A nightscape preference study using eye movement analysis

The results of a nightscape preference study combining traditional survey methods and eye movement analysis are summarized. The relationship between eye movements and degree of preference for a nightscape (i.e., nighttime landscape) was analyzed. While wearing eye tracking equipment, participants (N = 23) were shown images of three landscape settings types: a spatially open setting, an enclosed setting, and a setting dominated by a path. For each landscape setting, the images were provided at four different brightness levels. Participants were also given a traditional preference survey and asked to rate each image. A significant relationship was found between participant’s eye movements and preference ratings. Results showed that people preferred brighter images of open landscapes to darker images of enclosed landscapes. These results can be explained by prospect and refuge theory. People prefer to see (prospect) dangers after dark, thus preferring brighter, more open landscape images. Participants spent more time looking at preferred images than nonpreferred images, and also spent more time looking not at light fixtures directly but at the areas surrounding them. Consistent with the affordance theory, the participants spent more time looking at objects that could be used. They also looked at images starting from the upper left and moving to the center of the images. The eye tracking study provided a detailed understanding of people’s eye movement patterns and showed great potential for use in preference studies

Low-temperature formation of epitaxial graphene on 6H-SiC induced by continuous electron beam irradiation

It is observed that epitaxial graphene forms on the surface of a 6H-SiC substrate by irradiating electron beam directly on the sample surface in high vacuum at relatively low temperature (similar to 670 degrees C). The symmetric shape and full width at half maximum of 2D peak in the Raman spectra indicate that the formed epitaxial graphene is turbostratic. The gradual change of the Raman spectra with electron beam irradiation time increasing suggests that randomly distributed small grains of epitaxial graphene form first and grow laterally to cover the entire irradiated area. The sheet resistance of epitaxial graphene film is measured to be similar to 6.7 k Omega/sq.open4

Homozygote CRIM1 variant is associated with thiopurine-induced neutropenia in leukemic patients with both wildtype NUDT15 and TPMT

Abstract Background NUDT15 and TPMT variants are strong genetic determinants of thiopurine-induced hematological toxicity that results in therapeutic failure in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, many patients with both wild-type (WT) NUDT15 and TPMT still suffer from thiopurine toxicity and therapeutic failure. Methods Whole-exome sequencing was done for discovery (N = 244) and replication (N = 76) cohorts. Age- and sex-adjusted multiple regression analyses of both WT patients were performed to identify (p < 0.01, N = 188 for discovery) and validate (p < 0.05, N = 52 for replication) candidate variants for the tolerated last-cycle 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) dose intensity percentage (DIP). Both independent and additive effects of the candidate variants on well-known NUDT15 and TPMT were evaluated by multigene prediction models. Results Among the 12 candidate variants from the discovery phase, the rs3821169 variant of the gene encoding Cysteine-Rich Transmembrane BMP Regulator 1 (CRIM1) was successfully replicated (p < 0.05). It showed high interethnic variability with an impressively high allele frequency in East Asians (T = 0.255) compared to Africans (0.001), Americans (0.02), Europeans (0.009), and South Asians (0.05). Homozygote carriers of the CRIM1 rs3821169 variant (N = 12, 5%) showed significantly lower last-cycle 6-MP DIPs in the discovery, replication, and combined cohorts (p = 0.025, 0.013, and 0.001, respectively). The traditional two-gene model (NUDT15 and TPMT) for predicting 6-MP DIP < 25% was outperformed by the three-gene model that included CRIM1, in terms of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.734 vs. 0.665), prediction accuracy (0.759 vs. 0.756), sensitivity (0.636 vs. 0.523), positive predictive value (0.315 vs. 0.288), and negative predictive value (0.931 vs. 0.913). Conclusions The CRIM1 rs3821169 variant is suggested to be an independent and/or additive genetic determinant of thiopurine toxicity beyond NUDT15 and TPMT in pediatric ALL

Enhanced Crystallinity of Epitaxial Graphene Grown on Hexagonal SiC Surface with Molybdenum Plate Capping

The crystallinity of epitaxial graphene (EG) grown on a Hexagonal-SiC substrate is found to be enhanced greatly by capping the substrate with a molybdenum plate (Mo-plate) during vacuum annealing. The crystallinity enhancement of EG layer grown with Mo-plate capping is confirmed by the significant change of measured Raman spectra, compared to the spectra for no capping. Mo-plate capping is considered to induce heat accumulation on SiC surface by thermal radiation mirroring and raise Si partial pressure near surface by confining the sublimated Si atoms between SiC substrate and Mo-plate, which would be the essential contributors of crystallinity enhancementclose0

Physiological effects of KDM5C on neural crest migration and eye formation during vertebrate development

Background: Lysine-specific histone demethylase 5C (KDM5C) belongs to the jumonji family of demethylases and is specific for the di- and tri-demethylation of lysine 4 residues on histone 3 (H3K4 me2/3). KDM5C is expressed in the brain and skeletal muscles of humans and is associated with various biologically significant processes. KDM5C is known to be associated with X-linked mental retardation and is also involved in the development of cancer. However, the developmental significance of KDM5C has not been explored yet. In the present study, we investigated the physiological roles of KDM5C during Xenopus laevis embryonic development. Results: Loss-of-function analysis using kdm5c antisense morpholino oligonucleotides indicated that kdm5c knockdown led to small-sized heads, reduced cartilage size, and malformed eyes (i.e., small-sized and deformed eyes). Molecular analyses of KDM5C functional roles using whole-mount in situ hybridization, -galactosidase staining, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that loss of kdm5c resulted in reduced expression levels of neural crest specifiers and genes involved in eye development. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis indicated the significance of KDM5C in morphogenesis and organogenesis. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that KDM5C is associated with embryonic development and provided additional information regarding the complex and dynamic gene network that regulates neural crest formation and eye development. This study emphasizes the functional significance of KDM5C in Xenopus embryogenesis; however, further analysis is needed to explore the interactions of KDM5C with specific developmental genes

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Redesigning Catme’s Web Interface to Improve User Experience

CATME (Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness) is a web-based platform that is intended to improve team experiences for students and faculty in higher education. The goal of this study is to redesign the user interface for CATME employing User-centered Design (UCD) framework. The design process consists of four phases: discover, define, develop, and validate. This study examines the current website to discover potential usability problems by conducting different methodology. Then it moves into robust user research to define the user’s pain points need to be addressed to improve user experience. In order to tackle the usability issues, design solutions are created and evaluated with real users. The result of the study is redesigned UI (user interface) for CATME’s three key pages, the homepage, activity wizard, and data dashboard

A Multi-Risk Approach to Climate Change Adaptation, Based on an Analysis of South Korean Newspaper Articles

The risks caused by climate change are worsening worldwide, and it is recognized that national and regional responses to climate change are essential. This study therefore explores climate change risks that have been recognized as fatal to people and the environment by analyzing multi-influence factors that appear in multiple risk indicators. The climate change risks in this study are based on 73 existing risk indicators; the frame data for multi-influence risk factors are based on 3098 newspaper articles published over 24 years on the impact of climate change in South Korea. The main outcomes for this study were finding climate change risk trend from newspaper articles regarding climate change impacts through text-mining, and figuring out the multi-risk indicators that are likely to occur at the same time with other risk indicators using network analysis. From the network analysis, we found that the major risk indicators have a high degree of interrelationship among risk indicators, including &ldquo;increase in mortality rate from disaster&rdquo;, &ldquo;increase in flood areas due to coastal flooding&rdquo;, and &ldquo;destruction of repair facilities due to flooding (river bank, etc.)&rdquo;. The main risk indicators derived from this study can therefore be used as a reasonable standard when identifying the main risks posed by climate change and defining future adaptation planning priorities