Design Thinking as Heterogeneous Engineering: Emerging Design Methods in Meme Warfare

The shift of production of material artefacts to digital and online making has been greatly disruptive to material culture. Design has typically concerned itself with studying material cultures in order to develop a better understanding of the ways people go about shaping the world around them. This thesis contributes to this space by looking at an emerging form of artefact generation in digital and online making, namely, visual communication design in online information warfare. Developing understanding of participation in this space reveals possible trajectory of working with material culture as it increasingly becomes digital and online. Marshall McLuhan wrote in 1970 that “World War 3 is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation” (p. 66), anticipating ubiquitous symmetrical capacity of users as both producers and consumers of information through communication technology. This space has emerged as our digital and online environment, and prominent in this environment are images with characteristics of visual communication design. It appears that the trajectory of visual communication design from the late 19t h century is moving toward ubiquitous making and exchanging of visual communication, as anyone with a smartphone can make an internet meme with worldwide reach and influence

Chelator-Free Radiolabeling of SERRS Nanoparticles for Whole-Body PET and Intraoperative Raman Imaging

A single contrast agent that offers whole-body non-invasive imaging along with the superior sensitivity and spatial resolution of surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) imaging would allow both pre-operative mapping and intraoperative imaging and thus be highly desirable. We hypothesized that labeling our recently reported ultrabright SERRS nanoparticles with a suitable radiotracer would enable pre-operative identification of regions of interest with whole body imaging that can be rapidly corroborated with a Raman imaging device or handheld Raman scanner in order to provide high precision guidance during surgical procedures. Here we present a straightforward new method that produces radiolabeled SERRS nanoparticles for combined positron emission tomography (PET)-SERRS tumor imaging without requiring the attachment of molecular chelators. We demonstrate the utility of these PET-SERRS nanoparticles in several proof-of-concept studies including lymph node (LN) tracking, intraoperative guidance for LN resection, and cancer imaging after intravenous injection. We anticipate that the radiolabeling method presented herein can be applied generally to nanoparticle substrates of various materials by first coating them with a silica shell and then applying the chelator-free protocol

The Properties of the Radio-Selected 1Jy Sample of BL Lacertae Objects

We present new optical and near-IR spectroscopy as well as new high dynamic range, arcsecond-resolution VLA radio maps of BL Lacs from the complete radio-selected "1 Jansky" (1Jy) sample (RBLs) for which such data were not previously available. Unlike BL Lacs from the complete X-ray-selected Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) sample (XBLs), most RBLs possess weak but moderately luminous emission lines. And whereas nearly all XBLs have extended power levels consistent with FR-1s, more than half of the RBLs have extended radio power levels too luminous to be beamed FR-1 radio galaxies. In fact, we find evidence for and examples of three distinct mechanisms for creating the BL Lac phenomenon in the 1Jy sample: beamed FR-1s, beamed FR-2s and possibly a few gravitationally-lensed quasars. The v/v_max determined for the 1Jy sample is 0.614+/-0.047, which is markedly different from the negative evolution seen in the EMSS and other XBL samples. A correlation between logarithmic X-ray to radio flux ratio and v/v_max is observed across the EMSS and 1Jy samples, from negative evolution in the more extreme XBLs to positive evolution in the more extreme RBLs. There is evidence that the selection criteria chosen by Stickel et al. eliminates some BL Lac objects from the 1Jy sample, although how many is unknown. And several objects currently in the sample have exhibited strong emission lines in one or more epochs, suggesting they should be reclassified as FSRQs. However these selection effects cannot account for the observed discrepancy in XBL and RBL properties. From these observational properties we conclude that RBLs and XBLs cannot be related by viewing angle alone, and that RBLs are more closely related to FSRQs.Comment: 29 pages, 47 figures, accepted A

Beyond a consensus classification for idiopathic interstitial pneumonias: progress and controversies

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74699/1/j.1365-2559.2008.03173.x.pd

Nanoparticles as multimodal photon transducers of ionizing radiation

In biomedical imaging, nanoparticles combined with radionuclides that generate Cerenkov luminescence are used in diagnostic imaging, photon-induced therapies, and as activatable probes. In these applications, the nanoparticle is often viewed as a carrier inert to ionizing radiation from the radionuclide. However, certain phenomena such as enhanced nanoparticle luminescence and generation of reactive oxygen species cannot be explained by only Cerenkov luminescence interactions with nanoparticles. Herein, we report methods to examine the mechanisms of nanoparticle excitation by radionuclides, including interactions with Cerenkov luminescence, β particles, and γ radiation. We demonstrate that β scintillation contributes appreciably to excitation and reactivity in certain nanoparticle systems and that excitation of nanoparticles composed of large atomic number atoms by radionuclides generates X-rays, enabling multiplexed imaging through single photon emission computed tomography. These findings demonstrate practical optical imaging and therapy using radionuclides with emission energies below the Cerenkov threshold, thereby expanding the list of applicable radionuclides

Genome-wide Association Meta-analysis of Childhood and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms

Objective: To investigate the genetic architecture of internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence. Method: In 22 cohorts, multiple univariate genome-wide association studies (GWASs) were performed using repeated assessments of internalizing symptoms, in a total of 64,561 children and adolescents between 3 and 18 years of age. Results were aggregated in meta-analyses that accounted for sample overlap, first using all available data, and then using subsets of measurements grouped by rater, age, and instrument. Results: The meta-analysis of overall internalizing symptoms (INToverall) detected no genome-wide significant hits and showed low single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability (1.66%, 95% CI = 0.84-2.48%, n(effective) = 132,260). Stratified analyses indicated rater-based heterogeneity in genetic effects, with self-reported internalizing symptoms showing the highest heritability (5.63%, 95% CI = 3.08%-8.18%). The contribution of additive genetic effects on internalizing symptoms appeared to be stable over age, with overlapping estimates of SNP heritability from early childhood to adolescence. Genetic correlations were observed with adult anxiety, depression, and the well-being spectrum (vertical bar r(g)vertical bar > 0.70), as well as with insomnia, loneliness, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and childhood aggression (range vertical bar r(g)vertical bar = 0.42-0.60), whereas there were no robust associations with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or anorexia nervosa. Conclusion: Genetic correlations indicate that childhood and adolescent internalizing symptoms share substantial genetic vulnerabilities with adult internalizing disorders and other childhood psychiatric traits, which could partially explain both the persistence of internalizing symptoms over time and the high comorbidity among childhood psychiatric traits. Reducing phenotypic heterogeneity in childhood samples will be key in paving the way to future GWAS success.Peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Swarm networks and the design process of a distributed meme warfare campaign

This paper aims to develop a systemic perspective of the mechanics of an online memetic warfare campaign. The paper uses as its case study the #DraftOurDaughters campaign, a viral memetic campaign conducted in October 2016 as part of the U.S. presidential election campaign. #DraftOurDaughters was organised and produced by anonymous members of the Internet board 4chan, and then deployed to wider audiences on platforms such as Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. This process is documented from inception to completion, capturing the swarm like topology of 4chan’s /pol/ forum, and the logistics of the swarm’s rapid prototyping, coordination, production and dissemination of content. Through examining these phenomena, this paper also provides perspective on the manifestation of collaborative design practice in online participatory spaces