Thunderstorm Research International Program (TRIP 77) report to management

A post analysis of the previous day's weather, followed by the day's forecast and an outlook on weather conditions for the following day is given. The normal NOAA weather charts were used, complemented by the latest GOES satellite pictures, the latest rawinsonde sounding, and the computer-derived thunderstorm probability forecasts associated with the sounding

Using a Grid-Enabled Wireless Sensor Network for Flood Management

Flooding is becoming an increasing problem. As a result there is a need to deploy more sophisticated sensor networks to detect and react to flooding. This paper outlines a demonstration that illustrates our proposed solution to this problem involving embedded wireless hardware, component based middleware and overlay networks

Inhibition of Rho kinase regulates specification of early differentiation events in P19 embryonal carcinoma stem cells

Background: The Rho kinase pathway plays a key role in many early cell/tissue determination events that take place in embryogenesis. Rho and its downstream effector Rho kinase (ROCK) play pivotal roles in cell migration, apoptosis (membrane blebbing), cell proliferation/cell cycle, cell-cell adhesion and gene regulation. We and others have previously demonstrated that inhibition of ROCK blocks endoderm differentiation in embryonal carcinoma stem cells, however, the effect of ROCK inhibition on mesoderm and ectoderm specification has not been fully examined. In this study, the role of ROCK within the specification and differentiation of all three germ layers was examined. Methodology/Principal Findings: P19 cells were treated with the specific ROCK inhibitor Y-27623, and increase in differentiation efficiency into neuro-ectodermal and mesodermal lineages was observed. However, as expected a dramatic decrease in early endodermal markers was observed when ROCK was inhibited. Interestingly, within these ROCK-inhibited RA treated cultures, increased levels of mesodermal or ectodermal markers were not observed, instead it was found that the pluripotent markers SSEA-1 and Oct-4 remained up-regulated similar to that seen in undifferentiated cultures. Using standard and widely accepted methods for reproducible P19 differentiation into all three germ layers, an enhancement of mesoderm and ectoderm differentiation with a concurrent loss of endoderm lineage specification was observed with Y-27632 treatment. Evidence would suggest that this effect is in part mediated through TGF-β and SMAD signaling as ROCK-inhibited cells displayed aberrant SMAD activation and did not return to a \u27ground\u27 state after the inhibition had been removed. Conclusions/Significance: Given this data and the fact that only a partial rescue of normal differentiation capacity occurred when ROCK inhibition was alleviated, the effect of ROCK inhibition on the differentiation capacity of pluripotent cell populations should be further examined to elucidate the role of the Rho-ROCK pathway in early cellular \u27fate\u27 decision making processes. © 2011 Krawetz et al

Inhibition of Rho Kinase Regulates Specification of Early Differentiation Events in P19 Embryonal Carcinoma Stem Cells

The Rho kinase pathway plays a key role in many early cell/tissue determination events that take place in embryogenesis. Rho and its downstream effector Rho kinase (ROCK) play pivotal roles in cell migration, apoptosis (membrane blebbing), cell proliferation/cell cycle, cell-cell adhesion and gene regulation. We and others have previously demonstrated that inhibition of ROCK blocks endoderm differentiation in embryonal carcinoma stem cells, however, the effect of ROCK inhibition on mesoderm and ectoderm specification has not been fully examined. In this study, the role of ROCK within the specification and differentiation of all three germ layers was examined.P19 cells were treated with the specific ROCK inhibitor Y-27623, and increase in differentiation efficiency into neuro-ectodermal and mesodermal lineages was observed. However, as expected a dramatic decrease in early endodermal markers was observed when ROCK was inhibited. Interestingly, within these ROCK-inhibited RA treated cultures, increased levels of mesodermal or ectodermal markers were not observed, instead it was found that the pluripotent markers SSEA-1 and Oct-4 remained up-regulated similar to that seen in undifferentiated cultures. Using standard and widely accepted methods for reproducible P19 differentiation into all three germ layers, an enhancement of mesoderm and ectoderm differentiation with a concurrent loss of endoderm lineage specification was observed with Y-27632 treatment. Evidence would suggest that this effect is in part mediated through TGF-β and SMAD signaling as ROCK-inhibited cells displayed aberrant SMAD activation and did not return to a 'ground' state after the inhibition had been removed.Given this data and the fact that only a partial rescue of normal differentiation capacity occurred when ROCK inhibition was alleviated, the effect of ROCK inhibition on the differentiation capacity of pluripotent cell populations should be further examined to elucidate the role of the Rho-ROCK pathway in early cellular 'fate' decision making processes

Component-based System Software: A Generic Approach

Component-based software engineering has recently emerged as a promising solution to the development of system-level software. Unfortunately, current approaches are limited to specific platforms and domains. This lack of generality is particularly problematic as it prevents knowledge sharing and generally increases development costs. In this paper we present OpenCom, a generic component-based platform that is specifically designed to support a wide range of system software, both in terms of deployment environments (e.g. PDAs, embedded devices, network processor-based routers) and target domains (e.g. embedded systems, middleware, OSs, programmable networking environments). We discuss the fundamentals of OpenCom’s programming model, present a performance evaluation, and illustrate the advantages of our model based on several case studies

Towards anomaly comprehension:using structural compression to navigate profiling call-trees

Developers must often diagnose anomalies in programs they only have a partial knowledge of. As a result, they must simultaneously reverse engineer parts of the system they are unfamiliar with while interpreting dynamic observation data (performance profiling traces, error-propagation channels, memory leaks), a task particularly difficult. To support developers in this kind of comprehension task, filtering and aggregation have long been suggested as key enabling strategies. Unfortunately, traditional approaches typically only provide a uniform level of aggregation, thus limiting the ability of developers to construct context-dependent representations of a program's execution. In this paper, we propose a localised approach to navigate and analyse the CPU usage of little-known programs and libraries. Our method exploits the structural information present in profiling call trees to selectively raise or lower the local abstraction level of the performance data. We explain the formalism underpinning our approach, describe a prototype, and present a preliminary user study that shows our tool has the potential to complement more traditional navigation approaches

A generic component model for building systems software

Component-based software structuring principles are now commonplace at the application level; but componentization is far less established when it comes to building low-level systems software. Although there have been pioneering efforts in applying componentization to systems-building, these efforts have tended to target specific application domains (e.g., embedded systems, operating systems, communications systems, programmable networking environments, or middleware platforms). They also tend to be targeted at specific deployment environments (e.g., standard personal computer (PC) environments, network processors, or microcontrollers). The disadvantage of this narrow targeting is that it fails to maximize the genericity and abstraction potential of the component approach. In this article, we argue for the benefits and feasibility of a generic yet tailorable approach to component-based systems-building that offers a uniform programming model that is applicable in a wide range of systems-oriented target domains and deployment environments. The component model, called OpenCom, is supported by a reflective runtime architecture that is itself built from components. After describing OpenCom and evaluating its performance and overhead characteristics, we present and evaluate two case studies of systems we have built using OpenCom technology, thus illustrating its benefits and its general applicability

The decrease in endoderm differentiation observed in RA+Y-27632 treatment corresponds to maintenance of pluripotency.

<p>Total mRNA collected from samples was used in a qPCR with primers against the pluripotency marker Oct-4 (A). As expected, during directed differentiation into all three germ layers, the expression of Oct-4 is decreased. However, under RA+Y-27632 treatment (A) Oct-4 levels are more similar to that in undifferentiated cells. Immunofluorescent detection of Oct-4 in undifferentiated cells (B) and in cells treated with RA (C) RA plus Y-27632 (D) or RA with Y-27632 pre-treatment (E). qPCR with SSEA-1 probes showed similar levels and trends to that of Oct-4, with significant decreases observed during differentiation into any lineage (F). Furthermore, as with Oct-4 SSEA-1 mRNA expression remained at control levels during RA with Y-27632 treatment (F). Immunofluorescent detection of SSEA-1 in undifferentiated cells (G) and in those treated with RA (H) RA with Y-27632 (I) or RA with Y-27632 pre-treatment (J). FACS analysis demonstrates increased numbers of Oct-4 and SSEA-1 positive cells during RA induced differentiation and Y-27632 treatment (K). Scale bar equals 50 µm, green staining represents the primary antibody, and blue staining is the nuclear dye TOTO-3. * Significance accepted at p<0.05.</p