γδTCR regulates production of interleukin-27 by neutrophils and attenuates inflammatory arthritis.

γδ T cells have been implicated in inflammatory diseases as an important link between the innate and adaptive immune responses, however, their role in inflammatory arthritis remain unclear. To define the contribution of γδ T cells in the pathogenesis of inflammatory arthritis, we performed gene transfer of IL-23 in B10.RIII mice to establish joint inflammation in the presence or absence of γδ T cells. We demonstrated that γδ T cell blockade has a protective effect on arthritis incidence and severity by preventing neutrophil accumulation in the blood, spleen and bone marrow as well as by reducing neutrophil infiltration into the joints. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that absence of γδ T cells was associated with an increase of IL-27 levels produced by neutrophils and dendritic cells, and systemic IL-27 expression also prevents IL-23-induced inflammatory arthritis and limits neutrophil expansion. Collectively our findings reveal an immunomodulatory effect of γδ T cells on neutrophils associated with IL-27 synthesis and secretion and indicate a novel link between IL-27 and the modulation of γδ T cells and neutrophils that can be targeted in the treatment of inflammatory arthritis

Passive Verification of the Strategyproofness of Mechanisms in Open Environments

Consider an open infrastructure in which anyone can deploy mechanisms to support automated decision making and coordination amongst self-interested computational agents. Strategyproofness is a central property in the design of such mechanisms, allowing participants to maximize their individual benefit by reporting truthful private information about preferences and capabilities and without modeling or reasoning about the behavior of other agents. But, why should participants trust that a mechanism is strategyproof? We address this problem, proposing and describing a passive verifier, able to monitor the inputs and outputs of mechanisms and verify the strategyproofness, or not, of a mechanism. Useful guarantees are available to participants before the behavior of the mechanism is completely known, and metrics are introduced to provide a measure of partial verification. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.Engineering and Applied Science

A Decentralized Auction Framework to Promote Efficient Resource Allocation in Open Computational Grids

Computational grids enable the sharing, aggregation, and selection of (geographically distributed) computational resources and can be used for solving large scale and data intensive computing applications. Computational grids are an appealing target application for market-based resource allocation especially given the attention in recent years to “virtual organizations ” and policy requirements. In this paper, we present a framework for truthful, decentralized, dynamic auctions in computational grids. Rather than a fullyspecified auction, we propose an open, extensible framework that is sufficient to promote simple, truthful bidding by endusers while supporting distributed and autonomous control by resource owners. Our auction framework incorporates resource prediction in enabling an expressive language for end-users, and highlights the role of infrastructure in enforcing rules that balance the goal of simplicity for end users with autonomy for resource owners. The technical analysis leverages simplifying assumptions of “uniform failure” and “threshold-reliability” beliefs.Engineering and Applied Science

Changes in students’ knowledge, values, worldview, and willingness to take mitigative climate action after attending a course on holistic climate change education

Though the need for holistic climate change education has been realized around the world, there is a lack of studies that examine the multidimensional impact of climate change education in higher education. To amend for this gap in literature, this paper uses a pre- and post-questionnaire (N = 245) to examine how students' knowledge, values, worldview and willingness to take mitigative climate actions change during a course on climate change. Though the course was designed to be multidisciplinary and holistic, the results show that the course had limited impact. First, the pre-post tests showed a significant increase in science knowledge, but knowledge on mitigative actions remained unchanged despite related course assignments. Second, though participants' worldview seemed to change or strengthen during the course, minimal changes were seen in students’ willingness to take mitigative actions. However, an increase in biospheric values -a strong predictor of pro-environmental behavior - was seen in some segments of participants, potentially predicting a lower carbon footprint for those students in the future. Furthermore, the findings suggest that during the course, individuals found new, environmentally friendly ways to address their hedonic pleasures, also potentially having long-term positive effects. Some differences in gender and field of study were noted. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to planning and implementing holistic climate change education.Peer reviewe

A new method for studying the vibration of non-homogeneous membranes

We present a method to solve the Helmholtz equation for a non-homogeneous membrane with Dirichlet boundary conditions at the border of arbitrary two-dimensional domains. The method uses a collocation approach based on a set of localized functions, called "little sinc functions", which are used to discretize two-dimensional regions. We have performed extensive numerical tests and we have compared the results obtained with the present method with the ones available from the literature. Our results show that the present method is very accurate and that its implementation for general problems is straightforward.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 6 table

Sete desastres relacionados à escola: Lições para legisladores e funcionários da escola

Students are highly dependent on the emergency planning and evacuation decisions made by policymakers and school personnel when disasters occur. The purpose of this study was to examine selected cases of school-related disasters, highlighting how factors of the school context intersected with natural hazards and subsequently affected schoolchildren. Purposeful maximal sampling was used to select school-related disaster cases for their geographical diversity, different instructional contexts, and types of initiating hazards. Among these, seven cases with broad considerations pertaining to educational policy and safe school environments were selected. A within-case analysis was conducted of each case, followed by a cross-case thematic analysis. Six overarching factors were found in the thematic synthesis of the findings. First, school safety practices apply anytime children are under the supervision of school personnel, making knowledge of emergency procedures across multiple types of school settings essential. Second, elements that place schoolchildren at risk also place school personnel at risk. Third, teachers and school administrators need to be well-trained and knowledgeable enough to make independent decisions in emergency situations. Fourth, children must know emergency procedures so they may take independent action, given teachers are also at-risk during disasters. Fifth, most school disasters can be prevented through safe school construction. Finally, it is the responsibility of policymakers to ensure schools are safe learning environments for children. By participating in and advocating for a culture of preparedness, educational policymakers can better protect schoolchildren, as well as school personnel, in disaster situations. Los estudiantes son muy dependientes en la planificación de emergencia y la evacuación de las decisiones tomadas por los políticos y la escuela cuando los desastres se producen. El propósito de este estudio fue examinar los casos de los problemas relacionados con la enfermedad y mostrar cómo los factores de la intersección del contexto intersectorial con las poblaciones naturales y la afectación de la escuela. En el caso de los niños, los niños y las niñas, Se han encontrado seis argumentos. En primer lugar, las normas de seguridad de la escuela aplican a los niños de edad bajo la supervisión de la escuela de trabajo, haciendo un seguimiento de los procedimientos de seguridad a través de varios tipos de la escuela de configuración esencial. En segundo lugar, los elementos que sitúan a los escolares en el riesgo también a la escuela en el riesgo. En tercer lugar, los maestros y los maestros de la escuela necesitan estar bien informados y bien informados para tener decisiones independientes en situaciones de emergencia. En el caso de los niños, los hijos deben saber los procedimientos de emergencia que pueden llevar a cabo la acción independiente, dado que los maestros también están en riesgo durante los desastres. La edad, la mayoría de los profesionales de la salud pueden prevenirse a través de la escuela de seguros. Por lo tanto, es la responsabilidad de los políticos para que las escuelas son seguros de aprendizaje de los hijos para los niños. Por la defensa de la cultura de la preparación, las políticas educativas pueden mejorar el cuidado de la escuela y la escuela en situaciones de desastres.Os estudantes são muito dependentes do planejamento de emergência e da evacuação de decisões tomadas por políticos e pela escola quando ocorrem desastres. O objetivo deste estudo foi examinar os casos dos problemas relacionados à doença e mostrar como os fatores de intersecção do contexto intersetorial com as populações naturais e a afetação da escola. No caso de crianças, meninos e meninas, seis argumentos foram encontrados. Em primeiro lugar, os padrões de segurança da escola aplicam-se a crianças mais velhas sob a supervisão da escola de trabalho, seguindo os procedimentos de segurança através de vários tipos de ambientes essenciais à escola. Em segundo lugar, os elementos que colocam as crianças em risco também na escola em risco. Em terceiro lugar, professores e professores precisam estar bem informados e bem informados para ter decisões independentes em situações de emergência. No caso de crianças, as crianças devem conhecer os procedimentos de emergência que podem realizar ações independentes, uma vez que os professores também estão em risco durante os desastres. Idade, a maioria dos profissionais de saúde pode ser evitada através da escola de seguros. Portanto, é responsabilidade dos políticos que as escolas estejam seguras para aprender crianças para crianças. Ao defender a cultura de preparação, as políticas educacionais podem melhorar o atendimento da escola e da escola em situações de desastre

Queuing Model for Taxi-Out Time Estimation

Flights incur a large percentage of their delays on the ground during the departure process between their scheduled departure from the gate and takeoff. Because of the large uncertainties associated with them, these delays are difficult to predict and account for, hindering the ability to effectively manage the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. This paper presents an effort to improve the accuracy of estimating the taxi-out time, which is the duration between pushback and takeoff. The method was to identify the main factors that affect the taxi-out time and build an estimation model that takes the most important ones into account. An analysis conducted at Boston Logan International Airport identified the runway configuration, the airline/terminal, the downstream restrictions and the takeoff queue size as the main causal factors that affect the taxiout time. Of these factors the takeoff queue size was the most important one, where the queue size that an aircraft experienced was measured as the number of takeoffs that took place between its pushback time and its takeoff time. Consequently, a queuing model was built to estimate the taxi-out time at Logan Airport based on queue size estimation. For each aircraft, the queuing model assumes knowledge of the number of departure aircraft present on the airport surface at its pushback time and estimates its takeoff queue size by predicting the amount of passing that it may experience on the airport surface during its taxi out. The prediction performance of the queuing model was compared at Logan Airport to a running average model, which represents the baseline used currently in the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS). The running average model uses a fourteen-day average as the estimate of the taxi-out time. The queuing model improved the mean absolute error in the taxi-out time estimation by approximately twenty percent and the accuracy rate by approximately ten percent, over the fourteen-day running average model.The work described in the paper was supported by NASA Ames Research Center (NASA Grant NCC 2-1149) and the FAA National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR)