominantly mature students on a 12-week ‘inclusion in education’ module. The methods aimed to validate and develop literacy and academic skills for students undertaking undergraduate courses. Practice on the programme of study, replicated over three years, is informed by transformative learning theories. We outline how our developing praxis situates students’ self-concepts in confronting past biographical experiences of education and empowers them to improved literacy and purpose. We further propose that such andragogical approaches to teaching and learning can potentially serve as a model for improved literacy practices in post-compulsory education in England – a curriculum and qualification regime in radical need of overhaul and replacement.&nbsp