Calibration and Validation of the Checkpoint Model to the Air Force Electronic Systems Center Software Database

This research effort focused on the calibration and validation of CHECKPOINT Version 2.3.1, a computerized software cost estimating tool, to the USAF Electronic Systems Center (ESC) software database. This thesis is a direct follow-on to a 1996 CHECKPOINT study at the Air Force Institute of Technology, which successfully calibrated and validated CHECKPOINT to the SMC software database. While this research generally parallels the methodology in the aforementioned study, it offers advancements in the CHECKPOINT calibration and validation procedure, and it refines the data stratification process and the statistical analyses employed. After stratifying the ESC software database into ten usable data sets, the author calibrated and validated the CHECKPOINT model on each data set. Although the results of this study exhibited occasional improvements in estimating accuracy for both the calibration and validation subsets, the model generally failed to satisfy the accuracy criteria used to assess overall calibration success and estimating accuracy (MMRE0.75). Thus, the CHECKPOINT model was not successfully calibrated or validated to the 1997 version of the ESC database. The results of this study illuminate the need for complete, accurate and homogeneous data as a requirement for a successful calibration and validation effort

Hidden in the Middle : Culture, Value and Reward in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics - the so-called shotgun marriage between biology and computer science - is an interdiscipline. Despite interdisciplinarity being seen as a virtue, for having the capacity to solve complex problems and foster innovation, it has the potential to place projects and people in anomalous categories. For example, valorised 'outputs' in academia are often defined and rewarded by discipline. Bioinformatics, as an interdisciplinary bricolage, incorporates experts from various disciplinary cultures with their own distinct ways of working. Perceived problems of interdisciplinarity include difficulties of making explicit knowledge that is practical, theoretical, or cognitive. But successful interdisciplinary research also depends on an understanding of disciplinary cultures and value systems, often only tacitly understood by members of the communities in question. In bioinformatics, the 'parent' disciplines have different value systems; for example, what is considered worthwhile research by computer scientists can be thought of as trivial by biologists, and vice versa. This paper concentrates on the problems of reward and recognition described by scientists working in academic bioinformatics in the United Kingdom. We highlight problems that are a consequence of its cross-cultural make-up, recognising that the mismatches in knowledge in this borderland take place not just at the level of the practical, theoretical, or epistemological, but also at the cultural level too. The trend in big, interdisciplinary science is towards multiple authors on a single paper; in bioinformatics this has created hybrid or fractional scientists who find they are being positioned not just in-between established disciplines but also in-between as middle authors or, worse still, left off papers altogether

Hsc70 is a novel interactor of NF-kappaB p65 in living hippocampal neurons

Klenke C, Widera D, Engelen T, et al. Hsc70 is a novel interactor of NF-kappaB p65 in living hippocampal neurons. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(6): e65280.Signaling via NF-κB in neurons depends on complex formation with interactors such as dynein/dynactin motor complex and can be triggered by synaptic activation. However, so far a detailed interaction map for the neuronal NF-κB is missing. In this study we used mass spectrometry to identify novel interactors of NF-κB p65 within the brain. Hsc70 was identified as a novel neuronal interactor of NF-κB p65. In HEK293 cells, a direct physical interaction was shown by co-immunoprecipitation and verified via in situ proximity ligation in healthy rat neurons. Pharmacological blockade of Hsc70 by deoxyspergualin (DSG) strongly decreased nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 and transcriptional activity shown by reporter gene assays in neurons after stimulation with glutamate. In addition, knock down of Hsc70 via siRNA significantly reduced neuronal NF-κB activity. Taken together these data provide evidence for Hsc70 as a novel neuronal interactor of NF-κB p65

Multiple lines of evidence suggest the persistence of the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in Louisiana

Abstract The history of the decline of the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker is long and complex, but the status of the species since 1944, when the last widely accepted sighting in continental North America occurred, is particularly controversial. Reports of Ivory‐billed Woodpeckers have continued, but none has reached the threshold of quality for general acceptance by ornithologists or the birdwatching public. In 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened for public comment a proposal to declare the species extinct. Here, we present evidence suggesting the presence of the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker at our study site, based on a variety of data collected over a 10‐year search period, 2012–2022. These data are drawn from visual observations, ~70,000 h of recordings by 80–100 acoustic recording units, ~472,550 camera‐hours by as many as 34 trail cameras, and ~1089 h of video drawn from ~3265 drone flights. Using multiple lines of evidence, the data suggest intermittent but repeated presence of multiple individual birds with field marks and behaviors consistent with those of Ivory‐billed Woodpeckers. Data indicate repeated reuse of foraging sites and core habitat. Our findings, and the inferences drawn from them, suggest that not all is lost for the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker, and that it is clearly premature for the species to be declared extinct

Environmental and societal positioning as sources of competitive advantage in an agricultural firm.

This research seeks to ascertain whether an agricultural firm\u27s social and environmental positioning affects consumers\u27 perceptions of the attributes of its products. Results showed that companies that are perceived to be more socially and environmentally conscious received better ratings for their produce in terms of quality and freshness. In addition, consumers reported that they would be willing to pay more for food grown by socially and environmentally conscious firms