Wisconsin Energy Corporation: Case Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility

Increasing by approximately 32% a year globally over the last five years, wind energy has proven to be a clean, abundant, and cost effective renewable source of energy. Wind energy is an important part of the strategy to replace fossil fuel electricity generation. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas currently generate over 70% of the power consumed in North America. The dramatic increase in the cost for fossil fuels and the growing pressure on the world's nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have combined to position wind power as the world’s fastest growing new source of electricity generation. This case study discusses a major producer of America’s wind energy, Wisconsin Energy Corporation (WEC), and their strategies and commitments to alternative energy and a more sustainable future. The company’s “triple bottom line” including economic, social, and environmental benefits will also be evaluated

Low Dopamine D2/D3 Receptor Availability is Associated with Steep Discounting of Delayed Rewards in Methamphetamine Dependence.

BackgroundIndividuals with substance use disorders typically exhibit a predilection toward instant gratification with apparent disregard for the future consequences of their actions. Indirect evidence suggests that low dopamine D2-type receptor availability in the striatum contributes to the propensity of these individuals to sacrifice long-term goals for short-term gain; however, this possibility has not been tested directly. We investigated whether striatal D2/D3 receptor availability is negatively correlated with the preference for smaller, more immediate rewards over larger, delayed alternatives among research participants who met DSM-IV criteria for methamphetamine (MA) dependence.MethodsFifty-four adults (n = 27 each: MA-dependent, non-user controls) completed the Kirby Monetary Choice Questionnaire, and underwent positron emission tomography scanning with [(18)F]fallypride.ResultsMA users displayed steeper temporal discounting (p = 0.030) and lower striatal D2/D3 receptor availability (p < 0.0005) than controls. Discount rate was negatively correlated with striatal D2/D3 receptor availability, with the relationship reaching statistical significance in the combined sample (r = -0.291, p = 0.016) and among MA users alone (r = -0.342, p = 0.041), but not among controls alone (r = -0.179, p = 0.185); the slopes did not differ significantly between MA users and controls (p = 0.5).ConclusionsThese results provide the first direct evidence of a link between deficient D2/D3 receptor availability and steep temporal discounting. This finding fits with reports that low striatal D2/D3 receptor availability is associated with a higher risk of relapse among stimulant users, and may help to explain why some individuals choose to continue using drugs despite knowledge of their eventual negative consequences. Future research directions and therapeutic implications are discussed

A Method for Revealing and Addressing Security Vulnerabilities in Cyber-physical Systems by Modeling Malicious Agent Interactions with Formal Verification

Several cyber-attacks on the cyber-physical systems (CPS) that monitor and control critical infrastructure were publically announced over the last few years. Almost without exception, the proposed security solutions focus on preventing unauthorized access to the industrial control systems (ICS) at various levels – the defense in depth approach. While useful, it does not address the problem of making the systems more capable of responding to the malicious actions of an attacker once they have gained access to the system. The first step in making an ICS more resilient to an attacker is identifying the cyber security vulnerabilities the attacker can use during system design. This paper presents a method that reveals cyber security vulnerabilities in ICS through the formal modeling of the system and malicious agents. The inclusion of the malicious agent in the analysis of an existing systems identifies security vulnerabilities that are missed in traditional functional model checking

Serine / threonine protein phosphatase 5 (PP5) participates in the regulation of glucocorticoid receptor nucleocytoplasmic shuttling

BACKGROUND: In most cells glucocorticoid receptors (GR) reside predominately in the cytoplasm. Upon hormone binding, the GR translocates into the nucleus, where the hormone-activated GR-complex regulates the transcription of GR-responsive genes. Serine/threonine protein phosphatase type 5 (PP5) associates with the GR-heat-shock protein-90 complex, and the suppression of PP5 expression with ISIS 15534 stimulates the activity of GR-responsive reporter plasmids, without affecting the binding of hormone to the GR. RESULTS: To further characterize the mechanism by which PP5 affects GR-induced gene expression, we employed immunofluorescence microscopy to track the movement of a GR-green fluorescent fusion protein (GR-GFP) that retained hormone binding, nuclear translocation activity and specific DNA binding activity, but is incapable of transactivation. In the absence of glucocorticoids, GR-GFP localized mainly in the cytoplasm. Treatment with dexamethasone results in the efficient translocation of GR-GFPs into the nucleus. The nuclear accumulation of GR-GFP, without the addition of glucocorticoids, was also observed when the expression of PP5 was suppressed by treatment with ISIS 15534. In contrast, ISIS 15534 treatment had no apparent effect on calcium induced nuclear translocation of NFAT-GFP. CONCLUSION: These studies suggest that PP5 participates in the regulation of glucocorticoid receptor nucleocytoplasmic shuttling, and that the GR-induced transcriptional activity observed when the expression of PP5 is suppressed by treatment with ISIS 15534 results from the nuclear accumulation of GR in a form that is capable of binding DNA yet still requires agonist to elicit maximal transcriptional activation

Alkahest NuclearBLAST : a user-friendly BLAST management and analysis system

BACKGROUND -: Sequencing of EST and BAC end datasets is no longer limited to large research groups. Drops in per-base pricing have made high throughput sequencing accessible to individual investigators. However, there are few options available which provide a free and user-friendly solution to the BLAST result storage and data mining needs of biologists. RESULTS -: Here we describe NuclearBLAST, a batch BLAST analysis, storage and management system designed for the biologist. It is a wrapper for NCBI BLAST which provides a user-friendly web interface which includes a request wizard and the ability to view and mine the results. All BLAST results are stored in a MySQL database which allows for more advanced data-mining through supplied command-line utilities or direct database access. NuclearBLAST can be installed on a single machine or clustered amongst a number of machines to improve analysis throughput. NuclearBLAST provides a platform which eases data-mining of multiple BLAST results. With the supplied scripts, the program can export data into a spreadsheet-friendly format, automatically assign Gene Ontology terms to sequences and provide bi-directional best hits between two datasets. Users with SQL experience can use the database to ask even more complex questions and extract any subset of data they require. CONCLUSION -: This tool provides a user-friendly interface for requesting, viewing and mining of BLAST results which makes the management and data-mining of large sets of BLAST analyses tractable to biologists

Lasting Effects of a Graduate Pedagogy Course on the Development of Teacher-Scholars

While graduate pedagogy courses may result in specific teaching behaviors in the short term, little is known whether these scholarly teaching behaviors and attitudes endure over time. Multiple evidenced-based assessments of pedagogy courses which continue well past the completion of the course can demonstrate the ongoing development of students’ perceptions of teaching and learning and students’ progression as teacher-scholars. This poster summarizes an investigation exploring the lasting effects of a graduate pedagogy course entitled MSCI M620: Pedagogical Methods in Health Sciences. This course has been offered for two semesters and a total of sixteen graduate students from a variety of science-related disciplines enrolled in the course. We examined whether the course caused students to: 1) Develop more complex and refined attitudes regarding student learning; 2) Evaluate their current teaching methods and explore alternative teaching strategies; 3) Assess their teaching effectiveness; 4) Plan to be involved in a public teaching resource network; and 5) Develop lasting attitudes about scholarly teaching