Numerical simulation of steady inspiratory flow through a multiply branched model of the human central airways

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

VISION OF EQUINOX FOR ORCHESTRA

The artistic play of light seen on a pyramid in some Mayan ruins located in Cancun, Mexico provided the inspiration for Vision of Equinox. On both the spring and autumn equinox days, the sunlight projected on the pyramid forms a shape which looks like a serpent moving on the stairway of the pyramid. Vision of Equinox was composed with an image of light as the model for the artistic transfiguration of sound. The light image of sound changes its shape in each stage of the piece, using the orchestra in different ways - sometimes like a chamber ensemble, sometimes like one big instrument. The image of light casting on a pyramid is expressed by descending melodic lines that can be heard several times in the piece. At the final climax of the work, a complete and embodied artistic figure is formed and stated, expressing the appearance of the Mayan god Quetzalcoatl, the serpent, in my own imagination. The light and shadow which comprise this pyramid art are treated as two contrasting elements in my composition and become the two main motives in this piece. To express these two contrasting elements, I picked the numbers "5" and "2," and used them as "key numbers" in this piece. As a result, the intervals of a fifth and a second (sometimes inverted as a seventh) are the two main intervals used in the structure. The interval of a fifth was taken into account for the construction of the pyramid, which has five points of contact. The interval of a second was selected as a contrasting sonority to the fifth. Further, the numbers "5" and "2" are used as the number of notes which form the main motives in this piece; quintuplets are used throughout this piece, and the short motive made by two sixteenth notes is used as one of the main motives in this piece. Moreover, the shape of the pyramid provided a concept of symmetry, which is expressed by the setting of a central point of the music (pitch center) as well as the use of retrograde and inversion in this piece.

Folate regulation of axonal regeneration in the rodent central nervous system through DNA methylation.

The folate pathway plays a crucial role in the regeneration and repair of the adult CNS after injury. Here, we have shown in rodents that such repair occurs at least in part through DNA methylation. In animals with combined spinal cord and sciatic nerve injury, folate-mediated CNS axon regeneration was found to depend on injury-related induction of the high-affinity folate receptor 1 (Folr1). The activity of folate was dependent on its activation by the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (Dhfr) and a functional methylation cycle. The effect of folate on the regeneration of afferent spinal neurons was biphasic and dose dependent and correlated closely over its dose range with global and gene-specific DNA methylation and with expression of both the folate receptor Folr1 and the de novo DNA methyltransferases. These data implicate an epigenetic mechanism in CNS repair. Folic acid and possibly other nontoxic dietary methyl donors may therefore be useful in clinical interventions to promote brain and spinal cord healing. If indeed the benefit of folate is mediated by epigenetic mechanisms that promote endogenous axonal regeneration, this provides possible avenues for new pharmacologic approaches to treating CNS injuries.

Impact of simian immunodeficiency virus infection on chimpanzee population dynamics.

Like human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), simian immunodeficiency virus of chimpanzees (SIVcpz) can cause CD4+ T cell loss and premature death. Here, we used molecular surveillance tools and mathematical modeling to estimate the impact of SIVcpz infection on chimpanzee population dynamics. Habituated (Mitumba and Kasekela) and non-habituated (Kalande) chimpanzees were studied in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Ape population sizes were determined from demographic records (Mitumba and Kasekela) or individual sightings and genotyping (Kalande), while SIVcpz prevalence rates were monitored using non-invasive methods. Between 2002-2009, the Mitumba and Kasekela communities experienced mean annual growth rates of 1.9% and 2.4%, respectively, while Kalande chimpanzees suffered a significant decline, with a mean growth rate of -6.5% to -7.4%, depending on population estimates. A rapid decline in Kalande was first noted in the 1990s and originally attributed to poaching and reduced food sources. However, between 2002-2009, we found a mean SIVcpz prevalence in Kalande of 46.1%, which was almost four times higher than the prevalence in Mitumba (12.7%) and Kasekela (12.1%). To explore whether SIVcpz contributed to the Kalande decline, we used empirically determined SIVcpz transmission probabilities as well as chimpanzee mortality, mating and migration data to model the effect of viral pathogenicity on chimpanzee population growth. Deterministic calculations indicated that a prevalence of greater than 3.4% would result in negative growth and eventual population extinction, even using conservative mortality estimates. However, stochastic models revealed that in representative populations, SIVcpz, and not its host species, frequently went extinct. High SIVcpz transmission probability and excess mortality reduced population persistence, while intercommunity migration often rescued infected communities, even when immigrating females had a chance of being SIVcpz infected. Together, these results suggest that the decline of the Kalande community was caused, at least in part, by high levels of SIVcpz infection. However, population extinction is not an inevitable consequence of SIVcpz infection, but depends on additional variables, such as migration, that promote survival. These findings are consistent with the uneven distribution of SIVcpz throughout central Africa and explain how chimpanzees in Gombe and elsewhere can be at equipoise with this pathogen.

Improving the use of asset-building financial services by Latino immigrants in Langley Park, Maryland

Gemstone Team ANSWER Poverty (Assessing the Need for Services Which Effectively Reduce Poverty)

A study of the benefits of retrofitting cardiovascular exercise equipment of a gym with human energy harvesting technology

Gemstone Team HEAT (Human Energy Acquisition Technology)

"It is Quietly Chaotic. It Confuses Time"*: Final Report of Excavations at the Bordley-Randall Site in Annapolis, Maryland, 1993-1995 (18AP50)

*This extract is from Gay P. Crowther's description of the Randall Court pathway (Cowther 1985).

Crime in College Park: understanding crime levels, perceptions, and environmental design in an off-campus student-occupied neighborhood

Gemstone Team Crime Prevention and Perception

Visual Disobedience: The Geopolitics of Experimental Art in Central America, 1990-Present

This dissertation centers on the relationship between art and politics in postwar Central America as materialized in the specific issues of racial and gendered violence that derive from the region's geopolitical location and history. It argues that the decade of the 1990s marks a moment of change in the region's cultural infrastructure, both institutionally and conceptually, in which artists seek a new visual language of experimental art practices to articulate and conceptualize a critical understanding of place, experience and knowledge. It posits that visual and conceptual manifestations of violence in Central American performance, conceptual art and installation extend beyond a critique of the state, and beyond the scope of political parties in perpetuating violent circumstances in these countries. It argues that instead artists use experimental practices in art to locate manifestations of racial violence in an historical system of domination and as a legacy of colonialism still witnessed, lived, and learned by multiple subjectivities in the region. In this postwar period artists move beyond the cold-war rhetoric of the previous decades and instead root the current social and political injustices in what Aníbal Quijano calls the `coloniality of power.' Through an engagement of decolonial methodologies, this dissertation challenges the label "political art" in Central America and offers what I call "visual disobedience" as a response to the coloniality of seeing. I posit that visual colonization is yet another aspect of the coloniality of power and indispensable to projects of decolonization. It offers an analysis of various works to show how visual disobedience responds specifically to racial and gender violence and the equally violent colonization of visuality in Mesoamerica. Such geopolitical critiques through art unmask themes specific to life and identity in contemporary Central America, from indigenous genocide, femicide, transnational gangs, to mass imprisonments and a new wave of social cleansing. I propose that Central American artists--beyond an anti-colonial stance--are engaging in visual disobedience so as to construct decolonial epistemologies in art, through art, and as art as decolonial gestures for healing.

Sticky central limit theorems on open books

Given a probability distribution on an open book (a metric space obtained by gluing a disjoint union of copies of a half-space along their boundary hyperplanes), we define a precise concept of when the Fréchet mean (barycenter) is sticky. This nonclassical phenomenon is quantified by a law of large numbers (LLN) stating that the empirical mean eventually almost surely lies on the (codimension 1 and hence measure 0) spine that is the glued hyperplane, and a central limit theorem (CLT) stating that the limiting distribution is Gaussian and supported on the spine.We also state versions of the LLN and CLT for the cases where the mean is nonsticky (i.e., not lying on the spine) and partly sticky (i.e., is, on the spine but not sticky). © Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2013.

The liver kinase B1 is a central regulator of T cell development, activation, and metabolism.

T cell activation leads to engagement of cellular metabolic pathways necessary to support cell proliferation and function. However, our understanding of the signal transduction pathways that regulate metabolism and their impact on T cell function remains limited. The liver kinase B1 (LKB1) is a serine/threonine kinase that links cellular metabolism with cell growth and proliferation. In this study, we demonstrate that LKB1 is a critical regulator of T cell development, viability, activation, and metabolism. T cell-specific ablation of the gene that encodes LKB1 resulted in blocked thymocyte development and a reduction in peripheral T cells. LKB1-deficient T cells exhibited defects in cell proliferation and viability and altered glycolytic and lipid metabolism. Interestingly, loss of LKB1 promoted increased T cell activation and inflammatory cytokine production by both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) was decreased in LKB1-deficient T cells. AMPK was found to mediate a subset of LKB1 functions in T lymphocytes, as mice lacking the α1 subunit of AMPK displayed similar defects in T cell activation, metabolism, and inflammatory cytokine production, but normal T cell development and peripheral T cell homeostasis. LKB1- and AMPKα1-deficient T cells each displayed elevated mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 signaling and IFN-γ production that could be reversed by rapamycin treatment. Our data highlight a central role for LKB1 in T cell activation, viability, and metabolism and suggest that LKB1-AMPK signaling negatively regulates T cell effector function through regulation of mammalian target of rapamycin activity.

Selected Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) Esters may Provide Analgesia for Some Central Pain Conditions.

Central pain is an enigmatic, intractable condition, related to destruction of thalamic areas, resulting in likely loss of inhibitory synaptic transmission mediated by GABA. It is proposed that treatment of central pain, a localized process, may be treated by GABA supplementation, like Parkinson's disease and depression. At physiologic pH, GABA exists as a zwitterion that is poorly permeable to the blood brain barrier (BBB). Because the pH of the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) is acidic relative to the plasma, ion trapping may allow a GABA ester prodrug to accumulate and be hydrolyzed within the CSF. Previous investigations with ester local anesthetics may be applicable to some GABA esters since they are weak bases, hydrolyzed by esterases and cross the BBB. Potential non-toxic GABA esters are discussed. Many GABA esters were investigated in the 1980s and it is hoped that this paper may spark renewed interest in their development.

The Representation of Emotion in Autonomic and Central Nervous System Activity

Phenomenologically, humans effectively label and report feeling distinct emotions, yet the extent to which emotions are represented categorically in nervous system activity is controversial. Theoretical accounts differ in this regard, some positing distinct emotional experiences emerge from a dimensional representation (e.g., along axes of valence and arousal) whereas others propose emotions are natural categories, with dedicated neural bases and associated response profiles. This dissertation aims to empirically assess these theoretical accounts by examining how emotions are represented (either as disjoint categories or as points along continuous dimensions) in autonomic and central nervous system activity by integrating psychophysiological recording and functional neuroimaging with machine-learning based analytical methods. Results demonstrate that experientially, emotional events are well-characterized both along dimensional and categorical frameworks. Measures of central and peripheral responding discriminate among emotion categories, but are largely independent of valence and arousal. These findings suggest dimensional and categorical aspects of emotional experience are driven by separable neural substrates and demonstrate that emotional states can be objectively quantified on the basis of nervous system activity.

SCHUBERT’S WINTERREISE AND THE PIANO TRIO IN Eb; TWO REMARKABLE WORKS FROM ONE REMARKABLE YEAR – 1827: A RECORDING PROJECT

During Franz Schubert’s penultimate year of 1827, he produced two profoundly important and mature works that are the focus of this recording project. The works are, in chronological order: • Winterreise (cycle of 24 songs on the poetry of Wilhelm Müller, 1794-1827) • Piano Trio in Eb Major, Op. 100, D. 929 A unique feature of the project is to present Winterreise in two poetic orders: as traditionally performed and published by Schubert, and in the final ordering published by the poet. The program notes accompanying the dissertation’s three compact discs have extensive information as well as comparative tables of Müller’s and Schubert’s final ordering of the cycle. There are significant differences in ordering, and ultimately the listener will determine which is more dramatically satisfying. Dark melancholy is the central emotion in Winterreise, which Schubert composed at various times throughout 1827 in a mood of corresponding gloom and distress. By contrast, the summer and fall of that year produced, in quick succession, the two glowing and remarkable Piano Trios in Bb and Eb, the second of which is included on these compact discs. The contrast between the trios and Winterreise follows the outward circumstances of Schubert’s life and health, a pattern of sorrow and later consolation and elation. The sound recordings for this dissertation recording project are available on three compact discs that can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM). Winterreise was recorded in August 2009, at the University of Baltimore recital hall in Baltimore, Maryland with University of Maryland Professor François Loup. The trio, recorded in live performance in Baltimore in the spring of 2010, features two members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Qing Li, B.S.O. principal second violin, and Bo Li, B.S.O. section cellist.