Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
5,982
result(s) for
"Weiss, Michael"
Sort by:
Public natures : evolutionary infrastructures
\"As elements of the constructed landscape, infrastructure is a means rather than an end--rail and subway lines, distribution grids, waterways, traffic signals and signs, on-and-off ramps, highways, and bridges of our cities are essential in a practical sense but dead in a social one. They create boundaries and perform as agents of separation, preventing one metropolis from physically connecting with another. But their very physical presence may reveal latent qualities of places that are key to vitalizing urban life, and by leveraging that presence to support a broader range of ecological, institutional, and cultural imperatives, these utilitarian structures could transcend their pragmatic roles and become points of meaningful public exchange. In Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures, New York City-based firm Weiss/Manfredi tests such a possibility and takes the pursuit to practice, in turn crafting a manifesto/monograph hybrid replete with essays, roundtable discussions, and projects that explore new obligations and opportunities for infrastructure\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Splitting the chains: ultra-basal insulin analog uncovers a redox mechanism of hormone clearance
Reporting in
Nature Communications
, Kjeldsen and colleagues describe a redox mechanism of insulin clearance based on separation of A- and B chains. Exploiting an ultra-long-acting analog protected from classical clearance pathways, the study highlights principles of protein stability in pharmacology.
Journal Article
Sebacinales – one thousand and one interactions with land plants
Root endophytism and mycorrhizal associations are complex derived traits in fungi that shape plant physiology. Sebacinales (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota) display highly diverse interactions with plants. Although early-diverging Sebacinales lineages are root endophytes and/or have saprotrophic abilities, several more derived clades harbour obligate biotrophs forming mycorrhizal associations. Sebacinales thus display transitions from saprotrophy to endophytism and to mycorrhizal nutrition within one fungal order. This review discusses the genomic traits possibly associated with these transitions. We also show how molecular ecology revealed the hyperdiversity of Sebacinales and their evolutionary diversification into two sister families: Sebacinaceae encompasses mainly ectomycorrhizal and early-diverging saprotrophic species; the second family includes endophytes and lineages that repeatedly evolved ericoid, orchid and ectomycorrhizal abilities.Wepropose the name Serendipitaceae for this family and, within it, we transfer to the genus Serendipita the endophytic cultivable species Piriformospora indica and P. williamsii. Such cultivable Serendipitaceae species provide excellent models for root endophytism, especially because of available genomes, genetic tractability, and broad host plant range including important crop plants and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We review insights gained with endophytic Serendipitaceae species into the molecular mechanisms of endophytism and of beneficial effects on host plants, including enhanced resistance to abiotic and pathogen stress.
Journal Article
Comparison of Bayesian and frequentist methods for prevalence estimation under misclassification
Background
Various methods exist for statistical inference about a prevalence that consider misclassifications due to an imperfect diagnostic test. However, traditional methods are known to suffer from truncation of the prevalence estimate and the confidence intervals constructed around the point estimate, as well as from under-performance of the confidence intervals’ coverage.
Methods
In this study, we used simulated data sets to validate a Bayesian prevalence estimation method and compare its performance to frequentist methods, i.e. the Rogan-Gladen estimate for prevalence,
RGE
, in combination with several methods of confidence interval construction. Our performance measures are (i) error distribution of the point estimate against the simulated true prevalence and (ii) coverage and length of the confidence interval, or credible interval in the case of the Bayesian method.
Results
Across all data sets, the Bayesian point estimate and the
RGE
produced similar error distributions with slight advantages of the former over the latter. In addition, the Bayesian estimate did not suffer from the
RGE
’s truncation problem at zero or unity. With respect to coverage performance of the confidence and credible intervals, all of the traditional frequentist methods exhibited strong under-coverage, whereas the Bayesian credible interval as well as a newly developed frequentist method by Lang and Reiczigel performed as desired, with the Bayesian method having a very slight advantage in terms of interval length.
Conclusion
The Bayesian prevalence estimation method should be prefered over traditional frequentist methods. An acceptable alternative is to combine the Rogan-Gladen point estimate with the Lang-Reiczigel confidence interval.
Journal Article
Improvisation is a novel tool to study musicality
Humans spontaneously invent songs from an early age. Here, we exploit this natural inclination to probe implicit musical knowledge in 33 untrained and poor singers (amusia). Each sang 28 long improvisations as a response to a verbal prompt or a continuation of a melodic stem. To assess the extent to which each improvisation reflects tonality, which has been proposed to be a core organizational principle of musicality and which is present within most music traditions, we developed a new algorithm that compares a sung excerpt to a probability density function representing the tonal hierarchy of Western music. The results show signatures of tonality in both nonmusicians and individuals with congenital amusia, who have notorious difficulty performing musical tasks that require explicit responses and memory. The findings are a proof of concept that improvisation can serve as a novel, even enjoyable method for systematically measuring hidden aspects of musicality across the spectrum of musical ability.
Journal Article
‘Smart’ insulin-delivery technologies and intrinsic glucose-responsive insulin analogues
Insulin replacement therapy for diabetes mellitus seeks to minimise excursions in blood glucose concentration above or below the therapeutic range (hyper- or hypoglycaemia). To mitigate acute and chronic risks of such excursions, glucose-responsive insulin-delivery technologies have long been sought for clinical application in type 1 and long-standing type 2 diabetes mellitus. Such ‘smart’ systems or insulin analogues seek to provide hormonal activity proportional to blood glucose levels without external monitoring. This review highlights three broad strategies to co-optimise mean glycaemic control and time in range: (1) coupling of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to delivery devices (algorithm-based ‘closed-loop’ systems); (2) glucose-responsive polymer encapsulation of insulin; and (3) mechanism-based hormone modifications. Innovations span control algorithms for CGM-based insulin-delivery systems, glucose-responsive polymer matrices, bio-inspired design based on insulin’s conformational switch mechanism upon insulin receptor engagement, and glucose-responsive modifications of new insulin analogues. In each case, innovations in insulin chemistry and formulation may enhance clinical outcomes. Prospects are discussed for intrinsic glucose-responsive insulin analogues containing a reversible switch (regulating bioavailability or conformation) that can be activated by glucose at high concentrations.
Journal Article