Blurred Lines: What Is Extremism?

The Michigan Journal of Law Reform Symposium, Alt-Association: The Role of Law in Combating Extremism (“the Symposium”), attempted to address the question of defining extremism. The Symposium aimed to provide a platform for filtering through the participants’ pre-conceived notions around extremism in order to challenge misconceptions about those labeled “extremist.” This word has been used time and time again in conversation, research, and even this paper without a concreate definition behind it. At the start of the Symposium, participants were asked to define extremism in their own words. The definitions produced were eye opening. For example, extremism was thought to be “ideas outside the established acceptable norms,” “an unwillingness to listen to an opposing point of view,” and “violence backed by ideology.” These definitions reflect a lot of our individual thoughts and how we live our everyday lives. Through this exercise and throughout the day, it became clear that, assuming the law should regulate extremism, the road to implementation is complicated not only because of the protections under the First Amendment, but also the effects of mislabeling individuals or groups as “extremist.” In the end, progress can only come by being intentional with the language being used

'Let me learn' or 'just the answer'? Research consultations and Dweck's theories of intelligence.

Psychologist Carol Dweck identified the fixed and incremental theories of intelligence, which could affect how students navigate the research process, including if they will seek help from a librarian and what they intend to take away from that interaction. This study explores whether students who made research consultation appointments with a librarian subscribed to a particular theory of intelligence in order to provide evidence that can be used to inform and transform our practice

Let me learn' or 'just the answer'? Research consultations and Dweck's theories of intelligence

Psychologist Carol Dweck identified the fixed and incremental theories of intelligence, which could affect how students navigate the research process, including if they will seek help from a librarian and what they intend to take away from that interaction. This study explores whether students who made research consultation appointments with a librarian subscribed to a particular theory of intelligence in order to provide evidence that can be used to inform and transform our practice

Self-Adjusting Biofeedback with a Dynamic Feedback Signal Set (DyFSS)

A lack of control over their autonomic nervous system presents a major challenge for many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Autonomic biofeedback training is a promising treatment for managing anxiety and ASD symptoms more generally. We describe software that tunes four autonomic measurements to the best abilities and needs of each individual patient. Using this dynamic feedback signal set (DyFSS), a strength-based, self-customizing algorithm, we aim to address the autonomic heterogeneity of youth with ASD. The DyFSS may improve autonomic biofeedback training for the user by making it more understandable and easier to accomplish. Because it is self-adjusting, it may also ease the integration of autonomic biofeedback training into clinical work. Initial feasibility testing of this algorithm in youth with ASD with a five-session autonomic biofeedback training protocol showed improved behavior in relation to ASD symptoms Initial reactions show that youth with ASD are readily engaged through technological interventions such as autonomic biofeedback. Keywords— autism spectrum disorder; autonomi

Mars: new insights and unresolved questions

Mars exploration motivates the search for extraterrestrial life, the development of space technologies, and the design of human missions and habitations. Here, we seek new insights and pose unresolved questions relating to the natural history of Mars, habitability, robotic and human exploration, planetary protection, and the impacts on human society. Key observations and findings include: – high escape rates of early Mars’ atmosphere, including loss of water, impact present-day habitability; – putative fossils on Mars will likely be ambiguous biomarkers for life; – microbial contamination resulting from human habitation is unavoidable; and – based on Mars’ current planetary protection category, robotic payload(s) should characterize the local martian environment for any life-forms prior to human habitation.Some of the outstanding questions are:– which interpretation of the hemispheric dichotomy of the planet is correct; – to what degree did deep-penetrating faults transport subsurface liquids to Mars’ surface; – in what abundance are carbonates formed by atmospheric processes; – what properties of martian meteorites could be used to constrain their source locations; – the origin(s) of organic macromolecules; – was/is Mars inhabited; – how can missions designed to uncover microbial activity in the subsurface eliminate potential false positives caused by microbial contaminants from Earth; – how can we ensure that humans and microbes form a stable and benign biosphere; and – should humans relate to putative extraterrestrial life from a biocentric viewpoint (preservation of all biology), or anthropocentric viewpoint of expanding habitation of space?Studies of Mars’ evolution can shed light on the habitability of extrasolar planets. In addition, Mars exploration can drive future policy developments and confirm (or put into question) the feasibility and/or extent of human habitability of space

Blurred Lines: What Is Extremism?

The Michigan Journal of Law Reform Symposium, Alt-Association: The Role of Law in Combating Extremism (“the Symposium”), attempted to address the question of defining extremism. The Symposium aimed to provide a platform for filtering through the participants’ pre-conceived notions around extremism in order to challenge misconceptions about those labeled “extremist.” This word has been used time and time again in conversation, research, and even this paper without a concreate definition behind it. At the start of the Symposium, participants were asked to define extremism in their own words. The definitions produced were eye opening. For example, extremism was thought to be “ideas outside the established acceptable norms,” “an unwillingness to listen to an opposing point of view,” and “violence backed by ideology.” These definitions reflect a lot of our individual thoughts and how we live our everyday lives. Through this exercise and throughout the day, it became clear that, assuming the law should regulate extremism, the road to implementation is complicated not only because of the protections under the First Amendment, but also the effects of mislabeling individuals or groups as “extremist.” In the end, progress can only come by being intentional with the language being used

You've Got Them In, Now Get Them Involved: A Hands-on Approach to Library Instruction for Freshmen

What are the most important things that freshmen should take away from their first session in the library? This session will explore the answer to that question as attendees learn how librarians revamped their library orientation program for first-year students in order to introduce them to information literacy skills and library resources in a more engaging way. No more passively watching tutorials and listening to lectures — students get their hands dirty as they’re immersed in the research process. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share their own experiences and discuss what’s worked for them and what hasn’t

Data from: Gene expression levels are correlated with synonymous codon usage, amino acid composition and gene architecture in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

Gene expression levels correlate with multiple aspects of gene sequence and gene structure in phylogenetically diverse taxa suggesting an important role of gene expression levels in the evolution of protein-coding genes. Here we present results of a genome-wide study of the influence of gene expression on synonymous codon usage, amino acid composition and gene structure in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Consistent with the action of translational selection, we find that synonymous codon usage bias increases with gene expression. However, the correspondence between tRNA gene copy number and optimal codons is weak. At the amino acid level, translational selection is suggested by the positive correlation between tRNA gene numbers and amino acid usage which is stronger for highly expressed genes. In addition, there is a clear trend for increased use of metabolically cheaper, less complex, amino acids as gene expression increases. tRNA gene numbers also correlate negatively with amino acid size/complexity score indicating the coupling between translational selection and selection to minimize the use of large/complex amino acids. Interestingly, the correlation between tRNA gene numbers and amino acid size/complexity score appears to be widespread given our analyses of 10 additional genomes and might be explained by selection against negative consequences of protein misfolding. At the level of gene structure, three major trends are detected 1) CDS length increases across low and intermediate expression levels but decreases in highly expressed genes; 2) the average intron size shows the opposite trend, first decreasing with expression, followed by a slight increase in highly expressed genes and 3) intron density remains nearly constant across all expression levels. These changes in gene architecture are only in partial agreement with selection favoring reduced cost of biosynthesis

ExpressionData

The expression data from Tribolium castaneum whole body and reproductive tracts samples provided here is the output of ArrayStar gene expression software that was used to processes and normalize NimbleGen-generated raw expression data (Prince, Kirkland and Demuth 2010, Genome Biol Evol 2:336-346)