Working out a common task: design and evaluation of user-intelligent system collaboration

This paper describes the design and user evaluation of an intelligent user interface intended to mediate between users and an Adaptive Information Extraction (AIE) system. The design goal was to support a synergistic and cooperative work. Laboratory tests showed the approach was efficient and effective; focus groups were run to assess its ease of use. Logs, user satisfaction questionnaires, and interviews were exploited to investigate the interaction experience. We found that user’ attitude is mainly hierarchical with the user wishing to control and check the system’s initiatives. However when confidence in the system capabilities rises, a more cooperative interaction is adopted

Designing for the experiential body

The goal of this panel is to reflect on the past and discuss the present and future of designing for an experiencing body in HCI. The motivation is to discuss the full range of rich body/movement-based experiences and how the CHI community can embrace and extend these perspectives on designing for the body. The panelists and audience will be asked to share their perspectives on what has most influenced thought in designing for the body, how new sensing technologies are crafting the HCI perspective, and where they see this line of research and design heading in the next ten years

Performance benchmarks for scholarly metrics associated with fisheries and wildlife faculty

Research productivity and impact are often considered in professional evaluations of academics, and performance metrics based on publications and citations increasingly are used in such evaluations. To promote evidence-based and informed use of these metrics, we collected publication and citation data for 437 tenure-track faculty members at 33 research-extensive universities in the United States belonging to the National Association of University Fisheries and Wildlife Programs. For each faculty member, we computed 8 commonly used performance metrics based on numbers of publications and citations, and recorded covariates including academic age (time since Ph.D.), sex, percentage of appointment devoted to research, and the sub-disciplinary research focus. Standardized deviance residuals from regression models were used to compare faculty after accounting for variation in performance due to these covariates. We also aggregated residuals to enable comparison across universities. Finally, we tested for temporal trends in citation practices to assess whether the law of constant ratios , used to enable comparison of performance metrics between disciplines that differ in citation and publication practices, applied to fisheries and wildlife sub-disciplines when mapped to Web of Science Journal Citation Report categories. Our regression models reduced deviance by 1/4 to 1/2. Standardized residuals for each faculty member, when combined across metrics as a simple average or weighted via factor analysis, produced similar results in terms of performance based on percentile rankings. Significant variation was observed in scholarly performance across universities, after accounting for the influence of covariates. In contrast to findings for other disciplines, normalized citation ratios for fisheries and wildlife sub-disciplines increased across years. Increases were comparable for all sub-disciplines except ecology. We discuss the advantages and limitations of our methods, illustrate their use when applied to new data, and suggest future improvements. Our benchmarking approach may provide a useful tool to augment detailed, qualitative assessment of performance. © 2016 Swihart et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Improving QPF by blending techniques at the Meteorological Service of Catalonia

The current operational very short-term and short-term quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) at the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) is made by three different methodologies: Advection of the radar reflectivity field (ADV), Identification, tracking and forecasting of convective structures (CST) and numerical weather prediction (NWP) models using observational data assimilation (radar, satellite, etc.). These precipitation forecasts have different characteristics, lead time and spatial resolutions. The objective of this study is to combine these methods in order to obtain a single and optimized QPF at each lead time. This combination (blending) of the radar forecast (ADV and CST) and precipitation forecast from NWP model is carried out by means of different methodologies according to the prediction horizon. Firstly, in order to take advantage of the rainfall location and intensity from radar observations, a phase correction technique is applied to the NWP output to derive an additional corrected forecast (MCO). To select the best precipitation estimation in the first and second hour (t+1 h and t+2 h), the information from radar advection (ADV) and the corrected outputs from the model (MCO) are mixed by using different weights, which vary dynamically, according to indexes that quantify the quality of these predictions. This procedure has the ability to integrate the skill of rainfall location and patterns that are given by the advection of radar reflectivity field with the capacity of generating new precipitation areas from the NWP models. From the third hour (t+3 h), as radar-based forecasting has generally low skills, only the quantitative precipitation forecast from model is used. This blending of different sources of prediction is verified for different types of episodes (convective, moderately convective and stratiform) to obtain a robust methodology for implementing it in an operational and dynamic wa

Polyethylene imine-based receptor immobilization for label free bioassays

Polyethylene imine (PEI) based immobilization of antibodies is described and the concept is proved on the label free assay of C-Reactive Protein (CRP). This novel immobilization method is composed of a hyperbranched PEI layer which was deposited at a high pH (9.5) on the sensor surface. The free amino groups of PEI were derivatized with neutravidin by Biotin N-hydroxysuccinimide ester and the biotinylated anti-CRP antibody immobilized on this layer. Direct binding assay of recombinant CRP was successfully performed in the low μg/ml concentrations using a label free optical waveguide biosensor

Seasonal and interannual effects of hypoxia on fish habitat quality in central Lake Erie

1. Hypoxia occurs seasonally in many stratified coastal marine and freshwater ecosystems when bottom dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations are depleted below 2–3 mg O2 L-1. 2. We evaluated the effects of hypoxia on fish habitat quality in the central basin of Lake Erie from 1987 to 2005, using bioenergetic growth rate potential (GRP) as a proxy for habitat quality. We compared the effect of hypoxia on habitat quality of (i) rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax mordax Mitchill (young-of-year, YOY, and adult), a cold-water planktivore, (ii) emerald shiner, Notropis atherinoides Rafinesque (adult), a warm-water planktivore, (iii) yellow perch, Perca flavescens Mitchill (YOY and adult), a cool-water benthopelagic omnivore and (iv) round goby Neogobius melanostomus Pallas (adult) a eurythermal benthivore. Annual thermal and DO profiles were generated from 1D thermal and DO hydrodynamics models developed for Lake Erie’s central basin. 3. Hypoxia occurred annually, typically from mid-July to mid-October, which spatially and temporally overlaps with otherwise high benthic habitat quality. Hypoxia reduced the habitat quality across fish species and life stages, but the magnitude of the reduction varied both among and within species because of the differences in tolerance to low DO levels and warm-water temperatures. 4. Across years, trends in habitat quality mirrored trends in phosphorus concentration and water column oxygen demand in central Lake Erie. The per cent reduction in habitat quality owing to hypoxia was greatest for adult rainbow smelt and round goby (mean: -35%), followed by adult emerald shiner (mean: -12%), YOY rainbow smelt (mean: -10%) and YOY and adult yellow perch (mean: -8.5%). 5. Our results highlight the importance of differential spatiotemporally interactive effects of DO and temperature on relative fish habitat quality and quantity. These effects have the potential to influence the performance of individual fish species as well as population dynamics, trophic interactions and fish community structure

Inhibition of Enterococcus faecium Adherence to Collagen by Antibodies against High-Affinity Binding Subdomains of Acm

Strains of Enterococcus faecium express a cell wall-anchored protein, Acm, which mediates adherence to collagen. Here, we (i) identify the minimal and high-affinity binding subsegments of Acm and (ii) show that anti-Acm immunoglobulin Gs (IgGs) purified against these subsegments reduced E. faecium TX2535 strain collagen adherence up to 73 and 50%, respectively, significantly more than the total IgGs against the full-length Acm A domain (28%) (P < 0.0001). Blocking Acm adherence with functional subsegment-specific antibodies raises the possibility of their use as therapeutic or prophylactic agents

Endorepellin causes endothelial cell disassembly of actin cytoskeleton and focal adhesions through α2β1 integrin

Endorepellin, the COOH-terminal domain of the heparan sulfate proteoglycan perlecan, inhibits several aspects of angiogenesis. We provide evidence for a novel biological axis that links a soluble fragment of perlecan protein core to the major cell surface receptor for collagen I, α2β1 integrin, and provide an initial investigation of the intracellular signaling events that lead to endorepellin antiangiogenic activity. The interaction between endorepellin and α2β1 integrin triggers a unique signaling pathway that causes an increase in the second messenger cAMP; activation of two proximal kinases, protein kinase A and focal adhesion kinase; transient activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and heat shock protein 27, followed by a rapid down-regulation of the latter two proteins; and ultimately disassembly of actin stress fibers and focal adhesions. The end result is a profound block of endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis. Because perlecan is present in both endothelial and smooth muscle cell basement membranes, proteolytic activity during the initial stages of angiogenesis could liberate antiangiogenic fragments from blood vessels' walls, including endorepellin