Computationally Efficient Modeling and Data Assimilation of Near-Surface Variability

Near-surface (< 20m) ocean exhibits high variability due to coupled interactions, for e.g., with the atmosphere, sea ice, land, etc. Here we focus on atmospheric heat and momentum (wind) forcing, which are known to cause diurnal variability within the mixed layer. Only recently with a combination of sufficiently high vertical/horizontal resolution (75L, 1/4deg) and sub-daily atmospheric forcing fields, ocean models are starting to resolve this diurnal variability. However, the computation expense of such a high vertical resolution is burdensome in the context of coupled modeling and data assimilation. An alternative approach is to parameterize this diurnal variability with a prognostic model, that is embedded into the ocean model.In the first part of this presentation, we will demonstrate results with the above two approaches, by comparing them to profiles of near-surface temperature and salinity. In the context of data assimilation and reanalysis, this modeling capability opens the door to re-examine and perhaps improve specification of background (or, ensemble) error characteristics. The second half of this talk will focus on illustrating diurnally varying errors within an ensemble DA, and possible approaches to improve localization (horizontal/vertical) to extract maximum possible observational information content from in-situ and satellite observations of sea surface temperature

A Randomized Kernel-Based Secret Image Sharing Scheme

This paper proposes a ($k,n$)-threshold secret image sharing scheme that offers flexibility in terms of meeting contrasting demands such as information security and storage efficiency with the help of a randomized kernel (binary matrix) operation. A secret image is split into $n$ shares such that any $k$ or more shares ($k\leq n$) can be used to reconstruct the image. Each share has a size less than or at most equal to the size of the secret image. Security and share sizes are solely determined by the kernel of the scheme. The kernel operation is optimized in terms of the security and computational requirements. The storage overhead of the kernel can further be made independent of its size by efficiently storing it as a sparse matrix. Moreover, the scheme is free from any kind of single point of failure (SPOF).Comment: Accepted in IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS) 201

Biomechanics of Smooth Muscle Cell Differentiation: Experimental Study using an Innovative in vitro Mechanical System

poster abstractIdentifying mechanisms that regulate different smooth muscle cell (SMC) gene expressions is critical for understanding the SMC phenotype and genotype in both physiological and pathological conditions, as SMCs’ primary role is to control the slow, involuntary movement of hollow organs such as blood vessels, airways, gastrointestinal, urinary and reproductive tracks. Previous in vitro studies indicated that specific genes were lost and there was a slight change in the physical structure of the SMCs. This was due to the overwhelming complexity of the in vivo environment which could not be accurately simulated in vitro. It is hypothesized that if SMCs are cultured in vitro by subjecting them to controlled mechanical stresses (cyclic strains at various frequencies and time durations), they will retain the same level of gene expression as in vivo. The objective is to evaluate subsequent changes in the SMC lineage based on gene expression changes. To accomplish this, a novel cell stretching device is being developed that will stimulate cultured SMCs by allowing both culturing and stretching of cells on the same unit. This also effectively reduces the working time needed by researchers to complete each run. The expected outcome will be the effects of different mechanical stresses on cell survival over time. Specifically, SMC lineage assessment and western blot analysis will be done. The results will hopefully prove that in vivo conditions of SMCs can be successfully simulated in vitro. The research will help in comparing the oxidative stresses, hyperglycemia, lipotoxicity and calcification responses on specific SMC types in vitro, and offer new insights into the genetic and environmental bases of SMC diseases. This is critical for research in areas such as drug screening and tissue engineering. For future research, co-culture systems may be studied as the device is capable of culturing two cell-types in the same environment

Natural Language Query in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Domains Based on Cognition Search&#x2122;

Motivation: With the tremendous growth in scientific literature, it is necessary to improve upon the standard pattern matching style of the available search engines. Semantic NLP may be the solution to this problem. Cognition Search (CSIR) is a natural language technology. It is best used by asking a simple question that might be answered in textual data being queried, such as MEDLINE. CSIR has a large English dictionary and semantic database. Cognition&#x2019;s semantic map enables the search process to be based on meaning rather than statistical word pattern matching and, therefore, returns more complete and relevant results. The Cognition Search engine uses downward reasoning and synonymy which also improves recall. It improves precision through phrase parsing and word sense disambiguation.&#xd;&#xa;Result: Here we have carried out several projects to &#x22;teach&#x22; the CSIR lexicon medical, biochemical and molecular biological language and acronyms from curated web-based free sources. Vocabulary from the Alliance for Cell Signaling (AfCS), the Human Genome Nomenclature Consortium (HGNC), the United Medical Language System (UMLS) Meta-thesaurus, and The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) was introduced into the CSIR dictionary and curated. The resulting system was used to interpret MEDLINE abstracts. Meaning-based search of MEDLINE abstracts yields high precision (estimated at &#x3e;90%), and high recall (estimated at &#x3e;90%), where synonym information has been encoded. The present implementation can be found at http://MEDLINE.cognition.com. &#xd;&#xa

A novel association between serum bilirubin levels and age-related macular degeneration

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between serum bilirubin and the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The study design includes the utilization of a USA-nationally representative population based cross-sectional study in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: specifically, the NHANES III and continuous NHANES from years 2005-2008. 15,501 survey participants from the NHANES studies chosen for this analysis were interviewed for demographic, behavioral, and medical information, put through a comprehensive medical examination segment, and a laboratory analysis portion. The 15,501 participants were chosen based on their age (40 and above) and the presence of fundus photographs. Fundus photographs were graded using standardized protocol to diagnose early and later AMD, which were combined to form the outcome "AMD" in a binary variable. Serum bilirubin levels were measured using spectrophotometry. Of the 15,501 participants in the study, 1305 (8.9%) were diagnosed with AMD. In a multivariate logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, race, and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, bilirubin was significantly associated with AMD (odds ratio, 0.728; confidence interval, 0.547-0.969; P value, 0.0296). The findings of this study indicate that the antioxidative effects of bilirubin may play protective role in the pathology of AMD