Protocol Requirements for Self-organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence

We discuss which properties common-use artifacts should have to collaborate without human intervention. We conceive how devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and home appliances, could be seamlessly integrated to provide an "ambient intelligence" that responds to the user's desires without requiring explicit programming or commands. While the hardware and software technology to build such systems already exists, as yet there is no standard protocol that can learn new meanings. We propose the first steps in the development of such a protocol, which would need to be adaptive, extensible, and open to the community, while promoting self-organization. We argue that devices, interacting through "game-like" moves, can learn to agree about how to communicate, with whom to cooperate, and how to delegate and coordinate specialized tasks. Thus, they may evolve a distributed cognition or collective intelligence capable of tackling complex tasks.Comment: To be presented at 5th International Conference on Complex System

The implications of alternative developer decision-making strategies on land-use and land-cover in an agent-based land market model

Land developers play a key role in land-use and land cover change, as\ud they directly make land development decisions and bridge the land and housing\ud markets. Developers choose and purchase land from rural land owners, develop\ud and subdivide land into parcel lots, build structures on lots, and sell houses to residential households. Developers determine the initial landscaping states of developed parcels, affecting the state and future trajectories of residential land cover, as well as land market activity. Despite their importance, developers are underrepresented in land use change models due to paucity of data and knowledge regarding their decision-making. Drawing on economic theories and empirical literature, we have developed a generalized model of land development decision-making within a broader agent-based model of land-use change via land markets. Developer’s strategies combine their specialty in developing of particular subdivision types, their perception of and attitude towards market uncertainty, and their learning and adaptation strategies based on the dynamics of the simulated land and housing markets. We present a new agent-based land market model that includes these elements. The model will be used to experiment with these different development decision-making methods and compare their impacts on model outputs, particularly on the quantity and spatial pattern of resultant land use changes. Coupling between the land market and a carbon sequestration model, developed for the larger SLUCE2 project, will allow us, in future work, to examine how different developer’s strategies will affect the carbon balance in residential\ud landscape

Case report: De novo mutation of a-galactosidase A in a female patient with end-stage renal disease: report of a case of late diagnosis of Anderson–Fabry disease

Background: Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is an X-linked disease that results from reduced activity of the enzyme galactosidase alpha (GLA). When the GLA gene sequence is altered by mutations that alter the normal DNA sequence, variants of the alpha-galactosidase A enzyme are produced, which may or may not function. These mutations are responsible for Fabry disease, and to date, over 800 different mutations of the gene have been described in patients with Anderson-Fabry disease. In this case, we report the case of a woman who is the sole family member with this type of mutation.Case presentation: We report a case of a 52-year-old woman with end-stage chronic kidney disease in dialysis treatment. The patient's alpha-galactosidase activity was 6.6 nmol/ml/h in whole blood, and lyso-GB3 levels were 11.45 nmol/L (normal range < 2.3 nmol/L). Alpha-galactosidase A gene sequence analysis revealed a pathogenic variant of c.947dupT in exon 6, leading to the p. I317NfsTer16 amino acid substitution. The genetic analysis did not detect the same mutation in any of the other screened family members.Conclusion: The international Fabry disease genotype-phenotype database (dbFGP) reports a pathogenic variant c.947dupT in exon 6 that is probably associated with a classical phenotype of Fabry disease. In this case report, we report the case of a woman who is the sole family member with this type of pathogenic variant. Similar situations have not been described in the literature for this pathogenic variant, and it represents an important case of inter- and intrafamilial variability in patients with Fabry disease. The literature shows that de novo pathogenic variants are frequently found in the context of Fabry disease

Pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of anderson–fabry disease and possible new molecular addressed therapeutic strategies

Anderson–Fabry disease (AFD) is a rare disease with an incidenceof approxi-mately 1:117,000 male births. Lysosomal accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) is the element characterizing Fabry disease due to a hereditary deficiency α-galactosidase A (GLA) enzyme. The accumulation of Gb3 causes lysosomal dysfunction that compromises cell signaling pathways. Deposition of sphingolipids occurs in the autonomic nervous system, dorsal root ganglia, kidney epithelial cells, vascular system cells, and myocardial cells, resulting in organ failure. This manuscript will review the molecular pathogenetic pathways involved in Anderson–Fabry disease and in its organ damage. Some studies reported that inhibition of mitochondrial function and energy metabolism plays a signif-icant role in AFD cardiomyopathy and in kidney disease of AFD patients. Furthermore, mitochondrial dysfunction has been reported as linked to the dysregulation of the au-tophagy–lysosomal pathway which inhibits the mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase (mTOR) mediated control of mitochondrial metabolism in AFD cells. Cerebrovascular complications due to AFD are caused by cerebral micro vessel stenosis. These are caused by wall thickening resulting from the intramural accumulation of glycolipids, luminal oc-clusion or thrombosis. Other pathogenetic mechanisms involved in organ damage linked to Gb3 accumulation are endocytosis and lysosomal degradation of endothelial calcium-activated intermediate-conductance potassium ion channel 3.1 (KCa3.1) via a clathrin-de-pendent process. This process represents a crucial event in endothelial dysfunction. Several studies have identified the deacylated form of Gb3, globotriaosylsphingosine (Lyso-Gb3), as the main catabolite that increases in plasma and urine in patients with AFD. The mean concentrations of Gb3 in all organs and plasma of Galactosidase A knockout mice were significantly higher than those of wild-type mice. The distributions of Gb3 isoforms vary from organ to organ. Various Gb3 isoforms were observed mainly in the kidneys, and kidney-specific Gb3 isoforms were hydroxylated. Furthermore, the action of Gb3 on the KCa3.1 channel suggests a possible contribution of this interaction to the Fabry disease process, as this channel is expressed in various cells, including endothelial cells, fibro-blasts, smooth muscle cells in proliferation, microglia, and lymphocytes. These molecular pathways could be considered a potential therapeutic target to correct the enzyme in ad-dition to the traditional enzyme replacement therapies (ERT) or drug chaperone therapy

Evolutionary instability of Zero Determinant strategies demonstrates that winning isn't everything

Zero Determinant (ZD) strategies are a new class of probabilistic and conditional strategies that are able to unilaterally set the expected payoff of an opponent in iterated plays of the Prisoner's Dilemma irrespective of the opponent's strategy, or else to set the ratio between a ZD player's and their opponent's expected payoff. Here we show that while ZD strategies are weakly dominant, they are not evolutionarily stable and will instead evolve into less coercive strategies. We show that ZD strategies with an informational advantage over other players that allows them to recognize other ZD strategies can be evolutionarily stable (and able to exploit other players). However, such an advantage is bound to be short-lived as opposing strategies evolve to counteract the recognition.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Change in title (again!) to comply with Nature Communications requirements. To appear in Nature Communication

Effects of land markets and land management on ecosystem function: A framework for modelling exurban land-change

This paper presents the conceptual design and application of a new land-change modelling framework that represents geographical, sociological, economic, and ecological aspects of a land system. The framework provides an overarching design that can be extended into specific model implementations to evaluate how policy, land-management preferences, and land-market dynamics affect (and are affected by) land-use and land-cover change patterns and subsequent carbon storage and flux. To demonstrate the framework, we implement a simple integration of a new agent-based model of exurban residential development and land-management decisions with the ecosystem process model BIOME-BGC. Using a stylized scenario, we evaluate the influence of different exurban residential-land-management strategies on carbon storage at the parcel level over a 48-year period from 1958 to 2005, simulating stocks of carbon in soil, litter, vegetation, and net primary productivity. Results show 1) residential parcels with management practices that only provided additions in the form of fertilizer and irrigation to turfgrass stored slightly more carbon than parcels that did not include management practices, 2) conducting no land-management strategy stored more carbon than implementing a strategy that included removals in the form of removing coarse woody debris from dense tree cover and litter from turfgrass, and 3) the removal practices modelled had a larger impact on total parcel carbon storage than our modelled additions. The degree of variation within the evaluated land-management practices was approximately 42,104 kg C storage on a 1.62 ha plot after 48 years, demonstrating the substantial effect that residential land-management practices can have on carbon storag

Imprecision and bias in orthodontic treatment results

Imprecision in treatment response has been defined as inconsistent unpredictable results from the same treatment. Bias has been defined as systematic failure to achieve defined treatment goals. Concepts of imprecision and bias are applied to the results of a study of soft-tissue response to Class II treatment with edgewise and Herbst appliances.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27413/1/0000448.pd

Fragmenting Forests: The Double Edge of Effective Forest Monitoring

The link between ineffective forest monitoring and forest degradation is well known. Under REDD+, monitoring stands to become more important as a means of maintaining incentive. Little attention however has been paid to the possible adverse consequences of forest monitoring. Our research develops a spatially explicit, agent-based model (ABM) of timber extraction in a Congo Basin forest concession to investigate the potential conservation impact of more effective monitoring. We modeled the building of access roads, and logging of legal timber and illegal timber, where illegal timber may be interpreted broadly to include prohibited species, smaller trees, or trees in areas where cutting is not permitted. We investigated road building under (1) random spot monitoring of logging sites and (2) monitoring of logged trunks at checkpoints. Our findings indicate that although more effective monitoring can reduce illegal harvesting, it can also lead to construction of denser road networks and higher levels of forest fragmentation, with an implied loss of biodiversity. These insights are particularly relevant in the context of REDD+, as they suggest that some monitoring strategies may lead to more forest fragmentation, even as they help reduce emissions

A multivariate approach to analyzing the relation between occlusion and craniofacial morphology

This study examined the association between occlusion and craniofacial morphology using univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Data were obtained from study casts and lateral cephalometric radiographs of 164 children in the early permanent dentition. The following multiple features of occlusion were assessed: molar relation, overjet, overbite, and anterior crowding. Angular skeletal measures assessed cranial base flexure, maxillary horizontal and vertical positions, mandibular horizontal and vertical positions, horizontal and vertical maxillary-mandibular relations, and positions of the incisors. The relation between the Occlusal Index, which is a malocclusion severity index, and skeletal morphology was also investigated. Associations were examined by use of linear correlation, stepwise multiple regression, and canonical correlation analyses. Individually and in combination, occlusal features were poorly associated with individual skeletal measures (r2 [les] 0.35). The strongest association occurred between a linear combination of occlusal features and a linear combination of skeletal measures (R2 = 0.66, p = 0.0001). A malocclusion severity index did not aid in the identification of craniofacial morphology. The results suggested that combinations of certain occlusal characteristics may be associated with specific skeletal types; however, a generalized statement of this concept could not be supported.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27993/1/0000426.pd