The Role of Non-Canonical DNA Structures in Insulin Expression

The insulin-linked polymorphic region (ILPR) resides in the promoter region of the gene coding for insulin (INS). This region consists of a 14-base pair tandem repeat DNA sequence of 5'-ACAGGGGTGTGGGG-3'/3'-TGTCCCCACACCCC-5' and is located 363 base pairs upstream of the transcription start site of insulin. The insulin-linked polymorphic region can form non-canonical DNA secondary structures such as G-quadruplexes, i-motifs and hairpins. Previous work at the UCL School of Pharmacy has shown that different native insulin-linked polymorphic region sequence variants form different DNA structures and these result in differences in insulin gene transcription.

This project aims to reveal insights into the relationship between different DNA sequences in the insulin promoter region, the types of non-canonical structures they form, transcription of insulin and how this is influenced by small molecule ligands. The project will use biophysical approaches to determine the structure of different sequences in the insulin promoter, cell and molecular biology to understand the effects of different sequences and structures on insulin expression, including using small molecule ligands as probes. Finally, computational biology and x-ray crystallography will be used to design improved compounds that target the insulin-linked polymorphic region and switch on insulin transcription using structure-based rational design.

HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions


CELLULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF CNS GLIA


CONFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF RECEPTOR SELECTIVE OPIOIDS


Statistical Qualification of the Impact of Missing Data in EMA Studies

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: As the use of measurement-intensive methods, such as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods, has become a new and vital approach to understanding health-related (e.g., smoking- and cancer- related) behaviors, there is a strong demand for developing appropriate analytic techniques for these new kinds of data and approaches to public health research. Like any study involving human subjects, missing data caused by nonresponse are ubiquitous in EMA studies and are often suspected to be nonignorable (e.g., when study participants' response behaviors to random prompts are related to contemporaneous but unobserved mood outcomes); unlike in more traditional studies, nonignorable missingness in such intensive data can pose significant new analytic challenges and calls for more general, flexible and tractable methods that are applicable in EMA studies to quantify and improve the reliability, validity and usability of the collected data. This proposal i aimed at addressing this need by developing principled and simple statistical measures and accessible software that allow researchers to conveniently quantify the robustness of empirical findings from studies using EMA or other types of measurement-intensive methods to nonignorable missingness for a wide range of data types and models, for complex missing data patterns and mechanisms and for studies that may involve a large number of analyses, and consequently facilitate more reliable understanding of the cancer- related health behaviors.


Addressing inequality, enhancing diversity and facilitating greater dialogue in the hosting of sporting mega events.

Major sporting events (MSEs) have been the subject of increasing levels of critique in recent years for the social costs associated with their bidding, planning and delivery. The rationale used by cities and countries for hosting MSEs is often the potential for an event to generate positive economic and social transformation within the host area (Brittain, Bocarro, Byers and Swart, 2017). However, research has repeatedly demonstrated actual impacts of hosting MSEs fall short of these lofty claims and in reality often result in detrimental effects for host populations. The negative impacts of MSEs have variously been reported as: exacerbating human rights abuses; facilitating corruption; supporting elite beneficiaries over those most in need; and transforming host destinations’ urban environment by displacing vulnerable populations. Recent mega sport events (a specific category of the largest MSEs, such as the Olympic Games and World Cup; Muller, 2015) have been the subject of international condemnation for being the catalyst for forced evictions (Beijing 2008; Rio de Janeiro, 2016), restricting media freedom through censorship (Sochi, 2014), abuse of migrant labour in the construction of facilities (Sochi, 2014; Qatar, 2022) and increased political repression (Beijing, 2008). Human Rights Watch has suggested that “Time after time, Olympic hosts have gotten away with abusing workers building stadiums, and with crushing critics and media who try to report about abuses…the right to host the Olympics needs to come with the responsibility not to abuse basic human rights”  (Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives, HRW). The EventRights project will explore and produce recommendations as to how MSEs can influence MSE organizing committees and other stakeholders to ensure that progressive social opportunities to address inequality, enhance diversity and facilitate greater dialogue are enshrined in the planning, delivery and legacy plans for the events themselves.


Computer-Programmed Models of Wholistic Integrated CognitiveSystems


Roles of MNE's Headquarters and Subsidiaries on Global Innovation Strategies

This research aimed to get a better understanding of the MNE subsidiaries’ inter-organizational linkages. In the context of a NIS, the crucial actors in this study are MNE subsidiaries and local suppliers for technological innovative activity. Subsidiaries and suppliers are effectively interacting through forms of inter-organizational linkages; both have possible influences from inter-organizational linkages.This research contributes to discussions on the inter-organizational linkages in a host and neighboring countries by using data obtained in the South East Asian countries. Existing literature addressed and generalized the effectiveness of MNE subsidiaries in NIS; however, the evidence that industrial development in countries like the Philippines is proceeding in a different direction points out some limitations of existing literature.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Online PCP Training in Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment

Relevance This project meets the stated goal of the U.S. National Drug Control Strategy to facilitate the use of structured substance abuse screening, followed by brief interventions, and, if necessary, referral and treatment (SBIRT) by primary care physicians (PCPs). The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) currently sponsors several initiatives designed to improve PCP use of SBIRT, but these initiatives are based on a classroom teaching model. This proposal will develop a scalable, educationally effective SBIRT skills development program that can be nationally deployed and will better meet the needs of community PCPs and physicians in training.


BREATHE - The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health Capital Award

What is the problem?
Everyone in the UK will have a respiratory illness at some point in their life. We have the best datasets in the world – which should be used to improve respiratory health – but these are currently very difficult to find, access and use.
What do we want to do?
People in the UK deserve the best respiratory health. We want to make respiratory health better by changing the way the NHS, pharmaceutical companies, charities and researchers use data.
How will we do it?
We will continue to develop BREATHE (the health data research hub for respiratory health) where trained, approved experts can access respiratory data to benefit patients and the public. We will make it easier for experts to use data in safe and secure ways.
How will this benefit patients?
BREATHE will support high quality research and cutting-edge innovation that will improve the lives of people living with respiratory conditions in the UK. It is important that patients and the public are involved with this project throughout, including from the very start. This is why there are patient and public members living with respiratory conditions who have worked with us on developing BREATHE and who are committed to delivering BREATHE’s goals.


Development of a Diode-Array Microspectrophotometer


Basic research to enable monitoring genome editing effects on dynamics of genetic information

In this study, we developed a universal probe in which non-specific endonuclease, MNase, that degrades genomic DNAs that proteins were not bound and protein A that binds to IgG antibodies specific to a genomic DNA-binding protein were covalently-crosslinked. Developed method using this universal probe (scChIC-Seq method) enabled tracking the genetic information regarding to the genomic DNA-binding proteins signals at the single-cell level (Nature Methods, 16, 323-325, 2019). We created probes that detect active histone-modified H3K4me3 and inhibitory histone-modified H3K27me3 signals, and demonstrated specificity and sensitivity of the developed probes to analyze epigenetic modification. In this study, the position and amount of genomic DNA-binding proteins motifs in genome-edited cells were comprehensively analyzed using this method.

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)


RETINAL GROWTH AND DIFFERENTIATION--EFFECT OF ONCOGENES


Systematic screen for the non-autonomous growth signal(s) originating in the fat body of Drosophila melanogaster larvae

In Drosophila larvae, the fat body acts as a signaling center. In response to the animal's nutritional status, it activates growth pathways that subsequently send out diffusible signals which promote the systemic growth. However, these fat body-derived signals identity remains unknown. To identify these signals, I will use the Gal4/UAS-system to systematically target Drosophila genes in the fat body, coupled with an enzyme-based assay to measure the effects on growth of peripheral organs. Importantly, this genetic screen will affect the pathway producing the secreted signals, thus potentially also allowing the identification of signals that are not peptides hormones.I therefore want to exploit Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to conduct the first systematic screen for signals and pathways that non-autonomously control tissue growth.

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


Novel Strategy of PDE5-mTOR Inhibition in Attenuation of Cancer  Drug Cardiotoxicity

Project Narrative Doxorubicin alone or its combination with kinase inhibitor are highly effective strategies for treatment of breast cancer but their utility is limited due to a major side effect involving heart failure. Currently there is no effective therapy available to reduce or eliminate the risk of heart failure in cancer patients treated with these agents. We propose to study a novel combination of phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor, sildenafil (Viagra) and the potent anti-rejection drug, rapamycin to reduce cardiac side effects and improve the efficacy of breast cancer treatment with doxorubicin and doxorubicin with the kinase inhibitor.


Video-recorded Interrogations: Beyond Camera Perspective

Abstract

Many of the wrongful convictions that have been brought to light over the last two decades have their roots in the interrogation phase of criminal investigations where coerced or false confessions are sometimes extracted from detained crime suspects. A solution that has been widely recommended to help prevent this particular problem is to video record custodial interrogations in their entirety. Such a procedural modification indeed has the potential to improve the administration of justice; however, prudence calls for careful consideration of its possible pitfalls. Guided by basic psychological science, most notably the literature on illusory causation, Dr. G. Daniel Lassiter's more than 25 years of systematic investigation has empirically documented the existence of what is now commonly known as the camera perspective bias in video-recorded interrogations. That is, videos in which the camera directs observers visual attention onto suspects (rather than onto interrogators or equally onto suspects and interrogators) tend to produce more prejudicial evaluations of suspects, their statements are assessed as more voluntary, they are more likely to be judged guilty, and they receive more severe sentence recommendations. Importantly, Dr. Lassiter's research program also demonstrated that the advantages associated with video recording; for example, a more detailed record of the interrogation is provided to fact finders without introducing bias or undermining accurate assessments if an equal-focus perspective is taken by the video camera.

Although it is clear that camera perspective is an important issue that any video-recording policy designed to protect the innocent should address, it is unfortunately not the only concern suggested by the behavioral science literature. The proposed research draws on four additional areas of psychological science to derive further potential limitations of video-recorded interrogations. A series of experiments are planned that will 1) determine the extent to which these hypothesized limitations would likely detrimentally influence actual fact finder evaluations of video-recorded interrogations, and 2) evaluate possible strategies for successfully counteracting them. An initial set of studies investigates the possibility that even an equal-focus video recording in certain circumstances may not fully protect minority suspects, due to what Dr. Lassiter and colleagues call a racial salience bias. A second set examines the potential judgment perseverance the defense must overcome to permit fact finders to correctly reinterpret a video interrogation that the prosecution, by virtue of trial convention, has the opportunity to first characterize as establishing a defendant's guilt. A third set focuses on the source monitoring errors fact finders may commit that could impede their ability to accurately conclude that a video-recorded confession narrative was actually contaminated by information provided by police earlier in the interrogation. A final set draws on construal level theory to test whether inducing an abstract (high) or concrete (low) level of mental construal prior to viewing video-recorded interrogations promotes more accurate assessments of a confession's reliability.

The proposed work will also yield clear research-based guidelines for legal practitioners and policy makers that will further improve the likelihood that the video-recording reform will fulfill its promise to minimize the possibility that an innocent person will be convicted based on an interrogation-induced false confession. In Dr. Lassiter's previously funded NSF projects, several graduate and undergraduate students were able to learn firsthand how basic psychological theory and research can give rise to scientific investigations that are of considerable practical import to the justice system and thus society more generally. Similarly, the proposed work will expose a new generation of students and future scholars to all phases of a programmatic research agenda that is simultaneously high in scientific rigor and immediate real-world applicability.


Genetics of Seizure Resistance: A Mutagenesis Strategy


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

University Undergraduate Student Research Awards


Collaborative Research: Dynamical Tides in Close Stellar Binaries and Exoplanetary Systems

Tides are an important factor in many astrophysical settings.  Tides can affect life, like tidal cycles on Earth; they can affect geology, as in the intense tidal pull of Jupiter on Io; and can even influence the evolution of stars in binary pairs.  A research collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Virginia (UVA) will analyze tidal friction in close star-star and star-planet binaries and assess the importance of nonlinear fluid dynamics on tides in these systems.   Fluid dynamics is the science of how gases and liquids flow, and a nonlinear system is one in which the change in the output has a complicated (not simply linear) mathematical relationship with a change in the input.  The principal investigators (PIs) have developed the basic theory and computational methods to study both weakly and strongly nonlinear tidal fluid dynamics.  The proposed calculations will advance the state of the art in order to provide physics-based prescriptions for tidal friction over a range of stellar types, evolutionary stages, and degree of nonlinearity of the tide. The detailed calculations and numerical simulations will be distilled into simple prescriptions which may be useful for future investigations by astrophysicists.  The MIT PI will serve as a research mentor in the study of tides to a student each year in the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP). MSRP began as an MIT initiative to address the issue of underrepresentation of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans and Puerto Ricans in engineering and science in the US. It seeks to identify talented undergraduate students from US institutions who are underrepresented minorities and might benefit from spending a summer (nine weeks) at MIT working in a research group. The UVA PI will mentor undergraduate participants in the Virginia-North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, which seeks to broaden participation of underrepresented minority populations in STEM disciplines.

Three projects are proposed: (1) Orbital decay of hot Jupiters driven by weakly nonlinear wave-wave interactions. Previous work on solar-type stars will be expanded to include a range of stellar masses and evolutionary states. (2) Circularization and orbital decay in the strongly nonlinear limit, where wave breaking occurs for gravity waves. Again the goal is to expand previous calculations to the observed range of main sequence stars, as well as sub-giant and red giant branch stars. (3) Nonlinear wave interaction effects on the tide raised in the star and in the planet during high eccentricity planet migration. For each project, a detailed comparison of theoretical predictions to available data will be carried out. This includes close stellar binaries, the hot Jupiters and Neptunes around a variety of main sequence stars, and evolved stars with substellar companions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.


Research Training in Age-Related Cognitive Disorders

This is a training program in age-related cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders. The growing number of older persons who suffer from these conditions requires training young researchers in state-of-the-art approaches to these disorders, with a focus on integration and communication across disciplines.


A multi-methodological approach to the instrumental phonetic and perceptual study of rhotic sounds in varieties of English.

Rhotics ('r'-sounds) have intrigued phoneticians perhaps more than any other class of consonants due to their phonetic complexity, diversity of articulation and susceptibility to rapid and extensive changes over time. This research will focus on the phonetics and phonology of rhotic sounds using a range of phonetic instruments and experimental methods, each of which addresses a different aspect of these sounds. Some look at how they are made in speakers' vocal tracts, some at their acoustic structures during transmission, and others at how they are perceived and processed by the brain. By combining methods that complement each other, this research hopes to paint a more complete picture of the different r-sounds in English and their similarities and differences than has been available until now. \n Rhotic sounds are an important group of sounds in the world's languages for several reasons. They are important for phonetic and phonological theory because, while it is widely felt that they form a distinct class of sounds, it is far from clear what they all have in common, i.e. what defines the class of rhotic sounds. The class is generally held to include such phonetically different sounds as trilled 'r' produced with two or three beats of the tongue-tip against the upper gum, the French 'r-grasseye' produced with the back of the tongue, and the modern urban British English 'w'-like sound associated in the media with celebrities such as Jonathan Ross. The class of rhotics is thus seen to cut across the established classifications of traditional phonetic theory which is based on how sounds are made rather than how they are heard. This research will try to ascertain the relationship between the production and perception of these sounds, and whether the defining feature of the class of rhotics might be in the way they are perceived rather than in the way they are produced.\n Rhotic sounds are important for developmental and clinical reasons because, no matter what language is being learned, children often find them the most difficult sounds to master in their acquisition of pronunciation systems and development of pronunciation skills. People with speech disorders often find that 'r' is one of the sounds most affected by their medical condition. The kinds of sounds that children and speakers with speech and/or hearing disorders produce in place of the 'correct' r-sound can provide insight into how r-sounds are represented in their speech production systems. The results of this research may prove useful for planning speech therapy intervention with populations affected by developmental and/or acquired speech and/or hearing disorders.\n Rhotic sounds are important sociolinguistically because different social groups within the same language often have their own distinct form of r-sound which can function as a group identity-marker. For example, in French and German a back /r/ (articulated with uvular constriction) is considered socially prestigious, while a tapped or trilled /r/ is stigmatised. In English English, both uvular and trilled /r/ are non-standard and may elicit negative perceptions of the speaker. In Scottish English, by contrast, tapped/trilled /r/ is the socially acceptable norm. However, we do not know what the articulatory and acoustic thresholds are that have to be crossed before listeners perceive rhoticity, or how much variation there might be in these thresholds in different varieties of English. These questions are important for our understanding of the social significance of rhotics and have implications for forensic work in terms of speaker profiling and the evaluation of earwitness evidence where the rhoticity or non-rhoticity of a suspect's speech is at issue. \n


Neurotensin: modulator of stress circuits

Canada Graduate Scholarships - Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)


Directed assembly of artificial mitotic spindles


STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS OF   OLIGOSACCHARINS

OFFICE OF SCIENCE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM


Genetic control of meristem determinacy and organ fate


The imaginary:  cultural pedagogy, (non)normativity, and aesthetic play

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships - Doctoral


GENETICS OF MURINE AIRWAY SODIUM ABSORPTION: ROLE IN CF


DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Integrating Molecular, Morphological, and Paleontological Data: Phylogeny, Diversification, and Character Evolution within the Pelecaniformes

An award has been made to the University of Chicago under the direction of Dr. Peter J. Makovicky to study the evolution and systematics of the Pelecaniformes (pelicans, cormorants, and other large water birds).  The project will improve the doctoral dissertation research of Nathan D. Smith.  This group of birds is an ideal model for the study of living and fossil species.  This group of birds exhibits an exceptional fossil record and remarkably disparate morphologies, but their evolutionary relationships are poorly known.  This project will unite data from molecules, morphology, and paleontology to examine evolutionary patterns within Pelecaniformes. Morphology and DNA data will be used to resolve phylogenetic relationships, and a synthesis of the fossil record will elucidate relationships of key fossil taxa. These data will be used to investigate the sensitivity of molecular dating methods, compare relationships supported by molecular genetic data with those of the fossil record, and explore rates of evolution and potential cases of morphological convergence.

This research has broader implications for issues of dataset combination and divergence time estimation in systematic biology. This study will also educate the public about paleontology, evolution, and biodiversity. Results will be used to update exhibits of fossil birds in the Field Museum of Natural History. Smith will collaborate with the FMNH to enhance explanatory material accompanying the Harris Educational Loan Program, and to create programming for the Illinois High School Transformation Project that focuses on paleontology and evolution.


ROLE OF VIL-6 IN PRIMARY EFFUSION LYMPHOMAS


National Governors Association Center for Best Practices - to work with state policymakers on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, with special attention to effective resource reallocation...

to work with state policymakers on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, with special attention to effective resource reallocation  to ensure complete execution, as well as rethinking state policies on teacher effectiveness


Post-pandémie: austérité, relance ou transition?


Geochemistry of Ore Depositing Fluids by Analysis of Fluid  Inclusion Gases and Geologic Studies


Doctoral Dissertation Research: Clarifying Survey Questions

Although comprehension is well recognized as a critical component of the survey question response process, much about it remains unknown.  Past research has shown that ambiguous or vague concepts can be clarified through the use of definitions, instructions, or examples, but respondents do not necessarily attend to these clarifications.  The aim of this doctoral dissertation research project is to investigate where and how to present clarifying information so that respondents will recognize it as essential to their answering survey questions correctly.  A key issue is whether sensory channels (aural versus visual) make different demands on comprehension.  The answer to this question is largely unknown, because sensory channel is often confounded with the presence of an interviewer in so many of the relevant studies.  This project will help to establish whether respondents anticipate the end of a question and are more likely to interrupt clarifying information that is placed after a question than before and whether this harms survey estimates.  It will help to confirm whether incorporating the clarifications into the questions and asking a series of simpler questions, as suggested by many researchers, is even more effective.  Finally, understanding will be gained regarding whether respondents are better at comprehending complex clarifications in the visual channel than the aural, and whether channel interacts with the method of clarification.

The goal of this project, to gain a better understanding of how to reduce ambiguity and vagueness in survey questions across survey modes, is especially relevant given the current debate over how to design questions for mixed-mode surveys.  This project has the potential to lead to more accurate survey estimates, to better descriptions of the nation based on survey data, and to better decision-making policies.  As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, support is provided to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.  The project is supported by the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program and a consortium of federal statistical agencies as part of a joint activity to support research on survey and statistical methodology.


CHRONIC INTERMITTENT HYPOXIA, NEUROVASCULAR DYSFUNCTION AND STROKE

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Disorders of breathing during sleep, including sleep apnea, have emerged as independent risk factors for stroke, especially silent strokes. The proposed studies will advance our understanding of the pathophysiological substrates underlying the increased susceptibility to ischemic injury in sleep apnea. Ultimately, the results of the proposed studies may suggest novel mechanism-based approaches to prevent or treat the deleterious effects of this highly prevalent condition.


Compressed All-optical Photoacoustic Imaging of Neuronal Activity

To decipher the numerous complex brain functions, it is desirable to measure the electrical activity of large sets of neurons. However, there is currently no technique to image non-invasively this activity deep inside the brain (> 2 mm) with single-cell resolution (10um), high frame rate (>10 Hz). This project aims at developing an all-optical photoacoustic imaging system to solve this challenge, and demonstrate its performances at unprecedented depths in the mouse brain. This technique is based on the optical interferometric measurement of ultrasounds generated upon the absorption of a short laser pulse by an optical absorber. In order to detect high acoustic frequencies (up to 100 MHz) and hence reach single-cell resolution, I will fabricate thin Fabry-Pérot cavities with a polymer sensing layer inserted between two mirrors. To speed up the acquisition, I will develop acquisition strategies and corresponding imaging reconstruction algorithms based on compressive sensing. Combined to a semi-parallelized acquisition using a photodiode array, it will ensure a high frame rate of more than 10 Hz. This project will be paving the way toward neuronal activity imaging at large depth (>2 mm) in the mouse brain, with cellular spatial resolution and high temporal resolution.


MRI & CT studies of the developing vocal tract

Imaging and acoustic methods are used to provide detailed information on the typical and atypical anatomic development of the vocal tract. The data will establish normative references that inform sex- and age-specific modeling of the vocal tract and provide a foundation for intervention strategies that are designed to modify developmental patterns in anatomy, physiology, or acoustic output. The information to be obtained is central to the needs of several clinical specialties concerned with behaviors such as feeding, swallowing, speech production, and respiration; also, the data can be used to test prevailing theories on craniofacial development.


Social Mobile Approaches to Reduce Weight (SMART) 2.0

PROJECT NARRATIVE There is a critical need to advance our understanding of how to develop and deploy multimodal, technology- based weight-loss interventions that have the potential for long-term effects and widespread dissemination among university students. Intervention content that promotes weight loss through increased energy expenditure, decreased energy intake, and adequate sleep will be delivered using a fully integrated system of modalities: 1) Fitbit, 2) MyFitnessPal, 3) SMS, 4) multiple social media streams, 5) a website with blog, and 6) email. The intervention is designed to maximize efficacy in a scalable manner, and by measuring usability and acceptability, this study will inform intervention dissemination to campus health centers and wellness programs should the findings warrant it.


Interdisciplinary Research Training in Speech-Language Disorders


Basic research on detection of task errors in robotic manipulation

A dexterous manipulation system has been developed as a test bed for detecting errors of task : the system is conposed of a multi-fingered hand equipped with force/torque sensors on each fingertips, a 3-D realtime stereo vision to measure the pose of a manipuiated object, and a realtime figer controller.Following functions have been developed :(1).The grasped object is manipulated through rolling contacts between fingertips and the surface of the object enabling fine and control with 10ms of servo cycle time.(2).The 3-D stereo vision measures the pose the pose of the grasped object in every 33ms.(3).A method of separating internal forces and external forces from the force/torque sensorsigna1s has been developed. The former is necessary for the stable grasp and the latter is required for desired manipulation of the object.Detection of task errors requires online reasoning of how the task is being executd. This reasoning is made by combining the higher level synbolic meaning of the task and the lower level motion of fingers and the manipulated object. To enable the reasoning, motion primitives of the multi-fingered hand for mechanical assembly have been developed. Peg-insertion, screw-insertion, and screw-rotation have been successfully implenented as motion primitives.In the mechanical assenbly experinents by multi-fingered hand, a slip is very often caused at the contact of the fingertip and the manipulated object mainly because of an unpredictab1e friction force in the assenbly. This slip leads to an error of the task. For the error detection and recovery, a task monitoring system has been developed using the real time 3-D vision. This is implemented as a parallel process with the task execution control process. Detection of errors in the pose of the manipulated object in a minimum time delay without losing fine and dexterous manipu1ation capability.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Electrical Impedance Myography in an Animal Model


RELATIVE DENSITY OF SANDS BY CONE PENETROMETER TEST- ING


Clinical Trials of Immunotherapies for Childhood Cancer


Complement and Pathogenic Mechanisms of AMD

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the sixty-five-and-older population, and the devastating impact of its socioeconomic burden cannot be overstated. Using mouse models that faithfully recapitulate many aspects of human AMD, we have demonstrated that observed ocular defects arise from inflammation, amyloid beta (A¿) deposition and complement dysregulation - mechanisms implicated in development of human AMD. Our proposed studies will further clarify the contribution of complement and A¿ to disease onset and progression. Validation of A¿ as a novel therapeutic target in AMD could lead to a fundamental paradigm shift in the understanding and treatment of AMD. Moreover, unraveling the impact of excess complement activation versus increased complement inhibition on subRPE deposit formation and RPE damage will help shape the development of complement-targeted therapies that could delay or prevent AMD. Finally, elucidating which constituents of the posterior eye extracellular matrix regulate complement should provide additional novel AMD therapy targets.


The roles of arachidonic acid metabol in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases in childhood: Regulation of related enzymes by various cytokines

A series of enzymes which are responsible for the synthesis of prostaglandins(PGs), thromboxane(TX) and leukotriens(LTs) are activated in a variety of allergic and inflammatory disease in childhood. One of the possible regulatory mechanisms is a transcriptional up-regulation by various cytokines and inflammatory mediators at the transcriptional and/or translational levels of each enzyme. In this study, we have investigated up-regulatory mechanisms of cytosolic PLA2, cyclooxygenase(COX)-1, COX -2, 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO), LTC4 synthase (LTC4syn), LTA4 hydrolase and 5-LO activating protein (FLAP) in PMNs and HL-60 cells by using RT-PCR and Northern blotting techniques. In PMNs, the synthesis of LTB4 and TXB2 was increased by the stimulation with IL-3 and GM/CSF for 30-60 min, the production was then decreased. After several hours, the synthesis of TXB2 but not LTB4 was increased again, which was associated with enhanced expression of COX-2 mRNA. IL-8 temporarily increased the synthesis of LTB4 after 60 min stimulation, indicating a priming effect on 5-LO or LTA4 hydrolase. LTB4 synthesis was enhanced by IL-4 and IL-13 after 6 hour incubation, which was associated the enhanced expression of LTA4 hydrolase mRNA. Lipopolysaccharide(LPS), a bacterial endotoxin, increased the production of TXB2 by new induction of cPLA2 and COX-2 in PMNs. In DMSO-treated HL-60 cells, the synthesis of LTB4 and LTC4 was increased by transcriptionaly up-regulating 5-LO, LTC4syn and LTA4 hydrolase. We also investigated how anti-inflammatory and anti-allergy medicines modulate these enzyme activities.


Clarification of pathophysiology of peri-implantitis based on macrophages and osteocyte autophagy

歯科インプラント治療は欠損歯列の回復に有効な治療選択肢のひとつであるが，インプラント周囲炎という歯周病に似た疾患が最近問題となっている．しかしその原因はよくわかっていないのが現状である．この研究はインプラント周囲炎をラットに引き起こして詳細に状態を調べることにより，インプラント周囲炎の発生メカニズムを明らかにしようとする試みである．

Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists


Salivary Biomarkers for Early Oral Cancer Detection


Cognitive-affective Mechanisms of Food Biases Trainings

Food bias; Cognitive bias modification; Approach-Avoidance Tasks


MEMBRANE PROTEIN SORTING IN POLARIZED CELLS


ALDOSTERONE: GENETIC REGULATION AND VASCULAR REACTIVITY


Validating a mouse model of ovarian cancer for early detection through imaging

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE:  There is currently no acceptable screening method for ovarian cancer, and most cases are detected when the disease is widespread and likely to be deadly. We propose to develop and validate a novel, post-menopausal mouse model of ovarian cancer, and to use this model to discover image markers of early disease. These markers can be translated into an imaging system that enables early detection of ovarian cancer and saves lives.


CELL ADHESION MOLECULE UPREGULATION IN IBD


The role of autophagy in inflammatory bowel disease-associated colorectal cancer

Canada has amongst the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the world. IBD is a condition that damages the intestine, resulting in debilitating symptoms such as pain, diarrhea and bleeding. Individuals with IBD have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer, which correlates with the length of time they have disease. In fact, due to this increased risk, doctors recommend that people with IBD undergo once or twice yearly colonoscopies to screen for cancer. However, we don't know why people with IBD get cancer. Recent studies suggest that a cellular process called autophagy may be involved. Autophagy is a cell recycling system that removes and breaks down old and damaged cellular components to provide the cell with raw materials to make new parts. It is also important in getting rid of bacteria that invade our cells. When autophagy is defective, cells accumulate components that don't function properly and this can contribute to the development of diseases such as IBD and cancer. On the other hand, once a tumor has developed, autophagy may promote its survival in the same way it facilitates normal cell survival, by removing damaged material. Our research will test the idea that defective autophagy increases the chance of getting colorectal cancer when you have IBD. We will also test the idea that defective autophagy may help limit tumor size and progression after a tumor has been established. To do this I will cause IBD in normal mice and in mice that are unable to carry out autophagy in their intestine. I will give the two groups of mice a drug to increase the development of colorectal cancer. I will then determine if the mice without autophagy develop cancer more quickly and evaluate how autophagy affects tumor size after cancer has developed. If we determine that autophagy contributes to colorectal cancer initiation and progression in individuals with IBD, this will open the door for new treatments that specifically target this pathway.

Fellowship - Priority Announcement - Inflammatory Bowel Disease


REIMBURSE THE STATE OF UTAH FOR COSTS INCURRED IN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FEDERAL FACILITIES AGREEMENT (FFA)


The mechanism of development and exacerbation of virus-induced asthma analyzed by a lipid mediator gene knock-out mice

To clarify the pathogenesis of exacerbations of asthma due to viral infection, we examined bronchial resistance, peripheral blood and bronchial alveolar fluid (BALF) analyses and multiple types of cytokines/chemokines using an experimental asthma model mice infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The levels of BALF and tissue eosinophils showed significant increase in ovalbumin (OVA) and OVA/RSV groups compared with controls. MIP-1αin BALF was significantly increased in OVA/RSV groups compared with RSV groups, OVA groups, and control groups. Serum IL-5 in OVA groups and serum IL-17 in OVA/RSV groups were also higher than in controls. These findings suggest that eosinophilic inflammation via MIP-1α may play an important role in acute exacerbations of asthma model induced by RSV.

Gunma Institute of Public Health and Environmental Sciences


Molecular mechanisms of interplay between ethylene signaling and chromatin regulation in Arabidopsis

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Signaling systems regulate the cell events responsible for survival, development and homeostasis. Malfunction of signaling circuits causes many diseases, such as cancer. Nuclear enzymes, chromatin and its modifications contribute to the abilities of cells and organisms to respond and survive in dynamic environments. Dysfunctions nuclear processes contribute directly to cancer progression and genetic disorders. The research proposed here to study the communication between signaling and chromatin regulation has the potential to provide an important basis to the effort of developing novel strategies for finding ne drugs.


A study for dissemination of advising in language learning in Japan

For dissemination of advising in language learning (ALL) in Japan, the final goal of the principal investigator aims to (1) develop a semi-structured ALL program, (2) create an advisor training program, and (3) insert ALL-related experiences into English teacher training processes. As an intermediate step for these three purposes, this study (1) developed a schematic model of a semi-structured ALL program that enables advisors to offer a more effective ALL service, (2) created a training program kit that includes both theoretical and practical aspects, and (3) found significant changes in beliefs of pre-service English teachers who participated in this study as an advisor.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up


Research on Improving the Menus of Meal Delivery Service for the Elderly

The purpose of this research was to improve the menus of meal delivery services provided by local governments for the elderly.  At first, hearing survey was conducted of 13 local government officers in charge of the service.  As for the nutritional standard was numerically defined by some governments, but not by others where the menus of nursing home are used.  Next, basic investigation was conducted of all local governments in Fukuoka Prefecture.  Most of the local governments aimed to offer well-balanced meal, but not checked the menus and the real meal.  Therefore a check sheet easily routinely was proposed as menu evaluation method which was consisting of the viewpoints of "nutrition and food configuration", "food materials and production", "taste of the dishes".


Cooperation of Food Manufacturing Industry and Domestic Agriculture in Japanese Food System

In fiscal year 2003, we conducted the following research projects. First, we investigated the vertical integration of poultry industry, including brand management, the coordination of production system and the relationship to local agro-food system. Second, we investigated the food system of wheat flours. We explained the detailed relationship among milling industry, bread and noodle manufacturers and retailers. The coordination between domestic wheat producers and small-scale millers was also investigated. Third, We investigated the marketing strategy of fruits and vegetables producers and made clear the future strategy for agro-cooperatives and the management system of marketing channels including farmers' markets. We also conducted a case study of some agricultural production corporations.Results of this research project were released as follows. First, four articles concerning poultry industry were published. Second, one book concerning the food system of wheat flour products was published, including various topics such as bread manufacturers, noodle manufacturers, vertical integration of milling industry and the strategy for small-scale millers and domestic wheat producers. Third, we published some papers and articles about the food system of fruits and vegetables, which mainly explains the importance of developing direct marketing channels and their management by agro-cooperatives.


PHASE I STUDY OF PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY FOR SURFACE MALIGNANCIES


SBIR Phase I:  Drones for Industrial Indoor Robotic Applications

The broader impact / commercial potential of this project would be in the ability to deploy drones in industrial and commercial indoor environments as aerial robots.  A key requirement to deploying drones in such indoor environments in the presence of people is to make them safe and non-threatening.  In addition, for drones to function as robots, they need to be made fully autonomous and minimize the need for human operation or intervention.  These attributes are not possible with conventional drone technology today.  The ability to use drones as aerial robots can open up opportunities in large markets such as warehouse inventory scanning, construction, security, and factory automation.  Such robots can enable functions such as scanning and reconstruction of the environment, or also ?pick and place? at high throughput within factories.  The use of drones in industrial indoor environments for these applications can also result in broader societal benefits, including improved worker safety inside industrial indoor environments (by performing tasks that may otherwise require harnesses, forklifts or ladders); reduced environmental impacts (in construction sites by catching discrepancies early and minimizing rework and material wastage) and macroeconomic benefits (enabling automated factories of the future and bringing back US jobs).

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project has the potential to advance the frontiers of knowledge in design and control systems for use in drones and other applications.  This unique approach redefines the control systems for rotorcraft, and enables a drone with dramatically improved metrics ? as much as 10X -- that are traditionally used to characterize the performance of drones.  In this Phase I project, Vimaan plans to complete the design and modeling of the system, develop the control mechanisms for the system, and integrate, test and demonstrate the application of the innovation to a drone that has the above attributes.  During the project, Vimaan will need to overcome some critical technical challenges in the components and systems design, the control circuitry and controls algorithms and the power budgets, timings and optimizations of the sub-systems for the required performance.  If successful, such an innovation would revolutionize decades old legacy technologies that have been hitherto deployed in rotorcraft, and make possible attributes that have been long sought after by the aerospace industry.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.


SCOOP: Environment for dependable distributed and reliable object-oriented computing, based on the principles of Design by Contact

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


2007 PROTEINS GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE


STRUCTURAL STUDIES ON CYTOCHROME P450 &RELATED PROTEINS


食虫類モグラ科における地下適応の歴史は協調進化か?

食虫目モグラ科は、北アメリカから日本を含むユーラシア大陸に広く分布し、4つの亜科からなる17属が知られる。これらモグラ科内の系統関係を明らかにすることは、哺乳動物における完全地下生活型への進化や、小型哺乳類の大陸間移動の歴史を探るうえで重要である。これまでミトコンドリアDNA(チトクロームb遺伝子)を用いて解析を行ってきたが、本研究助成においては、核遺伝子であるRecombination Activating Gene 1 (RAG1)の塩基配列に基づいて解析を行つた。その結果、ミトコンドリア遺伝子では支持されなかったヒミズ亜科の単系統性が支持され、更にはこれまで十分な系統学的知見が得られていなかったホシバナモグラが、ユーラシア大陸の大型モグラ類と近縁である可能性が示された。しかしながら、北アメリカ大陸とユーラシア大陸のモグラ類の単系統性については支持が得られず、協調進化が起きた可能性を示唆した。すなわち、モグラ科の進化はユーラシア大陸起源であり、地上生活を行っていたトガリネズミ似のモグラ科の祖先が、ユーラシア大陸と北アメリカ大陸へ、それぞれ分布を広げて独立に地下生活へと適応していった可能性を明らかにした。また、一方で東南アジアにおいて新たなサンプルの解析をミトコンドリアDNA(チトクロームbおよび12SrRNA遺伝子)および核遺伝子(RAG1)によって行ったところ、東南アジアにスポット状に生息するミズラモグラ属が、残存種の集合体であることが明らかとなり、それぞれの地域個体群は起源が古く、いずれもが特徴的な遺伝的形質を維持したまま生息していることが明らかとなった。今後、東南アジア地域のモグラ類について、より解析を詳細に行うことによって、東アジア地域におけるモグラ科の多様性の高さの謎についても明らかとなるであろう。


Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology


HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND LARGE BOWEL CANCER RISK


The mobIQ project will assess the commercial viability and technical practicalities of developing a unique technology to benchmark the quality and characteristics of mobile games, then enable individualised recommendations for mobile games players.
Our focus is on using technology to significantly improve the process by which consumers find new mobile games with a high degree of probability that they will like them, continue to use them and thus be more likely to become paying customers of them. The goal is to be able to facilitate the trusted recommendation of good games to the players that would most likely enjoy them on whatever mobile platform and devices they use.
If this project is successful, our goal is to ultimately provide what could become the default consumer-facing discovery service of choice for digitally-delivered games on all mobile platforms.


Optimizing measures of subjective and objective decline in preclinical AD

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed project will study subjective cognitive concerns (SCC) expressed by older individuals that may indicate evidence of very early Alzheimer's disease (AD). We will develop and utilize a novel instrument to probe specific SCC and relate them to objective neuropsychological measures, imaging markers of AD, and longitudinal clinical decline in order to better differentiate SCC associated with normal aging from those related to the earliest stages of AD.


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada


NEW; RESEARCH IN HADRON PHYSICS; PI - WINSTON ROBERTS


分子会合体の特異的光化学、光物理過程の解明とフォトニクス材料への応用

本研究は、フォトニクス材料の創成を目標として種々の分子会合体もしくは分子集合体の非線形光学応答に関して基礎と応用の両面から検討するものであり、研究初年度にあたる本年度は、自己集積化反応で得られる有機分子集合体の非線形光学応答について重点的に以下の様な検討を行った。1、モデル分子会合体の作成と会合形態の検討分子会合体として、チオールSelf-Assembly(SA)膜をモデル系として検討した。チオール分子の炭素鎖長や側鎖構造、あるいは自己集積化反応に用いる溶媒や反応条件等の違いが分子集合体としてのSA膜構造やSA膜形成反応に及ぼす点について検討するために、SA膜修飾基板の表面屈折率変化をモニターするホログラフィックな手法を新規に開発して、多結晶Au基板上のSA膜形成過程をその場観察することに成功した。2、金単結晶上におけるチオールSelf-Assembly(SA)膜形成上記手法により金多結晶上でSA膜形成に要する時間がチオール初期濃度に依存すること、また炭素鎖長が短い場合には電極ブロッキング特性が十分には得られないこと等が明らかになった。これを踏まえ、分子会合体の固定化をも考慮に入れて金単結晶上でSA膜形成反応を数種類の直鎖チオールを用いて行った。このとき、XRDや顕微FT-IR等の手法を用いて、火炎溶融法で作成した金単結晶微小球の微小ファセット面方位やSA膜内の分子配列などについて基礎的なキャラクタリゼーションを行い、所期の試料が得られたことを確認した。3、分子超薄膜で修飾されたAu(lll)面における光第二高調波発生の回転異方性測定SA膜修飾といった簡便な手法で界面原子配列の制御ができれば新規な界面制御、界面エンジニアリングの可能性が拓けるものとの期待から、SA膜修飾されたAu(lll)面における原子配列制御の可能性に関して基礎的な検討を行った。その際、下地Au単結晶原子配列の再構成構造を電気化学的に制御したり、また第二高調波発生の回転異方性からこれを明確に評価できること等を実際に測定したより明らかにできた。

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas


Amazonian Center of Excellence in Malaria Research


Project Narrative: The ubiquitous gammaherpesvirus Epstein Barr virus is associated with a range of human cancers. At least 6 latent genes have been shown to be critical for cell transformation in vitro. Some of these antigens associate directly with cell cycle regulatory proteins and are also linked to the specific regulation of cellular events which include regulation of transcription, chromatin remodeling, cell proliferation and cell cycle regulation. This proposal will explore the role of one of the essential nuclear antigens EBNA3C in determining a more comprehensive model for the related functions of EBNA3C in regulation of the major cellular oncoproteins E2F and c-Myc through post-translation modification and cell cycle regulation leading to transformation of human B cells.


The role of polymeric osteopontin on inflammation

In this study, I examined to reveal the role of polymerized osteopontin (catalyzed by protein-crosslink enzyme, transglutaminase 2) on inflammation. As a result, it was cleared that osteopontin and transglutaminase 2 were  up-regulated by pro-inflammatry cytokine, TGF-β1 and the former was polymerized on cell membrane fraction by the latter. I was also successful in  the generation on transgenic mice expressed polymerization-incompetent mutant osteopontin specific in lung.


有機ピエゾクロミック発光材料創製に向けた双安定相のナノ構造設計

1,3,6,8-テトラフェニルピレン(TPPy)誘導体が示すピエゾクロミック発光について、ナノ集積構造が固体発光特性に与える効果とそのメカニズムの検討を通じて発光機構を検討した。TPPyのフェニル基にアルキルアミド基を導入した(Alkyl)AmTPPyは、アルキル基が直鎖ヘキシルの場合、固相で水素結合支配の規則構造をとり、青色発光を示すが、圧力負荷により規則構造が消失して発光は青緑に変化することが判明している。(Alkyl)AmTPPyについて側鎖アルキル基の分子構造の効果を検討したところ、アルキル鎖の炭素数をC6から増加させる、あるいは分岐アルキル構造に変えることで水素結合支配の規則構造形成能が低下し、同時にピエゾクロミック応答性も低下した。これは水素結合支配の規則構造形成に際して、アルキル鎖の分子体積も重要であることを示しており、双安定構造の設計に関するより精密な知見が得られた。また鎖長の短いプロピル基では、集積構造の変化が起きず、ピエゾクロミック応答性が失われ、アルキル基の構造が応答性制御にも重要であることが示された。一方、アミドをエステルに置き換えた(Alkyl)EsTPPyの固体発光は青緑色で、発光波長、量子収率、寿命などはいずれも圧力負荷後の(Alkyl)AmTPPyと同じであり、固相中で同一の環境下にあることが示唆された。(Alkyl)EsTPPyのX線結晶構造解析より、ピレン環同士のπ-πスタッキングは見られないがフェニル基水素とピレン環のC-H…π相互作用は確認され、水素結合がない(Alkyl)EsTPPyあるいは水素結合が乱れた(Alkyl)AmTPPyの(準)安定構造として、モノマー状態からの青緑色発光を示したことが判明した。水素結合がない(Alkyl)EsTPPyでは、圧力を負荷すると固体発光がさらに緑色まで変化し、加圧下でダイマー/エキサイマーが形成されて発光変化を示したものと推定された。以上の結果から、双安定相実現に向けたナノ構造設計をより精密化できただけでなく、水素結合がないエステル系での双安定構造を設計する道筋を示すことができ、設計指針の拡張にも成功した。


The mechanism of hyperalgesia in duced by NMDA receptor activation.

Bolus injection of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) in to the intrathecal (IT) space of rat produces short lasting thermal hyperalgesia with pain behavior represented by vocalization, scratching and biting. These behavioral effects after IT injection of NMDA impedes the testing of the pain threshold of the paw. Moreover, the short lasting hyperalgesia kept us from examining the post treatment effect of any drugs after onset of the hyperalgesic state. To produce long lasting thermal hyperalgesia with little pain behavior, we applied continuous intrathecal infusion of NMDA in the rat. To evaluate the character of this model, effects of pre or post-treatment of MK801, a non-competitive NMDA antagonist, on the hyperalgesia, and gluatamate concentration in cerebro spinal fluid were tested. Method : Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. IT catheters and loop catheters for microdyalysis were implanted according to the Yaksh method. Five to seven days after the surgery, NMDA (0,60,120,180 pmol/min) w…Moreere continuously infused through the IT catheter by the flow rate of 1μl/min for 30min, followed by 5 minutes interval assessment of paw thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) in response to light heat for 45 minutes. Experiments were performed according to a protocol approved by the Animal Care Committee of the University of the Ryukyus. Results : TWL in the 120 and 180 p mol/min groups were reduced 27.7% and 32.8% from the control value, respectively, 10 minutes after starting the IT infusion. Maximum reduction of TWL appeared after 25 minutes in both groups, and recovered 10 minutes after the infusion was terminated. MK-801 (non-competitive NMDA antagonist) injected prior to NMDA infusion completely abolish this hyperalgesia. However, MK-801 reduced the efficacy when given after established the hyperalgesia by NMDA infusion. Glutamate concentration in CSF was reduced by MK-801 when given prior to NMDA infusion.Conclusion : Continuous IT infusion of NMDA produced long lasting thermal hyperalgesia, which was dose dependent. The efficacies of MK-801 on hyperalgesia and glutamete concentration in CSF were reduced when given after established the hyperalgesia by NMDA activation.Less

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


EXPRESSION OF HISTOCOMPATIBILITY ANTIGENS DURING EARLY MAMMALIAN DEVELOPMENT


CAREER: Stacks, moduli spaces, and log geometry

The PI studies both foundational questions and applications of stacks and logarithmic geometry. The project  roughly breaks up into two parts.  The first part concerns the study of moduli spaces and log geometry.  Since log geometry and logarithmic structures are closely related to degenerations,  log geometry plays a natural role in the study of compactifications of moduli spaces.  The PI studies several problems related to log geometry and moduli spaces, and also studies a logarithmic Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theorem, generalizing the classical theorem for schemes. The second part of the project concerns sheaves on algebraic stacks. A central theme in this part of the project is trace formulas and their generalizations to stacks. Central to all parts of the project is the close relationship between algebraic stacks and log geometry discovered in earlier work of the PI.

Given a system of polynomial equations defining an algebraic variety, there are two natural ways to study the system.  One approach is to study the symmetries of the equations, and a second approach is to vary the coefficients of the equations ("moduli") and "degenerate" them to a simpler (though possibly singular) system.  Stacks, introduced by Artin, Deligne, Grothendieck, and Mumford in the late 1960's, are the main tool used in algebraic geometry to study spaces with additional symmetries. In recent years, the theory of stacks has come to play an important role in almost every part of algebraic geometry, arithmetic geometry, and mathematical physics and a great number of exciting new
applications of stacks have been found.   For example, stacks play a
central role in the study of Brauer groups and in the rich interaction between string theory and algebraic geometry. For the study of degenerations, a key tool is the theory of logarithmic geometry developed by Kato, Fontaine, and Illusie in the late 1980's.  As mentioned above, in earlier work the PI related this theory to stacks, and the ongoing projects use this relationship to further our understanding of degenerations and the moduli of algebraic varieties.


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Industrial Undergraduate Student Research Awards

Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada


ANABOLIC ACTIONS OF INSULIN IN NEUROMUSCULAR DISEASE


BIOSYNTHESIS AND METABOLISM OF NUCLEOSIDES


New Cell-Based Reporters for Genomics and Proteomics


VALIDATION OF POSTINJECTION TRANSMISSION MEASUREMENTS FOR PET


TAS::89 0321::TAS   PERU ELECTRICAL DEPARTMENT WIND TURBINE GENERATION

RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT


有機LEDとフォトリフラクティブ材料の融合による有機レーザの開発

トリアジン(TRZ)骨格にドナー性置換基を導入した新規化合物は、高い励起3重項エネルギーレベルを有することから、有機LEDのホスト材料として有用である。また、ホスト材料としてはバイポーラキャリア輸送性や隣接有機層との間でエキサイプレックスを形成しないことが必要とされる。本研究では将来の有機レーザ素子への展開が可能な高性能な有機LED用ホスト材料の探索を目的とした。トリアリールアミン誘導体(TRZ-2,TRZ-4)、ピリジン誘導体(PYD-2)及びピリミジン誘導体(PYM-3)の Aryl-substituted Heterocyclic Compound (AHC)を新規に合成し、その光学特性、電荷輸送性及びリン光OLEDのホスト材料としての評価を行った。また、PEDOTをべ一スとするフォトリフラクティブ材料の特性評価を行なった。AHCを有機LEDの発光層に用いたデバイスにおいてAHCに由来するEL発光は観測されなかった。PYD-2を発光層に用いたデバイスでは、電子輸送層に用いたAlq_3からの発光のみが得られたことから、PYD-2中をホールのみが輸送されたことが確かめられた。同様にTRZ-2とPYM-3を用いたELスペクトルからは、α-NPDの発光成分が強く観測され、電子輸送性が強いバイポーラ性の電荷輸送機能を有することが分かった。さらに、TRZ4を用いたデバイスもバイポーラ性を示した。これらの結果から、ユニポーラ性材料のPYD-2はホール輸送層及び電子ブロック層として、バイポーラ性材料のTRZ-2、PYM-3、TRZ-4は、ホスト材料としての応用が期待できる。さらに、AHC層の厚みを20nm、40nm、90nmと変化させることによって、α-NPD成分の発光強度がAlq3に比べて著しく低下する結果が得られ、AHC層の厚みによってキャリア輸送性を制御できる可能性が示唆された。Coumarin6をドープしたPEDOT系材料でネットゲイン175cm-1、回折効率49%が得られ、実用可能なフォトリフラクティブ特性となった。今後は有機LEDとフォトリフラクティブ材料を組合わせた光デバイスへの展開に取組む。

Chitose Institute of Science and Technology


Background
Graves’ disease (GD) is one of the more common disorders of the thyroid gland, affecting 700 young people in the UK each year. The thyroid gland controls brain, heart, bone and gut function. In GD, the immune system mistakenly stimulates the thyroid, causing it to produce too much thyroid hormone, leading to four main symptoms: weight loss, shakiness, heart racing and feeling hot or sweaty. This leads to a profound impact on physical health, quality of life, attention span and education or work performance. Patients can also develop thyroid eye disease, a disfiguring inflammation of the eye that can cause pain and distress, affects self-esteem and may even cause sight loss. Treating GD is more difficult in young people because standard antithyroid drug therapy (ATD) is more likely to result in side-effects and less likely to result in cure when treatment is stopped. Only 1 in 4 patients will require no further treatment after 2 years of ATD. Other treatment options if the GD recurs are thyroid surgery or radioactive iodine therapy. These are associated with additional risks and greater costs in the young, necessitate life-long thyroid hormone replacement and reduced quality of life. Rituximab (RTX) medication is used to treat many immune disorders. It works by targeting blood cells that make the antibodies responsible for attacking the thyroid in GD. A recent exploratory study in young patients with GD suggested that giving just one dose of RTX in addition to standard ATD is well tolerated and may increase the likelihood of remission. This exciting finding needs to be explored in the context of a bigger trial.

Aim
To determine whether a single dose of RTX, given in addition to 2 years of ATD, increases the remission rate in young people with GD.

Design and Method
We will recruit 124 young people (12-24 years old) with GD to a clinical trial in which they will be randomly allocated to one of two different treatments; either the usual 2-year course of ATD tablets, or a single dose of RTX as well as 2 years of ATD. RTX is given by a 3-hour drip and participants will not know whether they received RTX or a salt water (saline) infusion instead. They will have blood tests taken to check thyroid levels at 4 weeks, then every 8 weeks in the first year and 3- monthly thereafter. The number of visits is similar to standard NHS care. Travel costs will be reimbursed. To understand if the treatment has worked, we will compare the numbers in each of the 2 groups with normal thyroid function and who have had no further treatment 12 months after stopping ATD. If RTX improves the number of people with normal thyroid tests, it could be introduced as a new component of standard treatment.

Patient and public involvement
To refine our study design, we liaised with a public panel from the Research Design Service North East and held 2 focus groups involving young people with GD. We were awarded a Public Involvement Fund grant to compensate contributors for their time and these individuals will also be invited to contribute to the ongoing study. The study group will include a representative from the British Thyroid Foundation (BTF), the largest thyroid patient organisation in the UK.

Dissemination
Study results will be discussed at key medical meetings including European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and published in leading scientific journals. The BTF will share study updates on their website, via newsletters and social media.

National Institute for Health and Care Research

Newcastle University

Award does not have an ODA Downstream Partner


DEFINITION OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF GIP


Der Meister des TucherRetabels. Die Loslösung eines süddeutschen Malers vom Schönen Stil. Künstlerindividualität und Stilwahl im 15. Jahrhundert.

Forschungsgegenstand ist der Meister des Tucher-Retabels, der neben Hans Pleydenwurff als bedeutendster Nürnberger Maler vor Dürer gelten darf. Trotzdem kam seine Erforschung schon vor fast einem halben Jahrhundert zum Erliegen, ohne dass ein überzeugendes Bild von Person, Werkstatt und Werk erarbeitet, noch der Fragenkomplex um künstlerische Herkunft, Vorlagenwahl und stilistische Entwicklung systematisch-kritisch abgehandelt worden wäre. Mittels methodisch umfassend angelegter Untersuchungen kann am überlieferten Werk sowohl sein Ausgangspunkt im Schönen Stil als auch seine Loslösung von der Formensprache seiner Lehrer aufgezeigt werden. Der Tucher-Meister orientierte sich dabei am frühen niederländischen Realismus, griff aber auch Anregungen aus Italien auf. Diese bewusste Suche nach neuen Stilformen und Ausdrucksmitteln sowie die Ausbildung eines individuellen künstlerischen Idioms bezeugen einen Wandel im Kunst- und künstlerischen Selbstverständnis des Malers. Am Beispiel des Tucher-Meisters ließe sich so das künstlerische Wie als auch das mentalitätsgeschichtliche Warum des sich ab zirka 1420/30 auch in Süddeutschland vollziehenden Umbruchs in der bildenden Kunst aufzeigen. Archivalische Forschungen könnten eine Identifizierung dieses nach künstlerischer Individualität strebenden Anonymus ermöglichen.


MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF ASSEMBLY OF SINGLE MEMBRANE-BOUND ORGANELLS AND "SORTING ENGINEERING"

The methylotrophic yeast is widely used as a heterologous gene expression system in academic and applied fields. When cells are grown on methanol, a large volume of cells (up to 80%) was occupied by a single-membrane bound organelle, the peroxisome. The study was conducted to produce toxic oxidases within peroxisomes of the methylotrophic yeast, since many oxidases are useful for clinical diagnosis. To this end, the protein traffic was manipulated for efficient protein transport, and this strategy (or concept) was named "sorting engineering" (later biotraffic engineering). Since genetic diorders deficient in peroxisome assembly are known, the molecular mechanism for protein traffic to peroxisomes was in important in medical field and investigated using the methylotrophic yeast as a model organism. In this study, the information obtained from the basic research was applied to production of fungal fructosyl amino acid oxidase, which is useful for determination of glycated proteins. In diabetic patients, the level of glycated proteins is high. Using (i) an efficient targeting signal to peroxisomes and (ii) an alcohol-oxidase depleted strain, and (iii) optimizing codon usage and culture conditions, we could improve the enzyme productivity approximately 47-fold from the orginal transformant. The produced protein accumulated within membrane-bound peroxisomes up to nearly 20% of the toal soluble protein. This is the first successful example which was conducted based on the concept "sorting engineering" ("biotraffic engineering"), and a similar approach will be possible in any other eukaryotic cells for heterologous gene expression, especially for the production of toxic or membrane proteins.

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)


The present application aims at upgrading the infrastructure of the Institute of Biology / Unicamp. In this way, the upgrade of the Institute network hardware, animal facilities improvements, electric instalation renewal and establishement of a NB3 lab are proposed. (AU)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Auxílio à Pesquisa - Reserva Técnica para Infraestrutura Institucional de Pesquisa

Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia (IB)


3/3 COMpAAAS Tripartite: ART-CC, KP, and VA

Public Health Relevance: The set of 3 applications extends the generalizability of research on health consequences of alcohol in people living with HIV in the Veterans Aging Cohort study to 12 healthcare systems in North America and Europe. The set increases the number of women, younger individuals, men who have sex with men and uninfected comparators. This application addresses interactions between alcohol, tobacco and drug use, antiretrovirals, and co medications that result in mortality, hospitalization, or increased physiologic frailty.


Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and the Aging Process


Impact of Sleep in the Restoring Insulin Secretion (RISE) Study

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Short sleep duration and obstructive sleep apnea (a treatable disorder characterized by repetitive upper airway closures leading to sleep fragmentation, chronic sleep loss as well as cyclical drops of oxygen levels) are highly prevalent in the community. Both laboratory and epidemiologic studies have identified insufficient sleep, sleep fragmentation, poor sleep quality and sleep apnea, as putative novel risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The overall objectives of this proposal for an Ancillary Study to the parent RISE (Restoring Insulin Secretion) Study are: 1) To determine whether quantitative measures of sleep quantity and quality are associated with baseline measures of beta-cell function (insulin secretion) and insulin sensitivity, and 2) To determine whether the presence and severity of sleep disturbances predict beta-cell responses to pharmacological interventions designed to preserve and/or restore insulin secretion in prediabetes or early stage type 2 diabetes.


培地浸透圧に応答した大腸菌外膜蛋白質遺伝子の発現制御におけるEnvZ蛋白質の機能

Principal Investigator：饗場 浩文, Project Period (FY)：1989 – 1990, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (Research Fellowship), Research Field：発酵・醸造

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Design, Monitoring and Operation of Adaptive Networked Embedded Systems

Large scale societal challenges require large scale monitoring and control solutions. Technological developments will make it possible to design and build these large systems. A major obstacle in realizing these systems is the lack of a versatile methodology to design and implement adaptive monitoring and control systems taking into account intrinsic properties of system of systems (decentralization, dynamic requirements, continuous evolution and changing components).
The goal of DEMANES is to provide component-based methods, framework and tools for development of runtime adaptive systems, making them capable of reacting to changes in themselves, in their environment (battery state, availability and throughput of the network connection, availability of external services, etc.) and in user needs (requirements).
• to model the architecture and the operation of adaptive systems
• to support the design process of such systems by providing simulation and evaluation environments and test-beds
• to support the implementation of such system by providing services for self organization, reconfiguration and self optimization as parts of the execution environment
• to verify and test adaptive systems
• to monitor the internal and external operational conditions and manage adaptation at run time.
In order to go beyond the state of the art DEMANES combines recent advances from systems and control engineering.
The concept, methodology and tools developed in DEMANES will be validated and demonstrated in three use cases: smart urban transport, smart airport and smart home. To reach the ambitious goals of DEMANES in the spirit of the ARTEMIS programme a large consortium is necessary to cover the range of disciplines necessary. The partners in the DEMANES consortium are complementary in terms of technical competencies and organizational, business and market experience.
..
APPROVED BY ARTEMIS-JU on 17-03-2015


Quantum Operator Approaches to Multidimensional Reaction    Dynamics

Steven Schwartz is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and   Computational Chemistry Program to perform theoretical research in the   application of evolution operators to condensed phase systems consisting   of a few quantum degrees of freedom in contact with a solvent bath.  This   model is useful for theoretical treatments of chemical reactions in the   presence of solvent.  Schwartz has developed a propagator expansion   resummation technique which shows significant promise in terms of   improved accuracy and range of applicability for treating many   dimensional chemical reactions.  He plans to apply this theory to the   elucidation of the mechanism of rate processes in multiple pulse ligand   photolysis experiments on hemoglobin.    A great deal of progress has been made in the theoretical treatment of   gas phase chemical reactions of systems consisting of relatively few   atoms.  Using state-of-the-art theoretical methods, it is now possible to   explain a great deal of the experimental detail for such systems.    However, the large majority of reactions which are of interest to   chemists occur in condensed phase systems in the presence of solvent.    The theoretical models for treating such complex systems are in a much   earlier stage of development.  Schwartz is developing new theoretical   approaches for dealing with solvated chemical systems undergoing chemical   reactions where quantum effects may be important.


TWO-DIMENSIONAL NMR STUDIES--AT-CONTAINING NUCLEIC ACIDS


INNOVATIVE MULTI-SPECTRAL MAGNETRONS


NEW AWARD TO MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. PROJECT TITLED: CERAMIC-BASED ULTRA-HIGH TEMPERATURE THERMOCOUPLES IN HARSH ENVIRONMENTS


The basic research on high-efficiency non-contact drive by the shape design of diamagnetic graphite plates

In 2006, we reported that novel contact-free linear motion technique by using PG plate above linear permanent magnet (PM) track. It is that PG plate, which levitates at room temperature, can move in a unique magnetic field gradient induced by interaction between linear PM track and an approaching PM piece.Recent years, we had been doing a quantitative observation of diamagnetic repulsion force that depends on the edge shape of the PG plate sample by quasi-static measurement technique. An interesting result was obtained from the present experimental data. It is the diamagnetic repulsion force appeared in one direction when the two PM pieces are located respectively on both ends of the asymmetric shape PG plate sample with a slant treated edge in the thickness direction. It is seems that this characteristics is one of effective technical elements to constitute a high efficiency contact-free magnetic suspension motion model using PG Plate sample.

Fukushima National College of Technology


Generation of a functionally robust stem cell based therapy for type 1 diabetes

A cure for type 1 diabetes may lie in the replacement of insulin-producing cells by transplantation. Hundreds of patients worldwide (including ~400 in Canada) have received transplants of islets - clusters of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas - enabling better blood glucose control without the need for insulin administration. Yet because there are not enough organ donors, new sources of insulin-producing cells are needed for the millions living with this disease. We can now generate insulin-producing cells from stem cells but these cells do not secrete insulin properly nor do they survive transplantation without immunosuppression. In response, our team aims to use our combined expertise in single cell technologies, genome editing, immunology, and stem cell and islet biology to produce a new and improved cell source for cell replacement therapy in diabetes, that can be tested in clinical trial in a few years. Such an advance could not only transform the lives of thousands of Canadians living with diabetes but also greatly reduce the tremendous economic and health burden that diabetes places on Canada today.

Team Grant: CIHR-JDRF - Accelerating Stem Cell-Based Therapies for Type 1 Diabetes


基質小胞構成成分の精製とその組織内発現

Principal Investigator：馬場 友巳, Project Period (FY)：1991, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (A), Research Field：Functional basic dentistry


GROUND SUBSTANCE AND LUNG TISSUE PROPERTIES

BENAROYA RESEARCH INST AT VIRGINIA MASON


ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR DELIVERING RURAL CRISIS SERVICES


Investigating the metabolic and cognitive mechanisms of LEAP2 in anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex psychiatric disorder of unknown etiology. Treatments aim to restore normal weight, but the relapse remains high (> 40%) with persistence of altered feeding behavior. Alteration of brain reward processes (i.e. reduced reward value of food and increased reward value of thinness) and deficit in cognitive flexibility, are hallmarks of AN. Poor cognitive flexibility is associated with the severity and outcome of the disorder. A better understanding of the core mechanisms of abnormal cognitive control and reward processes in AN will help to better prevent and treat this severe psychiatric disorder. AN has been re-conceptualized as a metabo-psychiatric disorder. We thus hypothesized that the reward and cognitive alterations that occur during chronic undernutrition in AN, would be mediated by peripheral metabolic sensors, dysregulated in AN, through their targeted action on homeostatic feeding circuits which in turn will lead to increased cognitive control and impaired reward processes. We will test our hypothesis in a translational and innovative study, using a) mouse models in which we will mimic the metabolic signature of AN in order to trigger AN core symptoms and b) a longitudinal study in patients with AN in which we will correlate neurocognitive, brain activation, metabolic and genetic biomarkers with the balance of these metabolic sensors. Homeostatic and cognitive neuronal circuits altered by these metabolic sensors and their contribution to vulnerability to AN will be explored in mice using in vivo imaging with fiber photometry and two-photon calcium imaging. Subsequently, genetically defined modulation of neuronal activity in the mouse using pharmacogenetics will be used to correct the AN phenotype. We aim to gain a better understanding of the pathways linking homeostatic circuits with those involved in cognitive and reward processes that are abnormal in AN and to provide useful knowledge for considering new targets for therapeutic intervention.

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE


ASTHMA TRAINING FOR INNER CITY PRIMARY CARE PROVIDERS


Mechanism of Protein Accumulation in Renal Hypertrophy


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada


Transcription factor function in chromatin


Development of New Functional Polymer Materials containing Various Phosphine Blocks in the Main Chain

The synthesis of organophosphine-organic/inorganic-polymer hybrid polymers with various structures has been established using P-C cross-coupling polymerization. Water-soluble polymer catalysts and novel materials with self-healing properties were developed by the application of the synthesized hybrid polymers, especially on complexation with transition metals. The P=S-polymer-Pd sub-nanoparticle catalysts have been shown to exhibit unique selectivity. In addition, many valuable findings on organophosphine chemistry were obtained, including the synthesis of chiral phosphines and cyclic phosphine compounds.


VIDEO ALCOHOL EDUCATION FOR NATIVE AMERICAN FAMILIES


Mechanisms involved in uremic toxin mediated down regulation of ApoA-I expression


VASCULAR CELL DIFFERENTIATION IN TISSUE ENGINEERED STRUC


GOAL Project: Developing Technology Support for Acquisition of Self Direction Skill

For the 21st century learner, self-direction is a crucial skill. This proposal outlines an interdisciplinary data driven approach to support acquisition of Self-Direction Skill. It envisions to design and develop Goal Oriented Active Learner (GOAL) system to synchronize-visualize-analyze multisource data regarding student’s learning and physical activities. Synchronous logging of learner’s learning and physical activities shall generate a data poll that potentially opens up further research opportunities at the intersection of LA (Learning Analytics) and QS (Quantified-Self) research.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


DIABETES AND WELLNESS OUTCOME RESEARCH FOR THE REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS

MILITARY MEDICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT


Investigating the shikimate pathway in Plasmodium falciparum

Project Narrative   Malaria is a life-threatening disease that is caused by the Plasmodium parasite. I  plan to investigate aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in Plasmodium falciparum, the  deadliest species of the parasite, to evaluate the potential of the pathway as a drug  target to treat malaria.


Assembly of  E. coli ribosomes in vitro and in cells


Changes in expression levels of ERCC1, DPD, and VEGFA mRNA after first-line chemotherapy of metastatic colorectal cancer

Our previous study showed that administering oxaliplatin as first-line chemotherapy increased expression levels of ERCC1and DPD in liver CRC metastases. Second, whether the anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody bevacizumab alters tumoral VEGFA levels is unknown. We conducted this study to validate our previous findings on ERCC1 and DPD, and clarifiy the response of tumoral VEGFA expression to bavacizumab administration. ERCC1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in the chemotherapy group than in the non-chemotherapy group, and were significantly correlated. VEGFA expression level was higher in patients receiving bevacizumab than in those who did not. This study confirmed that first-line oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy increases ERCC1 and DPD expression levels, potentially enhancing chemosensitivity to subsequent therapy. We also found that bevacizumab induces VEGFA expression in tumor cells, suggesting a biologic rationale for extending bevacizumab treatment beyond first progression.

Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research


CD38-targeted immunoPET of myeloma: Phase 2 trial of clinical applications

Project Narrative Current methods of measuring disease burden in myeloma are suboptimal, which limits clinical care of patients with myeloma. Our recent phase I, first-in-human trial of CD38-targeted immunoPET with 89Zr-DFO- daratumumab successfully demonstrated sensitive imaging of myeloma beyond the abilities of current imaging modalities; this phase II trial would identify promising clinical applications of 89Zr-DFO-daratumumab immunoPET in patients with myeloma, including histologic proof of imaging findings. Successful imaging would be transformative for the detection of myeloma, monitoring response to therapy, and future design of novel radioimmunotherapies for patients with myeloma.


Prenatal exposure to phthalates and neurodevelopment in children

PROJECT NARRATIVE Phthalates are synthetic chemicals used in personal care products and in flexible plastic products. Human exposure occurs via diet, inhalation and dermal absorption. Due to their widespread use, phthalate metabolites are almost universally present in human urine at varying levels in the U.S. population. Phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals capable of crossing the placenta and the prenatal period is a particularly sensitive window for effects on the developing brain. This study will be an important contribution to the literature necessary for informing the public about the potential hazard associated with prenatal exposure to phthalates on cognitive and behavioral development.


CELL ADHESION MOLECULE L1 AND MENTAL RETARDATION


Collaborative Research: Improving Student Success in General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry with Community-Refined Courseware

This project aims to serve the national interest by enhancing undergraduate student success in General, Organic, and Biological (GOB) Chemistry, which is an important gateway course for health-related careers such as nursing and dietetics. Improving student success in GOB Chemistry would help address predicted shortages of healthcare workers in the future and broaden access to these STEM careers. The project team will develop GOB course materials for both online and in-class active learning. The project will also grow a Community of Practice, including GOB instructors and allied health instructors, that will use the educational materials and contribute to their development. This will help insure that the materials and activities are coupled to allied health contexts and provide knowledge for student success in health professions. The online portion of the courseware replaces current textbooks and online homework systems with an integrated system that combines instruction with practice opportunities and checkpoint quizzes. Extensive hints and feedback will help students learn in an efficient manner. In-class instruction will be supported through a collection of active-learning materials set in allied health contexts. Data regarding student use of the materials developed will be used to drive revisions to the content that improve student learning and success. Improved student success in GOB chemistry courses may differentially support students from groups underrepresented in STEM since research shows these students are more likely to persist in STEM when they earn grades of C or better.

The collaborative project team from Carnegie Mellon University and Mount San Antonio College will develop, implement, and evaluate online courseware and evidence-based materials and practices for General, Organic, and Biochemistry courses. The materials will include an emphasis on applications to careers in healthcare to maximize their relevance for students. The project team will also cultivate an instructor Community of Practice (CoP) to develop in-class course materials and iteratively refine the online courseware. The project team will assess the extent to which the online courseware engages and supports students' success in GOB courses, including the retention of students from groups underrepresented in STEM. Key questions include: What factors are most predictive of student learning and course success in GOB Chemistry and how malleable are these factors? To what extent do modifications to courseware based on learning data lead to demonstrable improvements in student learning and course success? How does situating GOB Chemistry in allied health contexts alter student learning and course success? To address the research questions, the project team will leverage the detailed data on student interactions gathered by the online courseware system. This includes "learning curves," constructed for each student and chemistry knowledge component, that describe students' progress with respect to each knowledge component. Such data, collected throughout the learning process, provide more detail than pre- and post-tests that assess learning at only two time points. In addition, data gathered throughout the entire semester enable analyses that examine student learning across a broad range of topics. These rich data will be combined with survey data describing student characteristics and classroom practices to address research questions related to the factors that most influence student learning and course success and the impacts of situating learning in allied health contexts. These data will also provide an evidence base that the CoP and courseware developers will use to drive iterative improvements to learning resources. Further, summaries of these data are shared with faculty members to inform their instruction, including in-class time and their one-on-one interactions with students. The courseware developed will be made available free for independent learners and about $25 per student when used (with additional supports) in academic courses. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.


Methamphetamine Effects on Dendrodendritic Dopamine Transmission in the VTA


Mitochondrial Affect on Olfactory Neuron Output


Improvement of cognitive performances by stimulus noise and adaptive mental set

When two targets are embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of distractors, perception of the second target is impaired when the inter-target lag is relatively short (less than 500 ms). Stimuli concurrently presented with the stream can affect this phenomenon, which is called attentional blink (AB). Previous studies have yielded conflicting results concerning the direction of the effect of added distractors on the AB: some studies report an increased AB, while others report a decreased AB. The present study explored the boundary conditions of the exaggeration/reduction effects of distractors on the AB and investigated underlying mechanisms by manipulating the spatial configuration, timing, and type of distractors. The results indicate that the magnitude of the AB deficit increased, regardless of the type of distractors, when spatial uncertainty of the target locations was involved. The reduction of the AB occurred at optimal presentation of distractors and disappeared when the second target was presented at a suprathreshold level. These results suggest that stochastic resonance or the centre-surround attentional mechanism may contribute to the reduction effect of distractors on the AB deficit.

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Palästina/Israel. Von den Anfängen bis zur Perserzeit. Katalog, Band I: von Tell Abu Farag bis 'Atlit

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


Forward engineering to understand gene regulatory network topologies

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) are, both topologically and functionally, composed of small network motifs. These motifs are prevalent in many critical biological processes, including cell cycle regulation, circadian rhythm, and metabolism, development, and cell differentiation. Furthermore, network motifs are also embedded in GRNs related to human diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Results from the proposed forward engineering studies will allow us to probe principles of cellular decision-making through network motifs. A better understanding of functions of these motifs will greatly extend our capability to identify new therapeutic targets, reprogram cell fate for regenerative medicine, and to engineer synthetic biological systems.


Continuous Monitoring of Turning in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

This project aims to develop and test the feasibility of an instrumented measure of turning during daily activities that is sensitive to the turning difficultis of patients with Parkinson's disease. We will use special, wearable sensors produced by our start-up company, APDM, to have patients record and upload their own daily mobility performance. More precise measures of turning mobility will improve intervention for balance disorders and fall prevention in the elderly and in patients with neurological disease.


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

1967 Science and Engineering Scholarships


Mass spectrometry is a highly sensitive, selective and rapid technique for characterizing multiple species of lipids, simultaneously, without the need for prior isolation and derivatization of compounds of interest. Coupled to ultra-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC-MS) is a powerful tool for identification, characterization and quantification of lipid mediators in complex matrices, allowing identification of lipid regiosomers. Lipidomics is the identification and quantification of lipids in biological systems, being the same, as a tool to evaluate the profile of certain lipid classes in immune and inflammatory responses. In our projects, we will focus our analysis to the class of eicosanoids, membrane phospholipids and neutral lipids. The formation of the Centre of Excellence for Quantification and Identification of Lipids (CEQIL), justifies the request of UHPLC-MS/MS system for this purpose. So, by being the first Lipid Analysis Center, using this technology in Brazil, this equipment (mass spectrometer) will have multiuser character, allowing the insertion of the quantification and identification of lipids in various interest projects such as biotechnology, clinical and basic research. So even being targeted primarily to analysis of a class of biomolecules (lipids), the use of the equipment will be constant and will have high demand, allowing the generation of new knowledge, scientific articles of impact and technological advances. (AU)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa Equipamentos Multiusuários

Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP)


PHILIPS CM10 TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPE


PHOSPHOLIPID TRANSFER DURING INTESTINAL ABSORPTION


Implantação da infra-estrutura dos novos laboratórios do NUPEGEL no Campus da USP - Piracicaba

Dotar os novos laboratórios (área de 32,50 m²) do NUPEGEL em Piracicaba (Campus da USP) da infraestrutura necessária para o desenvolvimento de pesquisas voltadas para o estudo da evolução, transformação e degradação dos solos tropicais (naturais e antrópicas) através da utilização de métodos geoquímicos e geofísicos. (AU)

Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa Infraestrutura - Gerais

Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ)


AMPK as an Interventional Target to Suppress the Development of Osteoarthritis

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE:         Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, and an enormous and expensive public health problem. There are yet no medical therapies (disease modifying OA drugs (DMOADS)) to prevent or effectively slow the primary disease process. Age and joint injury are the two major risk factors for OA development. Veterans are at high risk to develop OA as many are older and/or had traumatic joint injury when they were in and after service. Thus, the unmet medical need for new and effective therapeutics for OA is particularly urgent for the special needs of the health care of Veterans. Completion of these studies will potentially provide a novel approach to protect cartilage degradation by targeted activation of AMPK, thereby to prevent and therapeutically slow OA development and progression.


Dopamine Function After Prenatal Ethanol Exposure


Function of post-translational modifications of protein backbones in signalling and molecular ageing

Proteins during their lifetime accumulate spontaneous modifications of their polypeptide backbone. Such alterations are often implicated in detrimental processes, directly destroying protein function or potentially triggering auto-immune responses and protein aggregation in amyloid diseases. Nevertheless, some protein backbone modifications have been proposed to confer a gain of function and act as molecular timers in cellular senescence signalling pathways. However, the systematic analysis of backbone modifications has been hampered by the lack of suitable tools and access to defined model systems. I propose to address this issue through the development and application of several chemistry-driven paradigms. First, I will prepare semi-synthetic proteins with site-specifically installed backbone modifications to enable direct measurement of the functional consequence of these ageing-related alterations. In particular, I will focus on the role of iso-aspartate residues in biomedically important systems including p53 and chromatin. Moreover, I aim to identify new ageing sensor and senescence factors through the development of a novel chemo-enzymatic proteomics strategy based on designer proteases, engineered to act on damaged proteins. Collectively, this interdisciplinary approach aims to establish protein backbone modifications as an important new field of biological regulation.


Vigo County Public Library - to expand public access to computers and the Internet


PROJECT NARRATIVE Prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of deaths due to cancer in North American men. Defining the communication pathways within prostate cancer cells, which is to say, how proteins talk to each other, is critical for discovering and improving drugs that kill prostate cancer cells. We have identified a new communication pathway that operates in prostate cancer cells, and we propose to determine how it works, and whether manipulating the pathway will inhibit prostate cancer cells.


CEREBRAL ISCHEMIA--DAMAGE DURING ANESTHESIA


Can mannosylated dendrimers inhibit HIV-1 infection of DC-SIGN expressing cells


Assembly and Function of the Yeast Spore Wall

8. PROJECT NARRATIVE  The fungal cell wall is the interface between the cell and its environment. In pathogenic fungi, proper function of the cell wall is important for survival in the host, and drugs targeting cell wall assembly are effective antifungal agents. The spores of baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are not pathogenic but are surrounded by a complex coat, the spore wall, which includes many of the same components found in the walls of pathogenic fungi. We are using spore wall formation as a model system to unravel the biochemistry and genetics of fungal wall assembly. This application focuses on understanding how a conserved set of proteins localized on lipid droplets promote the formation of a specific structural feature in the cell wall.


KEIJI OHTSUKI / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO - BOULDER DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF RING-SATELLITE SYSTEMS WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE OUR STUDY OF THE DYNAMICAL EVOL

National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Identifying genes predisposing to dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs and humans

Both dogs and humans are often affected by cardiovascular disease. The two species also share the majority of their genes and live in a similar environment. Dog breeding has generated a genome structure that makes disease mapping very efficient. This proposal is aimed to identify genetic risk factors for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) involved in both canine and human DCM and will therefore lead to improved canine and human health. DCM is a heart muscle disease resulting in a dilation of cardiac cavities and a thinning of the cardiac walls and is among the most common forms of cardiomyopathy in both large-sized dog breeds and humans. We have performed genome-wide association studies in two high-risk dog breeds, the Newfoundland and the great Dane, and identified several associated genomic regions, which contain excellent candidate genes. The aim of this study is to re-sequence the candidate loci to identify the disease-causing mutations and functionally validate these genetic risk factors. We will then apply these findings to human DCM patients. This will be done by re-sequencing orthologous genes in human DCM patient cohorts to identify candidate mutations in humans. We expect to identify and functionally validate disease-causing mutations underlying DCM in both dogs and humans. Ultimately this will lead to development of personalized medicine and improved canine and human health.

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences


No summary - Aucun sommaire