Hydraulic Regenerative Braking for a 20” Bicycle Wheel

ME450 Capstone Design and Manufacturing Experience: Winter 2008With today‘s need for better fuel economy and emissions reduction, hybrid technology has become increasingly popular. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently pursuing research in regenerative braking hydraulic hybrids which pressurizes fluid upon braking to partially power the vehicle. As a zero-emissions solution, the EPA has collaborated with ME450 students to apply this technology to a bicycle, attempting to fit the system in an average 26? size wheel. This semester, our goal is to fit the system into a 20? wheel while also reducing the weight by half. We will be adjusting internal components for weight, changing any part of the system to improve functionality, and improve the efficiency and manufacturability of the system.David Swain EPAhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58688/1/me450w08project14_report.pd

Community-wide analysis of microbial genome sequence signatures

Genome signatures are used to identify and cluster sequences de novo from an acid biofilm microbial community metagenomic dataset, revealing information about the low-abundance community members

Targeting the CXCR4 pathway using a novel anti-CXCR4 IgG1 antibody (PF-06747143) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

BackgroundThe CXCR4-CXCL12 axis plays an important role in the chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)-microenvironment interaction. Overexpression of CXCR4 has been reported in different hematological malignancies including CLL. Binding of the pro-survival chemokine CXCL12 with its cognate receptor CXCR4 induces cell migration. CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling axis promotes cell survival and proliferation and may contribute to the tropism of leukemia cells towards lymphoid tissues and bone marrow. Therefore, we hypothesized that targeting CXCR4 with an IgG1 antibody, PF-06747143, may constitute an effective therapeutic approach for CLL.MethodsPatient-derived primary CLL-B cells were assessed for cytotoxicity in an in vitro model of CLL microenvironment. PF-06747143 was analyzed for cell death induction and for its potential to interfere with the chemokine CXCL12-induced mechanisms, including migration and F-actin polymerization. PF-06747143 in vivo efficacy was determined in a CLL murine xenograft tumor model.ResultsPF-06747143, a novel-humanized IgG1 CXCR4 antagonist antibody, induced cell death of patient-derived primary CLL-B cells, in presence or absence of stromal cells. Moreover, cell death induction by the antibody was independent of CLL high-risk prognostic markers. The cell death mechanism was dependent on CXCR4 expression, required antibody bivalency, involved reactive oxygen species production, and did not require caspase activation, all characteristics reminiscent of programmed cell death (PCD). PF-06747143 also induced potent B-CLL cytotoxicity via Fc-driven antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity activity (CDC). PF-06747143 had significant combinatorial effect with standard of care (SOC) agents in B-CLL treatment, including rituximab, fludarabine (F-ara-A), ibrutinib, and bendamustine. In a CLL xenograft model, PF-06747143 decreased tumor burden and improved survival as a monotherapy, and in combination with bendamustine.ConclusionsWe show evidence that PF-06747143 has biological activity in CLL primary cells, supporting a rationale for evaluation of PF-06747143 for the treatment of CLL patients

Improvement and Public Service Relationships: Cultural Theory and Institutional Work

This article examines the influence of cultural-institutional factors on user–provider relationships in public services. Using Grid-Group Cultural Theory (CT) as a way to structure the complexity of public service relationships, the article considers the extent to which public services are attuned to users' relational concerns. This analysis shows particular tensions between how users think the service ‘should be’ compared with how they think the service ‘actually is’. Additional study evidence is used to assess these findings; in particular, the effects of different patterns of compatibility on both the perceived quality of public service relationships and the value added by this. Finally, relationships between ‘good opportunities’ for user voice and the above results are discussed. In response, opportunities for improvement are identified (within the institutional work done by public service organizations), and the implications for the relative value of CT analysis are discussed

Tracing chemical evolution over the extent of the Milky Way's Disk with APOGEE Red Clump Stars

We employ the first two years of data from the near-infrared, high-resolution SDSS-III/APOGEE spectroscopic survey to investigate the distribution of metallicity and alpha-element abundances of stars over a large part of the Milky Way disk. Using a sample of ~10,000 kinematically-unbiased red-clump stars with ~5% distance accuracy as tracers, the [alpha/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] distribution of this sample exhibits a bimodality in [alpha/Fe] at intermediate metallicities, -0.9<[Fe/H]<-0.2, but at higher metallicities ([Fe/H]=+0.2) the two sequences smoothly merge. We investigate the effects of the APOGEE selection function and volume filling fraction and find that these have little qualitative impact on the alpha-element abundance patterns. The described abundance pattern is found throughout the range 5<R<11 kpc and 0<|Z|<2 kpc across the Galaxy. The [alpha/Fe] trend of the high-alpha sequence is surprisingly constant throughout the Galaxy, with little variation from region to region (~10%). Using simple galactic chemical evolution models we derive an average star formation efficiency (SFE) in the high-alpha sequence of ~4.5E-10 1/yr, which is quite close to the nearly-constant value found in molecular-gas-dominated regions of nearby spirals. This result suggests that the early evolution of the Milky Way disk was characterized by stars that shared a similar star formation history and were formed in a well-mixed, turbulent, and molecular-dominated ISM with a gas consumption timescale (1/SFE) of ~2 Gyr. Finally, while the two alpha-element sequences in the inner Galaxy can be explained by a single chemical evolutionary track this cannot hold in the outer Galaxy, requiring instead a mix of two or more populations with distinct enrichment histories.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Grasping Ideas with the Motor System: Semantic Somatotopy in Idiom Comprehension

Single words and sentences referring to bodily actions activate the motor cortex. However, this semantic grounding of concrete language does not address the critical question whether the sensory–motor system contributes to the processing of abstract meaning and thought. We examined functional magnetic resonance imaging activation to idioms and literal sentences including arm- and leg-related action words. A common left fronto-temporal network was engaged in sentence reading, with idioms yielding relatively stronger activity in (pre)frontal and middle temporal cortex. Crucially, somatotopic activation along the motor strip, in central and precentral cortex, was elicited by idiomatic and literal sentences, reflecting the body part reference of the words embedded in the sentences. Semantic somatotopy was most pronounced after sentence ending, thus reflecting sentence-level processing rather than that of single words. These results indicate that semantic representations grounded in the sensory–motor system play a role in the composition of sentence-level meaning, even in the case of idioms

Determinación de la prevalencia de Dirofilaria immitis, mediante la Prueba Rápida de Inmunocromatografía en perros del municipio de puerto barrios, Izabal, en el año 2016

La Dirofilariasis, es una infección causada por Dirofilaria immitis que afecta el corazón del perro, y menos frecuente en el gato. Es una enfermedad que utiliza a los mosquitos de los géneros Aedes, Anopheles y Culex , y es así como se disemina la enfermedad. Además, puede llegar a infectar al humano de una forma accidental. Se realizó un estudio en el municipio de Puerto Barrios, Izabal, con el objetivo de establecer la prevalencia de perros seropositivos y contribuir con el estudio epidemiológico de D. immitis¸ en Guatemala. Para este estudio transversal descriptivo, se muestrearon 80 caninos completamente al azar. En el estudio se incluyeron caninos machos y hembras, mayores de un año de edad, sin previo tratamiento a ivermectina. Se tomó una muestra de sangre periférica de la vena cefálica o safena, de cada uno. Cada una de las muestras fue sometida a la de prueba inmunocromatografía rápida (Uranotest Dirofilaria®,) para determinar la presencia de antígenos de D. immitis. En el estudio, no se encontró la presencia de antígenos circulantes en los perros muestreados, por lo tanto la prevalencia fue de cero. Sin embargo, este hallazgo no descarta la presencia del parásito en el municipio de Puerto Barrios, Izabal. Debido al resultado obtenido fue establecer alguna relación entre sexo, edad, raza y procedencia con la seropositividad

A Nonlinear Simulation Framework Supports Adjusting for Age When Analyzing BrainAGE

Several imaging modalities, including T1-weighted structural imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and functional MRI can show chronological age related changes. Employing machine learning algorithms, an individual's imaging data can predict their age with reasonable accuracy. While details vary according to modality, the general strategy is to: (1) extract image-related features, (2) build a model on a training set that uses those features to predict an individual's age, (3) validate the model on a test dataset, producing a predicted age for each individual, (4) define the “Brain Age Gap Estimate” (BrainAGE) as the difference between an individual's predicted age and his/her chronological age, (5) estimate the relationship between BrainAGE and other variables of interest, and (6) make inferences about those variables and accelerated or delayed brain aging. For example, a group of individuals with overall positive BrainAGE may show signs of accelerated aging in other variables as well. There is inevitably an overestimation of the age of younger individuals and an underestimation of the age of older individuals due to “regression to the mean.” The correlation between chronological age and BrainAGE may significantly impact the relationship between BrainAGE and other variables of interest when they are also related to age. In this study, we examine the detectability of variable effects under different assumptions. We use empirical results from two separate datasets [training = 475 healthy volunteers, aged 18–60 years (259 female); testing = 489 participants including people with mood/anxiety, substance use, eating disorders and healthy controls, aged 18–56 years (312 female)] to inform simulation parameter selection. Outcomes in simulated and empirical data strongly support the proposal that models incorporating BrainAGE should include chronological age as a covariate. We propose either including age as a covariate in step 5 of the above framework, or employing a multistep procedure where age is regressed on BrainAGE prior to step 5, producing BrainAGE Residualized (BrainAGER) scores