Modeling Autistic Features in Animals

A variety of features of autism can be simulated in rodents, including the core behavioral hallmarks of stereotyped and repetitive behaviors, and deficits in social interaction and communication. Other behaviors frequently found in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) such as neophobia, enhanced anxiety, abnormal pain sensitivity and eye blink conditioning, disturbed sleep patterns, seizures, and deficits in sensorimotor gating are also present in some of the animal models. Neuropathology and some characteristic neurochemical changes that are frequently seen in autism, and alterations in the immune status in the brain and periphery are also found in some of the models. Several known environmental risk factors for autism have been successfully established in rodents, including maternal infection and maternal valproate administration. Also under investigation are a number of mouse models based on genetic variants associated with autism or on syndromic disorders with autistic features. This review briefly summarizes recent developments in this field, highlighting models with face and/or construct validity, and noting the potential for investigation of pathogenesis, and early progress toward clinical testing of potential therapeutics. Wherever possible, reference is made to reviews rather than to primary articles

The American legacy of "Prufrock"

The essay cluster brings together leading Eliot and modernist scholars to commemorate the centenary of the publication of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Together, they reexamine the circumstances surrounding the poem’s original publication, recontextualize its allusions, and reconstruct its reception over the past century. Patterson examines the American roots of Eliot’s ironic love song, often considered through the lenses of European poetry and philosophy. Dickey returns to the poem’s early reception to challenge the now established narrative that “Prufrock” shocked early readers, showing how often his contemporaries associated the poem with Decadent or Aesthetic precedents. Ricks returns to the poem’s first publication in Poetry Magazine to understand how the poem’s first readers would have encountered the text and how this context would have mediated the reader’s experience. Cuda situates Eliot’s poem vis-à-vis current discourses on late modernism and demonstrates how lateness and belatedness feature centrally in the poem. Finally, Schuchard examines Eliot’s literary and religious allusions, showing that his allusive method is in full force even in his first poetic masterpiece

Research in Public Tort Liability

In the last years, the increase of the fuel price and the need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions have triggered the research on lowering the fuel consumption within the transport sector. The research not only involves the development of more efficient engines but also the exploration of new transportation paradigms. One promising approach is to create vehicle platoons, i.e. convoys of vehicles driving close to each other. Vehicles driving close behind benefit from the reduction of the air drag and hence their overall fuel consumptions are reduced. This work focuses on studying platoons of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). More specifically, the work analyzes real position data of an HDV fleet from one manufacturer. The objective is to determine the potentials to reduce the fuel consumption of the fleet through platoon formations, using low sampled GPS traces obtained from the fleet management system. Map matching and path inference algorithms have been developed to reconstruct the path of the vehicles on a given road network. The reconstructed paths are used to analyze the vehicles’ positions and inter-vehicle distances. Results show that the vehicles are widely spread. The average distance to the closest vehicle is greater than 20km, which limits the platoon opportunities. Although with limited platoon opportunities, potential fuel savings up to 0.14% of the whole fleet’s consumption have been obtained. Results suggest that fuel savings can be largely improved if the density of vehicles in the road network is increased

Alpha particle backscattering measurements used for chemical analysis of surfaces

Alpha particle backscattering performs a chemical analysis of surfaces. The apparatus uses a curium source and a semiconductor detector to determine the energy spectrum of the particles. This in turn determines the chemical composition of the surface after calibration to known samples

The cell cycle–apoptosis connection revisited in the adult brain

Adult neurogenesis is studied in vivo using thymidine analogues such as bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to label DNA synthesis during the S phase of the cell cycle. However, BrdU may also label DNA synthesis events not directly related to cell proliferation, such as DNA repair and/or abortive reentry into the cell cycle, which can occur as part of an apoptotic process in postmitotic neurons. In this study, we used three well-characterized models of injury-induced neuronal apoptosis and the combined visualization of cell birth (BrdU labeling) and death (Tdt-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling) to investigate the specificity of BrdU incorporation in the adult mouse brain in vivo. We present evidence that BrdU is not significantly incorporated during DNA repair and that labeling is not detected in vulnerable or dying postmitotic neurons, even when a high dose of BrdU is directly infused into the brain. These findings have important implications for a controversy surrounding adult neurogenesis: the connection between cell cycle reactivation and apoptosis of terminally differentiated neurons

Assessment criteria for 2D shape transformations in animation

The assessment of 2D shape transformations (or morphing) for animation is a difficult task because it is a multi-dimensional problem. Existing morphing techniques pay most attention to shape information interactive control and mathematical simplicity. This paper shows that it is not enough to use shape information alone, and we should consider other factors such as structure, dynamics, timing, etc. The paper also shows that an overall objective assessment of morphing is impossible because factors such as timing are related to subjective judgement, yet local objective assessment criteria, e.g. based on shape, are available. We propose using “area preservation” as the shape criterion for the 2D case as an acceptable approximation to “volume preservation” in reality, and use it to establish cases in which a number of existing techniques give clearly incorrect results. The possibility of deriving objective assessment criteria for dynamics simulations and timing under certain conditions is discussed

Design requirements for high-efficiency high concentration ratio space solar cells

A miniaturized Cassegrainian concentrator system concept was developed for low cost, multikilowatt space solar arrays. The system imposes some requirements on solar cells which are new and different from those imposed for conventional applications. The solar cells require a circular active area of approximately 4 mm in diameter. High reliability contacts are required on both front and back surfaces. The back area must be metallurgically bonded to a heat sink. The cell should be designed to achieve the highest practical efficiency at 100 AMO suns and at 80 C. The cell design must minimize losses due to nonuniform illumination intensity and nonnormal light incidence. The primary radiation concern is the omnidirectional proton environment