Investigating the role of autism gene Ube3a in the transcriptional regulation in neurons

UBE3A is a protein with dual functions as an E3 ubiquitin ligase and as a Steroid Hormone Receptor (SHR) transcriptional coactivator. It is expressed ubiquitously in tissues and has significant importance in neurons, where it is expressed exclusively from the maternal allele. Thus, while UBE3A has a wide variety of targets in various tissues, it is especially important in the brain as UBE3A regulates several aspects of neuronal growth, function, and maintenance. Therefore deficits of Ube3a cause Angelman Syndrome (AS) and increased dosage causes Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), two neurological disorders. The pathological phenotype of both diseases involves behavioral dysfunctions in learning, motor skills, and sociability. Through microarray studies, our laboratory has found that Ube3a is involved in the regulation of neuronal proteins such as CBLN1, which has been found to have significant importance in parallel fiber synapse formation onto Purkinje cells. To determine how regulation of CBLN1 occurs, mutant variants of human Ube3a isoform III were then generated. E3 ligase-dead, substrate-binding defective, nonphosphorylatable mutant, and phosphor-mimetic mutants were produced and inserted into a pLVX-IRES-mCherry vector. A quantitative transcriptional analysis demonstrated that increasing wild-type (WT) UBE3A decreased Cbln1 expression. The ligase dead mutant mimicked the WT suggesting that E3 ligase activity is not required in the regulation of Cbln1. The nonphosphorylatable mutant demonstrated an increase in Cbln1 expression, which may be due to a dominant negative effect on native UBE3A causing its degradation. The phosphor-mimetic mutant had no statistical effect. This may be due to its inability to enter the nucleus and affect transcription. The substrate-binding mutant also showed no statistical effect possibly because of its inability to bind to any substrate and that may be necessary to regulate transcription. These preliminary results demonstrate that UBE3A may be regulating CBLN1 at the transcriptional level independent of its E3 ubiquitin ligase function. Future studies will be required to more precisely determine the mechanisms involved in UBE3A’s regulation of CBLN1.2018-06-16T00:00:00

Reducing Beat Frequency Oscillation in a Two-phase Sliding Mode-controlled Voltage Regulator Module

During static and dynamic loading conditions, voltage regulator modules (VRMs) are expected to provide regulated voltage with minimal ripple even at high current requirement.  Compared to regular power supplies, VRMs repetitively experience high-frequency loading conditions that is greatly dependent on the software running in the processor utilizing them. In the scenario that when the transient load frequency is near the VRM’s switching frequency, high-magnitude and low-frequency oscillations are observed at the phase currents.  This phenomenon is called the beat frequency oscillation.  In this study, the sliding mode control principle is employed to both the voltage and current share loops of the VRM to reduce the phase currents’ beat frequency oscillations. A fixed frequency sliding mode controller is derived and extensively evaluated using the PSIM simulator.  Our results show that while maintaining equal load sharing among VRMs at less than 5% sharing error and various types of loading conditions, the sliding mode controller can reduce the beat frequency oscillation phenomenon to 20 kHz at maximum with reduced peak current values.   The output voltage is also regulated within the desired ±1.65% band

Influence of Telephone Preoperative Evaluations on Patient Medication Compliance on Day of Surgery

Patient compliance with medication instructions on day of surgery (DOS) is an important part of the preoperative assessment, as failure to comply with these may lead to serious perioperative consequences. Prior studies have shown that compliance increases with multimodal interventions. However due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many in-person visits transitioned to telephone visits and providers had to rely on patients to follow solely verbal instructions. To determine medication compliance, this study compared the medication instructions provided by the VCU Preoperative Assessment Communication and Education Clinic, per chart review, with each patient’s own report of which medications they took on the morning of surgery. Secondary outcomes included demographics potentially associated with patients’ compliance such as age, education level and ASA physical status class, which were obtained from the patient\u27s EMR. Out of a total of 80 (100%) surveyed patients, fifty six patients (70%) understood and were compliant with medication instructions. Among this group of participants, thirty two (57%) patients had completed some college education or higher level. Our results suggest that telephone assessments seem to be an effective means of achieving patient medication compliance on the day of surgery and that education level seems to influence likelihood of compliance. These preliminary results will help us further refine our survey questions and identify other areas to further improve DOS medication compliance.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1143/thumbnail.jp

Viability of an Economic Housing for the Elderly: Input for a Residential Care Facility in Mandaluyong

This interdisciplinary, mixed-method research using the explanatory sequential design was undertaken to study one sector of the elderly community’s living condition in Mandaluyong City to determine the viability of putting up a privately-funded residential and care facility for them. Sixty-nine senior citizens were surveyed by a group of 4th year business students in 2013 for their feasibility study about an economic housing for the elderly, using a government-published questionnaire. Raw data from these instruments were, by mutual agreement used for this study. Analysis showed that the demographics from the instruments matched with the local government statistics. It was also found out that some respondents who have some source of modest income but feel neglected and lonely signified desire to live in a more quiet, modest but decent living facility away from their noisy and chaotic home environment. Literature search also showed numerous laws, bills, plans, and other government initiatives that provide assistance for the welfare of the elderly. These could be used in addressing or providing ideas to solve the problem at hand. A privately-funded facility proposed under the undergraduate feasibility study was therefore found economically viable after review in the areas of marketing, technical and financial aspects and that government interference was proposed to be solicited. Initially, the findings of this study was formally presented before the officials of Barangay Hulo, Mandaluyong City last May 7, 2015 as an extension project for the concerned elderly of the community. More than 50 senior citizens attended the presentation. Feedback from stakeholders was promising

Constant Amplitude Zero Autocorrelation Sequences and Single Pixel Camera Imaging

The primary focus is on Constant Amplitude Zero Autocorrelation sequences, or CAZAC sequences for short. We provide both an exposition and some new results relating to CAZAC sequences. We then apply them to Gabor frames and prove a condition for checking when Gabor systems generated by a CAZAC sequence are tight frames. We also construct multiple examples using this condition. Finally, we explore natural generalizations of CAZAC sequences to the torus and the real line and provide examples highlighting the differences between the generalizations. In the last section, we highlight some work done in image processing. In particular, we present results in single-pixel camera imaging and the demosaicing problem in image processing

Development and Testing of Braking and Acceleration Features for Vehicle Advanced Driver Assistance System

Traffic congestion is a constant problem for cities worldwide. The human driving inefficiency and poor urban planning and development contribute to traffic buildup and travel discomfort. An example of human inefficiency is the phantom traffic jam, which is caused by unnecessary braking, causing traffic to slow down, and eventually coming to a stop. In this study, a brake and acceleration feature (BAF) for the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) is proposed to mitigate the effects of the phantom traffic phenomenon. In its initial stage, the BAF provides a heads-up display that gives information on how much braking and acceleration input is needed to maintain smooth driving conditions, i.e., without sudden acceleration or deceleration, while observing a safe distance from the vehicle in front. BAF employs a fuzzy logic controller that takes distance information from a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor and the vehicle’s instantaneous speed from the engine control unit (ECU). It then calculates the corresponding percentage value of needed acceleration and braking in order to maintain travel objectives of smooth and safe-distance travel. Empirical results show that the system suggests acceleration and braking values slightly higher than the driver’s actual inputs and can achieve 90% accuracy overall

Tackling the Class Scheduling Problem: an Investigation Into Developing a Calendar Suite

Valparaiso University’s Computer Science department needed a better way to schedule and visualize courses. A web application serving this request will be built using a web framework connected to a database backend to store critical class information. This web application will be called F.A.R SKED (Fred.Allura.Rene SKED). This acronym represents that one can schedule “F.A.R” into the future, and “SKED” is an abbreviation for “scheduler”. The application will include views where courses can be defined, semesters visualized, classes scheduled, and supporting data managed. To achieve scheduling that prevents calendar conflicts, the MySQL database organizes semester, professor, building, room, department, and course information. As a design decision, our calendar page filters by the aforementioned fields to provide visualization of scheduling availability, and a dynamic way to plan classes in those openings. A problem with achieving our goals was pairing extensive backend logic with this simple-to-use application

Assisted housing for the elderly in mandaluyong city: a social enterprise

This interdisciplinary, mixed-method research using the explanatory sequential design studied one sector of the elderly community's living condition in Mandaluyong City to determine the viability of putting up a privately-funded residential and care facility for them. Sixty-nine senior citizens were surveyed by a group of 4th year business students in 2013 for their feasibility study about an economic housing for the elderly, using a government-published questionnaire. Raw data from these instruments were, with the consent of the said students, used for this study. Analysis showed that the profile of the elderly under study matched with the local government statistics. The qualitative variables reflected the elderly’s feeling of neglect and loneliness and the desire to live in a more quiet and modest but decent living facility away from their noisy and chaotic home environment. Numerous laws, bills, plans, and other government initiatives that provide assistance for the welfare of the elderly were identified and determined to be useful in providing ideas to solve the problem at hand. It was therefore concluded that a privately-funded facility earlier proposed under an undergraduate feasibility study was economically viable after review in the areas of marketing, technical and financial aspects and that government interference was proposed to be solicited