Learning long-range spatial dependencies with horizontal gated-recurrent units

Progress in deep learning has spawned great successes in many engineering applications. As a prime example, convolutional neural networks, a type of feedforward neural networks, are now approaching -- and sometimes even surpassing -- human accuracy on a variety of visual recognition tasks. Here, however, we show that these neural networks and their recent extensions struggle in recognition tasks where co-dependent visual features must be detected over long spatial ranges. We introduce the horizontal gated-recurrent unit (hGRU) to learn intrinsic horizontal connections -- both within and across feature columns. We demonstrate that a single hGRU layer matches or outperforms all tested feedforward hierarchical baselines including state-of-the-art architectures which have orders of magnitude more free parameters. We further discuss the biological plausibility of the hGRU in comparison to anatomical data from the visual cortex as well as human behavioral data on a classic contour detection task.Comment: Published at NeurIPS 2018 https://papers.nips.cc/paper/7300-learning-long-range-spatial-dependencies-with-horizontal-gated-recurrent-unit

Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14

This Scientific Investigation Plan (SIP) provides an overview of the work described in “Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14”, a proposal funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Repository Development under the UCCSN/YMP Co-op in support of the Science and Technology Initiatives. The objective of this work is to provide improved estimates of the time required for ground water to travel from the site of the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, to the accessible environment

Drama as a religious agency

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1936. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Ophthalmic engineering:the development of novel instrumentation to further research in the field

The principle theme of this thesis is the advancement and expansion of ophthalmic research via the collaboration between professional Engineers and professional Optometrists. The aim has been to develop new and novel approaches and solutions to contemporary problems in the field. The work is sub divided into three areas of investigation; 1) High technology systems, 2) Modification of current systems to increase functionality, and 3) Development of smaller more portable and cost effective systems. High Technology Systems: A novel high speed Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system with integrated simultaneous high speed photography was developed achieving better operational speed than is currently available commercially. The mechanical design of the system featured a novel 8 axis alignment system. A full set of capture, analysis, and post processing software was developed providing custom analysis systems for ophthalmic OCT imaging, expanding the current capabilities of the technology. A large clinical trial was undertaken to test the dynamics of contact lens edge interaction with the cornea in-vivo. The interaction between lens edge design, lens base curvature, post insertion times and edge positions was investigated. A novel method for correction of optical distortion when assessing lens indentation was also demonstrated. Modification of Current Systems: A commercial autorefractor, the WAM-5500, was modified with the addition of extra hardware and a custom software and firmware solution to produce a system that was capable of measuring dynamic accommodative response to various stimuli in real time. A novel software package to control the data capture process was developed allowing real time monitoring of data by the practitioner, adding considerable functionality of the instrument further to the standard system. The device was used to assess the accommodative response differences between subjects who had worn UV blocking contact lens for 5 years, verses a control group that had not worn UV blocking lenses. While the standard static measurement of accommodation showed no differences between the two groups, it was determined that the UV blocking group did show better accommodative rise and fall times (faster), thus demonstrating the benefits of the modification of this commercially available instrumentation. Portable and Cost effective Systems: A new instrument was developed to expand the capability of the now defunct Keeler Tearscope. A device was developed that provided a similar capability in allowing observation of the reflected mires from the tear film surface, but with the added advantage of being able to record the observations. The device was tested comparatively with the tearscope and other tear film break-up techniques, demonstrating its potential. In Conclusion: This work has successfully demonstrated the advantages of interdisciplinary research between engineering and ophthalmic research has provided new and novel instrumented solutions as well as having added to the sum of scientific understanding in the ophthalmic field

Fructose Alters Cell Survival and Gene Expression in Microglia and Neuronal Cells Lines

Purpose: Microglia are macrophages that are found primarily in the CNS and play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy brain by engulfing invading microorganisms, releasing inflammatory mediators, and pruning dead cells. Microglia can become activated in response to certain stimuli which causes them to transition into a pro-inflammatory state, and can sometimes become chronically activated which can result in neuronal damage. Studies have shown a causal relationship between this activation and sugars such as fructose and glucose. We sought to understand the role of sugars in microglial activation and the subsequent effects on neuron health. Methods: Rat microglia (HAPI) and neuronal (B35) cell lines were treated with varying concentrations of fructose (25 mM, 12.5 mM, and 6.25 mM) or glucose (25 mM and 12.5 mM)as a positive control to determine their effects on the cells. Following treatment and incubation for 3 or 24 hours, the cells were analyzed using an MTT assay to measure cell survival or real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to measure gene expression levels. Effects of fructose were measured in HAPI microglia after direct treatment with the sugar. The genes investigated by the RT-PCR in the HAPI cells included: glucose transporter 5 (GLUT5), and the inflammatory markers high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), and prostaglandin E receptor 2 (Ptger2). To evaluate the effects of microglial activation on neuronal function, the B35 neurons were treated either directly with sugars or with the supernatant collected from fructose-treated HAPI microglia. This allows examination of the effects of soluble neuron-injury factors released by microglia. The genes investigated by RT-PCR in B35 neurons included nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) and enolase 2 (Eno2). Results: Cell survival assays showed that 24-hour direct fructose treatment increased B35 cell survival by up to 13%, while groups treated with microglia supernatant increased cell survival by up to 33%. In HAPI microglia, 3 hours of treatment with fructose caused GLUT5 expression to be suppressed by up to 32% in all treatment groups except for 6.25 mM fructose, while Ptger2 and HMGB1 expression was increased by as much as 65% and 15%, respectively. After 24-hours of treatment with fructose, the HAPI microglia showed a maximum of 80% increased expression of HMGB1, while Ptger2 expression was mostly unchanged. In B35 neurons, 3 hours of treatment with fructose caused a decrease of up to 26% in NFκB and an increase of up to 46% in Eno2 expression. Conclusion: Cell survival results indicate that the microglia may provide a short term protective effect on the B35 neurons. However, data from the gene expression assays show evidence of cellular dysfunction in neurons and pro-inflammatory activity in microglia which may lead to neuronal death on a longer timeline. As seen in the gene expression results, microglia had increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and B35 neuronal cells had increased expression of markers of cellular damage. Future studies will further explore the effects of fructose on expression of other genes and examine the effects on neuron survival at later time points

Integrative Ethical Education: A Preliminary Investigation into the Effect of a Theoretically Grounded Intervention on College Students’ Moral Development

The Association of American Colleges and Universities and the American Council on Education identified moral and ethical development as a desired outcome of college. Researchers have identified that moral development occurs during college; however, few studies have focused on specific interventions designed to promote college students’ moral development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the moral development of students who participated in a first-year honors leadership program—that included a living-learning community—developed using an interpretation of Narvaez’s Integrative Ethical Education (IEE) model as a theoretical framework. Participants (n=18) took the Defining Issues Test Version 2 (DIT2), a valid and reliable measure of moral judgment, at the beginning and end of their first year to understand the effect of the IEE-based intervention on students’ moral growth. The current study used two scores generated by the DIT2 related to participants’ preference for post-conventional moral thinking (i.e., focus on duties derived from their own self-authored, critically-examined moral purpose rather than societal norms and laws). Participants’ DIT2 responses were also used to indicate which developmental phase they function in. When in the transition phase, individuals do not clearly distinguish between the post-conventional schema and lower moral schema. In the consolidation phase, individuals consistently respond using one moral schema. Descriptive analysis (e.g., percent changes) were conducted to understand participants’ overall change in moral growth and if participants’ self-reported sex or moral phase influenced moral development. The study found that, on average, participants’ level of moral growth—based on changes in DIT2 scores—increased during their first year of college. Participants who began college in the transition phase experienced positive changes in moral development, while their peers in the consolidation phase moral development regressed. Participants experienced positive change regardless of self-reported sex. While no causal assumptions can be made from this study, the findings suggest that students experienced positive moral growth during their first year while participating in the IEE-based intervention. The findings provide educators a framework to continue to design and investigate interventions intended to promote moral growth