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Through interviews with employees across all divisions of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), this paper provides practical guidelines for developing and offering K-12 and lifelong learning outreach activities related to advanced technologies. To find out more about NCSA outreach from the point of view of the providers, to capture their valuable experiences and to pass them on to others, the authors selected a sample of 16 employees across all NCSA divisions. They were interviewed individually in person, using a qualitative survey research instrument developed by Walker. The 16 employees were asked to focus on a specific outreach activity of their choice where they had active involvement (e.g., teaching, facilitation). They were then asked: (1) to describe the activity, its purpose and audience; (2) if it met intended results; (3) to describe any problems encountered; (4) what they learned from the experience; (5) advice they would give to others doing a similar activity; and (6) general observations on outreach and technology. This paper gives highlights of the outreach activities mentioned by the 16 persons, what they learned by doing them, their practical and candid advice to others wanting to do related outreach activities, and observations about future directions of technology for teaching and scientific endeavors.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it investigates the relationship between television, its audiences and Twitter around the creation of social TV events. Here it contributes to knowledge by charting usage in relation to different types of programmes and by comparing Twitter to Facebook data. Second, it evaluates the way in which student-led research can be used to conduct audience studies with the help of Twitter. Design/methodology/approach – The research applies a quantitative approach, measuring the volume of Twitter messages before, during and after two different types of television programmes, i.e. Reality TV (The X Factor and The Only Way is Essex) and sports broadcasts (football and Formula One). Brief comparisons are also drawn with data collected from Facebook. The pedagogical evaluation of the research is based on self-reflection by the author/tutor. Findings – The research established similar trends and patterns of viewer engagement for both types of television programming, with key activity during and towards the end of a broadcast which points to viewers using Twitter, or Facebook, while watching the event. The findings are compared to previous studies on television programmes and Twitter use. The study also identified that student research using Twitter can lead to a valuable learning experience as it allows students to use their own knowledge of social media to inform the research process. Originality/value – This research makes a contribution to the small yet growing body of studies examining Twitter activity in relation to TV events. It also contributes to knowledge on the educational use of social media by providing an account of how Twitter can be applied as a research tool by students.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), also termed matrixins, are known to affect atherosclerosis in many diverse ways.1–3 Apart from a role in the progression of atherosclerotic lesions, MMPs have also been involved in plaque destabilization and rupture and in the development of aneurysms. Despite intense research efforts during the last decade, it has been challenging to formulate a unifying model on the specific role of MMPs in atherosclerosis. In fact, mouse genetic studies have yielded controversial insights, highly dependent on genetic background, dietary regimen, and arterial site of analysis, whereas human genetic association studies do not prove causality of MMPs in atherosclerosis. Moreover, the lack of specific inhibitors precluded pharmacological dissection of the role of MMPs in vivo. There is thus a need for alternative strategies to decipher the MMP puzzle in atherosclerosis. In this issue of Circulation , Liang et al4 used a novel approach: They generated transgenic rabbits to study the role of MMP-12, also known as macrophage elastase, in atherosclerosis. Their results indicate that MMP-12 causes media destruction and pseudoaneurysm formation and, more surprisingly, accelerates plaque growth in an animal model that more closely resembles atherosclerosis in humans. Article p 1993 MMPs belong to one of the most ancient families of enzymes that arose in evolution soon after the first signs of life to regulate, in general, interactions of cells with the extracellular matrix (ECM). To cope with this formidable challenge, more than 65 structurally related MMPs developed in bacteria, plants, nematodes, fruit flies, sea urchins, and vertebrates. One of their key activities is breaking down ECM substrates in the basement membrane and interstitial matrix.1,2 As such, MMPs facilitate migration of macrophages and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in atherosclerotic plaques by degrading ECM barriers, exposing novel ECM adhesion sites, and relieving the binding between basement membrane …

Despite significant recent advances in decision theoretic frameworks for reasoning about multiagent teams, little attention has been paid to applying such frameworks in adversarial domains, where the agent team may face security threats from other agents. This paper focuses on domains where such threats are caused by unseen adversaries whose actions or payoffs are unknown. In such domains, action randomization is recognized as a key technique to deteriorate an adversary's capability to predict and exploit an agent/agent team's actions. Unfortunately, there are two key challenges in such randomization. First, randomization can reduce the expected reward (quality) of the agent team's plans, and thus we must provide some guarantees on such rewards. Second, randomization results in miscoordination in teams. While communication within an agent team can help in alleviating the miscoordination problem, communication is unavailable in many real domains or sometimes scarcely available. To address these challenges, this paper provides the following contributions. First, we recall the Multiagent Constrained MDP (MCMDP) framework that enables policy generation for a team of agents where each agent may have a limited or no(communication) resource. Second, since randomized policies generated directly for MCMDPs lead to miscoordination, we introduce a transformation algorithm that converts the MCMDP into a transformed MCMDP incorporating explicit communication and no communication actions. Third, we show that incorporating randomization results in a non-linear program and the unavailability/limited availability of communication results in addition of non-convex constraints to the non-linear program. Finally, we experimentally illustrate the benefits of our work.

Inpatient rotations remain a central component in residency training, particularly in specialties such as internal medicine. However, maintaining the quality of this important learning experience has become a challenge. Recent approaches to redesigning the inpatient rounding experience have included reductions in the number of admissions and in patient census, which may not be feasible or desirable for many programs. The authors designed and implemented an approach to inpatient teaching that maintained the standard patient volume. It had the following five goals: (1) enhance bedside clinical skills, (2) promote a culture of patient safety, (3) emphasize diagnostic reasoning, (4) engage patients, and (5) provide learners with an expanded perspective on patients' experiences of care. This redesign, called the Chiefs' Service (CS) program, was implemented in 2013. The CS team acted as the intervention group in a quasi-experimental design study evaluating and comparing their experiences and outcomes with those of the standard inpatient medical teams not using the CS model. Five key team activities, or elements, were developed, piloted, and refined with learner, attending, and patient feedback. Those elements were morning huddle, bedside rounds, diagnostic "time-outs," day-of-discharge rounds, and postdischarge follow-up rounds. A robust evaluation process is under way; initial impressions from attendings, learners, and patients have been positive. Several educational outcomes also are being measured and compared with those of the standard inpatient medical teams. Further evaluations will guide modifications to the CS program and direct plans for dissemination within the institution and to other institutions.

Semantic Web Services research has gained momentum over the last few Years and by now several realizations exist. They are being used in a number of industrial use-cases. Soon software developers will be expected to use this infrastructure to build their B2B applications requiring dynamic integration. However, there is still a lack of guidelines for the evaluation of tools developed to realize Semantic Web Services and applications built on top of them. In normal software engineering practice such guidelines can already be found for traditional component-based systems. Also some efforts are being made to build performance models for servicebased systems. Drawing on these related efforts in component-oriented and servicebased systems, we identified the need for a generic evaluation model for Semantic Web Services applicable to any realization. The generic evaluation model will help users and customers to orient their systems and solutions towards using Semantic Web Services. In this chapter, we have presented the requirements for the generic evaluation model for Semantic Web Services and further discussed the initial steps that we took to sketch such a model. Finally, we discuss related activities for evaluating semantic technologies.

BackgroundThere is significant interest in understanding the nature of the inflammatory response and its role in Alzheimers disease (AD) pathophysiology. Immune cell phenotypes and their key pathway activation by AD stage is unclear. We therefore evaluated immune cell phenotypes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and their transcriptional profile comparing AD‐dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)‐AD and normal cognition controls using transcriptomics.MethodWe characterized the gene expression profiles of immune cells in the CSF using both bulk RNA sequencing (RNAseq) and complementary single cell transcriptomics (scRNAseq). First, in a cross‐sectional cohort study, including 6 individuals with MCI‐AD meeting NIA/AA 2011 criteria and 9 amyloid negative controls with normal cognition, (mean age 68.75 years (SD 5.2), 58.8% Female), we identified significant pathways using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Next, using scRNAseq analysis on2 AD‐dementia, 2 MCI‐AD and 2 normal controls we further elucidated the gene expression level changes in distinct immune cells. After clustering into immune cell types, we assessed their activation by GSEA and Gene set variation analysis (GSVA).ResultRNAseq analysis identified 47 genes that were differentially expressed between MCI‐AD and normal control samples (adj‐p‐val<0.05). GSEA identified downregulation of antigen processing, interferon signaling pathways, and neutrophil degranulation (adj‐p‐val<0.05). Next, scRNAseq, analysis defined immune cells within each sample and identified altered pathways that were in each cell type. We observed that CD4+CD8+ T cells were highly represented in AD‐dementia (17%) and MCI‐AD(14%) but not in normal controls(11%) (p<0.00001). The immune cell types that differed by disease stage between AD‐dementia and MCI‐AD were monocytes; increasing disease severity was associated with a transition from more classical monocytes to intermediate and nonclassical monocytes. The key pathways associated with monocytes were IL6 JAK STAT3 signaling, particularly STAT3, which is involved in monocyte‐to‐macrophage differentiation and the transition of classic monocytes to other subsets. Additionally, the pathways include interferon gamma (IFNg) response and TNF signaling via NF‐kB, which play important roles in activating macrophages and monocytes and promoting differentiation.ConclusionOur data show enrichment in the proportion of CD4+CD8+ T cells and pathways related to monocyte differentiation that differ across AD stage.

Previous research on player profiles or types is based on players’ in-game behaviors and their motivations to play games. However, there are many other activities related to digital games beyond playing the games properly. Using learning analytics methods, the study investigates the prevalence and interconnections between these different metagame activities and classifies gamers based on their use thereof into distinct profiles. The results show that digital game–related information-seeking activities are key metagame activities with connections to other metagame activities. Three distinct profiles of players were identified based on their metagame activities: versatile metagamers, strategizers, and casual metagamers. The results contribute to the existing literature on metagaming and provide insights for game studies, game design and marketing, and digital games and learning.

Identifying the real talent at a rival company can help predict the competitor's future directions, as well as its likelihood for long-term success. Grand-sounding titles can often be misleading as to who exercises actual influence regarding particular functions. Aside from occupying offices with considerable formal authority, truly powerful individuals in a corporate setting are those who acquire important resources, “absorb uncertainty” for the organization, have high visibility in terms of public relations efforts and external media coverage, and make the employer dependent upon themselves for the successful completion of certain key activities. Internet web sites and online databases and are a good place to begin researching who these individuals are. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The reengineering and reverse engineering of software systems is gaining importance in software industry, because the accelerated turnover in software industry, because the accelerated turnover in software companies creates legacy systems in a shorter period of time. Especially understanding classes is a key activity in object-oriented programming, since classes represent the primary abstractions from which applications are built. The main problem of this task is to quickly grasp the purpose of a class and its inner structure. To help the reverse engineers in their first contact with a foreign system, we propose a categorization of classes based on the visualization of their internal structure. The contributions of this paper are a novel categorization of classes and a visualization of the which we call the class blueprint . We have validated the categorization on several case studies, two of which we present here.

Implications of Service-related Business Models on Product Development Processes

A comparison of fishing activities between two coastal communities within a biosphere reserve in the Upper Gulf of California

Introduction: Trauma code activation is initiated by emergency physicians using physiologic and anatomic criteria, mechanism of injury and patient demographic factors in conjunction with data obtained from emergency medical service personnel. This enables rapid definitive treatment of trauma patients. Our objective was to identify factors associated with delayed trauma team activation. Methods: We conducted a health records review to supplement data from a regional trauma center database. We assessed consecutive cases from the trauma database from January 2008 to March 2014 including all cases in which a trauma code was activated by an emergency physician. We defined a delay in trauma code activation as a time greater than 30 minutes from time to arrival to trauma team activation. Data were collected in Microsoft Excel and analyzed in Statistical Analysis System (SAS). We conducted univariate analysis for factors potentially influencing trauma team activation and we subsequently used multiple logistic regression analysis models for delayed activation in relation to mortality, length of stay and time to operative management. Results: 1020 patients were screened from which 174 patients were excluded, as they were seen directly by the trauma team. 846 patients were included for our analysis. 4.1% (35/846) of trauma codes were activated after 30 minutes. Mean age was 40.8 years in the early group versus 49.2 in the delayed group p=0.01. There was no significant difference in type of injury, injury severity or time from injury between the two groups. Patients were over 70 years in 7.6% in the early activation group vs 17.1% in the delayed group (p=0.04). 77.7% of the early group were male vs 71.4% in the delayed group (p=0.39). There was no significant difference in mortality (15.2% vs 11.4% p=0.10), median length of stay (10 days in both groups p=0.94) or median time to operative management (331 minutes vs 277 minutes p=0.52). Conclusion: Delayed activation is linked with increasing age with no clear link with increased mortality. Given the severe injuries in the delayed cohort which required activation of the trauma team further emphasis on the older trauma patient and interventions to recognize this vulnerable population should be made. When assessing elderly trauma patients emergency physicians should have a low threshold to activate trauma teams.

Malaria remains a global disease of public health concern. Malaria control collaborative initiatives are widely being adopted to reduce malaria burden by various countries. This review sought to describe current and past cross-border malaria control initiatives focusing on key activities, outcomes and challenges. An exhaustive search was conducted in Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and EBSCOhost using the following key words: cross-border malaria control, cross-border malaria elimination, bi-national malaria control and multinational malaria control, in combination with Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. Eleven studies satisfied the inclusion criteria for this review. The majority of collaborative initiatives have been formed within regional developmental and continental bodies with support from political leadership. The studies revealed that joint vector control, cases management, epidemiological data sharing along border regions as well as resource sharing and capacity building are some of the key collaborative initiatives being implemented globally. Collaborative initiatives have led to significant reduction in malaria burden and mortality. The majority of collaborative initiatives are underfunded and rely on donor support. We concluded that cross-border malaria collaborative initiatives have the capacity to reduce malaria burden and mortality along border regions; however, inadequate internal funding and over-reliance on donor funding remain the biggest threats to the survival of collaborative initiatives.

In modern systems, the operational capability of the system to the user needs is expanding rapidly to accommodate the size of the system, functionality, and interfaces are becoming increasingly complex. Accordingly, the systematic practice of project management and systems engineering in the system development process, as an important element in successful systems development is recognized. EIA/ANSI 632, ISO/IEC15288, the leading international standard for systems engineering and is the leading international standard on project management PMBOK. CMMI is also contains information about the activities of project management and systems engineering and worldwide basis to assess the maturity of an organization's ability to develop system being used. But CMMI model is too complex of structure and there are many overlap parts of contents. So there are many problems for members of organization understanding all of CMMI model, applying organization and, achieving improvement activity. In this study, through the analysis and integration between the model and the related standard coverage activities essential for successful systems development in organizations that require systems engineering and project management capabilities(SEPMC) for self-assessment and continuous improvement activities to provide useful reference guideline.