343 research outputs found
Exploring Causal Influences
Recent data mining techniques exploit patterns of statistical independence in multivariate data to make conjectures about cause/effect relationships. These relationships can be used to construct causal graphs, which are sometimes represented by weighted node-link diagrams, with nodes representing variables and combinations of weighted links and/or nodes showing the strength of causal relationships. We present an interactive visualization for causal graphs (ICGs), inspired in part by the Influence Explorer. The key principles of this visualization are as follows: Variables are represented with vertical bars attached to nodes in a graph. Direct manipulation of variables is achieved by sliding a variable value up and down, which reveals causality by producing instantaneous change in causally and/or probabilistically linked variables. This direct manipulation technique gives users the impression they are causally influencing the variables linked to the one they are manipulating. In this context, we demonstrate the subtle distinction between seeing and setting of variable values, and in an extended example, show how this visualization can help a user understand the relationships in a large variable set, and with some intuitions about the domain and a few basic concepts, quickly detect bugs in causal models constructed from these data mining techniques
The class III PI(3)K Vps34 promotes autophagy and endocytosis but not TOR signaling in Drosophila
Degradation of cytoplasmic components by autophagy requires the class III phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI(3))–kinase Vps34, but the mechanisms by which this kinase and its lipid product PI(3) phosphate (PI(3)P) promote autophagy are unclear. In mammalian cells, Vps34, with the proautophagic tumor suppressors Beclin1/Atg6, Bif-1, and UVRAG, forms a multiprotein complex that initiates autophagosome formation. Distinct Vps34 complexes also regulate endocytic processes that are critical for late-stage autophagosome-lysosome fusion. In contrast, Vps34 may also transduce activating nutrient signals to mammalian target of rapamycin (TOR), a negative regulator of autophagy. To determine potential in vivo functions of Vps34, we generated mutations in the single Drosophila melanogaster Vps34 orthologue, causing cell-autonomous disruption of autophagosome/autolysosome formation in larval fat body cells. Endocytosis is also disrupted in Vps34−/− animals, but we demonstrate that this does not account for their autophagy defect. Unexpectedly, TOR signaling is unaffected in Vps34 mutants, indicating that Vps34 does not act upstream of TOR in this system. Instead, we show that TOR/Atg1 signaling regulates the starvation-induced recruitment of PI(3)P to nascent autophagosomes. Our results suggest that Vps34 is regulated by TOR-dependent nutrient signals directly at sites of autophagosome formation
Interrelationship between Sleep and Exercise: A Systematic Review
Although a substantial body of literature has explored the relationship between sleep and exercise, comprehensive reviews and definitive conclusions about the impact of exercise interventions on sleep are lacking. Electronic databases were searched for articles published between January 2013 and March 2017. Studies were included if they possessed either objective or subjective measures of sleep and an exercise intervention that followed the guidelines recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine. Thirtyfour studies met these inclusion criteria. Twenty-nine studies concluded that exercise improved sleep quality or duration; however, four found no difference and one reported a negative impact of exercise on sleep. Study results varied most significantly due to participants' age, health status, and the mode and intensity of exercise intervention. Mixed findings were reported for children, adolescents, and young adults. Interventions conducted with middle-aged and elderly adults reported more robust results. In these cases, exercise promoted increased sleep efficiency and duration regardless of the mode and intensity of activity, especially in populations suffering from disease. Our review suggests that sleep and exercise exert substantial positive effects on one another; however, to reach a true consensus, the mechanisms behind these observations must first be elucidated
Meeting report : 1st international functional metagenomics workshop May 7–8, 2012, St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada
This report summarizes the events of the 1st International Functional Metagenomics Workshop. The workshop was held on May 7 and 8 in St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada and was focused on building a core international functional metagenomics community, exploring strategic research areas, and identifying opportunities for future collaboration and funding. The workshop was initiated by researchers at the University of Waterloo with support from the Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the University of Waterloo
Amici Curiae Brief of New York law school professors in People v. Harris: Constitutionality of the New York Death Penalty Statute Under the State Constitution\u27s Cruel and Unusual Punishments and Antidiscrimination Clauses
Amici are teachers in New York law schools who have studied the operation of the death penalty for the purpose of teaching the subject, writing about it in scholarly journals, or representing persons accused or convicted of capital crimes. Most of us have worked in the field both as academics and as pro bono counsel for condemned inmates. Collectively, we have had first-hand experience in hundreds of death cases, in dozens of jurisdictions, extending over more than a third of a century.
Our experience has convinced us that capital punishment cannot be administered with the fairness, reliability, and freedom from discrimination that a penalty so grave and irreversible requires. This is no accident or transitory condition; it is the consequence of certain innate attributes of the penalty of death. The purpose of our brief is to analyze those attributes and explain why they are fundamentally at war with the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause and the Antidiscrimination Clause of New York’s Bill of Rights. We hope to persuade the Court that it should not temporize with the death penalty in the face of this basic incompatibility but should hold the 1995 death penalty statute altogether unconstitutional
Training of Instrumentalists and Development of New Technologies on SOFIA
This white paper is submitted to the Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010 Decadal
Survey (Astro2010)1 Committee on the State of the Profession to emphasize the
potential of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to
contribute to the training of instrumentalists and observers, and to related
technology developments. This potential goes beyond the primary mission of
SOFIA, which is to carry out unique, high priority astronomical research.
SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft with a 2.5 meter telescope. It will enable
astronomical observations anywhere, any time, and at most wavelengths between
0.3 microns and 1.6 mm not accessible from ground-based observatories. These
attributes, accruing from the mobility and flight altitude of SOFIA, guarantee
a wealth of scientific return. Its instrument teams (nine in the first
generation) and guest investigators will do suborbital astronomy in a
shirt-sleeve environment. The project will invest $10M per year in science
instrument development over a lifetime of 20 years. This, frequent flight
opportunities, and operation that enables rapid changes of science instruments
and hands-on in-flight access to the instruments, assure a unique and extensive
potential - both for training young instrumentalists and for encouraging and
deploying nascent technologies. Novel instruments covering optical, infrared,
and submillimeter bands can be developed for and tested on SOFIA by their
developers (including apprentices) for their own observations and for those of
guest observers, to validate technologies and maximize observational
effectiveness.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, White Paper for Astro 2010 Survey Committee on
State of the Professio
Science Impacts of the SPHEREx All-Sky Optical to Near-Infrared Spectral Survey: Report of a Community Workshop Examining Extragalactic, Galactic, Stellar and Planetary Science
SPHEREx is a proposed SMEX mission selected for Phase A. SPHEREx will carry
out the first all-sky spectral survey and provide for every 6.2" pixel a
spectra between 0.75 and 4.18 m [with R41.4] and 4.18 and 5.00
m [with R135]. The SPHEREx team has proposed three specific science
investigations to be carried out with this unique data set: cosmic inflation,
interstellar and circumstellar ices, and the extra-galactic background light.
It is readily apparent, however, that many other questions in astrophysics and
planetary sciences could be addressed with the SPHEREx data. The SPHEREx team
convened a community workshop in February 2016, with the intent of enlisting
the aid of a larger group of scientists in defining these questions. This paper
summarizes the rich and varied menu of investigations that was laid out. It
includes studies of the composition of main belt and Trojan/Greek asteroids;
mapping the zodiacal light with unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution;
identifying and studying very low-metallicity stars; improving stellar
parameters in order to better characterize transiting exoplanets; studying
aliphatic and aromatic carbon-bearing molecules in the interstellar medium;
mapping star formation rates in nearby galaxies; determining the redshift of
clusters of galaxies; identifying high redshift quasars over the full sky; and
providing a NIR spectrum for most eROSITA X-ray sources. All of these
investigations, and others not listed here, can be carried out with the nominal
all-sky spectra to be produced by SPHEREx. In addition, the workshop defined
enhanced data products and user tools which would facilitate some of these
scientific studies. Finally, the workshop noted the high degrees of synergy
between SPHEREx and a number of other current or forthcoming programs,
including JWST, WFIRST, Euclid, GAIA, K2/Kepler, TESS, eROSITA and LSST.Comment: Report of the First SPHEREx Community Workshop,
http://spherex.caltech.edu/Workshop.html , 84 pages, 28 figure
Corneal Transduction by Intra-Stromal Injection of AAV Vectors In Vivo in the Mouse and Ex Vivo in Human Explants
The cornea is a transparent, avascular tissue that acts as the major refractive surface of the eye. Corneal transparency, assured by the inner stroma, is vital for this role. Disruption in stromal transparency can occur in some inherited or acquired diseases. As a consequence, light entering the eye is blocked or distorted, leading to decreased visual acuity. Possible treatment for restoring transparency could be via viral-based gene therapy. The stroma is particularly amenable to this strategy due to its immunoprivileged nature and low turnover rate. We assayed the potential of AAV vectors to transduce keratocytes following intra-stromal injection in vivo in the mouse cornea and ex vivo in human explants. In murine and human corneas, we transduced the entire stroma using a single injection, preferentially targeted keratocytes and achieved long-term gene transfer (up to 17 months in vivo in mice). Of the serotypes tested, AAV2/8 was the most promising for gene transfer in both mouse and man. Furthermore, transgene expression could be transiently increased following aggression to the cornea
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