What the Death Star can tell us about ergonomics methods

Imagine having to identify a critical flaw in a highly complex planetoid-sized orbital battle station under extreme time pressure, and with no clear idea at the outset where the vulnerability will lie? This was the challenge faced by the Rebel Alliance in the film Star Wars. One of the belligerents, the Imperial Empire, considered it highly unlikely a weakness would be found even if the other combatant were in possession of a full technical readout of the station. How could it be done? The first option presented in this paper is to employ traditional error identification methods of the sort contemporaneous with the film's release in 1977 and still in widespread use today. The findings show the limitations of this deterministic world-view because the method selected did not predict the actual vulnerability exploited. The second option is to use a systems-based method to model the Death Star's functional constraints and affordances and use this to assess the system's resilience. This method did detect the film ending, and several others. What began as an amusing aside has turned into a highly effective means to communicate across disciplines and enhance ergonomic teaching and learning. It also provides a compelling narrative around the use of reductionist methods for systems problems, and some wider implications for ergonomic method selection in more earth-bound settings

Teacher Identity in the Context of Literacy Teaching: Three Explorations of Classroom Positioning and Interaction in Secondary Schools

This article presents the results of three separate studies of literacy teaching and learning in the U.S. that explore the social functions of language, specifically focused on the identity development of literacy learners and teachers. Each study offers a detailed account of how literate identities are constructed and enacted and the positive and negative consequences that occur for teachers and students when they are enacted. Taken together, these three studies demonstrate how teachers’ and students’ understandings of identity can promote or inhibit literacy teaching and learning

The Complexity of Combinations of Qualitative Constraint Satisfaction Problems

The CSP of a first-order theory $T$ is the problem of deciding for a given finite set $S$ of atomic formulas whether $T \cup S$ is satisfiable. Let $T_1$ and $T_2$ be two theories with countably infinite models and disjoint signatures. Nelson and Oppen presented conditions that imply decidability (or polynomial-time decidability) of $\mathrm{CSP}(T_1 \cup T_2)$ under the assumption that $\mathrm{CSP}(T_1)$ and $\mathrm{CSP}(T_2)$ are decidable (or polynomial-time decidable). We show that for a large class of $\omega$-categorical theories $T_1, T_2$ the Nelson-Oppen conditions are not only sufficient, but also necessary for polynomial-time tractability of $\mathrm{CSP}(T_1 \cup T_2)$ (unless P=NP).Comment: Version 2: stronger main result with better presentation of the proof; multiple improvements in other proofs; new section structure; new example

Concert recording 2018-02-22

[Track 1]. Full tilt / Anthony DiLorenzo -- [Track 2]. Great Lakes octet. I. Shimmering under the sunlight [Track 3]. II. Frozen under winter skies [Track 4]. III. Storm-tossed [Track 5]. IV. Spring horizon / Eric Ewazen -- [Track 6]. Wayfaring stranger / arranged by Chris Woods -- [Track 7]. On a hymnsong of Philip Bliss / David Holsinger translated by William Harbinson -- [Track 8]. Allegretto from Sinfonietta / Leoš Lanáček arranged by Cory Mixdorf -- [Track 9]. October / Eric Whitacre arranged by Christopher E. Hass -- [Track 10]. Fanfare for paratroopers / Paul Creston arranged by Philip Jameson

Breaking the Cycle of Incarceration: Strategies for Successful Reentry Final Report for Labyrinth Outreach Services for Women

Working with a local reentry organization, Labyrinth Outreach Services to Women, the purpose of this study was to gather information about opportunities and barriers related to two aspects of their program: employment services and establishment of a microbusiness. Information was obtained through a 22-item questionnaire given to a sample of local businesses, key informant interviews, and secondary data analysis. Thirty-nine businesses in the Bloomington-Normal area responded to the questionnaire via on-line and paper survey methods, nine face-to-face interviews were conducted, along with three case studies of similar reentry microbusiness programs and a review of current literature. Stigmas of formerly incarcerated women, such as being unmotivated, irresponsible, disobedient, and violent were found to be major barriers to hiring. Significant facilitators identified for increased consideration for employment were: having support of a job coach, professionalism, expressing passion for the job, and seeking jobs with low customer contact. Successful microbusinesses within similar reentry organizations involved realistic expectations, client control over business operations, local community involvement, practice of a holistic approach, insurance of high product quality, and a focus on multiple products. Major barriers identified were obtaining start-up capital and revenue not meeting expenses. The most appropriate structure was found to be a social enterprise, which focuses more on non-monetary benefits for the employees rather than a profit focus of a traditional microbusiness. Recommendations based on the findings were made to the client

Variable levels of drift in tunicate cardiopharyngeal gene regulatory elements.

Background: Mutations in gene regulatory networks often lead to genetic divergence without impacting gene expression or developmental patterning. The rules governing this process of developmental systems drift, including the variable impact of selective constraints on different nodes in a gene regulatory network, remain poorly delineated. Results: Here we examine developmental systems drift within the cardiopharyngeal gene regulatory networks of two tunicate species, Corella inflata and Ciona robusta. Cross-species analysis of regulatory elements suggests that trans-regulatory architecture is largely conserved between these highly divergent species. In contrast, cis-regulatory elements within this network exhibit distinct levels of conservation. In particular, while most of the regulatory elements we analyzed showed extensive rearrangements of functional binding sites, the enhancer for the cardiopharyngeal transcription factor FoxF is remarkably well-conserved. Even minor alterations in spacing between binding sites lead to loss of FoxF enhancer function, suggesting that bound trans-factors form position-dependent complexes. Conclusions: Our findings reveal heterogeneous levels of divergence across cardiopharyngeal cis-regulatory elements. These distinct levels of divergence presumably reflect constraints that are not clearly associated with gene function or position within the regulatory network. Thus, levels of cis-regulatory divergence or drift appear to be governed by distinct structural constraints that will be difficult to predict based on network architectur

Caesarean section in four South East Asian countries: reasons for, rates, associated care practices and health outcomes

Background: Caesarean section is a commonly performed operation on women that is globally increasing in prevalence each year. There is a large variation in the rates of caesarean, both in high and low income countries, as well as between different institutions within these countries. This audit aimed to report rates and reasons for caesarean and associated clinical care practices amongst nine hospitals in the four South East Asian countries participating in the South East Asia-Optimising Reproductive and Child Health in Developing countries (SEA-ORCHID) project. Methods: Data on caesarean rates, care practices and health outcomes were collected from the medical records of the 9550 women and their 9665 infants admitted to the nine participating hospitals across South East Asia between January and December 2005. Results: Overall 27% of women had a caesarean section, with rates varying from 19% to 35% between countries and 12% to 39% between hospitals within countries. The most common indications for caesarean were previous caesarean (7.0%), cephalopelvic disproportion (6.3%), malpresentation (4.7%) and fetal distress (3.3%). Neonatal resuscitation rates ranged from 7% to 60% between countries. Prophylactic antibiotics were almost universally given but variations in timing occurred between countries and between hospitals within countries. Conclusion: Rates and reasons for caesarean section and associated clinical care practices and health outcomes varied widely between the four South East Asian countries.Mario R Festin, Malinee Laopaiboon, Porjai Pattanittum, Melissa R Ewens, David J Henderson-Smart and Caroline A Crowther for The SEA-ORCHID Study Grou

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts