Epigenomes in Cardiovascular Disease.

If unifying principles could be revealed for how the same genome encodes different eukaryotic cells and for how genetic variability and environmental input are integrated to impact cardiovascular health, grand challenges in basic cell biology and translational medicine may succumb to experimental dissection. A rich body of work in model systems has implicated chromatin-modifying enzymes, DNA methylation, noncoding RNAs, and other transcriptome-shaping factors in adult health and in the development, progression, and mitigation of cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, deployment of epigenomic tools, powered by next-generation sequencing technologies in cardiovascular models and human populations, has enabled description of epigenomic landscapes underpinning cellular function in the cardiovascular system. This essay aims to unpack the conceptual framework in which epigenomes are studied and to stimulate discussion on how principles of chromatin function may inform investigations of cardiovascular disease and the development of new therapies

Can We Be Friends? An Examination of the Role of Cross-Sex Friendship on Emerging Adults\u27 Spiritual Development

Much curiosity surrounds the question of whether men and women be just friends. Heterosexual cross-sex friendship is a nonromantic, nonfamilial, relationship between a man and a woman (Schoonover & McEwan, 2014; O’Meara, 1989). While nonromantic by definition, the relationship may not remain void of all sexual tension. Furthermore, these relationships are especially explored during emerging adulthood (O’Meara, 1989). The emerging adulthood life phase involves individuals ages 18 to 30 (Smith, 2009). During the transition to adulthood, many emerging adults feel curious about religion and spiritual development (Setran & Kiesling, 2013; Bryant, 2007). Although some emerging adults seem non-committal especially in faith, others desire “real” encounters with God and even possess a spiritual hunger (Powell, Tisdale, Willingham, Bustrum, & Allen, 2012; Setran & Kiesling, 2013). These individuals find faith directing and guiding their quest for identity and personal purpose in life (Fowler, 1981). Emerging adults navigate identity formation and establish their own “meaning of life”—which results in many utilizing personal spiritual beliefs as a foundation to that process (Setran & Kiesling, 2013, p. 14). Thus, the current research examined 10 Christian emerging adults’ faith development with specific attention to the role of their cross-sex friends. The research also explored the impact of faith-based higher education, specifically, the environments and programming educators provide to foster healthy cross-sex friendships that further faith development

Promoting learning Autonomy: Helping Students Become Independent Learners

After twelve years of schooling, many students still do not have mature and efficient strategies necessary for independent learning. In an effort to address this problem, most postsecondary institutions are offering courses in basic skills such as reading, study skills, and writing. A search of the professional literature on studying and learning reveals the following reasons for students failing to apply independent learning strategies: lack of instruction, blind training in applying strategies, weak metacognitive strategies, and resistance to changing existing behavior patterns. Students can become independent learners when they overcome these obstacles

Electronic Structure of Pyrochlore Iridates: From Topological Dirac Metal to Mott Insulator

In 5d transition metal oxides such as the iridates, novel properties arise from the interplay of electron correlations and spin-orbit interactions. We investigate the electronic structure of the pyrochlore iridates, (such as Y$_{2}$Ir$_{2}$O$_{7}$) using density functional theory, LDA+U method, and effective low energy models. A remarkably rich phase diagram emerges on tuning the correlation strength U. The Ir magnetic moment are always found to be non-collinearly ordered. However, the ground state changes from a magnetic metal at weak U, to a Mott insulator at large U. Most interestingly, the intermediate U regime is found to be a Dirac semi-metal, with vanishing density of states at the Fermi energy. It also exhibits topological properties - manifested by special surface states in the form of Fermi arcs, that connect the bulk Dirac points. This Dirac phase, a three dimensional analog of graphene, is proposed as the ground state of Y$_{2}$Ir$_{2}$O$_{7}$ and related compounds. A narrow window of magnetic `axion' insulator, with axion parameter $\theta=\pi$, may also be present at intermediate U. An applied magnetic field induces ferromagnetic order and a metallic ground state.Comment: 7pages + 2pages appendices. 7 figures; see also viewpoint article by L. Balents, "Weyl Electrons Kiss", at Physics 4, 36 (2011

Integrating heterogeneous distributed COTS discrete-event simulation packages: An emerging standards-based approach

This paper reports on the progress made toward the emergence of standards to support the integration of heterogeneous discrete-event simulations (DESs) created in specialist support tools called commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) discrete-event simulation packages (CSPs). The general standard for heterogeneous integration in this area has been developed from research in distributed simulation and is the IEEE 1516 standard The High Level Architecture (HLA). However, the specific needs of heterogeneous CSP integration require that the HLA is augmented by additional complementary standards. These are the suite of CSP interoperability (CSPI) standards being developed under the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO-http://www.sisostds.org) by the CSPI Product Development Group (CSPI-PDG). The suite consists of several interoperability reference models (IRMs) that outline different integration needs of CSPI, interoperability frameworks (IFs) that define the HLA-based solution to each IRM, appropriate data exchange representations to specify the data exchanged in an IF, and benchmarks termed CSP emulators (CSPEs). This paper contributes to the development of the Type I IF that is intended to represent the HLA-based solution to the problem outlined by the Type I IRM (asynchronous entity passing) by developing the entity transfer specification (ETS) data exchange representation. The use of the ETS in an illustrative case study implemented using a prototype CSPE is shown. This case study also allows us to highlight the importance of event granularity and lookahead in the performance and development of the Type I IF, and to discuss possible methods to automate the capture of appropriate values of lookahead

Rényi divergence variational inference

This paper introduces the $\textit{variational Rényi bound}$ (VR) that extends traditional variational inference to Rényi’s $\alpha$-divergences. This new family of variational methods unifies a number of existing approaches, and enables a smooth interpolation from the evidence lower-bound to the log (marginal) likelihood that is controlled by the value of $\alpha$ that parametrises the divergence. The reparameterization trick, Monte Carlo approximation and stochastic optimisation methods are deployed to obtain a tractable and unified framework for optimisation. We further consider negative $\alpha$ values and propose a novel variational inference method as a new special case in the proposed framework. Experiments on Bayesian neural networks and variational auto-encoders demonstrate the wide applicability of the VR bound.YL thanks the Schlumberger Foundation FFTF fellowship. RET thanks EPSRC grants # EP/M026957/1 and EP/L000776/1

A Machian Model of Dark Energy

Einstein believed that Mach's principle should play a major role in finding a meaningful spacetime geometry, though it was discovered later that his field equations gave some solutions which were not Machian. It is shown, in this essay, that the kinematical $\Lambda$ models, which are invoked to solve the cosmological constant problem, are in fact consistent with Mach's ideas. One particular model in this category is described which results from the microstructure of spacetime and seems to explain the current observations successfully and also has some benefits over the conventional models. This forces one to think whether the Mach's ideas and the cosmological constant are interrelated in some way.Comment: Received an Honorable mention in the Essay Contest-2002 sponsored by the Gravity Research Foundation; A paragraph added on how the model can explain the CMB anisotropy observations; To appear in the Classical and Quantum Gravit