Does Birth Order Have an Effect on an Individual’s Conscientiousness?

Looking at familial relationships, specifically between sibling dynamics, has been focused on in many different angles in the field of psychology. Psychologists seek to understand the relationships between siblings, and how the relationships affect their bond, personality, and social life. Past studies have shown that siblings do tend to bounce off of each other, such as older sibling control having more of an effect in conflicts rather than in intimacy (Tucker & Updegraff). We hypothesized that the oldest siblings would clean up after themselves or not make a mess, middle children would clean up after themselves, the youngest would make a mess and leave, and only children would clean up after themselves. The participant sample is 60 introductory to psychology students who participated in this study to receive credit in their courses. The study should only take thirty minutes. They will first be brought into a room and be asked to watch a fifteen minute episode of Spongebob while eating a nature valley granola bar. We are measuring the amount of crumbs left behind by each individual and which sibling they are. Afterward, they will be given a short demographics survey and a questionnaire containing the BFI items, Responsibility Manifesto items, Self-Responsibility scale, and Social Responsibility Scale. Afterwards we will debrief them on the true nature of our study. Results will be presented at SURS

Generalized Lévy walks and the role of chemokines in migration of effector CD8+ T cells.

Chemokines have a central role in regulating processes essential to the immune function of T cells, such as their migration within lymphoid tissues and targeting of pathogens in sites of inflammation. Here we track T cells using multi-photon microscopy to demonstrate that the chemokine CXCL10 enhances the ability of CD8+ T cells to control the pathogen Toxoplasma gondii in the brains of chronically infected mice. This chemokine boosts T-cell function in two different ways: it maintains the effector T-cell population in the brain and speeds up the average migration speed without changing the nature of the walk statistics. Notably, these statistics are not Brownian; rather, CD8+ T-cell motility in the brain is well described by a generalized Lévy walk. According to our model, this unexpected feature enables T cells to find rare targets with more than an order of magnitude more efficiency than Brownian random walkers. Thus, CD8+ T-cell behaviour is similar to Lévy strategies reported in organisms ranging from mussels to marine predators and monkeys, and CXCL10 aids T cells in shortening the average time taken to find rare targets

Visual-tactile sensory map calibration of a biomimetic whiskered robot

© 2016 IEEE. We present an adaptive filter model of cerebellar function applied to the calibration of a tactile sensory map to improve the accuracy of directed movements of a robotic manipulator. This is demonstrated using a platform called Bellabot that incorporates an array of biomimetic tactile whiskers, actuated using electro-active polymer artificial muscles, a camera to provide visual error feedback, and a standard industrial robotic manipulator. The algorithm learns to accommodate imperfections in the sensory map that may be as a result of poor manufacturing tolerances or damage to the sensory array. Such an ability is an important pre-requisite for robust tactile robotic systems operating in the real-world for extended periods of time. In this work the sensory maps have been purposely distorted in order to evaluate the performance of the algorithm

The utility of MAS5 expression summary and detection call algorithms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Used alone, the MAS5.0 algorithm for generating expression summaries has been criticized for high False Positive rates resulting from exaggerated variance at low intensities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we show, with replicated cell line data, that, when used alongside detection calls, MAS5 can be both selective and sensitive. A set of differentially expressed transcripts were identified that were found to be changing by MAS5, but unchanging by RMA and GCRMA. Subsequent analysis by real time PCR confirmed these changes. In addition, with the Latin square datasets often used to assess expression summary algorithms, filtered MAS5.0 was found to have performance approaching that of its peers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>When used alongside detection calls, MAS5 is a sensitive and selective algorithm for identifying differentially expressed genes.</p

Kinetics and Phenotype of Vaccine-Induced CD8+ T-Cell Responses to Toxoplasma gondii

Multiple studies have established that the ability of CD8+ T cells to act as cytolytic effectors and produce gamma interferon is important in mediating resistance to the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. To better understand the generation of the antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell responses induced by T. gondii, mice were immunized with replication-deficient parasites that express the model antigen ovalbumin (OVA). Class I tetramers specific for SIINFEKL were used to track the OVA-specific endogenous CD8+ T cells. The peak CD8+ T-cell response was found at day 10 postimmunization, after which the frequency and numbers of antigen-specific cells declined. Unexpectedly, replication-deficient parasites were found to induce antigen-specific cells with faster kinetics than replicating parasites. The generation of optimal numbers of antigen-specific CD8+ effector T cells was found to require CD4+ T-cell help. At 7 days following immunization, antigen-specific cells were found to be CD62Llow, KLRG1+, and CD127low, and they maintained this phenotype for more than 70 days. Antigen-specific CD8+ effector T cells in immunized mice exhibited potent perforin-dependent OVA-specific cytolytic activity in vivo. Perforin-dependent cytolysis appeared to be the major cytolytic mechanism; however, a perforin-independent pathway that was not mediated via Fas-FasL was also detected. This study provides further insight into vaccine-induced cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses that correlate with protective immunity to T. gondii and identifies a critical role for CD4+ T cells in the generation of protective CD8+ T-cell responses

Biohybrid control of general linear systems using the adaptive filter model of cerebellum

© 2015 Wilson, Assaf, Pearson, Rossiter, Dean, Anderson and Porrill. The adaptive filter model of the cerebellar microcircuit has been successfully applied to biological motor control problems, such as the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), and to sensory processing problems, such as the adaptive cancelation of reafferent noise. It has also been successfully applied to problems in robotics, such as adaptive camera stabilization and sensor noise cancelation. In previous applications to inverse control problems, the algorithm was applied to the velocity control of a plant dominated by viscous and elastic elements. Naive application of the adaptive filter model to the displacement (as opposed to velocity) control of this plant results in unstable learning and control. To be more generally useful in engineering problems, it is essential to remove this restriction to enable the stable control of plants of any order. We address this problem here by developing a biohybrid model reference adaptive control (MRAC) scheme, which stabilizes the control algorithm for strictly proper plants. We evaluate the performance of this novel cerebellar-inspired algorithm with MRAC scheme in the experimental control of a dielectric electroactive polymer, a class of artificial muscle. The results show that the augmented cerebellar algorithm is able to accurately control the displacement response of the artificial muscle. The proposed solution not only greatly extends the practical applicability of the cerebellar-inspired algorithm, but may also shed light on cerebellar involvement in a wider range of biological control tasks

T-cell production of matrix metalloproteinases and inhibition of parasite clearance by TIMP-1 during chronic Toxoplasma infection in the brain

Chronic infection with the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii leads to tissue remodelling in the brain and a continuous requirement for peripheral leucocyte migration within the CNS (central nervous system). In the present study, we investigate the role of MMPs (matrix metalloproteinases) and their inhibitors in T-cell migration into the infected brain. Increased expression of two key molecules, MMP-8 and MMP-10, along with their inhibitor, TIMP-1 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1), was observed in the CNS following infection. Analysis of infiltrating lymphocytes demonstrated MMP-8 and -10 production by CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. In addition, infiltrating T-cells and CNS resident astrocytes increased their expression of TIMP-1 following infection. TIMP-1-deficient mice had a decrease in perivascular accumulation of lymphocyte populations, yet an increase in the proportion of CD4+ T-cells that had trafficked into the CNS. This was accompanied by a reduction in parasite burden in the brain. Taken together, these findings demonstrate a role for MMPs and TIMP-1 in the trafficking of lymphocytes into the CNS during chronic infection in the brain

Cerebellar-inspired algorithm for adaptive control of nonlinear dielectric elastomerbased artificial muscle

© 2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Electroactive polymer actuators are important for soft robotics, but can be difficult to control because of compliance, creep and nonlinearities. Because biological control mechanisms have evolved to deal with such problems, we investigated whether a control scheme based on the cerebellum would be useful for controlling a nonlinear dielectric elastomer actuator, a class of artificial muscle. The cerebellum was represented by the adaptive filter model, and acted in parallel with a brainstem, an approximate inverse plant model. The recurrent connections between the two allowed for direct use of sensory error to adjust motor commands. Accurate tracking of a displacement command in the actuator's nonlinear range was achieved by either semi-linear basis functions in the cerebellar model or semi-linear functions in the brainstem corresponding to recruitment in biological muscle. In addition, allowing transfer of training between cerebellum and brainstem as has been observed in the vestibulo-ocular reflex prevented the steady increase in cerebellar output otherwise required to deal with creep. The extensibility and relative simplicity of the cerebellar-based adaptive-inverse control scheme suggests that it is a plausible candidate for controlling this type of actuator. Moreover, its performance highlights important features of biological control, particularly nonlinear basis functions, recruitment and transfer of training

A study of energy partition during arc initiation

This paper presents an analysis of energy partition among various physical processes during the formation of an electrical arc. Experimental work was conducted to accurately determine the energy delivered into the discharge. The transient voltage and current waveforms have been measured. An analytical model was developed which allows estimation of the energy partition in the discharge to be performed in order to evaluate risks associated with different energy components: thermal, kinetic-acoustic and light. Approximately 60% of the electrical energy is converted into mechanical work, subsequently contributing to the pressure rise. The results obtained will help in studies of safety considerations regarding hazards associated with plasma discharges in transient faults/sparks and during the onset of arcing faults (flash and blast hazards)

Licensed human natural killer cells aid dendritic cell maturation via TNFSF14/LIGHT

Interactions between natural killer (NK) cells and dendritic cells (DC) aid DC maturation and promote T cell responses. Here, we have analysed the response of human NK cells to tumor cells and we identify a pathway by which NK-DC interactions occur. Gene expression profiling of tumor-responsive NK cells identified the very rapid induction of TNFSF14 (also known as LIGHT), a cytokine implicated in the enhancement of anti-tumor responses. TNFSF14 protein expression was induced by three primary mechanisms of NK cell activation, namely via the engagement of CD16, by the synergistic activity of multiple target cell-sensing NK cell activation receptors and by the cytokines IL-2 and IL-15. For anti-tumor responses, TNFSF14 was preferentially produced by the licensed NK cell population, defined by the expression of inhibitory receptors specific for self-MHC class I molecules. In contrast, IL-2 and IL-15 treatment induced TNFSF14 production by both licensed and unlicensed NK cells, reflecting the ability of pro-inflammatory conditions to override the licensing mechanism. Importantly, both tumor and cytokine activated NK cells induced DC maturation in a TNFSF14-dependent manner. The coupling of TNFSF14 production to tumor-sensing NK cell activation receptors links the tumor immune surveillance function of NK cells to DC maturation and adaptive immunity. Furthermore, regulation by NK cell licensing helps to safeguard against TNFSF14 production in response to healthy tissues