Knowledge integration within an applied mobile robot summer course

This paper presents the use of a mobile robot platform as an innovative educational tool in order to promote and integrate different curriculum knowledge. Hence, it is presented the acquired experience within a summer course named ldquoapplied mobile roboticsrdquo. The main aim of the course is to integrate different subjects as electronics, programming, architecture, perception systems, communications, control and trajectory planning by using the educational open mobile robot platform PRIM. The summer course is addressed to a wide range of student profiles. However, it is of special interests to the students of electrical and computer engineering around their final academic year. The summer course consists of the theoretical and laboratory sessions, related to the following topics: design & programming of electronic devices, modelling and control systems, trajectory planning and control, and computer vision systems. Therefore, the clues for achieving a renewed path of progress in robotics are the integration of several knowledgeable fields, such as computing, communications, and control sciences, in order to perform a higher level reasoning and use decision tools with strong theoretical base

Toward an integration of spirituality and religiousness into the psychosocial dimension of schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Spirituality and religiousness have been shown to be highly prevalent among patients with schizophrenia. However, clinicians are rarely aware of the importance of religion and understand little of the value or difficulties it presents to treatment. This study aimed to assess the role of religion as a mediating variable in the process of coping with psychotic illness. METHOD: Semistructured interviews about religious coping were conducted with a sample of 115 outpatients with psychotic illness. RESULTS: For some patients, religion instilled hope, purpose, and meaning in their lives (71%), whereas for others, it induced spiritual despair (14%). Patients also reported that religion lessened (54%) or increased (10%) psychotic and general symptoms. Religion was also reported to increase social integration (28%) or social isolation (3%). It may reduce (33%) or increase (10%) the risk of suicide attempts, reduce (14%) or increase (3%) substance use, and foster adherence to (16%) or be in opposition to (15%) psychiatric treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the clinical significance of religion in the care of patients with schizophrenia. Religion is neither a strictly personal matter nor a strictly cultural one. Spirituality should be integrated into the psychosocial dimension of care. Our results suggest that the complexity of the relationship between religion and illness requires a highly sensitive approach to each unique story.

Retroviral Integration Site Selection

The stable insertion of a copy of their genome into the host cell genome is an essential step of the life cycle of retroviruses. The site of viral DNA integration, mediated by the viral-encoded integrase enzyme, has important consequences for both the virus and the host cell. The analysis of retroviral integration site distribution was facilitated by the availability of the human genome sequence, revealing the non-random feature of integration site selection and identifying different favored and disfavored genomic locations for individual retroviruses. This review will summarize the current knowledge about retroviral differences in their integration site preferences as well as the mechanisms involved in this process.

Towards the integration of Metalib, SFX and PAPI: How to change your metasearcher transparently to the user

To guarantee the success of a virtual library is essential that all users can access all the library resources independently of the user's location.

Selective integration of auditory-visual looming cues by humans.

An object's motion relative to an observer can confer ethologically meaningful information. Approaching or looming stimuli can signal threats/collisions to be avoided or prey to be confronted, whereas receding stimuli can signal successful escape or failed pursuit. Using movement detection and subjective ratings, we investigated the multisensory integration of looming and receding auditory and visual information by humans. While prior research has demonstrated a perceptual bias for unisensory and more recently multisensory looming stimuli, none has investigated whether there is integration of looming signals between modalities. Our findings reveal selective integration of multisensory looming stimuli. Performance was significantly enhanced for looming stimuli over all other multisensory conditions. Contrasts with static multisensory conditions indicate that only multisensory looming stimuli resulted in facilitation beyond that induced by the sheer presence of auditory-visual stimuli. Controlling for variation in physical energy replicated the advantage for multisensory looming stimuli. Finally, only looming stimuli exhibited a negative linear relationship between enhancement indices for detection speed and for subjective ratings. Maximal detection speed was attained when motion perception was already robust under unisensory conditions. The preferential integration of multisensory looming stimuli highlights that complex ethologically salient stimuli likely require synergistic cooperation between existing principles of multisensory integration. A new conceptualization of the neurophysiologic mechanisms mediating real-world multisensory perceptions and action is therefore supported.

Increased audiovisual integration in cochlear-implanted deaf patients: independent components analysis of longitudinal positron emission tomography data.

It has been demonstrated in earlier studies that patients with a cochlear implant have increased abilities for audio-visual integration because the crude information transmitted by the cochlear implant requires the persistent use of the complementary speech information from the visual channel. The brain network for these abilities needs to be clarified. We used an independent components analysis (ICA) of the activation (H2 (15) O) positron emission tomography data to explore occipito-temporal brain activity in post-lingually deaf patients with unilaterally implanted cochlear implants at several months post-implantation (T1), shortly after implantation (T0) and in normal hearing controls. In between-group analysis, patients at T1 had greater blood flow in the left middle temporal cortex as compared with T0 and normal hearing controls. In within-group analysis, patients at T0 had a task-related ICA component in the visual cortex, and patients at T1 had one task-related ICA component in the left middle temporal cortex and the other in the visual cortex. The time courses of temporal and visual activities during the positron emission tomography examination at T1 were highly correlated, meaning that synchronized integrative activity occurred. The greater involvement of the visual cortex and its close coupling with the temporal cortex at T1 confirm the importance of audio-visual integration in more experienced cochlear implant subjects at the cortical level.

Interrogation of related clinical pan-azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus strains: G138C, Y431C, and G434C single nucleotide polymorphisms in cyp51A, upregulation of cyp51A, and integration and activation of transposon Atf1 in the cyp51A promoter.

Multiple Aspergillus fumigatus isolates from a patient with two aspergillomas complicating chronic pulmonary aspergillosis were pan-azole resistant. Microsatellite typing was identical for all isolates despite major phenotypic and some growth rate differences. Three different cyp51A mutations were found (G138C, Y431C, and G434C), of which the first two were demonstrated by heterologous expression in a hypersusceptible Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain to be at least partly responsible for elevated MICs. cyp51A and cyp51B gene duplication was excluded, but increased expression of cyp51A was demonstrated in three isolates selected for additional study (7-to 13-fold increases). In the isolate with the greatest cyp51A expression, an Aft1 transposon was found inserted 370 bp upstream of the start codon of the cyp51A gene, an integration location never previously demonstrated in Aspergillus. Two transcription start sites were identified at 49 and 136 bp upstream of the start codon. The role of the Aft1 transposon, if any, in modulating cyp51A expression remains to be established. Increased mRNA expression of the transporters AfuMDR1 and AfuMDR4 also was demonstrated in some isolates, which could contribute to azole resistance or simply represent a stress response. The diversity of confirmed and possible azole resistance mechanisms demonstrated in a single series of isogenic isolates is remarkable, indicating the ability of A. fumigatus to adapt in the clinical setting.

Combining MAR elements and transposable vectors for more reliable transgene integration and expression

Integration without cytotoxic effects and long-term expression of a transgene constitutes a major challenge in gene therapy and biotechnology applications. In this context, transposons represent an attractive system for gene transfer because of their ability to promote efficient integration of a transgene in a variety of cell lines. However, the transgene integration can lead to insertional mutagenesis and/or unstable transgene expression by epigenetic modifications. These unwanted events may be limited by the use of chromatin control elements called MARs (matrix attachment regions). Indeed, the insertion of these DNA elements next to the transgene usually results in higher and more stable expression by maintaining transgene chromatin in an active configuration and preventing gene silencing. In this study, we tested if the inclusion of the MAR 1-68 in the piggyBac transposon system may lead to efficient and safer transgene integration and ensure reliable stable and long-term expression of a transgene. The MAR-containing transposon construct was tested in CHO cells, for biotechnology applications, and in mesoangioblast cells that can differentiate into muscle cells and are important candidates for potential stem cell therapies of myopathies. We showed that the addition of the MAR 1 -68 in the piggyBac transposon did not interfere with transposition, thereby maintaining high frequency of transgene integrations in these cells. Moreover, the MAR allowed higher transgene expression from fewer transposon integration events. We also found that enriched transgene-expressing cell populations could be obtained without the need of selection pressure. Since antibiotic-enforced selection protocols often result in a higher integrated copy number and mosaic expression patterns, this strategy could benefit many applications in which a low copy number of integrated transgenes and antibiotic-free conditions are desired. In addition, the intramuscular transplantation of mouse tibialis anterior muscles with mesoangioblasts containing the transposon led to widespread and sustained myofiber transgene expression after differentiation of these cells in vivo. These findings indicated that piggyBac vectors may provide a viable approach to achieve stable gene transfer in the context of Duchenne muscular dystrophy therapy. - L'intégration sans effets cytotoxiques et l'expression à long terme d'un transgène constituent un défi majeur en thérapie génique et en biotechnologie. Dans ce contexte, les transposons représentent un système attrayant pour le transfert de gènes en raison de leur capacité à promouvoir l'intégration efficace d'un transgène dans une variété de lignées cellulaires. Toutefois, l'intégration d'un transgène peut conduire à une mutagénèse insertionnelle et/ou à une expression instable due au silençage du transgène suite à des modifications épigénétiques. Ces événements indésirables de silençage génique peuvent être diminués par l'utilisation d'éléments de contrôle de la chromatine appelés MAR (matrix attachment region). En effet, l'insertion de ces éléments d'ADN à proximité du transgène se traduit généralement par une expression plus élevée et plus stable de celui-ci, en permettant le maintien d'une chromatine dans une configuration active autour du transgène et en empêchant l'inactivation du gène. Dans cette étude, nous avons testé si l'inclusion du MAR 1-68 dans le système transposon piggyBac peut améliorer l'efficacité d'intégration de façon sécuritaire et l'expression à long terme d'un transgène. Le transposon contenant l'élément MAR a été testé dans les cellules CHO, couramment utilisées en biotechnologie, et dans des cellules progénitrices appelées mésoangioblastes, qui peuvent se différencier en cellules musculaires, et qui constituent ainsi des candidats prometteurs pour la thérapie à partir de cellules souches de patients souffrant de myopathie. Nous avons montré que l'addition du MAR 1-68 dans le transposon piggyBac n'interfère pas avec la transposition et permet de maintenir une fréquence élevée d'intégration du transgène dans ces deux types cellulaires. De plus, il semble que cette association mène à une meilleure expression du transgène à partir de peu d'événements d'intégration du transposon. En outre, ces populations enrichies en cellules exprimant de façon stable le transgène ont pu être obtenues sans avoir recours à une pression de sélection. Etant donné que les protocoles de sélection basée sur l'utilisation d'antibiotiques conduisent souvent à un nombre plus élevé de copies intégrées et à la variégation de l'expression du transgène et qu'ils impliquent une longue culture in vitro, cette stratégie pourrait profiter à des applications pour lesquelles on souhaite un faible nombre de copies intégrées et/ou l'utilisation d'antibiotiques n'est pas souhaitable. De plus, la transplantation intramusculaire de mésoangioblastes contenant le transposon dans le muscle tibial antérieur de souris a conduit, après la différentiation de ces cellules in vivo, à une expression constante et étendue du transgène dans les myofibres. Ces résultats indiquent que les vecteurs piggyBac pourraient fournir une approche viable pour assurer un transfert de gènes stables dans le contexte d'un traitement de la dystrophic musculaire de Duchenne.

Conditional and syllogistic deductive tasks dissociate functionally during premise integration.

Deduction allows us to draw consequences from previous knowledge. Deductive reasoning can be applied to several types of problem, for example, conditional, syllogistic, and relational. It has been assumed that the same cognitive operations underlie solutions to them all; however, this hypothesis remains to be tested empirically. We used event-related fMRI, in the same group of subjects, to compare reasoning-related activity associated with conditional and syllogistic deductive problems. Furthermore, we assessed reasoning-related activity for the two main stages of deduction, namely encoding of premises and their integration. Encoding syllogistic premises for reasoning was associated with activation of BA 44/45 more than encoding them for literal recall. During integration, left fronto-lateral cortex (BA 44/45, 6) and basal ganglia activated with both conditional and syllogistic reasoning. Besides that, integration of syllogistic problems additionally was associated with activation of left parietal (BA 7) and left ventro-lateral frontal cortex (BA 47). This difference suggests a dissociation between conditional and syllogistic reasoning at the integration stage. Our finding indicates that the integration of conditional and syllogistic reasoning is carried out by means of different, but partly overlapping, sets of anatomical regions and by inference, cognitive processes. The involvement of BA 44/45 during both encoding (syllogisms) and premise integration (syllogisms and conditionals) suggests a central role in deductive reasoning for syntactic manipulations and formal/linguistic representations.

Integrated Farm/Livestock Management Demonstration Program, 2002

Farm/Livestock Management Demonstration Program produced by Iowa Departmment of Agriculture and Land Stewardship