Prepare for Citizen Science Challenges at CERN

Abstract: To inspire more people to contribute to science, and educate the public about science, two Citizen Science "challenges" were prepared during summer 2013: the CERN Summer Webfest 2013 and the Virtual LHC Challenge. The first part of this report summarizes how to organize a Webfest at CERN and the outcome of the CERN Summer Webfest 2013.The second part gives an introduction to the current state of the Virtual LHC Challenge: a development of the LHC@Home Test4Theory project planned to attract many unskilled volunteers. This work was supported by a grant from the EU Citizen Cyberlab project, with assistance from the Citizen Cyberscience Centre (CCC)

Preschoolers’ views on integration of digital technologies

The aim of the present study was to explore preschool children’s views on the integration of digital technologies in their school. The study included 171 Israeli children aged 3 to 6 who participated in in-depth interviews regarding their views on digital technologies in their preschool. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Three major views regarding digital technologies in the preschool were found: The degree to which digital technologies are necessary; the goals of the use of these technologies; the setting for using the digital technologies. Fifty percent of the children, especially the younger ones, claimed that use of these technologies is not necessary in preschool. However, most of them understood the importance of using these technologies and their contribution to many fields. In relation to the setting use, they referred to time and social aspects. The findings indicate that preschool teachers need to mediate these aspects more wisely and adapt them to the children's understanding and view toward digital technologies than actually takes place when they use them with the children

On rational solutions of multicomponent and matrix KP hierarchies

We derive some rational solutions for the multicomponent and matrix KP hierarchies generalising an approach by Wilson. Connections with the multicomponent version of the KP/CM correspondence are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, no figure

Impaired Functional Connectivity Underlies Fragile X Syndrome

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common form of inherited intellectual disability, is caused by a developmentally regulated silencing of the FMR1 gene, but its effect on human neuronal network development and function is not fully understood. Here, we isolated isogenic human embryonic stem cell (hESC) subclones-one with a full FX mutation and one that is free of the mutation (control) but shares the same genetic background-differentiated them into induced neurons (iNs) by forced expression of NEUROG-1, and compared the functional properties of the derived neuronal networks. High-throughput image analysis demonstrates that FX-iNs have significantly smaller cell bodies and reduced arborizations than the control. Both FX- and control-neurons can discharge repetitive action potentials, and FX neuronal networks are also able to generate spontaneous excitatory synaptic currents with slight differences from the control, demonstrating that iNs generate more mature neuronal networks than the previously used protocols. MEA analysis demonstrated that FX networks are hyperexcitable with significantly higher spontaneous burst-firing activity compared to the control. Most importantly, cross-correlation analysis enabled quantification of network connectivity to demonstrate that the FX neuronal networks are significantly less synchronous than the control, which can explain the origin of the development of intellectual dysfunction associated with FXS

Superpotential algebras and manifolds

In this paper we study a special class of Calabi-Yau algebras (in the sense of Ginzburg): those arising as the fundamental group algebras of acyclic manifolds. Motivated partly by the usefulness of `superpotential descriptions' in motivic Donaldson-Thomas theory, we investigate the question of whether these algebras admit superpotential presentations. We establish that the fundamental group algebras of a wide class of acyclic manifolds, including all hyperbolic manifolds, do not admit such descriptions, disproving Ginzburg's conjecture regarding them. We also describe a class of manifolds that do admit such descriptions, and discuss a little their motivic Donaldson-Thomas theory. Finally, some links with topological field theory are described.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures, final version. Thanks to M. Kontsevich, V. Ginzburg, M, Van den Bergh and B. Keller for helpful comments and corrections. I've added some examples e.g. Klein bottl

The Motivic Cohomology of Stiefel Varieties

The main result of this paper is a computation of the motivic cohomology of varieties of n \times m-matrices of of rank m, including both the ring structure and the action of the reduced power operations. The argument proceeds by a comparison of the general linear group-scheme with a Tate suspension of a space which is A1-equivalent to projective n - 1-space with a disjoint basepoint

InSite: a computational method for identifying protein-protein interaction binding sites on a proteome-wide scale

InSite is a computational method that integrates high-throughput protein and sequence data to infer the specific binding regions of interacting protein pairs

Genetic analysis of four consanguineous multiplex families with inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Family studies support a genetic predisposition to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), but known genetic variants only partially explain the disease heritability. Families with multiple affected individuals potentially harbour rare and high-impact causal variants. Long regions of homozygosity due to recent inbreeding may increase the risk of individuals bearing homozygous loss-of-function variants. This study aimed to identify rare and homozygous genetic variants contributing to IBD. Methods: Four families with known consanguinity and multiple cases of IBD were recruited. In a family-specific analysis, we utilised homozygosity mapping complemented by whole-exome sequencing. Results: We detected a single region of homozygosity shared by Crohn's disease cases from a family of Druze ancestry, spanning 2.6 Mb containing the NOD2 gene. Whole-exome sequencing did not identify any potentially damaging variants within the region, suggesting that non-coding variation may be involved. In addition, affected individuals in the families harboured several rare and potentially damaging homozygous variants in genes with a role in autophagy and innate immunity including LRRK1, WHAMM, DENND3, and C5. Conclusion: This study examined the potential contribution of rare, high-impact homozygous variants in consanguineous families with IBD. While the analysis was not designed to achieve statistical significance, our findings highlight genes or loci that warrant further research. Non-coding variants affecting NOD2 may be of importance in Druze patients with Crohn's disease

Evaluation and Treatment of Perioperative Corneal Abrasions

Purpose. To evaluate perioperative risk factors for corneal abrasion (CA) and to determine current care for perioperative CA in a tertiary care setting. Methods. Hospital-based, cross-sectional study. In Operating Room and Post-Anesthesia Care Units patients, a comparison of cases and controls was evaluated to elucidate risk factors, time to treatment, and most common treatments prescribed for corneal abrasions. Results. 86 cases of corneal abrasion and 89 controls were identified from the 78,542 surgical procedures performed over 2 years. Statistically significant risk factors were age (P=0.0037), general anesthesia (P<0.001), greater average estimated blood loss (P<0.001), eyes taped during surgery (P<0.001), prone position (P<0.001), trendelenburg position (P<0.001), and supplemental oxygen en route to and in the Post-Anesthesia Care Units (P<0.001). Average time to complaint was 129 minutes. 94% of cases had an inpatient ophthalmology consult, with an average time to consult of 164 minutes. The most common treatment was artificial tears alone (40%), followed by combination treatment of antibiotic ointment and artificial tears (35.3%). Conclusions. Trendelenburg positioning is a novel risk factor for CA. Diagnosis and treatment of perioperative corneal abrasions by an ophthalmologist typically require three hours in the tertiary care setting

Virasoro constraints in Drinfeld-Sokolov hierarchies

We describe a geometric theory of Virasoro constraints in generalized Drinfeld-Sokolov hierarchies. Solutions of Drinfeld-Sokolov hierarchies are succinctly described by giving a principal bundle on a complex curve together with the data of a Higgs field near infinity. String solutions for these hierarchies are defined as points having a big stabilizer under a certain Lie algebra action. We characterize principal bundles coming from string solutions as those possessing connections compatible with the Higgs field near infinity. We show that tau-functions of string solutions satisfy second-order differential equations generalizing the Virasoro constraints of 2d quantum gravity.Comment: 28 page