A Web 2.0 and OGC Standards Enabled Sensor Web Architecture for Global Earth Observing System of Systems

This paper will describe the progress of a 3 year research award from the NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) that began October 1, 2006, in response to a NASA Announcement of Research Opportunity on the topic of sensor webs. The key goal of this research is to prototype an interoperable sensor architecture that will enable interoperability between a heterogeneous set of space-based, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based and ground based sensors. Among the key capabilities being pursued is the ability to automatically discover and task the sensors via the Internet and to automatically discover and assemble the necessary science processing algorithms into workflows in order to transform the sensor data into valuable science products. Our first set of sensor web demonstrations will prototype science products useful in managing wildfires and will use such assets as the Earth Observing 1 spacecraft, managed out of NASA/GSFC, a UASbased instrument, managed out of Ames and some automated ground weather stations, managed by the Forest Service. Also, we are collaborating with some of the other ESTO awardees to expand this demonstration and create synergy between our research efforts. Finally, we are making use of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards and some Web 2.0 capabilities to Beverage emerging technologies and standards. This research will demonstrate and validate a path for rapid, low cost sensor integration, which is not tied to a particular system, and thus be able to absorb new assets in an easily evolvable, coordinated manner. This in turn will help to facilitate the United States contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), as agreed by the U.S. and 60 other countries at the third Earth Observation Summit held in February of 2005

DNA damage activates a complex transcriptional response in murine lymphocytes that includes both physiological and cancer-predisposition programs

BACKGROUND: Double strand (ds) DNA breaks are a form of DNA damage that can be generated from both genotoxic exposures and physiologic processes, can disrupt cellular functions and can be lethal if not repaired properly. Physiologic dsDNA breaks are generated in a variety of normal cellular functions, including the RAG endonuclease-mediated rearrangement of antigen receptor genes during the normal development of lymphocytes. We previously showed that physiologic breaks initiate lymphocyte development-specific transcriptional programs. Here we compare transcriptional responses to physiological DNA breaks with responses to genotoxic DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation. RESULTS: We identified a central lymphocyte-specific transcriptional response common to both physiologic and genotoxic breaks, which includes many lymphocyte developmental processes. Genotoxic damage causes robust alterations to pathways associated with B cell activation and increased proliferation, suggesting that genotoxic damage initiates not only the normal B cell maturation processes but also mimics activated B cell response to antigenic agents. Notably, changes including elevated levels of expression of Kras and mmu-miR-155 and the repression of Socs1 were observed following genotoxic damage, reflecting induction of a cancer-prone phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: Comparing these transcriptional responses provides a greater understanding of the mechanisms cells use in the differentiation between types of DNA damage and the potential consequences of different sources of damage. These results suggest genotoxic damage may induce a unique cancer-prone phenotype and processes mimicking activated B cell response to antigenic agents, as well as the normal B cell maturation processes

Sensor Webs with a Service-Oriented Architecture for On-demand Science Products

This paper describes the work being managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Information System Division (ISD) under a NASA Earth Science Technology Ofice (ESTO) Advanced Information System Technology (AIST) grant to develop a modular sensor web architecture which enables discovery of sensors and workflows that can create customized science via a high-level service-oriented architecture based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) web service standards. These capabilities serve as a prototype to a user-centric architecture for Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). This work builds and extends previous sensor web efforts conducted at NASA/GSFC using the Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) satellite and other low-earth orbiting satellites

Human AlkB Homolog ABH8 Is a tRNA Methyltransferase Required for Wobble Uridine Modification and DNA Damage Survival

tRNA nucleosides are extensively modified to ensure their proper function in translation. However, many of the enzymes responsible for tRNA modifications in mammals await identification. Here, we show that human AlkB homolog 8 (ABH8) catalyzes tRNA methylation to generate 5-methylcarboxymethyl uridine (mcm[superscript 5]U) at the wobble position of certain tRNAs, a critical anticodon loop modification linked to DNA damage survival. We find that ABH8 interacts specifically with tRNAs containing mcm5U and that purified ABH8 complexes methylate RNA in vitro. Significantly, ABH8 depletion in human cells reduces endogenous levels of mcm[superscript 5]U in RNA and increases cellular sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents. Moreover, DNA-damaging agents induce ABH8 expression in an ATM-dependent manner. These results expand the role of mammalian AlkB proteins beyond that of direct DNA repair and support a regulatory mechanism in the DNA damage response pathway involving modulation of tRNA modification.United States. National Institutes of Health (grant CA055042)United States. National Institutes of Health (grant ES002109)United States. National Institutes of Health (grant ES01701)National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Intramural Research ProgramWestaway Research FundNational Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (grant S10-RR023783

Space Station Freedom baseline operations concept

The Baseline Operations Concept is designed to support the multiflight-multistage assembly sequence and post-Permanent Manned Configuration (PMC) era for the Space Station Freedom (SSF). Initial implementation of procedures and systems are consistent with experience gained during the operation of the Shuttle and Spacelab

Bayesian Best-Arm Identification for Selecting Influenza Mitigation Strategies

Pandemic influenza has the epidemic potential to kill millions of people. While various preventive measures exist (i.a., vaccination and school closures), deciding on strategies that lead to their most effective and efficient use remains challenging. To this end, individual-based epidemiological models are essential to assist decision makers in determining the best strategy to curb epidemic spread. However, individual-based models are computationally intensive and it is therefore pivotal to identify the optimal strategy using a minimal amount of model evaluations. Additionally, as epidemiological modeling experiments need to be planned, a computational budget needs to be specified a priori. Consequently, we present a new sampling technique to optimize the evaluation of preventive strategies using fixed budget best-arm identification algorithms. We use epidemiological modeling theory to derive knowledge about the reward distribution which we exploit using Bayesian best-arm identification algorithms (i.e., Top-two Thompson sampling and BayesGap). We evaluate these algorithms in a realistic experimental setting and demonstrate that it is possible to identify the optimal strategy using only a limited number of model evaluations, i.e., 2-to-3 times faster compared to the uniform sampling method, the predominant technique used for epidemiological decision making in the literature. Finally, we contribute and evaluate a statistic for Top-two Thompson sampling to inform the decision makers about the confidence of an arm recommendation

Blood gene expression profiling of an early acetaminophen response

Acetaminophen can adversely affect the liver especially when overdosed. We used whole blood as a surrogate to identify genes as potential early indicators of an acetaminophen-induced response. In a clinical study, healthy human subjects were dosed daily with 4g of either acetaminophen or placebo pills for 7 days and evaluated over the course of 14 days. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels for responders to acetaminophen increased between days 4 and 9 after dosing and 12 genes were detected with expression profiles significantly altered within 24 hrs. The early responsive genes separated the subjects by class and dose period. In addition, the genes clustered patients who overdosed on acetaminophen apart from controls and also predicted the exposure classifications with 100% accuracy. The responsive genes serve as early indicators of an acetaminophen exposure and their gene expression profiles can potentially be evaluated as molecular indicators for further consideration

Arrhythmic risk prediction based on the analysis of ventricular repolarization markers from surface ECG

La dependencia de la duración del potencial de acción (APD, del inglés "Action Potential Duration") con el ritmo cardiaco (HR, del inglés "Heart Rate"), también conocida como cinética de restitución, es crítica a la hora de generar inestabilidades eléctricas en el corazón y proporciona información relevante en la estratificación del riesgo a sufrir arritmias ventriculares. La curva dinámica de restitución del APD (APDR, del inglés "APD restitution") cuantifica la relación entre el APD y el intervalo RR (inverso de HR) en condiciones estacionarias. Heterogeneidades en el ventrículo dan lugar a propiedades de la restitución no uniformes, haciendo que las curvas APDR presenten variaciones espaciales. La dispersión es una medida de dicha variación espacial. Recientemente se propuso en la literatura un índice derivado del electrocardiograma (ECG), Δα, que cuantifica la dispersión en las pendientes de las curvas dinámicas de APDR mediante la caracterización de la relación entre los intervalos del pico al final de la onda T (Tpe) y RR bajo condiciones estacionarias diferentes. En este Trabajo Fin de Máster (TFM) se ha desarrollado un método automático para obtener y evaluar, a partir de registros ambulatorios, Δα, como predictor independiente de muerte súbita cardiaca (SCD, del inglés "Sudden Cardiac Death") en pacientes con fallo cardiaco crónico (CHF, del inglés "Chronic Heart Failure"). Pacientes con CHF sintomático formaron parte del estudio "MUSIC" (MUerte Súbita en Insuficiencia Cardiaca). La base de datos contenía los registros Holter de 609 pacientes (48 víctimas de SCD, 64 de otras causas cardiacas, 25 de causas no cardiacas y 472 supervivientes) con ritmo sinusal. El preprocesado de las señales ECG realizado en este TFM consistió en un filtrado paso bajo a 40 Hz, interpolación de splines cúbicos y un detector de latidos ectópicos. Se aplicó una técnica de delineación "uniderivacional más reglas a posteriori" para seleccionar las muestras pertenecientes a la onda T y realizar un análisis de componentes principales. A continuación, se delineó la primera componente principal mediante una técnica uniderivacional y, a partir de las marcas de delineación, se obtuvieron las series de los intervalos RR y Tpe. Posteriormente, se interpolaron a una frecuencia de muestreo fs = 1 Hz. Como cada valor de la curva APDR está medido a un valor específico de RR, el índice de ECG Δα debería calcularse usando segmentos de ECG de ritmos cardiacos estables. Dichos segmentos son difíciles de conseguir en la práctica clínica y por lo tanto se modeló la dependencia del intervalo Tpe con una historia de intervalos previos de RR y se compensó por el retardo de memoria de Tpe. La relación entre Tpe y RR se caracterizó en los registros completos de ECG. Un umbral fijado en Δα>0.046 discriminó los pacientes en alto y bajo riesgo a sufrir SCD (p-valor = 0.003). El tiempo hasta el evento (SCD) fue aproximadamente el doble en los pacientes con Δα0.046 (p-valor = 0.001). Al combinar Δα con el índice de media de alternancias de onda T se mejoró la estratificación del riesgo a sufrir SCD (p-valor<0.001). Este estudio demuestra que la dispersión en APDR, cuantificada a partir de registros ECG Holter, es un predictor de SCD fuerte e independiente en pacientes con CHF. Estos resultados apoyan la hipótesis de que una dispersión de APDR elevada refleja un funcionamiento cardiaco anormal, con predisposición a sufrir SCD