Of Mice and Ice in the Late Pliocene of North America

Between 2.5 to 1.8 million years ago changes in arctic climate and in meadow mouse dispersal routes correlate with part of the history of uplift and glacial erosion of the Chugach and Saint Elias mountains in Alaska and adjacent Canada. Earlier meadow mice dispersing from Asia to central North America followed a southward coastal route between these mountains and the Pacific Ocean, appearing first in the United States Pacific Northwest. Two and a half million years ago, accelerated uplift of the Chugach and Saint Elias mountains milked Pacific westerly winds, enlarging the ice fields in these mountains so that they then flowed to the sea. This blocked the coastal dispersal for 600,000 years, when no new immigrant meadow mice appeared in the conterminous United States. The uplift also restrained westerly winds that crossed Canada, permitting moister air from the subtropical Atlantic and from an unfrozen Arctic Ocean to produce significant continental glaciation, centered in eastern Canada. By 2.0 million years ago, glacial erosion had lowered these mountains again, letting relatively dry Pacific westerlies extend across Canada, reducing the encroachment of moist Atlantic and arctic air, and ending continental glaciation to the east. The simultaneous reduction of glacial activity in the cordillera allowed meadow mice to renew southward dispersal. Additionally, the lowered mountains remained a rain shadow, causing grassland in the Great Plains of Canada. Thus a new dispersal route to the United States was opened for grazing meadow mice and for the first time their earliest records were in the Great Plains. Loss of the continental ice sheet and an unfrozen Arctic Ocean facilitated the northward spread of warm and moist air from the North Atlantic subtropical high; it flowed northward up the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and, mingling with the dry westerlies, northeastward across Canada to northernmost Greenland, where trees then grew. About 1.8 million years ago the Great Plains of the United States were subtropical savannah and remained so until the beginning of the Ice Age 850,000 years ago.

Exceptional Record of Mid-Pleistocene Vertebrates Helps Differentiate Climatic from Anthropogenic Ecosystem Perturbations

Mid-Pleistocene vertebrates in North America are scarce but important for recognizing the ecological effects of climatic change in the absence of humans. We report on a uniquely rich mid-Pleistocene vertebrate sequence from Porcupine Cave, Colorado, which records at least 127 species and the earliest appearances of 30 mammals and birds. By analyzing \u3e20,000 mammal fossils in relation to modern species and independent climatic proxies, we determined how mammal communities reacted to presumed glacial-interglacial transitions between 1,000,000 and 600,000 years ago. We conclude that climatic warming primarily affected mammals of lower trophic and size categories, in contrast to documented human impacts on higher trophic and size categories historically. Despite changes in species composition and minor changes in small-mammal species richness evident at times of climatic change, overall structural stability of mammal communities persisted \u3e600,000 years before human impacts

My IoT Puzzle: Debugging IF-THEN Rules Through the Jigsaw Metaphor

End users can nowadays define applications in the format of IF-THEN rules to personalize their IoT devices and online services. Along with the possibility to compose such applications, however, comes the need to debug them, e.g., to avoid unpredictable and dangerous behaviors. In this context, different questions are still unexplored: which visual languages are more appropriate for debugging IF-THEN rules? Which information do end users need to understand, identify, and correct errors? To answer these questions, we first conducted a literature analysis by reviewing previous works on end-user debugging, with the aim of extracting design guidelines. Then, we developed My IoT Puzzle, a tool to compose and debug IF-THEN rules based on the Jigsaw metaphor. My IoT Puzzle interactively assists users in the debugging process with different real-time feedback, and it allows the resolution of conflicts by providing textual and graphical explanations. An exploratory study with 6 participants preliminary confirms the effectiveness of our approach, showing that the usage of the Jigsaw metaphor, along with real-time feedback and explanations, helps users understand and fix conflicts among IF-THEN rules

Mice Lacking Three Loci Encoding 14 Glutathione Transferase Genes: A Novel Tool for Assigning Function to the GSTP, GSTM, and GSTT Families

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) form a superfamily defined by their ability to catalyze the conjugation of glutathione with electrophilic substrates. These enzymes are proposed to play a critical role in protection of cellular components from damage mediated by reactive metabolites. Twenty-two cytosolic GSTs, grouped into seven families, are recognized in mice. This complexity hinders the assignment of function to a subset or family of these genes. We report generation of a mouse line in which the locus encoding three GST gene families is deleted. This includes the four Gstt genes spanning 65 kb on chromosome 10 and the seven Gstm genes found on a 150 kb segment of DNA chromosome 3. In addition, we delete two Gstp genes on chromosome 19 as well as a third related gene located 15 kb telomeric to Gstp1 and Gstp2, which we identify as a potential new member of this gene family. We show that, despite the loss of up to 75% of total GST activity in some tissues from these animals, the mice are healthy and fertile, with normal life expectancy. The normal development and health of these animals make them an appropriate model for defining the role of these families in redox homeostasis and metabolism of drugs and environmental pollutants

A mobile-based solution for supporting end-users in the composition of services

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3910-4Currently, technologies and applications evolve to create eco-systems made up of a myriad of heterogeneous and distributed services that are accessible anytime and anywhere. Even though these services can be used individually, it is their coordinated and combined usage what provide an added value to end-users. In addition, user¿s wide adoption of mobile devices for daily activities have fostered a shift in the role played by end-users towards Internet data and services. However, existing solutions to service composition are not targeted to ordinary end-users. More easy-to-use tools have to be offered to end-users to make sure that they are successfully accepted and used by them. To this end, the work presented in this paper supports end-users in the creation of service compositions by using mobile devices. We present a Domain Specific Visual Language (DSVL) for end-users that allows them to create service compositions. A tool specifically designed for mobile devices supports this DSVL.This work has been developed with the support of MINECO under the project SMART ADAPT TIN2013-42981-P and co-financed with ERDF.Valderas Aranda, PJ.; Torres Bosch, MV.; Mansanet Benavent, I.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2016). A mobile-based solution for supporting end-users in the composition of services. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3910-4S131Athreya B, Bahmani F, Diede A, Scaffidi C (2012) End-user programmers on the loose: a study of programming on the phone for the phone. In IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), Innsbruck, Austria, pp. 75–82Atoma (2015) Atoomam, a touch of magic. Accesible at: https://www.atooma.com/ . Last time accessed: December 2015Ayora C, Torres V, Weber B, Reichert M, Pelechano V (2013) Enhancing modeling and change support for process families through change patterns. In: Enterprise, business-process and information systems modeling. Springer, Berlin, pp. 246–260Boehm B, Abts C, Brown A, Chulani S, Clark B, Horowitz E, Madchy R, Reifer D, Steece B (2000) Software Cost Estimation with COCOMOII. Upper Saddle River: Prentice HallBPDM (2014) Business Process Defintion Metamodel, volume ii: Process Definitions. http://www.omg.org/spec/BPDM/1.0/volume2/PDFCasati F (1998) Models, semantics, and formal methods for the design of workflows and their exceptions. PhD thesis, MilanoCouper MP, Tourangeau R, Conrad FG, Crawford SD (2004) What they see is what we get: response options for web surveys. Soc Sci Comput Rev 22(1):111–127Cuccurullo S, Francese R, Risi M, Tortora G (2011) MicroApps development on mobile phones. In: End-user development. Springer, Berlin, pp. 289–294Dadam P, Reichert M (2009) The ADEPT project: a decade of research and development for robust and flexible process support. Comput Sci - R&D 23:81–97Danado J, Paternò F (2014) Puzzle: a mobile application development environment using a jigsaw metaphor. J Vis Lang Comput 25(4):297–315Danado J, Davies M, Ricca P, Fensel A (2010) An authoring tool for user generated mobile services. In: Future internet-FIS 2010. Springer, Berlin, pp. 118–127Dey AK, Sohn T, Streng S, Kodama J (2006) iCAP: interactive prototyping of context-aware applications. In: Pervasive computing. Springer, Berlin, pp. 254–271Engeström Y, Miettinen R, Punamäki RL (1999) Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGalitz WO (2002) The essential guide to user interface design: an introduction to GUI. In: Design principles and techniques. Wiley, New YorkGil M, Serral E, Valderas P, Pelechano V (2013) Designing for user attention: a method for supporting unobtrusive routine tasks. Sci Comput Program 78(10):1987–2008Gubbi J, Buyya R, Marusic S, Palaniswami M (2013) Internet of things (IoT): a vision, architectural elements, and future directions. Futur Gener Comput Syst 29(7):1645–1660Haines W, Gervasio M, Spaulding A, Peintner B (2010) Recommendations for end-user development. In ACM Workshop on User-Centric Evaluation of Recommender Systems and their Interfaces, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 42-49Häkkilä J, Korpipää P, Ronkainen S, Tuomela U (2005) Interaction and end-user programming with a context-aware mobile application. In: Human-computer interaction-INTERACT 2005. Springer, Berlin, pp. 927–937ICIS (2015) Internet Computing in the Internet of Services. Summer School. Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra. Available at: http://icis.uc.pt/ . Last time accessed: December 2015Ifttt (2015) Ifttt, If This Then That. Accesible at: https://ifttt.com/ . Last time accessed: December 2015Larman C, Basili VR (2003) Iterative and incremental development: a brief history. Computer 6:47–56Lewis JR (1995) IBM computer usability satisfaction questionnaires: psychometric evaluation and instructions for use. Int J Hum Comput Interact 7(1):57–78Liberman H, Paternò F, Klann M, Wulf V (2006) End user development. In: Liberman H, Paternò F, Wulf V (eds) End-user development: an emerging paradigm, vol 9, pp. 427–457Locale (2015) Accesible at: http://www.twofortyfouram.com . Last time accessed: December 2015Lucci G, Paternò F (2014) Understanding end-user development of context-dependent applications in smartphones. In: Human-centered software engineering. Springer, Berlin, pp. 182–198Mansanet I, Torres V, Valderas P, Pelechano V (2014) A Mobile End-Use Tool for service Compositions. X Jornadas de Ciencia e Ingeniería de Servicios (JCIS 2014), 25–35Mansanet I, Torres V, Valderas P, Pelechano V (2015) IoT Compositions by and for the Crowd. XI Jornadas de Ciencia e Ingeniería de Servicios (JCIS 2015)Neil T (2014) Mobile design pattern gallery: UI patterns for smartphone apps. “O’Reilly Media, Inc.”, SebastopolNielsen J (2005) Ten usability heuristics. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics . Last time accessed: February 2016Renger M, Kolfschoten GL, de Vreede GJ (2008) Challenges in collaborative modeling: A literature review. In Advances in enterprise engineering I, held at CAiSE 2008, Montpellier, 10. 61–77Repenning A, Ioannidou A (2006) What makes end-user development tick? 13 design guidelines. End user development, Human-Computer Interaction Series, vol 9, pp. 51–85Runeson P, Höst M (2009) Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering. Empir Softw Eng 14(2):131–164Segal J (2005) Two principles of end-user software engineering research, In ACM SIGSOFT software engineering notes (Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 1–5). ACM, New YorkSerral E, Valderas P, Pelechano V (2013) Context-adaptive coordination of pervasive services by interpreting models during runtime†. Comput J 56(1):87–114Tasker (2015) Tasker, Total Automation for Android. Accesible at: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/ . Last time accessed: December 2015.Uden L, Valderas P, Pastor O (2008) An activity-theory-based model to analyse Web application requirements. Inf Res 13(2):1Valderas P, Pelechano V, Pastor O (2006) A transformational approach to produce web application prototypes from a web requirements model. Int J Web Eng Technol 3(1):4–42Van Deursen A, Klint P, Visser J (2000) Domain-specific languages: an annotated bibliography. Sigplan Notices 35(6):26–36Van Welie M, Trætteberg H (2000) Interaction patterns in user interfaces. In 7th. Pattern Languages of Programs Conference (pp. 13–16)Weber B, Reichert M, Rinderle S (2008) Change patterns and change support features - enhancing flexibility in process-aware information systems. Data Knowl Eng 66:438–466Yu J, Sheng QZ, Han J, Wu Y, Liu C (2012) A semantically enhanced service repository for user-centric service discovery and management. Data Knowl Eng 72:202–21

Pliocene and Pleistocene geologic and climatic evolution in the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado

Sediments of the Alamosa Formation spanning the upper part of the Gauss and most of the Matuyama Chrons were recovered by coring in the high (2300 m) San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado. The study site is located at the northern end of the Rio Grande rift. Lithologic changes in the core sediments provide evidence of events leading to integration of the San Luis drainage basin into the Rio Grande. The section, which includes the Huckleberry Ridge Ash (2.02 Ma) and spans the entire Matuyama Chron, contains pollen, and invertebrate and vertebrate fossils. Stable isotope analyses of inorganic and biogenic carbonate taken over most of the core indicate substantially warmer temperatures than occur today in the San Luis Valley. At the end of the Olduvai Subchron, summer precipitation decreased, summer pan evaporation increased, and temperatures increased slightly compared to the earlier climate represented in the core. By the end of the Jaramillo Subchron, however, cold/wet and warm/dry cycles become evident and continue into the cold/wet regime associated with the deep-sea oxygen-isotope Stage 22 glaciation previously determined from outcrops at the same locality. Correspondence between the Hansen Bluff climatic record and the deep-sea oxygen-isotope record (oxygen-isotope stages from about 110-18) is apparent, indicating that climate at Hansen Bluff was responding to global climatic changes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29956/1/0000316.pd

Salt Restriction Leads to Activation of Adult Renal Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Like Cells via Prostaglandin E2 and E-Prostanoid Receptor 4

Despite the importance of juxtaglomerular (JG) cell recruitment in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, the mechanisms that underlie renin production under conditions of chronic stimulation remain elusive. We have previously shown that CD44+ mesenchymal-like cells (CD44+ cells) exist in the adult kidney. Under chronic sodium deprivation these cells are recruited to the JG area and differentiate to new renin-expressing cells. Given the proximity of macula densa (MD) to the JG area and the importance of MD released prostanoids in renin synthesis and release, we hypothesized that chronic sodium deprivation induces MD release of prostanoids; stimulating renal CD44+ cell activation and differentiation. CD44+ cells were isolated from adult kidneys and co-cultured with the MD cell line, MMDD1, in normal or low sodium medium. Low sodium stimulated PGE2 production by MMDD1 and induced migration of CD44+ cells. These effects were inhibited by addition of a Cox-2 inhibitor (NS398) or an EP4 receptor antagonist (AH23848) to MMDD1 or CD44+ cells respectively. Addition of PGE2 to CD44+ cells increased cell migration and induced renin expression. In vivo activation of renal CD44+ cells during JG recruitment was attenuated in wild type mice subjected to salt restriction in the presence of Cox-2 inhibitor Rofecoxib. Similar results were observed in EP4 receptor knockout mice subjected to salt restriction. These results show that the PGE2/ EP4 pathway plays a key role in the activation of renal CD44+ MSC-like cells during conditions of JG recruitment; highlighting the importance of this pathway as a key regulatory mechanism of JG recruitment

Using Simulations as a Starting Point for Constructing Meaningful Learning Games

For many school administrators and decision makers, the term “video games” holds numerous cultural associations which make their adoption in the education space challenging. Additionally, the term is so broad that it can sometimes be difficult to communicate explicitly a desire to build learning experiences that go beyond the Drill and Kill edutainment titles that currently dominate most people’s perceptions of educational games. By contrast, the term “simulations” is often well respected among educators, particularly in the natural sciences. With “simulation” already being a full genre of video games, it would seem natural that researchers are beginning to explore the overlaps between simulation games and pedagogical goals that go beyond those found in Drill and Kill games. In this chapter, we survey some of the relevant research concerning both simulations and video games and outline practical pathways through which we can leverage the interest and frameworks designed for simulation construction to facilitate the introduction of video game concepts and experiences into the classroom environment. In particular, we report on the use of Starlogo TNG, a graphical programming environment in which kids themselves can create simulation-based video games, for deepening children’s understanding of scientific concepts