Instrumentation for Introductory Laboratories in the        Physical Sciences Department

Amarillo College will update and improve introductory                      physics, astronomy, and physical science courses.  A major aim is               to provide a sufficient quantity of high-quality instruments for                students to use, so that students may experience interesting and                instructive experiments.  The project involves using nuclear                    counting, optics, mechanical, and astronomical equipment, some of               which will be used in several laboratories.  Experiments will be                done in medical physics, college and engineering physics,                       physical science, and astronomy.                                                                                The college will match the award with an equal amount of                   funds.


シリケンイモリの生殖についての研究

これまでの研究で本州・四国・九州に分布するアカハライモリでは、生殖器官が繁殖可能になる秋から配偶行動を始めているが、貯精したまま春まで繁殖はしないことをわかった。しかし、これはCynops属の最北に分布するアカハライモリの繁殖期についての結論であり、その他のCynops属の生殖及び生態について調べることなしには、この属の繁殖戦略は理解できない。アカハライモリ以外のCynops属は、ほとんどの種が中国に生息しているが、アカハライモリと中国のイモリの分布のちょうど真ん中の南西諸島にシリケンイモリCynops ens icaudaが分布している。本研究では、シリケンイモリの生殖について調べることによって、Cynops属の繁殖戦略を解明することを目指した。研究対象としたシリケンイモリは準絶滅危惧(NT)に指定されている種で、近年、圃場整備や水路工事などの土地開発による繁殖場所の減少や観賞用の成熟個体の乱獲等で個体数が激減している。そのことを考慮して、生息数が多く、人為的な捕獲圧が少ないと考えられる地域を選んで、(1)野外での1年間を通しての生態調査と(2)生殖器官の観察(卵巣、輸卵管及び精巣、輸精管の精子数の季節変化)を行った。生態調査では、繁殖期前の12月から5月にかけて、雨の日に自動車による礫死体を多く確認した。そして、道路に敷設されたコンクリートU字側溝が繁殖期で移動する個体にとって集団死する「死のトラップ」になっていることも分かった。調査地はイタチの移入でヘビ類が捕食され絶滅に近い状態に至った歴史をもっている。幸いにもイモリは捕食対象でないということで生き延びてきたが、これまで生き延びてきたイモリもU字側溝への転落という別の理由によって激減することが推測される。生殖器官の年変化では、精子は産卵期前の11月でも確認できるが、卵巣重量/体重の増減で比較することによって、繁殖の最盛期は12月から2月であることがわかった。実際に1月、2月の個体で輸卵管中に産卵直前の卵が確認できた。シリケンイモリでは、アカハライモリのように冬期に繁殖行動を中断することなく、生殖器官の成熟に伴って、繁殖行動に入り1月から産卵を開始し、アカハライモリより早い時期に産卵を終えていることがわかった。

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Scientists


Between the market and the hierarchy: an analysis of cases of contractual hold-up in agribusiness.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA)


SYNTHESIS AND FUNCTION OF POLYMERS IN ORAL BACTERIA


Portable High Intensity Focused Ultrasonic System


Highly stable Ag clusters developed by a combustion reaction

Agクラスターは特異な活性や選択性を持つため、新規高性能触媒として期待されている。しかしAgは他の貴金属と比較して熱的安定性に乏しく容易に凝集するため、工業利用が困難である。本研究では、工業化実績のある火炎噴霧熱分解法を用いて、「燃焼場により還元された酸化物担体とAg間の相互作用を利用した、Agクラスター安定化技術」を創出する。

Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists


Fairness in data-driven medical technologies: Solidifying regulatory oversight based on a multidimensional conception of fairness

Artificial intelligence (AI) and genomic technologies are transforming healthcare, offering powerful tools for diagnosis and treatment. However, these innovations often fail to fairly serve diverse populations due to lack of inclusivity. This project aims to develop a comprehensive fairness framework for medical AI and genomics, considering ethical, legal, and social factors. By engaging stakeholders—including patients, clinicians, and policymakers—it will propose regulatory solutions to ensure equitable healthcare technology. The findings will help create guidelines for fair and inclusive AI, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background, benefit from medical advancements in a responsible and just manner.

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

NWO-Talentprogramma Vidi SGW 2024 - SGW/SSH Recht en Bestuur


Développement d'un procédé de production de Me-THF biosourcé

Le furfural (dérivé des sucres en C5), une molécule structurellement similaire au 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (derivé des sucres en C6), est un dérivé furanique généré (i) par le procédé FIRSST de CRB Innovations lors du fractionnement des biomasses ainsi que par (ii) la conversion directe des C5 présents dans des hydrolysats et vinasses. Le furfural est une molécule biosourcée, suscitant un grand intérêt du fait de la possibilité de sa transformation en différents produits recherchés dans lindustrie. Ainsi, le furfural peut être converti en méthylfurane (2MF), cyclopentane, alcool furfurylique (FA), en tetrahydrofurfuryl alcool (THF-OH) et en méthyltétrahydrofurane (2Me-THF). Le méthyltétrahydrofurane a été identifié comme un solvant vert et renouvelable possédant plusieurs applications en chimie organique.
Comme cest un solvant aprotique, il possède une faible miscibilité dans leau, une forte basicité Lewis et une grande stabilité dans lacide, faisant du 2Me-THF une meilleure option que le tétrahydrofurane (THF) ou le dichlorométhane dans une large gamme de réactions organiques telles que les réactions Grignard et les substitutions nucléophiles.
Plus important encore que son usage comme solvant, le 2Me-THF est un excellent additif renouvelable pour les carburants et ce grâce à ses très bonnes propriétés de combustion comparativement à léthanol, une plus grande capacité calorifique, une faible chaleur de vaporisation et sa faible solubilité dans leau.
Le projet vise à  valider la faisabilité de procédés économiquement viables de production du méthyltétrahydrofurane (2Me-THF) en utilisant les produits  du procédé FIRSST obtenus à partir du panic érigé comme matière première, vu sa haute teneur en hémicellulose.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

CCI Applied Research and Development Grants


Toward Improved Candid Classroom Instructional Television:  Guidelines For Program Evaluation and Production


DNA REPAIR DEFECTS AFFECTING HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELLS


SUSHIL ATREYA/UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TO THE DEPTHS OF VENUS: A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLORATION OF ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS AND CHEMISTRY ON OUR SISTER WORLD

National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Finding Sleeping Beauty: T Cell Biosensors for Dormant Cancer Detection

PROJECT NARRATIVE Some types of cancers, as exemplified by estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, can recur as metastatic disease many years or even decades following a dormancy period where the patient displays no clinical symptoms. This proposal seeks to engineer T cells as ultrasensitive biosensors to detect dormant cancer and when they reawaken.


Clinical Research Network in Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis


Suppression of electromogration under high magnetic field

Electromigration is a phenomenon of atomic transport under an electric field (direct current). Lorentz force can be produced by applying a magnetic field in the direction perpendicular to an electric field, which is expected to suppress the atomic movement due to electromigration. The purpose of the present work is to investigate whether hillocks and avoids are formed in electromigration in aluminum thin films under the magnetic field. The present result shows that neither hillocks nor voids were observed in the electromigration for 1.8×104 s under 10 tesla.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research


Data Analysis for the September 19, 1985 Michoacan, Mexico  Earthquake

The work proposed will attempt to take full advantage of information            generated by the recent Michoacan, Mexico earthquake of September 19,           1985, and information potentially available from another large                  earthquake anticipated in the near future in the adjacent Guerrero              seismic gap and/or Omtepec seismic gap to the southeast.


Risk Prediction Using 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (FDG-PET) in Patients With Type B Acute Aortic Syndrome

The current study examined the clinical significance of 18F-FDG-PET in patients with IMH in comparison to those with classic AD. During the median follow-up of 664 days, 37.3% of the patients had adverse aorta-related events. The higher total 18F-FDG uptake, defined as a sum of 18F-SUV uptake over the regions that had inflammatory pathology in the entire affected thoracic aorta, was associated with an increased risk of aorta-related event in patients with IMH even after multivariable adjustment, but not in those with AD. 18F-FDG-PET/CT might be useful for risk stratification in patients with IMH.

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital(First Clinical Division, Second Clinical Division, Third(2018)Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation(2016-2017)


A Role for PML in Genome Stability and DNA Damage Response


Alcohol Epidemiological Data System (AEDS)


計算状態パーソナル・スクラップブック

コンピュータの計算状態が直接見えないことと刻々と変化することが、これまでのプログラミングを難しくしてきました。ここでは、プログラムの作成・検査・文書化・理解を容易にする目的で、汎用プログラミング言語の実行状況のスナップショットを収集・保存し再利用することを可能にした、計算状態パーソナル・スクラップブックの研究を行います。

戦略的な研究開発の推進/戦略的創造研究推進事業/さきがけ 機能と構成


Pii-dependent resistance, as a model to elucidate molecular mechanism of effector-triggered immunity and pathogen recognition.

Currently, it has been known that plant NLR type immune receptors have integrated domains (IDs) derived from other host proteins. Some reports showed that IDs bind to pathogen effectors and enable NLRs to recognize pathogen effectors, directly. Therefore, IDs are regarded as important information to understand host-pathogen interactions.In this study, we found the ID of rice NLR, Pii, and showed that the Pii-ID did not contribute to direct binding to cognate fungal effector, AVR-Pii. On the other hand, Pii-ID had crucial roles in the interaction with OsExo70-F3, an AVR-Pii-interactor required for Pii-dependent resistance, and in the recognition of AVR-Pii. These results indicate that Pii-ID may function by detecting host accessory protein targeted by pathogen effectors. This finding is different from the known ID function as pathogen effector-interacting domain, and may expand speculated functions of NLR-ID.


Getting to the Source of Inter-Regional Variation in Patient Flow Performance: A Complex Systems Perspective

Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)


MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS


核内癌遺伝子産物,c-myc蛋白質のDNA複製と転写における機能

Principal Investigator：有賀 早苗, Project Period (FY)：1989 – 1990, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (Research Fellowship), Research Field：General medical chemistry


Service Design for Innovation (SDIN)-ETN aims to integrate service design and service innovation approaches that are now dispersed into an innovative research training framework; doing so leverages the creative power of service design to foster innovation. Specific objectives are: creating a mass of researchers who can drive widespread application of service design to leapfrog innovation in European organisations; and developing interdisciplinary competences in the key SDIN area and in key service sectors -ICT, public services and utilities.
SDIN training programme comprises: individual research projects with interdisciplinary supervision (design and management) and non-academic involvement; substantial non-academic training (through hosts and secondments); development of competences in at least one key service sector, with exposure to other sectors; and network wide training with innovative courses, workshops, transferable skills training, and network wide training events.
A strong consortium with unique combination of expertise will implement SDIN. Academic beneficiaries provide a rich training experience and research competences in service design and service innovation. The three non-academic beneficiaries are innovation leaders in ICT, public services and utilities, providing a rich ground for application of SDIN results to multiple sectors.
SDIN will have significant impacts on ESRs, partners, and the pursuit of the Innovation Union: SDIN will develop interdisciplinary and multi sectorial competences in ESRs, which are highly valued and have a strong innovation impact on organisations. Beneficiaries will integrate their expertise to build enduring interdisciplinary and multi-sector competences in SDIN. SDIN’s extensive dissemination will ensure that the results achieved are shared with wider communities, thus producing spill over effects to other sectors. SDIN can make a significant and timely contribution to the Innovation Union strategy.


PARENTING AND INFANT ACTIVITY--A MULTICULTURE PERSPECTIVE


Prevention of Statelessness in International Law: A Case Study on Japanese Nationality Law

Principal Investigator：秋山 肇, Project Period (FY)：2016-04-22 – 2019-03-31, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows, Section：国内, Research Field：International law


Cell-type specific transcriptomics and gene expression variation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease associated Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis is a chronic, cholestatic, autoimmune liver disease, which can lead to biliary cirrhosis and end-stage liver failure necessitating liver transplantation. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) co-exists in 60-80% of PSC patients, with a unique right-sided distribution and elevated colorectal cancer risk compared to IBD without PSC. Heterogeneity in disease pathophysiology, phenotype and response to treatment are driven by genetic and environmental factors. Genetic discovery through GWAS and immunochip studies has now identified 18 genetic risk loci associated with PSC. This study aims to investigate the immunological importance of these genetic loci by studying differential changes in RNA expression in subsets of peripheral blood T-cells in patients with PSC-IBD in comparison with age, sex, medication and colonic disease distribution-matched matched IBD controls. Immune cells will be isolated from peripheral blood using flow cytometry, followed by RNA seq and correlation with underlying associated SNPs from GWAS studies. This will provide an understanding of how gene expression alters at the immunological level and how this relates to known genetic risk loci, as well as identifying important biological pathways for future therapeutic target.


Collaborative Research: Investigating Holocene Paleoclimate In TheWestern Arctic Ocean Using Very High-Resolution Marine Records Off Alaska

ABSTRACT
Darby
OPP-0612493
Brachfield
OPP-: 0612365
Polyak
OPP-0612384
Ortiz
OPP-0612473

Intellectual Merit: Understanding how the climate system functions and how it might change, especially in the climate-sensitive Arctic Ocean, is of paramount importance and could be achieved through high-resolution paleo-records. Until the Healy-Oden Trans-Arctic Expedition (HOTRAX'05), such records in the Arctic Ocean were very rare. HOTRAX not only recovered several high-resolution records from the Alaskan margin, but also plankton tows for isotopic calibration of foraminifer, and samples of porewater collected under hermetic conditions for calibration of important proxies such as pyrite and monosulfides as potential indicators of paleoproductivity. Many proxies will be measured in the research including: sediment reflectivity, biogenic components (foraminifer, dinocysts, etc.), nutrients, stable isotopes and cadmium/calcium and magnesium/calcium in foraminiferal tests, and iron oxide fingerprinting of ice rafted debris for sea ice sources and drift patterns. Age models and detailed core correlation will be of primary concern initially and involve several approaches including AMS carbon-14, paleomagnetics, and lead-210.  The objective will be to establish paleoclimate records for the Holocene for the HOTRAX cores along the continental shelf margin north of Alaska in a critical zone for the confluence and impact of different water masses. These cores should be impacted by many of the important influxes that might affect or record climate change in the western Arctic Ocean, such as the Mackenzie River and other drainage systems, the Bering Strait influx of Pacific waters, and the sub-surface influx of North Atlantic Intermediate water. These cores are ideal for recording sea ice input events from Russian Shelves into the Beaufort Gyre presumably in response to fluctuations in the Arctic Oscillation. Therefore, several proxies will be employed to measure the important environmental and climatic changes that should be recorded in these very high resolution HOTRAX cores.

 Broader Impacts:  This research interfaces and fulfills many aspects of existing research initiatives such as the Study of Arctic environmental change (SEARCH), western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions (SBI), and paleoclimate component of the International Committee for Arctic Paleo Projects (ICARP) and its International Polar Year (IPY) affiliation. In addition, the results of this research could have important implications for residents of the north slope of Alaska with the focus on freshwater inputs and Russian ice to the waters offshore.  Several graduate and undergraduate students will be involved.  Many of the findings will be incorporated into courses taught by the investigators and talks to professional and community groups. More significantly, there will be opportunities for underrepresented minority students to participate and contribute to the proposed research through Old Dominion University's (ODU) Minority Undergraduate Scholarship and Training REU program (NSF-funded) and the joint ODU-Hampton University-Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences' Hall-Bonner Program for Minority Doctoral Scholars in Ocean Sciences (a NSF-funded Diversity in Geosciences grant). Collaboration with Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating (TREC) earth science teachers, begun on the HOTRAX cruise, will continue as part of this project with the development of small research exercises for the students that will be part of a website for use by similar teachers world-wide.


Anti-CTGF Therapy for Squamous Cell Lung Cancer

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE     Individualized therapeutics for squamous cell lung cancer are nonexistent. Recently, we have identi- ﬁed activation of the transcription factor SOX2 in a portion of human squamous cell lung cancers. A downstream target of SOX2 that may be clinically relevant and therapeutically attractive is connective tissue growth factor (ctgf). We propose to test inhibition of CTGF as a therapeutic strategy in SOX2+ squamous cell lung cancer.


TAS::89 0336::TAS RECOVERY    RESEARCHERS AT GEORGIA TECH WILL INCORPORATE METAL ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS (MOFS), NEW COMPOUNDS THAT SHOW GREAT PROMISE IN

ADVANCED RESEARCH AND PROJECTS AGENCY - ENERGY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRA


Reconstructing Afghanistan: the manufacture of concrete and the durability of war

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada


TLR4 and murine ischemic acute renal failure


SBIR Phase I: Automated detection, classification, and motion tracking of precipitation and insects for agricultural, health, and transport safety applications.

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to address consumer weather, and agricultural information needs as an advanced precipitation sensor and as a fully automated detector and classifier of insect species. Information on hydrometeor rate and type is critical for transportation safety and weather prediction. Wet snow and freezing rain events count among the worst natural disasters in North American history; the proposed device will be the first with the unambiguous capability for providing reliable remote detection of particles in a semi-frozen state for transportation management. Further, insect number, species, and motion vectors are critical for targeted pesticide applications that prevent the spread of disease and crop damage while preventing off-target damages to vulnerable species, such as bees. The combined commercial damages from precipitation and agricultural pests in the United States exceed $100 billion annually.

The proposed project will exploit recent advances in lighting, digital imaging, motion detection, and image processing to develop a new Small Airborne Particle Imager for obtaining high-resolution forward-illuminated photography of precipitation particles, as well as insects and their trajectories. The goal is to create a device capable of detecting and photographing objects moving up to 10 m/s at resolutions as fine as 0.01 mm. Primary components of the Phase I effort involve the integration of multi-spectral, multi-polarization photography and design of a novel motion detection system capable of providing 3D motion vectors of objects 0.1 mm across.

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.


An Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for Undergraduate         Environmental Studies in Biology and Chemistry

Goucher College will buy an atomic absorption spectrometer (AA).           The AA will be used in a variety of upper level chemistry and biology           courses, and it will also be the major piece of equipment used in six           week intensive projects, where chemistry and biology students join              forces to investigate the uptake of heavy metals in aquatic organisms.          This project will simulate the interaction of biologists and chemists           typical of research or industrial settings and will require both                independence and communications skills.  This project may serve as a            model for cooperative teaching between disciplines where shared                 expertise is focused on different aspects of the same question.                      After receiving background in toxicology and instrumental analysis         respectively, the biology and chemistry students will join forces.              Biology students will formulate the basic questions about metal uptake          and toxicity and then consult their chemist peers to develop the                experimental design and analytical protocol for metal analysis in               tissues using the AA.  The biology and chemistry students will then             analyze the samples and interpret the data together.  This is an                excellent place for students to experience the benefits of modern               computer interfaced instrumentation, for it will greatly affect their           ability to answer scientific questions.  The sensitivity of the AA will         permit detection of trace levels of metals in the environment or in             tissues.  Sample automation will allow enough samples for thorough data         analysis, which will in turn be greatly facilitated by the onboard              graphics and data management software of the AA.


低体温療法の脳保護作用機序

Principal Investigator：黒田 泰弘, Project Period (FY)：1992, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (A), Research Field：麻酔学

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


PDT: Mechanisms and Strategies for Optimization


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada


Small Animal Ultrasound Imager - Vevo 2100

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE STATEMENT: We are requesting funds to purchase a Vevo2100 ultrasound system for small animal imaging. This state-of the-art system would enable us to obtain highly accurate measures of cardiac, renal and pulmonary function, and would aid in oncology research, biomarker discovery and contrast imaging. This would be the only Vevo2100 instrument in the University of Colorado system and would enhance NIH funded research across the Denver metropolitan area.


THE PURPOSE OF THIS GRANT IS TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTION (STI) TESTING SERVICES FOR THE COUNTRY OF GU

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HIV/AIDS PREVENTION PROGRAM


蓄電池製造作業者の歯牙酸蝕症に関する衛生学的研究

Principal Investigator：須山 祐之, Project Period (FY)：1990, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (A), Research Field：小児・社会系歯学


Synaptic Mechanisms in an in vitro Model of Developmental Epilepsy


Multi-wavelength studies of X-ray binaries

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


Study on clinical significance as the pancreatic cancer high-risk group by salivary metabolomics analysis for diabetes patients

膵癌は初期に自覚症状がなく大部分が進行時に発見されるため、生存率が他の癌に比べ極めて低い。このため簡単で侵襲の少ないスクリーニング方法の確立が急務である。これまでの唾液の代謝物の解析で、膵癌の早期でも変化する代謝産物を見出してきた。本研究では、これらの基礎研究に基づく臨床研究を行うと同時に、より高精度の検出方法を開発する。臨床的観点では、近年欧米で糖尿病患者の一部が膵癌ハイリスクグループであるとする疫学調査、研究が行われ報告されていることから、日本人に多い糖尿病患者を対象に膵癌スクリーニングシステムの構築を図る。


Engineering zonal human liver functions in vitro using microfluidics

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Zonal heterogeneity in hepatic functions is an important feature of the liver; however, how various factor gradients modulate zonal hepatic functions in the human liver, and what role liver stromal cells play in such modulation is not well understood. This project will utilize microfluidics technology to investigate the effects of liver-relevant facor gradients and liver stromal cells on zonal functions of primary human hepatocytes in culture. Creating approaches and design rules for making a heterogeneous and stable population of human liver cells will allow recapitulation of this important liver feature in systems designed for  drug screening, clinical use (i.e. bioartificial liver devices), and stem cell differentiation.


CAREER: Enabling Human-Aware and Responsive Automation through Cognitive State Modeling and Estimation

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant will fund research that enables autonomous systems such as machines, robots, and vehicles, to respond safely and collaboratively to human interactions, thereby promoting the progress of science, and advancing the national prosperity and welfare. Significant increases in automation are expected across the healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation sectors. Major challenges to the safe integration of automation in situations involving human participants are the lack of accurate mathematical models of human behavior, intent, and cognitive state, as well as of reliable ways of gathering relevant real-time data from humans. This project overcomes these challenges by building a new modeling framework that accounts for human cognitive constructs established within the social sciences, such as trust, workload, perceived risk, and self-confidence, while being amenable to rigorous mathematical analysis. It demonstrates how this framework can facilitate the design of sensing and control algorithms that can allow an autonomous system to determine, for example, how confident the human is in taking over a task, say during driving of an autonomous vehicle. Through close integration of research and education, the project will train engineering students to tackle questions surrounding socio-political and ethical challenges associated with the rapid expansion of automation in society. This will be achieved through new interdisciplinary coursework and recurrent immersive learning experiences that bring students together with state and federal policymakers.

This research aims to develop the foundations of a control-theoretic framework for human-automation interaction that can use real-time data to continually improve prediction accuracy. It achieves this aim by defining a human cognitive state space and characterizing its dynamics in a model formulation that is compatible with standard tools of control design. A unique feature of this formulation is its interpretability, maintained by grounding the model in established conceptual frameworks governing human decision-making. A principled methodology for real-time parameter and cognitive state estimation will be created that blends information from multiple sensors with different capabilities and costs of querying, and enables adaptation to different individuals. A generalizable technique for exciting human cognitive dynamics, as well as guidelines for choosing the cognitive state estimation algorithm best suited for a particular human-automation interaction context, will be established. Laboratory and field experiments, including tests using trucks equipped with Level 1 driver assistance features, are planned for validation of the modeling framework and estimation algorithms.

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.


Strengthening community capacity for HIV prevention and care among African Caribbean and Black (ACB) women in Ontario: An interdisciplinary community-based participatory research initiative

In Ontario, African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) women are overrepresented among new HIV diagnoses. This overrepresentation of ACB women is believed to be in part due to social and structural factors, such as HIV-related stigma, gender discrimination, and racial discrimination, which converge to increase vulnerability to HIV infection by reducing access to HIV prevention and care. Given the disproportionate burden of HIV infection among ACB women, the development of HIV interventions to respond to these increased risks is vital. The project builds on three recently completed CIHR- funded studies lead by the PI which include infant feeding practices of ACB women living with HIV, HIV vulnerability and resilience among ACB men and ACB HIV Monitoring and Surveillance. They highlight the need for critical health and racial literacy among providers and community members. Critical health and racial literacy interventions are increasingly being used to promote health especially in the current context of COVID-19 and co-morbidities like HIV. Peer-led programs can be an effective strategy for reaching at-risk populations. Scholars further recognize that ACB communities need to be involved in interventions addressing health inequities. This study seeks to create, implement, and evaluate an ACB community-based peer-led intervention to improve access to HIV prevention and care for ACB women in Ontario. Community-based participatory research (CBPR), guided by intersectionality lens, implementation science and evaluation frameworks will be used to guide the project. The project consists of 5 phases over a 5-year period and builds on a record of inspired and innovative HIV-related work in ACB communities led by ACB women scholars. Evidence on the effectiveness of this innovative, peer-led intervention can be used to inform policies and practice related to HIV prevention and care for ACB women in Canada.


Preparing a computerized tool for preventing prenatal drinking for a larger trial

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Heavy drinking by women of childbearing age increases risk for unplanned pregnancy, for drinking during pregnancy, and for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in their infants. We will adapt an innovative, self- administered computerized screening and brief intervention for drinking during pregnancy for use with non- pregnant childbearing age women, and test its efficacy in a small trial. Study findings will inform a larger randomized control trial for a primary prevention tool with the potential for broad health impact.


CHARACTERIZATION &CLONING OF LEISHMANIA ANTIGENS


Effect of environmental changes on diversity and functions of soil microbes in peat lands.

In mires, plant residues become into peat under low temperature and high moisture level condition. Decomposition rate of organic matter is very low and, and nutrients become available very slowly depending on the rate of mineralization, through which cellulose decomposing bacteria play an important roll. In such an oligotrophic ecosystem, moisture level, mineral supply, quality of substrate and other physical and chemical factors, which influence the decomposition rate, are changed recently by natural and artificial sources. In the present study, cellulose decomposing bacteria were isolated from geographically various type of mire in three areas in Japan, to reveal its functional diversity with following results :Mainly single cell forming bacteria was isolated from Sphagnum mat in highland moor, whereas small number of such bacteria was isolated from peat soil in forest and reed marsh, where mainly actinomycetes was dominant as cellulose decomposing bacteria. The isolated single cell bacteria were examined C-substrate utilization patterns by Biolog system and classified functionally different groups. Isolates from sphagnum mat used many kinds of hydrocarbons and small number of organic acids and amino compounds, whereas isolates from peat soil in a forest used limited hydrocarbons and some kinds of carboxylic acids and amino compounds as C-substrate. These results might reflect the difference of potential C-substrates in the habitats where the isolates living wetland soils.

National Institute for Environmental Studies


PATHOGENESIS OF OPHIDIAN PARAMYXOVIRUS INFECTION IN BROWN TREE SNAKES


Relaxation, Intermittency and Dissipation in a Collisionless Plasma

The purpose of this project is to improve understanding of the basic science of turbulence in a plasma.  Turbulence is the complex dynamics of a fluid or gas resulting from nonlinear forces that span a wide range of scales in space and time.  Many important effects emerge from turbulence, such as mixing and rapid transport of heat and energy; this influences terrestrial fluids as well as electrically conducting gases, or plasmas, in space and on the sun. Turbulence is usually not uniform in space – it tends to quickly self-organize into irregularly shaped "cells." Inside these cells the plasma is typically quiescent, but the thin boundaries between cells are highly active with sometimes explosive results. Processes causing this self-organization and formation of the cell boundaries are studied in this project.  This effort will support a post-doctoral researcher and advance understanding of many observed space plasma phenomena, including solar flares and variability of turbulence in the solar wind, thus contributing to the science underlying space weather.

Relaxation processes, turbulence cascade and dissipation mechanisms are each an important area of study in plasma physics and its applications. However these are most frequently studied separately.  The fundamental hypothesis advanced in this project is that the nature of the intermittent cascade, and the dissipation that it leads to, are strongly influenced by specific relaxation processes that originate at the energy containing scales. In particular, local relaxation leads to spatial cellularization, and the associated spatial nonuniformity controls the formation of coherent structures, where dissipation is expected to be greatly enhanced. This has been studied, although incompletely, in fluid plasma models such as magnetohydrodynamics, but is poorly understood in fully kinetic plasma models to be considered within this project.  Establishing such fundamental connections as parameters are changed to vary among modes of relaxation will advance understanding of fundamental plasma physics.

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.

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware


High performance compound semiconductor nanowire optoelectronic devices

Semiconductor nanowires are emerging nano-materials with substantial opportunities for novel photonic and electronic device applications. This project aims at developing a new generation of high performance nanowire-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers and photodetectors, which will make great contribution to the nation in the areas of science, technology and industry.


Collaborative Research on Mediterranean "Cobblestone"       Topography:  Origin and Significance


Automatic Coding of Therapist and Client Language in Motivational Interviewing to Predict Reductions in Alcohol Use and Problems Using Machine-based Dyadic Multimodal Representation Learning

Current analyses of Motivational Interviewing (MI) process are limited to investigations pertaining to language only and are restricted by expensive and arduous manual coding which, despite the time and efforts expended to achieve reliability, may still not be sufficiently sensitive or specific to adequately test the complex theoretical propositions espoused by MI theorists. Our project introduces a computational framework that aims to jointly analyze verbal (i.e., what is being said), nonverbal (i.e., how something is said), and dyadic (i.e., in what interpersonal context something is said) behavior to better predict in- session change talk and sustain talk and subsequent changes in post-session alcohol use. We will leverage already collected and annotated data from two NIAAA-funded single-session MI randomized clinical trials to improve drinking behavior (N=99 and N=193) and validate the generalizability of our computational framework using seven additional NIAAA- and federally funded RCTs that used different MI protocols for different target populations.


A biochemical approach to stomatin function


Parent-offspring interactions and conflict in tree swallows

No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada


Melatonin, behavior and neuronal activity


This award is made as part of the FY 2017 Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships Program. Each of the fellowships supports a research and training project at a host institution in the mathematical sciences, including applications to other disciplines, under the mentorship of a sponsoring scientist. The title of the project for this fellowship to Erin Compaan is "Dynamics of dispersive partial differential equations: Applications of harmonic analysis and probabilistic methods." The host institution for the fellowship is Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the sponsoring scientist is Gigliola Staffilani.


2007 Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry

The 2007 Fall Workshop in Computational Geometry is being held at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, New York.  The workshop is jointly organized by Richard Pollack and Janos Pach of the Courant Institute of NYU, and Jonathan Lenchner of IBM and Polytechnic University, Brooklyn.  The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers from academia and industry, to stimulate collaboration on problems of common interest arising in geometric computing.  Holding the workshop at IBM is intended to infuse the field of computational geometry with a set of fresh problems, and problem areas, coming from contemporary industrial applications. Following the tradition of the previous workshops on Computational Geometry, the format of the workshop is informal, extending over two days, with several breaks scheduled for discussions.  There are invited speakers and an open problem session to promote a free exchange of questions and research challenges.


Multi-ethnic Multi-level Strategies and Behavioral Economics to Eliminate Hypertension Disparities in LA County.

Project Narrative Eliminating racial/ethnic cardiovascular health disparities in the U.S. cannot be achieved without addressing disparities in evidence-based treatment of hypertension. In the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS), the second largest municipal health system in the US, patient, clinician, healthy system, and community factors contribute to substantial disparities in hypertension prevalence, control, and outcomes by race/ethnicity. In this study, we use innovative methods in implementation science, community engagement, and behavioral economics to develop and deploy culturally-tailored, multi-level, sustainable implementation strategies that improve blood pressure control and reduce hypertension-related health disparities.


Eco-Motive Products Limited are working to develop a delivery system for Tyre-fix, is an environmentally friendly tyre sealant, which allows customers with no mechanical training or knowledge to install ‘Tyre-fix’ into all their tyres easily and quickly with no mess.


Common Pathogenic Pathways and Therapeutics for SMA and ALS motoneuron diseases

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an incurable paralytic neuromuscular disorder that mainly affects children at an incidence of 1 in 6000 to 10000 births. SMA is characterized by the selective degeneration of spinal motoneurons. About 95% of SMA cases are caused by autosomal loss-of-function mutations in the SMN1 gene. Recent work has shown that SMA and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), another devastating motoneuron pathology, share converging aberrant pathways. The motoneuron-restricted death pathway triggered by Fas and its ligand FasL, contributes to the loss of motoneurons in ALS. Our preliminary data shows that Fas is markedly upregulated in spinal cord motoneurons of SMA mice, suggesting that Fas may also contribute to SMA pathogenesis. Additional preliminary data demonstrates that whereas Fas undeniably induces motoneuron death, it also promotes neuronal outgrowth. Therefore, the same factor may be implicated in compensatory axonal plasticity as well as in the selective loss of neurons. Here, we propose to further dissect the functional duality of Fas and investigate the contribution of the Fas pathway in SMA pathogenesis. Activation and expression profile of the Fas pathway will be assessed in Smn-depleted motoneurons, in a SMA mouse model and in human SMA spinal cord. Further, gene therapy approaches will be developed to reduce Fas activity in the spinal cord and specifically target FasL to axons in SMA mice. The ultimate goal of this collaborative endeavor is to generate common therapeutic strategies for SMA and ALS, as well as for other motoneuron diseases.

Operating Grant - E-Rare-2: Development of Innovative Therapeutic Approaches for Rare Diseases


Illumination of Immune Checkpoint Therapy of Cancer: Molecular Imaging of Immunity with Copper Radiopharmaceuticals

Exciting developments in the treatment of cancer have involved developing ways to reinvigorate a patient’s own immune system to attack their disease. This type of therapy, called immune checkpoint therapy, produces remarkable outcomes for some patients but some do not respond. This research will develop the chemistry required to produce imaging agents to enable clinicians to identify patients suitable for immune checkpoint therapies using non-invasive Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging.

National Health and Medical Research Council


Konstruktion von numerischen Verfahren hoher Ordnung für hyperbolische partielle Differentialgleichungen in komplizierten Gebieten

Dieses Projekt befasst sich mit der Konstruktion von Finiten-Volumen-Verfahren für hyperbolische partielle Differentialgleichungen unter Verwendung von kartesischen Gittern mit geschnittenen Zellen.Viele Anwendungen erfordern die Lösung hyperbolischer Probleme in komplizierten Geometrien. Die Gittererzeugung ist eine grundlegende Komponente eines Finiten-Volumen-Verfahrens. Traditionell verwendet man entweder ein strukturiertes gebietsfolgendes Gitter oder ein unstrukturiertes Gitter. Beide Ansätze erfordern einen erheblichen Aufwand bei der Gittergenerierung. Ein alternativer Ansatz ist die Verwendung eines kartesischen Gitters mit geschnittenen Zellen. Ein solcher Ansatz erlaubt eine einfache Gittererzeugung selbst bei sehr komplizierten Gebieten.  Im Inneren des Gebietes werden Verfahren für kartesische Gitter verwendet, die typischerweise einfacher und genauer sind als entsprechende Verfahren für unstrukturierte Gitter. In den geschnittenen Gitterzellen muss das Finite-Volumen-Verfahren allerdings modifiziert werden, um Stabilitätsprobleme aufgrund der mitunter sehr kleinen geschnittenen Gitterzellen zu vermeiden. Es zeigt sich, dass Genauigkeit entlang der geschnittenen Zellen neben dem Stabilitätsproblem die größere Schwierigkeit darstellt. In diesem Projekt entwickeln wir das erste Finite-Volumen-Verfahren dritter Ordnung für kartesische Gitter mit geschnittenen Zellen. Wir entwickeln dieses Verfahren in Anlehnung an Active Flux Verfahren, einer neue Klasse Finiter-Volumen-Verfahren mit kompaktem Träger, die auf der Berechnung von Zellmittelwerten sowie Punktwerten der Erhaltungsgröße beruhen.


AMPHIBIAN METAMORPHOSIS: A DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON, D.C.


Brain mechanisms supporting the generalization of learned fear

8. Project Narrative: Public Health The proposed research contributes to a greater understanding of mental health disorders marked by heightened expression of fear. These neuroimaging investigations attempt to uncover the brain mechanisms supporting the generalization of fear from a known fear-relevant stimulus to emotionally neutral stimuli that approximate the feared stimulus, either perceptually or semantically. A greater recognition of how generalization modulates the cognitive processes involved in fear expression will strengthen understanding of certain mental health disorders (e.g. specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder) and may lead to model systems important for the treatment and prevention of these disorders.


A FAST & HIGH CAPACITY ELECTROMAGNETIC SOLUTION FOR HIGH FREQUENCY MIXED SIGNAL IC DESIGN


CGI-58 Regulation of Triglyceride Metabolism and Inflammation


STATE OF THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE PRECONFERENCE SESSION


Age-related hearing loss:  Health services utilization and outcomes

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Hearing loss is among the most common chronic conditions of aging, but only a small percentage of older adults access the hearing health care system for diagnosis and treatment. These findings, and the growing population of older adults, call attention to hearing loss as a public health problem and emphasize the critical need for evidence of the impact of hearing loss on utilization of the healthcare system and health outcomes. Direct and indirect effects of age-related hearing loss, such as breakdowns in communication between older patients and their providers, may lead to exacerbation of other chronic health conditions, adversely affecting access to care, which may increase medication non-adherence, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, healthcare costs, and mortality.


Les réactions appétitives en relation avec l'agression : Une investigation du rôle des bases neurocognitives et sensorimotrices de l'hostilité et du dégoût

Titre: Les réactions appétitives en relation avec l'agressivité : Une investigation du rôle des bases neurocognitives et sensorimotrices de l'hostilité et du dégoût

Ce projet de recherche vise à approfondir notre compréhension des facteurs qui contribuent à la perpétration de la violence et à l'agressivité appétitive - une forme biologique de comportement agressif qui est de nature hédonique (plaisante) et qui se manifeste par l'observation ou par des actes de violence. Plus précisément, les études proposées dans ce projet porteront sur les processus cognitifs et sensorimoteurs qui sont associés au dégoût et aux émotions hostiles dans le cerveau humain normal/intact au niveau fonctionnel par électroencéphalographie (EEG), physiologique (procédure d’induction de dégoût) et comportemental (tâches d’inhibition, décision lexicale). Ces études nous permettront de vérifier si les indicateurs implicites du dégoût activent des concepts hostiles qui reflètent la déshumanisation d’autrui (les attributions d'infériorité ou de caractéristiques rappelant la nature animale de l'humain dans une autre personne) et détermineront si cette relation contribue aux associations récompenses-agression.

Les comportements agressifs causent des séquelles et traumatismes psychologiques et physiques durables à nombreuses victimes, avec des conséquences humaines et économiques élevées pour la santé publique et la société. Actuellement, un des grands obstacles à la recherche sur l'agressivité chez les sujets humains tiennent au fait que les motivations qui sous-tendent les comportements agressifs et appétitifs se basent fortement sur des mesures explicites (c'est-à-dire, l'auto-évaluation) et il est donc difficile de relier ces processus cognitifs aux comportements observés. En identifiant les mécanismes neurocognitifs et physiologiques qui sont directement impliqués dans les émotions hostiles liées à des biais cognitifs, ce projet contribue à une meilleure compréhension des facteurs qui maintiennent ces comportements. De plus, on espère que ces nouvelles découvertes contribueront à de meilleures stratégies d'intervention pour la gestion de l'agressivité et la réduction de la violence.


Personal and Relational Self-Expansion as Predictors of Relationship Satisfaction in Long-Distance Couples

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships - Master's


Creation and utilization of perpendicularly spin-polarized electronic currents using perpendicularly magnetized spin-filtering tunnel barriers

本研究は，垂直磁化型の「トンネルスピンフィルター効果」を室温付近で高効率に実現し，薄膜の膜面に垂直な方向のスピンをもつ電子流の生成ができる新しい素子を創生することを目的とする。このような素子の開発は，垂直磁化型への展開が進められている最新のスピントロニクスにおいて重要な要素になると期待される。高効率なフィルターの実現に成功したのちは，垂直スピン電子注入による反強磁性体の磁気異方性制御など，新しいスピン分極電子源としての活用を図っていく。

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Control of Trabecular Meshwork Cytoskeleton

Glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness in the U.S. and the most common cause of blindness among African-Americans. Attempts to understand the cause(s) of this disease have been hampered by the lack of well defined cell culture systems. The goal of this project is to identify the signaling pathway(s) activated during steroid induced glaucoma (SIG) so we identify potential therapeutic targets to reduce SIG.


The impact of funding incentives on knowledge production, research practices and utilization in population and public health

It is widely accepted that the major determinants of human health lie outside of the provision of health services. Social, cultural, environmental, psychological and behavioural factors interact with human biology to influence patterns of health and illness across populations. Complex public health problems, such as emerging infectious diseases and persistent health inequalities, require new approaches to conceptualizing and studying interactions between determinants of health . To facilitate the production of knowledge that examines these interactions from a variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches, and to increase the uptake of knowledge into policy and practice, health research funding bodies have developed incentives for innovative appraoches to research. Incentives often seek to increase interdisciplinary research, the use of diverse methods and collaboration between researchers and decision-makers throughout the knowledge production and dissemination processes. The main objective of this study is to understand how funding incentives impact both the production and utilization of determinants of health knowledge. Using a comparative case-study methodology, case studies will be conducted to examine the types of research funded by two to four Canadian health funding bodies (e.g. CIHR, SSHRC, Health Canada). A document analysis will be undertaken to classify studies according to variables such as methodology, use of theory, interdisciplinary collaboration and researcher-decision-maker engagement. Interviews will then be held with investigators from a sample of funded studies to explore how funding requirements influenced knowledge production, research practices and knowledge uptake. This study will contribute to our understanding of how to facilitate the production and utilization of knowledge that is needed to address new and persistent public health challenges in today's complex, global and technologically advanced world.


Maillard Reactions and Oxidation in Cataractogenesis


PREVENTION OF TRIPLE-NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER BY NATURAL COMPOUNDS

MILITARY MEDICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT


SHF:Small:Performance Portable Parallel Programming on Extremely Heterogeneous Systems

The computers that are deployed today are increasingly complex as their designers strive to increase the speed with which computations are performed, while simultaneously maintaining or even reducing their power consumption.   Many of them include energy-efficient accelerator devices. Adapting existing application programs so that they can execute well on new computer systems where such devices are configured is a labor-intensive and error-prone activity that requires significant expertise.   Moreover, unless portable standards are used, different versions of a program may need to be created for different hardware. The effort required to do so may delay, or even prevent, many codes from fully exploiting new systems. This project will learn how to effectively utilize Machine Learning methods to help automate the adaptation process. Specifically, it will learn how to modify applications that already run on multicore platforms so that they can effectively exploit accelerator devices.  At the same time, it will study and develop best practices with respect to utilizing Machine Learning in the context of improving the performance of applications.

This project will study and develop Machine Learning (ML)-based strategies and techniques to identify and extract code regions in technical applications that are suitable for mapping to the devices configured on a heterogeneous architecture. It will moreover develop the runtime technology needed to manage the execution of the resulting code. To accomplish this, the project will focus on application codes that have been parallelized to exploit multiple processing cores using the widely adopted, portable industry standard OpenMP and will use and extend features of the most recent OpenMP specification to express the device code and data mappings in a manner that is portable and permits subsequent manual optimization. The embedding of key choices in the code will aid performance portability. A key element of this research is the study of state-of-the-art ML methods, including classical ML and Deep-Learning techniques, with respect to their suitability for enhancing compilers and tools.   An exploration of their relative merits for use in the compiler includes how to represent a compiler problem as a regression or classification problem. Research will also study approaches to code representation and the generation of sufficient data to train quality ML models.   A set of benchmarks and mini-apps will be used to guide and evaluate the research. The project will participate in the work of the OpenMP Language Committee, will make practical results available via the open source LLVM infrastructure, will contribute to teaching and training materials, and will use this effort to enrich an ongoing collaboration with an HBCU.

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.


Comprehensive analysis of optical properties in the body surface of gelatinous zoolankton and their evolutionary and diversification processes

ゼラチン質プランクトンの多くは体を透明にすることで視覚捕食者に対して自身を隠蔽している。加えて、我々の研究により体の表面に特殊な構造をもつことで体の輪郭をぼやけさせる種も存在することが、系統の異なるいくつかの分類群で明らかになってきた。しかし、多くの種で、外皮の表面微細構造とその光学的特性あるいは適応意義については不明なままである。本研究は、ゼラチン質プランクトン外皮の微細構造、物性、光学特性を網羅的に明らかにし、外皮の形態・機能の類型化を行う。また、モデル検証を通して、それらの適応意義について明らかにする。さらに、ゼラチン質プランクトン外皮構造の進化・多様化の過程について解明する。

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)


Genome instability induced by homologous recombination

Project Narrative Homologous recombination is a pivotal tumor suppressor pathway by maintaining genomic stability and is critical in repairing DNA lesions that are induced by ionizing radiation and other common modalities of DNA damaged-based anti-cancer therapy. Homologous recombination also reshapes genomes during meiosis, evolution, and ontogenic development affecting fertility, speciation, and human disease, especially cancer. The proposed project will lead to an improved mechanistic understanding of this critical DNA repair pathway and its contributions to remodel genomes.


血清コレステロール値の差異に影響を与える因子に関する研究(食事因子を中心に)

Principal Investigator：片寄 眞木子, Project Period (FY)：1985, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C), Research Field：家政学


組合せ理論における極値的問題の確率的証明手法、及びそのアルゴリズム的側面の研究

ランダムグラフ上のラムゼ-理論を主に研究した。この分野に多いに貢献したB.Bollobas著Random Graphs(1985)は、ランダムグラフ上でのラムゼ-理論にはほとんど触れていない。が、最近の研究によってこの著書もすでに古くなった感があり、ラムゼ-理論の発展と確率的手法,ランダムグラフの研究の進展とともに,近年、ランダムグラフ上でのラムゼ-理論が技術的に可能になってきた。一方で、辺着色されたグラフの全頂点を単色の木で被覆する研究は強く注目をあびているものの古典的ラムゼ-理論の例にもれず,もっとも単純な完全グラフ上においてしかなされていない。今回は,これらの状況をふまえ、この単色木被覆の研究はランダムグラフを融合させる試みを行なった。それによると、2着色の場合、完全グラフにおける(単色木による)被覆数は1、辺を一本除去したグラフは2まであがるが、その後、辺をランダムに除去し続けた場合、かなり辺が減ってしまった場合においても2のままでありつづけ,ある段階で突然無限にとんでしまう。(例えば、ほぼ全てのグラフの被覆数が2である。)また、着色数が3以上の場合、2着色の場合ほど突然ではなく、被覆数がもっと早い段階から増加していることがわかった。完全グラフの場合,2着色と3着色以上でも性質が似ているのに対し、ランダムグラフの場合でははっきりとした差が確認された。この意味でも興味深い。ランダムグラフ上で議論可能なラムゼ-的性質はまだあまり多くはないが、なかでも本研究における単色木被覆の研究は新たにわかった基礎的なラムゼ-的性質であり,本研究が、古典的な完全グラフ上での研究の単なる拡張ではなく、ランダムグラフとラムゼ-の融合による独特の課題であるという点でも意義が認められる。

The University of Electro-Communications


NOVEL EFFECTORS OF NEUTROPHIL PHOSPHOLIPASE A2


Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners

Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work value in Australia.
* Reflection of the profession's geographical heterogeneity in policy recommendations.
Expected outcomes:
* Improved measurements of effects of geographcial location on costs, remuneration and relative work value of rural GPs.
* Improved understanding of effects of differential rates of GP bulk-billing.


Enhancement of the Paleontology Research Collection at the University of Montana

An award has been made to the University of Montana under the direction of Dr. George D. Stanley to acquire new metal cabinets for the collection of Bear Gulch fossil biota of central Montana.  This collection contains important fossils of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and algae that is unique in its composition and in the retention of original colors by many of the fossils.  The diversity of materials adds to our understanding of ancient climates on the planet.  The project will replace older oak cabinets, which are known to produce acid vapors that cause deterioration of the fossil rock material and destroy their scientific value.  The collection will be re-housed in cabinets in a mobile compactor system that will improve the physical accessibility of the collection for researchers and students.  The specimens will be catalogued, photographed, and the images and associated data will be made available online and through the web site called PaleoPortal.  Students will be employed in the project and will be trained in the practice of paleontological curation.


LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AND SUCCESSIVE PREGNANCY OUTCOME


A Comprehensive Newborn Screening Solution for Duchenne and Congenital Muscular Dystrophies

PROJECT NARRATIVE Congenital genetic abnormalities are a leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. While routine newborn screening (NBS) has dramatically improved health outcomes, many congenital disorders such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other congenital muscular dystrophies (CMD) are not currently detected by routine NBS. The goal of this Fast Track SBIR project is to develop a complete testing solution for efficient newborn screening of DMD and CMDs from dried blood spot (DBS) specimens. The system will consist of automated, low volume biochemical assays for creatine kinase (CK) enzyme activity and CK isoform expression (CK-MM and CK-MB) followed by 2nd-tier targeted next generation sequencing (tNGS) in CK (+) individuals to detect common causal gene variants associated with DMD and CMDs.


Sprance-Unesp and TTU collaboration in high-energy physics in the compact muon solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider

Texas Tech University (TTU) and the São Paulo Research and Analysis Center (SPRACE-UNESP) groups are active members of the CMS Collaboration at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. Both groups lead and participate in the analysis data in the field of physics beyond (AU)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. Núcleo de Computação Científica (NCC)


Anxiolytic Effects and Abuse of BZ Receptor Ligands

Valium and related drugs, referred to as “benzodiazepines” are prescribed widely for the treatment of anxiety disorders, one of the most common psychiatric disorders in the U.S. Benzodiazepines are considered to be among the safest prescription drugs in modern medicine, but they unfortunately are also drugs of abuse. The overall goal of this application is to uncover mechanisms that control the beneficial effects as well as the abuse of benzodiazepines, with the hope of developing drugs for treating BZ addiction.


Enhancing Scientific Inquiry in Clinical Neurosciences Through Methodology Traini

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE:     We propose a training course to enable young investigators to learn how to design the best early clinical trials to enable discovery of effectiv treatments. Our team is comprised of experts who collaborate within large, NIH funded research networks focused on neurological diseases. Our approach will enhance and maintain the pipeline of scientifically-sound clinical trials and promising young investigators in a way that promotes health by discovering important, effective new treatments.


マレーシア・サラワク州における民族再編と地域構造変化

本研究では,マレーシア・サラワク州における現地調査を中心にデータ収集を行った。具体的には,マレーシア最大の河川ラジャン川の上流域において,人の移動を中心とする社会的な動きについての調査を行った。当該地域には,1960年代から70年代にかけて,インドネシア・カリマンタンから移住してきたクニャ人の集落が点在している。当時の移住の理由は,カリマンタン側における人口圧が高まり土地が相対的に不足したこと,砂糖や塩などの日常品購入の面でサラワクに居住する方が便利であったこと,そして,間接的ではあるが,1960年代後半のインドネシアとマレーシアの間の政治的緊張がこの地にも及んで,安定した生活を求めた人たちがサラワク側に流れたこと,である。しかし,こうした移住の波とは別の動きが1990年代半ばから顕著になった。それは、サラワクの木材伐採企業が,当該地位に木に伐採キャンプを開き,インドネシアからの非合法入国者を重要な労働力として使用し始めたことによる。インドネシアのクニャ人のサラワクでの非合法就労は,1950年代から行われていたことではあるが,1990年代に入ってその数は激増し,国境付近の地域社会に大きな変化をもたらした。注目すべきことは,こうした非合法入国者が,60年代以降に移住してきた集落をベースとして,ラジャン川最上流域での就労活動を展開しており,国境を越える新たな人的ネットワーク形成しているという点である。しかし,そうしたネットワークの形成は,サラワクの木材伐採企業の動きや両政府の雇用政策に大きく依存しており,クニャ人の就労の地域的・内容的な多様性は失われている。こうしたことから,越境移動と地域変化を見る場合に,従来の国境形成とエスニック・アイデンティティとの関係についての議論に加えて,政府の雇用政策や企業の動向が人的移動にもらたす影響をも視野に入れた考察を行う必要があると指摘できる。

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Project Narrative During this grant period, we will develop and use the tools of computational chemistry to design novel enzymes. Our emphasis will be to demonstrate that we can do what has never been done before: design a functioning enzyme from scratch, starting with ideas about a catalytic site and ending with a fully functioning enzyme for a non-natural reaction. The initial target reactions will be of use in the synthesis of pharmaceutical targets and for the decomposition of a broad class of compounds utilized as pesticides and herbicides.


Network Dysfunction and Neuromodulation following TBI

Narrative The proposed research is relevant to public health, because although memory dysfunction is a frequent and persistent symptom of traumatic brain injury (TBI), there are currently no effective treatments available for this persistent deficit. In addition, the neurophysiological basis of these deficits remains unknown, making rational treatment design difficult. The project is relevant to the NINDS mission because knowledge of why TBI induced memory disorders persist, and how neuromodulation alleviates them in animal models, will allow for clinical treatment development that will reduce the burden of these deficits.


PathOS aims to identify and quantify the Key Impact Pathways of Open Science relating to the research system and its interrelations with economic and societal actors. PathOS will enable a new understanding of OS impacts and their causal mechanisms through its workplan encompassing actions to synthesise and structure current evidence, development of new methods and tools for measuring impact, iterative pilot-testing via in-depth case studies, innovative dissemination and networking, and co-creation synthesis activities culminating in policy recommendations. This is pivotal in order to develop effective OS policy in the EU. It will do so by collecting concrete evidence of the causal effects of OS by studying the pathways of OS practices, from input to output, outcome and impact, including the consideration of enabling factors and key barriers. Impacts and pathways will be developed in particular in the three areas of science, society and economy. By investigating, measuring and comparing its costs and benefits together with its pathways, PathOS will (i) bring a better understanding of the implications of open science for science, economy and society, (ii) provide recommendations to policy makers and other actors in the RandI ecosystem as to how and to what extent open science should be promoted in a balanced way, and (iii) develop innovative tools and methods using a big data to augment traditional ones for studying the causal effects of open science. This will enable evidence-based Open Science policy prioritisation, maximum OS impact, and increased RandI capacity in EU research systems.

HORIZON EUROPE Reforming and enhancing the European Research and Innovation system


US - CH Nanoforum, Princeton, USA, with focus NanoBioSciences

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


Mathematical Sciences:  Percolative Models

9618128  Zhang    The project concentrates on percolation theory, a  mathematical theory  used to   describe  transitions of physical systems. Percolation theory has a variety of applications to   solid physics, biology, computer science, and geology. A percolation process typically   depends on one or more parameters. A dramatic change in physical properties may occur   as a critical parameter value is passed. The research will focus on  the behavior of   percolative models in the following three areas:  percolation near, above and below the   critical thresholds. In particular, the project will investigate mathematically rigorous exact   solutions for the percolative models. The research makes use of probability theory (the   moment estimations, the ergodic theory, correlation and martingale inequalities and   stochastic ordering), graph theory (duality, the fractal dimension), combinatorics (partition   lattices, distributive lattices), and function analysis (the real analyticity). The project will   use these mathematical tools to advance our rigorous understanding of critical   phenomena.   The project concentrates on percolation, a mathematical model used to describe   transitions of physical systems. Percolation theory has a variety of applications to solid   physics, biology, computer science, and geology. A percolation process typically depends   on one or more parameters. A dramatic change in physical properties may occur as a   critical parameter value is passed. For example, suppose we immerse a large porous solid   in a bucket water. Clearly, how water penetrates the solid depends on the size of the pores    of the solid. A simple mathematical model of such a process is  defined by taking the pores   to be distributed in some regular manner, and to be open or closed with probabilities p or   1-p. There is a critical threshold, for the probability p at which the behavior changes   abruptly. For values of p below the critical value the water penetration is only superficial   and above  it the penetration is arbitrarily deep. The specific behavior near the critical   threshold is more complicated. One of the most challenging problems is to give a   mathematical description of deep penetration near the critical threshold. The research will   focus on three areas: the behaviors of percolation near the critical threshold, above the   critical threshold and below the critical threshold. In particular, the project will investigate   mathematically rigorous exact solutions for the percolation process. The research makes   use of probability theory, graph theory, combinatorics and function analysis. The project   will use these mathematical tools to advance our rigorous understanding of critical   phenomena.

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs


Architecture Design Method for Multi-processor SoC

This research proposed a new exploration method for Multi-Processor SoC architecture and task assignment optimization method, and implemented these methods as prototype design tools. Experimental results show that the proposed method can find solutions that are same quality as the optimal solutions in short time


Role of Oxidants & Angiogenesis in Kaposi's Sarcoma


EVOLUTION OF PRIMITIVE PLANETARY MATERIALS IN THE PROTOPLANETARY DISK: THROUGH A VARIETY OF IN SITU ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES - WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE

National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Neuro-immune-metabolic interactions mediated by axon guidance cues

申請者はこれまでに神経ガイダンス因子であるセマフォリン分子群が免疫代謝を制御することを明らかにしている。さらに、セマフォリン分子群が骨髄内における神経-免疫-代謝連関に寄与することを示唆するデータを得ている。本研究においては、骨髄、脂肪組織をはじめとする各組織における神経-免疫-代謝連関へのセマフォリン分子群の寄与を検討することで、「臓器レベル、生体レベルでの神経-免疫-代謝連関」という独自の概念を確立すると同時に、神経-免疫-代謝連関の破綻により生じる疾患の診断及び治療の確立に繋がる成果を目指す。

Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up


The role of macroH2A variants in cancer and senescence

Decreases in one form of a protein called macroH2A, a factor involved in regulating the activity of many of our genes, occurs in a variety of cancers, including endometrial, lung, cervical, testicular, colon, and urinary bladder cancer. This proposal seeks to explore both the causes that lead to the decrease of this factor and the effect this change has on cancer cell growth and survival. Given the ability of macroH2A to collaborate with a therapeutic target for several cancers, PARP-1, our studies on the expression and function of macroH2A will have important implications for more targeted use of PARP inhibitors in cancer treatment.


Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines


We intend to study the feasibility of an European cluster of nanoscience facilities, which will consist of 3-6 Centres closely attached to a number of selected Large Scale Facilities located within Europe (synchrotron radiation sources, neutron scattering sources, high power lasers including free electron lasers and high performance computing, etc). This cluster of nanoscience facilities will enable users to conduct fine analysis experiments and modelling at the nanoscale by offering access to state-of-the-art synthesis, nanofabrication and analysis to a wide research community. Hence, by providing innovative cutting edge preparation and characterization technologies to European scientists, this delocalized institution will raise the standards of nanoscience experiments in the European Research Area and allow full exploitation of the affiliated Large Scale Facilities. The NFFA design study will develop the Emerging Proposals, named NANOSCIENCE, in synergy with the ESFRI roadmap 2006. NFFA is a structuring project for the ERA that requires to be started with support by the EC under FP7, in order to reach the maturity to be validated as a potential RI by ESFRI. The NFFA Centres for users will share a common technical platform for advanced nanofabrication and characterization of nanostructures, complemented by specialised methods for synthesis of materials, specific analysis, computational methods of simulation, according to a coordinated science plan. The NFFA design study will analyse the full spectrum of Research infrastructures relevant for nanoscience that are currently in operation OR in the preparatory phase of FP7.


CYCLOPROPYL METABOLITES, ENZYMATIC INHIBITION/FORMATION


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada


Macrophage Expression of SPARC Contributes to Pressure-Overload Dependent Change in Collagen Content and Myocardial Stiffness

Relevance to Veterans Health Care: Strategies to improve treatments for chronic heart failure (CHF) is of significant value to our Veterans population. CHF has a designated Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) in the VA system to address ways to improve cardiovascular healthcare for Veterans suffering from CHF. If we can more completely determine the cellular mechanisms that cause changes in functional capacity and substrate vulnerability, more effective and comprehensive patient care management programs can be developed to limit the effects of aging and other co-morbidities, such as hypertension, on heart structure and function. Elucidation of cellular mechanisms that govern increases in cardiac collagen has the potential to improve strategies in this regard. These issues are especially important in our Veterans who are older, have a high incidence of hypertension, and have a disproportionately greater level of age-dependent functional limitations.


Collaborative Research: Correlations in neural dynamics and coding

Multi-electrode recording technology and voltage sensitive dyes allow researchers to probe the structure of correlated, stimulus-driven neural activity in groups of cells. However, the diversity of brain areas and stimuli make a complete sampling of these patterns and their effects impossible. Furthermore, the evidence of correlations in stimulus response is strong, yet its role in neural coding difficult to intuit. Therefore, a combined, predictive theory of correlation formation and impact is required. This challenge is approached in three stages. First, a general mathematical theory is developed that relates input correlations of a stochastic forcing to the output correlations of resultant spike trains. The underlying tools will be linear response, population density, and Monte-Carlo methods for the nonlinear stochastic differential equations of spiking neural circuits. Next, this theory is applied to a variety of neural models to quantify how neuron biophysics, morphology, and coupling influence input-output correlation transfer. Finally, information-theoretic analyses are performed to estimate the impact of spike train correlations on the encoding and propagation of sensory inputs in representative neural circuits. Throughout the project, the investigators will work with experimental collaborators to refine and test these predictions.

Understanding the mechanisms by which the nervous system represents and processes information is a fundamental challenge for mathematical biology. It has long been known that information is represented by the intensity of individual neurons' responses. However, new multi-neuron recording and brain imaging techniques are revealing that the information carried by neural tissue is much more (or much less) than the summed contributions of individual neurons. In other terms, the cooperative, correlated features of neural responses can be essential. This poses a pair of fundamental, but unresolved theoretical questions: What are the basic mechanisms by which correlated activity is generated and propagated through layers of neural tissue? What are the consequences for information processing in neuronal networks? The answers will, in stages, make predictions for ongoing neurobiological experiments. For instance, understanding the relation between correlations and neural coding stands to impact the design of neural prosthetics, which code motor and sensory signals via cortical, retinal, thalamic, and cochlear implants. From an alternative perspective, many neurological disorders, such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease, involve excessive correlation in neural tissue--describing the genesis of correlations and its negative impact on neural coding will aid in designing appropriate treatments that ultimately reduce correlation in the nervous system. Along the way, graduate students involved in this research will receive training in a highly interdisciplinary field, and will gain a broad perspective on mathematical neuroscience through regular visits between three research groups in different regions of the United States. The active involvement of the investigators in undergraduate research and course development will provide an opportunity to translate the questions addressed here into compelling educational topics on the cooperative activity in neural networks that will be accessible to a wide audience.


XI Encontro Nacional de Conforto no Ambiente Construído (XI ENCAC) e VII Encontro Latino Americano de Conforto no Ambiente Construído (VII ELACAC)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUC-CAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Civil


Cys-LT signaling in proliferation, cytokine production and PGD2 generation of MCs

This proposal seeks to determine how a common lipid mediator leukotriene E4 can regulate the activation of mast cells, an important cells mediating the inflammatory responses in response to allergens and infectious agents. Studying this could help us in better understanding and treatment strategies for asthma and other allergies.


IL-6シグナルに潜むネガティブフィードバック機構の炎症性骨・歯根吸収への応用

IL-6はサイトカインの一種であり,破骨細胞の分化に深く関与している。様々なシグナル伝達経路にはネガティブフィードバック機構が存在することが知られている。IL-6においても破骨細胞の分化を抑制する機構が潜んでいる可能性があると申請者らは考えている。そこで,IL-6のネガティブフィードバック機構をシグナル伝達経路の観点から明らかにすることを本研究の目的とした。平成18年度の研究目標は,破骨細胞前駆体におけるIL-6の効果について明らかにすることである。マウス骨髄から採取した破骨細胞前駆体をM-CSF+RANKLもしくはM-CSF+RANKL+IL-6の条件下で培養し,TRAP染色にて破骨細胞を染色し破骨細胞数を計測した。その結果,IL-6は破骨細胞への分化を強く抑制すること(1/4に減少)が明らかとなった。さらに,破骨細胞の分化段階について詳細に解析するために,破骨細胞分化マーカーの発現について検索を行った。TRAPおよびカルシトニンレセプターそしてカテプシンKといった初期および後期破骨細胞分化マーカーの発現は,いずれもIL-6を加えることによりほぼ完全に抑制された(TRAP:71%,カルシトニンレセプター:99%,カテプシンK:99%抑制)。さらにRANK下流のシグナル伝達分子NFkBおよびJNKそしてp38に対するIL-6の影響についての解析を行った。RAMKLがRANKに結合すると,これら3つのシグナル伝達経路が活性化されることが報告されているが,IL-6の刺激を加えるとp38の活性化には影響がなかったがIkBの分解およびJNKの活性化が抑制されることが明らかとなった。以上の解析結果から,IL-6は,破骨細胞前駆体においてRANKシグナルの活性化を抑制し,破骨細胞への分化を抑制することが明らかとなった。平成18年度の研究目標に対して十分な研究成果が得られたと考えている。

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Les cultures de traduction transnationales sous la reine Henriette Marie et le roi Charles Ier d'Angleterre (1625-1649): les traductions manuscrites et imprimées en Angleterre prémoderne

L’union du roi anglican Charles Ier avec la princesse catholique française Henriette Marie en 1625a contribué à diviser l’Angleterre en factions religieuses. L’intérêt de la reine pour la littérature dévotionnelle catholique et la culture française a forgé le marché anglais de la littérature traduite. D’autre part, les traducteurs ont su tirer parti du mécénat de la reine pour contourner la censure de la Star Chamber et rendre des textes catholiques interdits disponibles aux lecteurs anglais. Les fonctions des traductions imprimées et la dissémination de la littérature étrangère en Angleterre prémoderne ont fait l’objet de nombreuses études à la suite de la création de catalogues de traductions imprimées tels le « Renaissance Cultural Crossroads » et le « Cultural Crosscurrents in Stuart and Commonwealth Britain ». Il est tentant de croire que la révolution déclenchée par l’invention de la presse à imprimer a mené à l’abandon de l’écriture comme mode de dissémination de la littérature, mais de nombreuses études ont prouvé la coexistence des manuscrits et des livres imprimés en Europe à la Renaissance. Ce projet a pour but de mettre en lumière l’impact des traductions manuscrites et imprimées dans le mouvement transnational de la littérature entre l’Angleterre prémoderne et la France. Pour ce faire, je créerai une base de données en libre accès dans laquelle je recenserai les traductions manuscrites produites pendant le règne de Charles Ier (1625-1649) qui sont conservées en ligne et dans des archives de livres rares au Canada et à l’étranger. En analysant ces textes conjointement avec des données sur les traductions imprimées à la même période, je mettrai en valeur la contribution des pratiques manuscrites à une époque où la culture de l’imprimé semblait dominer le marché du livre européen. Je serai en mesure de fournir des précisions sur les divers rôles des agents qui participaient à la production et à la circulation des livres traduits (mécènes, auteurs, traducteurs, censeurs, imprimeurs, marchands de livres, lecteurs), leurs pratiques, et les réseaux dans lesquels ils opéraient. Ma base de données et mes publications contribueront aux recherches visant à améliorer notre compréhension des échanges textuels transnationaux en Europe prémoderne.


MACHINE LEARNING AND PARALLEL COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY


OPTIMIZING AND PERSONALIZING INTERVENTIONS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA ACROSS THE LIFESPAN (OPAL)

PROJECT NARRATIVE - OVERALL The target population for this ALACRITY Center is individuals affected by schizophrenia or related disorders, who are at risk for poor outcomes including disability, premature mortality, homelessness, and incarceration. However, many effective treatments for schizophrenia have been developed. The goal of this Center is to develop and test ways to improve access to and engagement with personalized interventions that are effective.

NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC


EVALUATION OF LOADS AND STRUCTURAL RESISTANCES IN THE LIMIT STATE DESIGN

In the development of practical aspects of the limit state design, quite a few problems for the load and the structural resistance are to be solved. In this study, (1) the evaluation of limit state for members in steel structure, (2) the dynamic response for both the earthquake and the strong wind, (3) the load combination model are focused to be investigated.The limit state in terms of local buckling and Euler buckling is evaluated with aids of existing experimental results, which are also rearranged in a form of data base with slenderness ratio and width-thickness ratio as major parameters. Such efforts should be continued further for effective uses of the limit state design.Wing response studies are conducted by establishing an analytical model for the sway-torsional vibration. Simulated wing load fluctuations with a specified correlation are used for numerical response analyzes. Seismic response studies consist of two parts, one is the analysis of recorded responses of scaled structure to reveal the collapse process of steel structure and the other is the statistical evaluation of structural behavior for high rise buildings to compute the seismic safety in terms of the second moment reliability.The load combination model is one of important parts of the limit state design. Level crossing rate approaches are developed for combinations of time varying loads, then load factors are numerically obtained as a proposed model. The summation of log-normal random variables is treated to provide a simple load combination example.Finally the definition of limit state design is discussed to increase the rationality of further development. A few future problems are also summarized with an emphasis on the improvement of the probabilistic model of load and the theoretical basis for the target reliability.

Grant-in-Aid for Co-operative Research (A)

Dept.of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo


Encoding social arousal within prepronociceptin circuits in the extended amygdala

PROJECT NARRATIVE In our daily lives, we rely on our brains’ ability to recognize social stimuli as safe or threatening in order to approach or avoid them. Our research will reveal key components of the complex neurocircuitry that is necessary to regulate social arousal, ultimately leading to discoveries that define the relationship between arousal and behavior, as well as pinpoint circuit mechanisms that can be targeted to develop better treatments for those suffering from disorders defined by maladaptive social behaviors.


CARBOHYDRATE STRUCTURE AND IMMUNE FUNCTION


Project narrative The requested nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer will provide essential analytical capabilities for 150+ scientists at Northeastern University conducting NIH-supported research, which provides public health benefits including discovery of new anticancer drugs, nanotechnology for targeted drug delivery and tissue engineering, treatments for malaria and neglected global diseases like sleeping sickness, non-addictive medications for chronic pain, and treatments for addiction to cocaine or methamphetamine.


Stochastic approximations and differential inclusions: Applications to evolutionary processes

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Institution abroad - United States of America


THE STUDY OF EMOTIONAL PROCESSES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA


Assembly and ultrastructure of septins, from the molecule to the cell

Septins are cytoskeletal proteins that assemble into filamentous structures at the inner cell membrane. They were originally discovered in budding yeast as cell division cycle mutants and are indeed involved in cytokinesis, the last step of cell division. In higher eukaryotes, septins are also involved in cytokinesis as well as in many other cellular functions such as cellularization in Drosophila embryos. Septins are linked to human neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer and also tumorogenesis. Compared to other cytoskeletal components like actin, septins display a highly variable ultra-structural organization. I previously performed pioneering studies to describe the molecular and supramolecular 3D architecture of budding yeast septins in vitro and in situ by electron microscopy (EM). The budding yeast mitotic septin complex associated into a minimal linear and symmetric octameric complex that can further assemble into non polar filaments. Model biomembranes were key tools to demonstrate that the supramolecular organizations of septins are is driven by interaction of septins with a specific lipid, PI(4,5)P2. I also showed that septins in situ organize into an orthogonal network of filaments, close to the inner cell membrane. The goal of this project is to reveal the universal features required for the assembly and ultrastructure of septin filaments and higher-order structures, which govern the biological function of this unconventional type of cytoskeletal filament. To this end, our investigations will be using two distinct model systems: budding yeast S. cerevisiae and drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila septins subunits differ from yeast septins in number and composition, their structural organizations are not yet characterized and our preliminary result revealed that their assembly into filaments differs from that of budding yeast. We will pursue three specific aims: - Understand the role of the different architectures of septins in membrane remodeling and lipid domain reorganization. This aim involves the complete description of the ultrastructure of drosophila septins. We will notably correlate the formation of various architectures of septins to the changes of the morphology of different model biomembranes, namely lipid monolayer and large and giant unilamellar vesicles, representative of different states of membrane remodeling. - Analyze the dynamical assembly of septins on membranes and its consequence for building a diffusion barrier for sequestering membrane bound and transmembrane proteins. - Describe the 3D organization of septins in situ within mitotic budding yeasts and cellularizing Drosophila embryos to reveal the common and different structural parameters involved in the function of septin in cytokinesis and in cellularization. A complementary combination of cutting edge methods will be used (cryo-EM, tomography, image analysis electron tomography, (high-speed) Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), super-resolution optical fluorescence microscopy) in a multi-scale study going from the molecule to the cell. This project will profit from the synergy of the extensive expertise of A. Bertin on the variable and dynamical organizations of budding yeast septins and of collaborators of the Curie Institute Daniel Levy, expert of the structural analysis of transmembrane proteins by electron microscopy and of biomimetic membrane models and the facilities of the Curie Institute (Electron microscopy, photonic microscopy). The project will further benefit from external collaborations (P.EM. Milhiet, Atomic Force microscopy; M. Mavrakis, septins in drosophila development; G. Koenderink, biophysics of septins). Altogether these studies will be invaluable to understand the mechanisms of formation of septin networks leading to cell membrane reorganization during cell division.


COMPREHENSIVE GEOCHARACTERIZATION OF SANTEE FORMATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGINEERING BEHAVIIOR AT SRS

MISCELLANEOUS FEDERAL ASSISTANCE ACTIONS


REGULATION OF INSULIN SECRETION BY TARGETING PKA AND CAN


ION CHANNELS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF CORTICAL NEURONS


SEDarc Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2024 - Victoria Lister

The aims of this fellowship are to develop and extend the impact of the fellow's PhD research on voyeurism through (1) disseminating findings to key stakeholders, policymakers, and practitioners, and (2) building networks of national and international collaborators. This fellowship will provide the fellow with an opportunity to (3) produce numerous PhD-related publications, and (4) learn new research methodologies to support the development of a post-doctoral fellowship funding application. Fulfilment of these aims will enable the fellow to strengthen and extend their network of professional contacts internationally, improve research skills and understanding of user organisations, and establish a strong research track record for success.

To achieve aims 1 and 2, a free-to-attend one-day impact and engagement event will be organised, inviting multidisciplinary professionals whose work intersects with voyeurism (i.e., academics, policymakers, and practitioners). At this event, the fellow will provide a keynote lecture about voyeurism and the concerns around its definition as highlighted by her PhD research. Breakout sessions with additional invited speakers and networking sessions will be facilitated where delegates will engage in a World Café event regarding contemporary issues surrounding voyeurism. This impact event will reframe how professionals in the field view and define voyeurism—using findings from the fellow's thesis—to kickstart conversations relevant to policy and practice.

The fellow will also attend and present at two conferences: the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abuse annual conference (UK) and the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders bi-annual conference (Poland). Both conferences are renowned in the field of sexual offending and attract delegates globally including academics, practitioners, and policymakers. These conferences will be used to disseminate the fellow's findings among a diverse audience, allowing opportunities to build networks of global collaborators.

To achieve aim 3, publications from the fellow's PhD will be submitted during the fellowship: (1) the final empirical study of the fellow's PhD thesis highlighting key characteristics associated with voyeurism will be revised for publication, and (2) the general discussion from the fellow's PhD thesis will be developed and written up as a commentary paper for a high impact journal. This is likely to be a pivotal publication for the field; highlighting concerns about the definition of voyeurism and the discrepancies between how it is viewed and reported on by academics, practitioners, and in legislation.

To achieve aim 4, the fellow will visit the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science (CFBS) at Swinburne University of Technology for four weeks. During this visit, the fellow will hold a dissemination event for academics, policymakers, and practitioners in Australia and New Zealand where the fellow's findings will be presented. This will ensure dissemination of the findings beyond Europe (aim 1) and international network development for future collaboration (aim 2). The fellow will also learn new research methodologies, such as case and court file reviews and data linkage approaches, in which the CFBS has extensive expertise. Such methodologies are specifically applicable to less commonly occurring offences, such as voyeurism, and will be extremely valuable for the fellow's future research. This research visit will also allow the fellow to scope out the possibility of qualitative research in Australia in the future. Utilising the skills and techniques learnt, the fellow will develop a strong research proposal, identify post-doctoral funding, and prepare applications for these to kickstart a career in academia.


INFLUENCE OF AGE ON LEFT VENTRICULAR DIASTOLIC FUNCTION


MECHANISMS OF ACTION OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS


骨腫瘍に伴う骨膜反応のIP法による形態画像診断と機能解析

Principal Investigator：山根 良, Project Period (FY)：1992, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (A), Research Field：外科・放射線系歯学

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science


Prolactin Regulates the Uterine response to Progesterone

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIS CENTER


Recherche en géométrie algorithmique et stabilité des sols: caractériser les fractures à l'aide de méthode géométriques


No summary - Aucun sommaire

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Industrial Undergraduate Student Research Awards


RI: Small: Exploiting Global Structure in Robot Decision Problems

Some decision problems, like loading a dishwasher or assembling furniture, require explicit planning about a sequence of steps, while others, like grasping an object or swerving to avoid a stopped car, can be performed largely through learned reflexes. In robotics, it is still poorly understood why some problems require planning and why others can be solved via reflex. This project explores how techniques from topology, a branch of mathematics, can be applied to study the fundamental nature of robot decision problems. By developing algorithms that apply topology to optimize, analyze, and visualize large datasets of robot motions, the researchers hope to better understand the gray area between planning and learning. Ultimately, this better understanding could help other engineers develop more responsive, capable, and robust robot behaviors.

The technical goal of this research is to analyze the mathematical relation connecting robot decision problems to their solutions in order to shed light on fundamental questions surrounding the connection between motion planning and control learning. Breaking from the classical planning paradigm of developing an algorithm that solves individual problem queries, the project studies the global topological characteristics of continuous variations of related problem instances. Specifically, it investigates how certain features of topological complexity relate to the performance of learning and planning algorithms. Based on this understanding, new algorithms, topological metrics, and visualization techniques are developed to help exploit topological structure for faster planning and more accurate learning. The proposed methods are evaluated on benchmark problems in redundant inverse kinematics, legged robots, and agile autonomous vehicles.

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.


遺跡より出土するヒスイ玉の非破壊化学分析による産地同定と、交易ルートの推察

Principal Investigator：合地 信生, Project Period (FY)：2000, Research Category：Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (B), Research Field：地学


透析見合わせを選択した高齢者を看取った家族の経験

透析治療に関わる意思決定は患者の意思を尊重するため、共有意思決定（Shared decision making 以下SDM）が着目されているが、透析治療を受ける患者の多くは高齢者であり意思決定においては家族が関与している。しかし、SDMにおいては、家族支援は患者支援に内包され、患者の意思を確認できない時に代理意思決定を行う家族に対する支援方法は明らかにされていない。更に現在の透析見合わせを含む終末期における意思決定支援が患者の意思を尊重したものであるかを患者側から評価するアウトカム指標も明らかとなっていない。そのため、本研究は透析の見合わせを選択した高齢者を看取った家族の経験を明らかにする。


非平衡状態における抗コリンエステラーゼ薬の作用の検討

【背景】抗コリンエステラーゼ薬(抗ChE薬)は非脱分極性筋弛緩薬のリバースの目的で用いられる。エドロフォニウム(Ed)とネオスチグミン(Neo)がよく用いられるが、この2種の薬物で、その抗ChE作用の強さと筋弛緩リバースの効果に差があることが知られている。通常、抗ChE作用は基質の濃度がほぼ一定の平衡状態で測定される。しかし、運動神経終板においてはアセチルコリン(ACh)の存在時間は1ミリ秒あるいはそれ以下と考えられ、このように基質の濃度が急速に変化する状況では、そこでの反応は平衡状態での反応と異なることが予想される。今回の実験では、ACh濃度が急速に変化する条件で抗ChE作用の強さを測定し、従来の結果と比較した。【方法】ChE活性の測定はエルマン法を用いた。アセチルチオコリン(ATCh)とDTNBを含む燐酸緩衝液(A液)と、種々の濃度のEdまたはNeoを含む赤血球ゴ-スト(B液)を、ストップトフロー装置(RX.2000、Applied Photophysics)を用いて急速混和し、反応を開始させた。ATChの分解によって生じるチオコリン濃度を分光光度計(日本分光、Ubest-55)で測定し、反応開始直後とその後の平衡状態でのChE活性の変化を検討した。【結果および考察】ストップトフロー法でも、通常のエルマン法による測定と同様の結果が得られた。反応開始直後においても、その後の平衡状態においても、ChE活性に変化は認められなかった。また、これはEdまたはNeoの存在下においても同様であった。これらの結果は今回の研究の作業仮定を否定するものであるが、今回使用した分光光度計の時間解像度は最高でも50msecであり、このため高速な変化を十分捉えられなかった可能性もある。今後、時間解像度のさらに優れた装置を用いて実験を継続する予定である。


TESTOSTERONE EFFECTS ON GONADOTROPINS AND LIPIDS IN MEN


地域の遺伝性乳癌卵巣癌症候群の診療体制構築を目指して

近年の乳癌診療の中で最も注目されているのが、BRCA遺伝学的検査結果を加味した治療である。ある一定の条件を満たす乳癌患者は、周術期にBRCA遺伝学的検査を受検し、遺伝性乳癌卵巣癌症候群（HBOC：Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer）と診断されるか否かにより、術式や薬物療法などの治療方針が大きく変わる時代が訪れている。しかしその発展の一方で、乳癌治療を行っている小規模施設の中には、遺伝診療に不慣れで、急速な治療方針の転換に乗り遅れている施設も存在する。そのため地域のHBOC診療ネットワークを構築改善していくことを目的とし、本研究を立案した。

Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists


Isotopes and Concerted Reaction Mechanisms


Italienische und deutsche Architektur-Zeichnungen 16. und 17. Jahrhundert

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


DERMAL ABSORPTION FROM SOILS--EVALUATION AND PREDICTION


Training Grant in Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

NARRATIVE More pediatric physician scientists are needed to define the pathophysiology of Pediatric Endocrine disease and to allow for the development of new treatments. Our program is one of approximately a dozen T32 grants devoted solely to Pediatric Endocrinology, and although relatively young, our graduates have begun to fill voids and assume academic leadership roles in pediatric endocrinology. This has allowed for a better understanding of and ultimate cure for disorders targeted as national public health priorities, including pediatric diabetes and obesity.


Investigations Targeting Symptomatic Relief to Botulinum Neurotoxin A Intoxicatio

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) are the etiological agents responsible for botulism, are the most toxic proteins known to man and are potential bioterrorist weapons. To date there are no current interventions that can reverse the effects of BoNT intoxication once inside the cell. Our goals are to uncover small molecules that can act within an intoxicated cell to provide symptomatic relief to BoNT/A.


Basic and Clinical Studies of Noise-Induced and Age-Related Hearing Loss