2014 aaas annual meeting

ABSTRACTS

M E E T I N G G LO BA L C H A L L E N G ES: D I S COV E R Y A N D I N N OVAT I O N

2014 AAAS ANNUAL MEETING 13–1 7 F EBRUA RY • C HIC AGO HYATT REGENC Y C HIC AGO FAIRMONT C HIC AGO SWISS ÔTEL C HIC AGO

180 TH MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Time and location of events are subject to change. Please visit aaas.org/meetings for the most up-to-date information.

ABSTRACTS Symposia Agricultural, Plant, and Food Sciences ................................... A3 Anthropology, Culture, and Language .................................... A6 Behavioral and Social Sciences ............................................A13 Biology and Neuroscience ....................................................A19 Communication and Public Programs ................................... A26 Computer Science, Mathematics, and Statistics ....................A31 Education and Human Resources ......................................... A36 Energy and Renewable Resources ........................................ A43 Engineering, Industry and Technology .................................. A47 Environment and Ecology....................................................... A52 Global Perspectives and Issues ............................................A61 Innovation and Entrepreneurship ........................................ A70 Medical Sciences and Public Health ......................................A75 Physics and Astronomy ........................................................A81 Public Policy ...................................................................... A89 Sustainability and Resource Management ............................ A95

Seminars Big Data: Applications and Implications ..............................A102 Communicating Science .....................................................A104 Food Security and Sustainability .........................................A104 Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the Economy .................A106

Poster Session: American Junior Academy of Sciences (AJAS) Animal Science ................................................................. A108 Behavioral Science .............................................................A109 Biochemistry ...................................................................... A112 Cellular Science.................................................................. A112 Chemistry........................................................................... A115 Computer Science .............................................................. A118 Engineering........................................................................ A118 Environmental Science ....................................................... A121 Mathematics ......................................................................A126 Medicine ...........................................................................A127

Microbiology ......................................................................A129 Physics .............................................................................. A131 Plant Science ..................................................................... A133

Poster Session: Student Competition Brain and Behavior ..........................................................A134 Cellular and Molecular Biology .........................................A139 Developmental Biology, Physiology, and Immunology ......A148 Education ....................................................................... A151 Environment and Ecology ................................................A152 Math, Technology, and Engineering .................................. A155 Medicine and Public Health .............................................A160 Molecular and Cellular Sciences ......................................A164 Physical Sciences ............................................................A164 Science in Society ...........................................................A167 Social Sciences ...............................................................A169

Poster Session: General Brain and Behavior .......................................................... A173 Education ....................................................................... A174 Environment and Ecology ................................................A178 Math, Technology, and Engineering .................................. A181 Medicine and Public Health ............................................. A181 Molecular and Cellular Sciences ......................................A183 Nanotechnology ............................................................. A188 Physical Sciences ........................................................... A188 Science in Society ...........................................................A189 Social Sciences ............................................................. A192

AAAS Division-Sponsored Posters: Robert I. Larus Award Arctic Division .................................................................A192 Caribbean Division ..........................................................A193 Pacific Division ................................................................A193 SWARM Division ..............................................................A193 Invited Posters: Triple Helix...............................................A193

Disclaimers: Abstracts and synopses of material presented at the AAAS Annual Meeting or published in this volume reflect the individual views of the author and not necessarily those of the AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or the views of the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Presentation of ideas, products, or publications at the AAAS Meeting or the reporting of them in resulting news accounts does not constitute endorsement by AAAS. Poster and speaker abstracts are submitted by the authors and have not been edited for content by AAAS. AAAS is not responsible for any of the abstracts herein. All questions regarding them should be directed to the authors.

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Abstracts

AAAS Annual Meeting • 13–17 February 2014

Symposia Agricultural, Plant, and Food Sciences Securing Food, Feed, and Fuel via Natural Diversity: Spotlight on the Maize Genome Organized by: Patrick Regan, Technical University Munich, Garching, Germany; Barbara Wankerl and Ulrich Marsch, Technical University Munich, München, Germany Farmers and plant breeders around the world have always worked to optimize the agricultural plants that support their societies. Given the current trends of climate change, booming human and livestock populations, and increasing demand for biofuels, the pressure on crops and croplands has never been greater. Fortunately, this challenge coincides with an unprecedented moment in science. Innovative, interdisciplinary research programs are poised to deliver knowledge and tools that can help secure food, feed, and fuel for a changing world. Genome-enabled selection can accelerate the breeding of plants adapted for climate change, modified to enhance nutrition, or tailored for more economical biofuel production. Such goals can be achieved by bringing out traits hidden in a plant's own genome— variations accumulated through evolution, inherited and modified down through the generations, though perhaps not expressed in modern varieties. Tapping this inherent, natural diversity is the key, whether through genome-wide approaches or by targeting links between specific genes and traits. This symposium explains genome-enabled selection, presenting recent advances and highlighting the maize genome. Arguably the world's most important crop, maize has another distinction: a genome exceptionally rich in natural diversity. Thus the story of exploring the maize genome is a paradigm for understanding the problems and opportunities associated with all agricultural plants.

DIVERGENT GENE AMPLIFICATION BASED ON WHOLE-GENOME SEQUENCES Joachim Messing, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ The seeds of maize and other cereal grasses are the main source of calories on earth, mainly due to their high carbohydrate content (reaching about 80%). Not surprisingly, such a concentration of starch has resulted in industrial applications, even if energy output characteristics do not rival conventional fuels. Such applications threaten to strangle food supplies in places where there are no alternatives. At the same time it is important to recognize that cereal seeds have critical shortcomings even in their traditional uses as food and feed: Humans and livestock cannot synthesize all the amino acids they need from those calories and therefore need to supplement those in their diet. Lack of essential amino acids in the diet can lead to severe, even life-threatening conditions. Food or feed does not provide these essential amino acids in free form, but in the form of proteins that upon digestion are released into the blood stream. Therefore, the composition of seed proteins presents a critical bottleneck in the world's food supply. Fortuitously, this is precisely where genomics offers critical insights with practical potential. In cereals, the seed proteins—whose amino acid composition determines the nutritional quality of food and feed—are dominated by small gene families that are highly expressed. The genes encoding them have evolved through gene amplification in tandem and by dispersal throughout the genome. Comparative analysis of whole-genome sequences of a number of species of the grass gene family can now be used to re-trace gene copies and their divergence in structure during speciation. Their divergence explains, for example, why seed proteins of some cereals are more suitable for making bread and noodles than others but also can trigger autoimmune diseases in certain human haplotypes. On the other hand, divergence of these gene copies has not resulted in proteins with essential amino acid compositions that are needed for a balanced diet. Here, however, our knowledge of gene sequences and expression profiles permits us to use novel genetic approaches to re-balance the expression of genes during seed development and achieve levels of proteins with essential amino acids that can meet the dietary needs of humans and livestock.

PREDICTING COMPLEX PHENOTYPES FOR GENOME-ENABLED CROP AND LIVESTOCK BREEDING Chris-Carolin Schön, Technical University Munich, Freising, Germany Agricultural genetics is currently being revolutionized by technological developments in genomic and statistical research. High-throughput genotyping technology delivers hundreds of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism markers and has become available for many crop and livestock species. The technological feasibility of obtaining full genome sequences at reasonable costs for a large number of individuals is within striking distance. Thus, genetic analysis of quantitatively inherited traits and prediction of the genetic predisposition of individuals based on molecular data are rapidly evolving fields of research in agricultural genetics. This talk presents quantitative genetic approaches that make it possible to extract knowledge on the genetic value of individual plants or animals from high-dimensional genomic data and to predict the genetic makeup of individual offspring. Statistical methods for prediction of genetic values and phenotypes from genome-wide molecular marker data will be introduced, and challenges arising from the large number of predictors and their high degree of collinearity will be addressed. The efficiency of genome-enabled prediction will be demonstrated with experimental studies on grain yield and insect resistance in maize (Zea mays L.). Estimates of prediction accuracies achieved in these studies are encouraging with respect to the usefulness of genome-enabled prediction in practical breeding programs. On this basis, optimum scenarios for exploiting knowledge from high-dimensional molecular data in breeding schemes will be discussed.

IDENTIFYING DNA VARIANTS THAT CONTROL MAIZE DOMESTICATION, ADAPTATION AND NUTRITION Edward S. Buckler, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ithaca, NY Maize, like many crops, is extremely diverse, especially when compared to mammalian diversity. In the case of maize, that diversity is the product of evolution and adaptation over the last several million years. There are more than 100 million common genetic variations distributed across the maize genome, which makes any two maize varieties likely to be far more different genetically than humans and chimps are from one another. This tremendous natural diversity has already allowed maize to respond to selection in a multitude of ways, and provides the potential for creating a more sustainable crop that satisfies some of the desperate nutritional needs facing many parts of the world. Future improvement of maize will be greatly accelerated through genomics. However, until recently, the tools of genomics could only be applied to a few maize varieties, due to the high cost and the labor involved. But this has all changed in the last few years. We have developed major technological and analytical advances that allow the diverse genomes of maize to be sequenced and profiled exponentially faster and more effectively than before. This process has now identified more than one thousand genes controlling the adaption of maize to diverse environmental circumstances, and to modern agricultural practices. Through extensive field testing across the globe, genetic variants controlling nutritional value and adaptation to different environments are being identified. These new techniques allow us to tap the natural diversity of landraces (historical farm varieties), permitting identification and efficient utilization of a tremendous range of existing adaptations. As a result, breeders are now more effectively harnessing the natural diversity of maize to improve vitamin A content, acid soil tolerance, drought tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency, and disease resistance. Although the basic road map for analyzing the genome for useful adaptations is now in place, the journey to link the majority of the millions of functional gene variants to individual traits has only just begun. This journey will be greatly hastened by the effective integration of a wide assortment of powerful new technologies. Over the next several years, a key issue will be how to best harness the tools of breeding, engineering, and computer science to collect and analyze vast quantities of phenotypic data from around the globe. We have the tools, and now scientists, farmers, and the public need to consider how we can best work together to achieve the most sustainable agriculture possible.

AAAS Annual Meeting • 13–17 February 2014 Abstracts

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A Changing Global Landscape: Evolving Roles of BRIC Nations in Agricultural Sciences Organized by: Rodney A. Hill, University of Idaho, Moscow The growth of China, India and Brazil has been termed the story of our time. Today the global power-base is shifting to these rapidly evolving nations. Globally, national investments in science and technological advances are driving innovation to the forefront with agriculture providing a predominant cultural and economic force. While the U.S. has been leading agricultural innovation throughout the 20th century, calls for changes in the ways it invests in agricultural research have recognized that many of the challenges seek to meet the public good and are not easily monetized. Although highlevel calls recognize needs in research support, training and workforce development, and research infrastructure, the global changes in agricultural research investment are also changing many nations from being net importers of agricultural products to net exporters. On the broader world scene, the need to sustainably feed 8 billion people by 2025 requires that yields will need to rise from today’s 3 tons per hectare to 4 tons per hectare. Thus, globally it is essential that the U.S. and all advanced and rapidly advancing economies pursue greater efficiencies and increased productivity. Massive investment in agricultural sciences in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations is contributing to rapid change. Does the U.S. need to stay in the lead to advance sustainable global agricultural production or will there be a new order in which many nations take leadership in their own areas of excellence?

U.S. UNIVERSITIES: CHANGING ROLES IN GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES M. Peter McPherson, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, Washington, DC US Land grants and other universities involved in agriculture are committed to increasing food production with the interrelated constrains on water, energy, carbon footprint and growing use of farm land for other purposes. New technology and practices are critical. Federal and state resources will be needed for more research but budgets are tight. However there is public support for research generally. The recent PCAST report lays out the need and the land grant community is committed.

SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION STRATEGIES FOR CHINESE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT Haixin Cui, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing China, a traditional agricultural country, feeds one-fifth of the total population with only 7% of arable land in the world. In 2012, China produced about 590 million tons of grain from about 130 million hectares farmland and primarily achieved the food self-sufficiency. The average grain yield reached 5,300 kg per hectare that represents a 20% increase in comparison with about 10 years ago. The yield increase for the past decade was primarily due to the technological innovations, the key driving force for agricultural development in China. It is projected that by 2025, the population in China will reach 1.6 billion and the total demand of grains will reach over 700 million tons. Therefore, the shortage of farmland and natural resources and the population growth will impose enormous pressure and challenge to the Chinese food security and sustainability. Recently, Chinese central government made a strategic decision to invest in scientific innovation for sustainable agricultural development to ensure food supply. The strategic investment initiatives are primarily focused in these areas: 1. Increased funding in overall agricultural research; 2. Agricultural research infrastructure enhancement; and 3. scientific innovation and incentive mechanism. Specifically, the strategic initiative will strengthen basic agricultural research, and development and applications of advanced and cutting-edge technologies, such as biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology, in order to maximize food production, efficient use of natural resources and agricultural sustainability. Such development may also serve as a model for agricultural development in BRICS nations and other developing countries.

INDIAN AGRICULTURE : LOCAL ACTION WITH GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE S. Ayyappan, Government of India, New Delhi India’s population has doubled in 35 years and quality of life has improved: for example per capita availability of fruit has increased by 150% since 2001. India is first in world milk production, and 15th in exports of agricultural prod-

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ucts. Technology-led growth has vastly improved food production and nutritional security. The most recent national plan offers a 4-fold increase in national agriculture investment. Science and new technologies are keys to rapid advancements in Indian agriculture.

Biosciences for Farming in Africa Organized by: David J. Bennett, St. Edmund's College, Cambridge, United Kingdom African economies are now among the fastest growing in the world. By some estimates Africa's population may double to 2.3 billion people over the next 40 years with the transition from a rural to a predominantly urban society. Yet Africa still has 15 of the least developed nations in the world, many hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and in poverty, and food security and sustainability, health, and the possible effects of climate change are major issues. Importantly, agriculture currently employs close to 70 percent of the population with women playing the principal role, and nearly 60 percent of the world’s available arable land is in Africa. Food production must increase if it is to feed those hungry now and the rapidly growing population. While there is no single solution, recent advances in the biosciences and new genetic technologies can contribute. New traits can be rapidly incorporated, existing crops tailored to meet new requirements, and time and costs greatly reduced. Local crops can be made higher yielding, resistant to pests and drought, and more nutritious, and provide income to small-scale farmers. The symposium discusses the role of new technologies in economic transformation, examples of new genetics research on local crops, and work to ensure human and environmental biosafety, public communication, and preparation of the young as future farmers. Scientific and government policy viewpoints will be represented.

BIOSCIENCES IN AFRICA'S ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION Mohamed H. Hassan, Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Trieste, Italy Professor Hassan as the former Executive Director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing Work (formerly TWAS) will introduce and set the context for the session by surveying the rapid transformation that Africa is undergoing in its economies, population growth and urbanisation while hunger and poverty continue for many, and the role that the biosciences in the new genetic technologies can play in increasing agricultural efficiencies to combat these challenges.

BIOSCIENCE-BASED RESEARCH FOR AFRICAN STAPLE CROPS Andrew Kiggundu, National Agro-Biotechnology Center, Kawanda, Uganda The delivery of improved crop varieties is core to sustaining agricultural productivity among the largely resource poor subsistence farming communities in Africa. The hot and humid climate presents an environment for many crop pest and disease organisms to flourish hence the high diversity observed and common outbreak of new diseases afflicting crop productivity. Other constrains relate to declining soil fertility and drought. Micronutrient deficiencies are also common leading to malnutrition, anemia, blindness and stunting in communities who cannot have a balanced diet regularly. In order to overcome these challenges there is need to expand crop breeding technologies of African adapted crops. Researchers at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) of Uganda realised the limitations of traditional breeding to deliver novel varieties with local preferences and adopted modern biotechnology to complement conventional breeding. Through both Government and development partner support, NARO has developed capacity in genetic engineering of local varieties of crops such as banana as well as contained and confined field evaluation of GM crops. Being signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, laws are required to regulate GM research, while these were under development, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, used existing laws to develop a framework within which research can continue. It is through this that NARO has undertaken 5 GM field trials of banana for black Sigatoka disease resistance, vitamin A and iron bio-fortification, and bacterial wilt resistance, nematode and weevil stem borer resistance; 3 GM field trials of cassava for cassava mosaic virus and brown streak virus resistance. Other crops include 3 trials of water efficient maize; and 4 trials of ball worm resistant and herbicide tolerant cotton. This paper presents the objectives of the various


technologies being evaluated in relation to national development in Uganda and Africa. It discusses the regulatory environment that has been successful in facilitating GM research in absence of a substantive law and progress towards commercial release of some of these products.

CROP BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOSAFETY IN AFRICA Diram Makinde, New Partnership for Africa's Development, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso In a quest to reduce hunger, food insecurity and poverty through agriculture, African governments agreed to increase public investment in agriculture by committing a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture with the aim of raising agricultural productivity by at least 6 per cent by 2015. To achieve this, a mixture of both conventional and biotechnological approaches would be required. African countries are making steady progress towards developing and implementing domestic frameworks that comply with the main multilateral framework, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB). The African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) was conceived under the auspices of the NEPAD Agency by African leaders to build functional biosafety system including the capacity of African regulators in all aspects of regulatory regimes. To enhance the regulatory systems in Africa, the following have been suggested: availability and sustainability of financial resources to the regulatory systems; the need for integration of multiple actors with multiple agendas; access to credit by farmers to buy GE seed; capacity to enforce regulations; capacity for inspection and monitoring; increase public awareness; access to accurate information on biotech/biosafety; adequate infrastructure; timely and adequate seed supply; nascent public-private sector partnerships; and improved linkages in public-private partnerships. The political dimension of genetic engineering (GE) was and still is the outstanding problem on its regulation in Africa and is mainly attributed to Africa’s policy-making elites. Some early adopter countries warmed up to GE technology and later observed with some elements of ‘backsliding’ due to the misinformation and activisms. Elections can be both a challenge and an opportunity.

AFRICAN BIOTECHNOLOGY STEWARDSHIP INITIATIVE FOR HIGH QUALITY CROPS Walter Alhassan, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Accra, Ghana Tools used in modern biotechnology in Africa are tissue culture (most widely used), DNA characterisation (widely used molecular tool), Marker Assisted Selection, Diagnostic tools and Genetic Modification (GM) least used. Genetic Modification is the most powerful tool and leads to the development of products in agriculture not otherwise possible with conventional approaches. They enhance the potential of conventional techniques to address food security and the reduction of loss of biodiversity. Despite this and the track record of safety, the adoption of GM approaches has met resistance in many areas of Africa. The need for capacity building in biotechnology, biosafety and product stewardship has never been so urgent. Stewardship is, relatively, a new initiative. Stewardship in plant biotechnology is the responsible management of a product from its inception through to its use and discontinuation. It applies across the life cycle of a plant product and includes careful attention to the responsible introduction and use of products. The project on Strengthening capacity for safe biotechnology management in sub-Sahara Africa (SABIMA) which had stewardship training in crop production as the core, was introduced over the 2009-2012 period by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) with financial and technical support from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) in six countries, namely, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda.

insecurity on the continent. However, biotechnology products have met with fierce opposition from groups opposed to them for various reasons, including concerns over their safety. As a result, adoption of biotechnology crops in Africa has been lagging behind other continents, leaving the region even more vulnerable to hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Only four countries in Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Sudan) have so far commercialized transgenic crops. Policy makers in Africa are reluctant to institute facilitative biosafety frameworks to govern agricultural biotechnology research, development and commercialization due to the unresolved controversies surrounding biotechnology products. Such irrational policy behaviors can only be avoided by building the confidence of policy makers and the public through sharing credible information and knowledge on all aspects of the technology. The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) was initiated specifically to address biotechnology knowledge and awareness deficits by providing a platform for sober exchange of information, experiences and knowledge. This presentation will highlight some of the opportunities and challenges facing biosciences communication in Africa and call for strategic partnerships to overcome the challenges so that Africa can also exploit the huge opportunities presented by areas of biosciences including biotechnology. This global partnership is necessary because experience shows that European biotechnology regulatory policies, for example, to a large extent determine institutional, policy and regulatory arrangements and decisions that misgovern biotechnology in many African countries.

PREPARING YOUTH FOR HIGH-TECH AGRICULTURE Margaret Karembu, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, AfriCenter, Nairobi, Kenya A typical characteristic of African agriculture is the predominance of small scale farmers (>60%), mostly women who are semi-skilled and with little access to technology, inputs, credit and markets. Migration of young people from rural to urban areas has left food production in the hands of their elderly parents, most of whom incapable of adjusting to modern high-tech farming systems. But the big question is: How can the youth be attracted and retained in the agricultural sector given their view of farming as painful and low-end labour market? This paper argues for a fundamental change in the mindsets of African youths to view themselves as key players in the food production chain. This can be possible if farming becomes pleasurable and profitable with supportive infrastructure to make it exciting, worthwhile and recognized as an important cornerstone of modern society. Access to efficient agri-biotechnologies, high-quality seeds and inputs, links to markets integrated with the fast-growing techno-entrepreneurship (ICT) and social mobilization will be essential. A good starting point would be to facilitate youth with a first degree in agriculture or biological sciences to establish low-cost tissue-culture business facilities at community level to avail clean planting materials of Africa’s major staple crops such as banana, cassava and sweet potato. African governments should also start considering young people’s views and perceptions in policymaking and in reviewing agricultural and biosciences education curricular. As well, radical measures such as use of celebrities to spearhead food security campaigns could ignite passion for agriculture among youths like it is doing in other social spheres. Platforms should be explored to promote successful youthful role models in agriculture through popular social media for example, Facebook, Twitter etc. where young farmer entrepreneurs could share their experiences. With better opportunities for access to technologies, entrepreneurial skills and social marketing, young people could funnel their youthful idealism, energy and determination into a positive force for change within the agricultural sector. This would ultimately result in sustainable production of the food required to feed the growing population of today and the future.

BIOSCIENCES STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION IN AFRICA Daniel Otunge, African Agricultural Technology Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya AFRICA’S relationship with biosciences faces critical challenges as policy makers and the public face unprecedented dilemmas. Many people are uneasy about agricultural biotechnology which seems to be advancing faster than their awareness and knowledge levels. Matters are not help by two frames of the technology (negative and positive) that are being championed by bitterly opposed sides of the biotechnology divide. Consequently, public mistrust and, in some cases, outright hostility has bred a climate of deep anxiety among scientists, law makers and policy makers. Yet, modern agricultural biotechnology has been identified as one of the technologies that can help Africa to revive and boost its falling agricultural productivity and reduce food

Innovative and Integrated Approaches To Reducing Malnutrition Organized by: Ahmed Kablan and Jennifer Long, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, DC, As worldwide hunger and malnutrition concerns in the coming decades drive the global agricultural development agenda and policies, nutrition objectives must be integrated to better ensure healthy outcomes for people in developing countries. Stunting, a severe form of malnutrition characterized by low height-for-age, presents a major hurdle to development efforts. Stunted children have reduced productivity and lifetime earnings, and are faced with


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increased risk of infectious diseases and greater likelihood of poor school performance. So far, development efforts have focused on increasing agriculture productivity, income, and food supply in order to reduce stunting; these efforts, while effective, only provides about 25 percent of the solution. Areas that have been ignored in development practices and policies offer an opportunity to solve the problem of stunting. This session explores three key interrelated factors that directly or indirectly affect nutritional outcomes based on new emerging scientific evidence: water, sanitation and hygiene; gut microbiome and human health; and mycotoxin/aflatoxin food contamination. New innovation and discoveries in nutrition research could help direct more effective agricultural and nutrition development policies, and programs should consider these factors to better ensure improved nutrition among smallholder farm households and their communities

plant disease caused by the biocontrol strains. Mycotoxin-contaminated grain has its biggest impact in rural areas. Traders usually purchase only the best grain from rural farmers. Rural inhabitants often eat a diet composed primarily of maize, perhaps as much as 500 g/person/day. Thus, rural farmers in less developed countries are exposed to higher levels of toxins than almost anyone else on the planet. They eat the most heavily contaminated grain available, and they eat more of it. SPSS trade restrictions similarly concentrate contaminated foods in these countries, as only relatively uncontaminated foods are allowed into international commerce leaving highly contaminated foodstuffs concentrated in countries with the least ability to deal with it. Policies that ensure food security in rural regions and that allow contaminated grain to be blended and used for other purposes are needed to remove this contaminated grain from the human food chain and enable its effective utilization.

INNOVATION FRONTIERS FOR AGRICULTURE-NUTRITION LINKAGES Patrick Webb, Tufts University, Boston, MA

Anthropology, Culture, and Language

165 million children are stunted. Even if evidence-based nutrition interventions reached 90% of people, only one third of stunting would be resolved. Two thirds of the solution lies elsewhere. This paper discusses potential for reducing stunting through complementary actions in agriculture and sanitation, focusing on aflatoxins in the food supply, gut biome interactions, and environmental contaminants linked to open defecation

Talking to Kids Really Matters: Early Language Experience Shapes Later Life Chances

WATER, SANITATION, AND THE PREVENTION OF STUNTING Jeffrey K. Griffiths, Tufts University, Boston, MA A holistic view of water in the prevention of stunting will be presented. Known and likely causal pathways between WASH activities and improved nutrition will be outlined, evidence assessed, and evidence gaps identified. Innovative WASH methods will be highlighted and case examples provided for a global perspective. Water is critical for hygienic environments and agriculture, influences the development of environmental enteropathy, and facilitates mycotoxin (aflatoxin) contamination of foods

DINING WITH TRILLIONS OF FASCINATING FRIENDS: EXPLORING OUR HUMAN GUT MICROBIOME Jeffrey I. Gordon, Washington University, St. Louis, MO Our genetic landscape is a summation of the genes embedded in our human genome and in the genomes of our microbial symbionts (the microbiome). Similarly, our metabolic features (metabotypes) are an amalgamation of human and microbial contributions. Understanding these interrelationships is important for advancing our appreciation of the nutritional value of food ingredients, for creating new nutritional guidelines and policies for humans at various stages of their lifespan

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO CONTROL MYCOTOXIN CONTAMINATION John F. Leslie, Kansas State University, Manhattan Cereal grains in most developing countries commonly are contaminated with mycotoxins produced primarily by fungi in the Aspergillus and Fusarium genera. Aflatoxins, produced by several Aspergillus species, are the best known, while fumonisins, produced by several Fusarium species, also are a widespread, serious contaminant. Both toxins are more common in maize than they are in indigenous African grains, e.g., sorghum and millet. Sorghum and millets also thrive under hot, dry conditions, while maize yields poorly. Encouraging maize cultivation on marginal lands under suboptimal conditions increases the likelihood and severity of the mycotoxin contamination in grain usually consumed by the poorest farmers in the region. As global climate change pushes African climates to further extremes, this problem will increase. Reevaluation of the native African cereals to address nutritional needs is seriously needed given their generally low level of mycotoxin contamination. Many Fusarium spp. grow endophytically within the plant and produce toxin only when the host matures or becomes stressed. Identifying signals that shift the fungus from endophyte to pathogen and/or trigger toxin biosynthesis could identify critical points for controlling disease and toxin production. One approach to reducing aflatoxin levels is biocontrol with aflatoxin-nonproducing strains of Aspergillus. A similar strategy for fumonisins is possible, but would require more significant strain development than is needed for Aspergillus. This biocontrol method also may not reduce losses due to

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Organized by: Anne Fernald, Stanford University, CA There are substantial differences in language proficiency among children that are already evident in infancy. By kindergarten, this gap has widened: many children from disadvantaged backgrounds have fallen way behind their more advantaged peers in verbal and other cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, disparities that are predictive of later academic success or failure. Where do these differences come from? Language abilities are influenced to some extent by genetics, but aspects of early experience associated with socioeconomic status (SES) are also hugely influential—in particular, SES differences in the home language environment experienced by young children. Observational studies have shown that the sheer amount and quality of caregivers' verbal engagement with infants and toddlers are linked to later cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes and school success in both monolingual and bilingual children. This session presents new experimental research exploring the mechanisms that underlie these powerful effects of early experience on language learning, with the goal of examining their origins, consequences, and social policy implications from the diverse perspectives of neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, education, and economics. Understanding more deeply how early experience affects childrens', and thus nations', economic outcomes provides a scientific basis for more effective intervention and for innovation in public policy that will benefit children and, ultimately, nations.

SOCIOECONOMIC DISPARITIES IN THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE AREAS IN THE DEVELOPING BRAIN Kimberley Noble, Columbia University, New York City Socioeconomic disparities in childhood are associated with remarkable differences in cognitive and socio-emotional development during a time when dramatic changes are occurring in the brain. Yet, the neurobiological pathways through which socioeconomic status (SES) shapes development remain poorly understood. Behavioral evidence suggests that, relative to other neurocognitive systems, language development exhibits particularly large differences across SES. This may be understood through a theoretical model linking SES differences in linguistic exposure to brain and behavioral development. Specifically, socioeconomic disparities in the quantity and quality of linguistic stimulation in the home have been well described, with higher SES families more likely to speak to children with greater frequency and complexity; spend more hours in parent-child reading activities; and provide increased access to books and other language-related resources. These differences in linguistic exposure have in turn been directly related to child language development. Further, research suggests that differences in linguistic exposure may be associated with developmental differences in languagesupporting cortical regions in the left hemisphere. Taken together, the above evidence suggests that socioeconomic disparities, which are associated with large differences in access to language-promoting resources, are likely to be associated with differences in the development brain regions which support the development of language. Here evidence is reviewed from several studies using various modalities (EEG, structural/functional MRI) suggesting that socioeconomic disparities exist in structure and function of regions of the brain


that support language processing. It is proposed that these neural differences in structure and function may mediate previously described SES disparities in children’s language skills. Further, effects of experiential differences in language exposure on brain structures may snowball over time, with cumulative consequences for later academic outcomes.

HOW TALKING TO CHILDREN NURTURES LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ACROSS SES AND CULTURE Anne Fernald, Stanford University, CA Children of economically and educationally disadvantaged parents typically enter school with poorer language skills than their more privileged counterparts. By some measures, 5-year-old children of lower socioeconomic status (SES) score two years behind on standardized language development tests by the time they enter school. We will show that the language gap between rich and poor children begins to emerge in infancy. In a longitudinal study we examined developmental changes in language proficiency in English-learning infants from higher- and lower-SES families. Significant SES differences in both vocabulary and real-time language processing efficiency were already evident at age 18 months. By age 24 months, there was a 6-month gap between SES groups in processing skills critical to language development. Such a large disparity cannot be dismissed as a transitory delay, given that differences in trajectories of language growth established by age 3 years tend to persist and are predictive of later school success or failure. Where do such early differences among children come from, and what can be done to improve these outcomes? One critical factor is that parents differ in the amount of language stimulation they provide their infants at home. We present evidence showing that parents who talk more with their children in an engaging and supportive way have children who are more likely to develop their full intellectual potential than are those who hear less child-directed speech. Using the LENATM technology to make all-day recordings of low SES Spanish-learning children in their home environment, we found striking variability in how much parents talked to their children. Infants who heard more child-directed speech developed greater efficiency in language processing and learned new words more quickly. Our results indicate that exposure to child-directed speech— but not to overheard speech—sharpens infants’ language processing skills, with cascading benefits for vocabulary learning. However, the conclusion that parents should use more and richer language with infants to support early learning meets with opposition in some cultures. Cross-cultural research in some West African societies reveals social norms against making eye contact with or talking to an infant, practices viewed as potentially harmful rather than as beneficial to the young child. We discuss the challenges of developing culturally sensitive interventions to help parents understand their critical role in actively nurturing young children’s brain development and language growth.

EARLY LANGUAGE TRAJECTORIES OF CHILDREN FROM LOW-SES AND LANGUAGE MINORITY HOMES Erika Hoff, Florida Atlantic University, Davie Low-SES and language minority children often enter school with less developed language skills than middle-class peers, in part due to differences in the amount and nature of their early language experience at home. Such differences are a major contributor to the low level of academic achievement in U.S. schools by children from disadvantaged families. Efforts should be directed toward implementing interventions to remedy those deficits to help all children reach their maximum potential.

GIVING KIDS A FAIR CHANCE EARLY IN LIFE: A STRATEGY THAT WORKS James Heckman, University of Chicago, IL With the global rise in income inequality, children born into disadvantaged environments are at much greater risk of being unskilled and facing many obstacles in life—which is bad for individuals and bad for societies. SES-related gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills emerge early, and can be traced in part to adverse early environments. With smart policies, we can arrest the polarization between skilled and unskilled, focusing on the early years when change is possible.

Preserving Our Cultural Heritage: Science in the Service of Art Organized by: Nicholas Bigelow and Leonor Sierra, University of Rochester, NY In 2009 a group of chemists and materials scientists from a wide range of institutions came together for a workshop on “Chemistry and Materials Research at the Interface Between Science and Art,” co-sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation. One of the workshop conclusions was that scientists in academia need to be encouraged to collaborate with their peers in cultural heritage institutions, to both increase scientist knowledge of this heritage and also to develop the necessary tools and apply the science to be able to preserve it. The session covers different collaborations that are ongoing in this area, relating to different mediums of art and different technologies that can be applied. The session will also include recent results and successes in this process, both in better understanding of materials as well as in developments for their conservation. The discussion will also address what is needed for collaborations like this to continue to flourish and grow.

21ST CENTURY TOOLS FOR 19TH CENTURY NANOTECHNOLOGY Nicholas Bigelow, University of Rochester, NY Daguerreotypes are the first photographic images, formed by a process LouisJacques-Mandé Daguerre invented in 1839. It was the mode of photography in the United States from that year until about the time of the US Civil War. Daguerreotypes are unique, nonreproducible images of almost unbelievable clarity— yet in many cases they are deteriorating before our eyes. At the University of Rochester and George Eastman House / International Center of Photography, we are using a range of techniques centered around tools in the University’s nanocenter to address the understanding and conservation of these invaluable cultural heritage items. Scientific advances in the chemistry and physics of nano-scale materials, especially silver and gold, require reconsideration of our material understanding of the daguerreotype and will be a central theme of the talk. Our research on the daguerreotype image exhibits predominately nanoscale physical properties. As molecular structures approach discrete dimensions of several hundred nanometers and below, elemental surface properties become increasingly dominant and do not conform to the general properties of the bulk material. This paper presents a nanometer scale perspective on the daguerreotype and its profound conservation implications. Micron scale and macro properties of metals have been the basis for commonly held explanations of image formation, tarnish, oxidation, and environmental deterioration. Consequently, daguerreotype restorative treatments and preservation methods, both historically and currently, appear to alter the original structure in the former, and are inadequate for preventing progressive deterioration in the latter. Taking into account the expanding body of research on the unique physical and optical properties of silver and gold, and to a lesser extent copper and mercury, we apply this recent research to our investigation of the daguerreotype. This paper proposes new insight into the extraordinary bio-receptivity of the daguerreotype surface, the optical effects that occur when gold and silver nanoparticles have dimensions considerably smaller than the wavelength of the visible light spectrum and the step-by-step impact of the image formation on nanoscale material science.

DETECTING ORGANIC DYESTUFFS IN ART WITH SERS Richard Van Duyne, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Molecular characterization of organic compounds in mass-limited samples embedded in complex matrices remains one of the grand challenges of chemical measurements in cultural heritage science. Amongst these organic compounds, biomolecules derived from plant and animal sources and a wide variety of synthetic molecules have been used to impart color to textiles for thousands of years. Precipitated on colorless inorganic particles of calcium carbonate, alumina, clay or silica, these dyes have been used as pigments in easel paintings, illuminated manuscripts, watercolors, pastels, and a variety of other media, contributing to our artistic patrimony and cultural identity. In the past few years Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) has been demonstrated as a powerful technique for the minimally invasive, ultra-high sensitive detection of both natural and synthetic organic colorants. Dyes have successfully been identified in works of art from samples as small as a few grains (i.e. a few mg) of pigmented material or 25 μm of fiber using surface SERS. In this talk, we report on the interdisciplinary efforts of a group of scientists at Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago to develop tailored nanostructured substrates, experimental protocols, and most recently,


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theoretical approaches for dye identification. The identification of colorants in important works of art on paper from America’s master watercolorist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and pastels by American impressionist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), as well as several examples of analysis of priceless textiles from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago will be presented. In addition, the underexplored area of infrared surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (NIRSERS) for analysis of artworks and the use of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) for colorants’ identification will be presented.

AIMING FOR A PERFECT MATCH: PAIRING COLLECTIONS-BASED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH WITH ACADEMIA Anikó Bezur, Yale University, New Haven, CT Our object-based research involves materials analysis and testing conducted in situ on microscopic samples from a work of art or a group of objects. We address questions in a number of areas that include: authentication; the presence of materials associated with previous restoration; the aging and degradation of artist’s materials; the sensitivity of an object to environmental conditions (light levels, humidity, pollutants, etc.); and the methods and materials employed by artists.

Reconstructing and Deconstructing Paintings: Innovations At and Below the Surface Organized by: Francesca Casadio, The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Katherine Faber, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL A deep connection to our past and shared cultural heritage must be preserved to foster a balanced society where all humanity can thrive. Moderated by a museum leader, this symposium presents cross-disciplinary and international perspectives on the scientific study of paintings from all ages. It will describe analysis of paint materials used by Pablo Picasso at the nanoscale, as only possible at the brightest synchrotron sources. It will highlight how new imaging techniques can reveal the invisible, bringing to light underlying compositions of old masters’ paintings. This in turn enables the writing of new art history and provides important material clues that can assist with attribution and authentication. This symposium will also demonstrate how scientific analysis and cutting-edge computer science can lead to innovative approaches to touchless virtual restoration and to the inspiring public presentation of a contemporary art masterpiece by Mark Rothko, literally turning back the hand of time. Researchers from museums, academia, and large facilities will explain how the use of new technology can lead to new discoveries, which, in turn, can change the public’s and the specialists’ perception of great works of art.

PICASSO AT THE NANOSCALE: INVESTIGATING THE CHEMISTRY OF ICONIC PAINTS Volker Rose, Argonne National Laboratory, IL Researchers from the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and scientists from The Art Institute of Chicago have teamed up to study the chemical make up of zinc oxide pigments used in artworks by Pablo Picasso. In his talk, Volker Rose will describe how highly focused X-ray beams with nanoscale spatial resolution and trace element sensitivity have helped to determine that Picasso has used conventional house paint in some of his paintings. The study gives also new insights into the material zinc oxide, which has great potential in a variety of applications such as in spintronics or as transparent electrodes in solar panels.

INNOVATIONS IN MACRO-XRF MAPPING ENABLE A NEW KIND OF ART HISTORY Joris Dik, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands Just microns below the visible surface of Old Master Paintings lays a wealth of information about the artwork. Hidden layers may contain an underdrawing, underpainting or compositional alterations. Painters frequently re-used canvases and panels, and therefore, painted a new picture on top of an existing one. There, a look through the paint layers offers a look over the painters shoulder. This is of interest in conservation issues and questions of attribution. In this contribution Prof. Dik will focus on the development of novel, nondestructive imaging techniques -notably XRF elemental scanning- to study the substructure of historical paintings. Examples will be drawn from the oeuvre

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Abstracts

of Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt, where the objects' substructures offer exciting new insights in the artworks' genesis and attribution.

NONINVASIVE COLOR RESTORATION OF MARK ROTHKO'S HARVARD MURALS Jens Stenger, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA A group of five paintings on canvas known as Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals (1962) has changed color due to the presence of a fugitive red pigment (Lithol Red) and excessive exposure to natural light in a room with large windows. This project explores the possibility of recreating the original color appearance by using a digital projector as illumination. A camera-projector system determines the characteristics of the painted surface and the projector’s non-linear response. By comparison with a target image we calculate a corrective image that is projected onto the paintings. Using this augmented reality approach we can recreate the original color appearance without physically altering the painting. Restored Kodak Ektachrome photographs of the paintings in their original state from 1963 serve as a reference. These transparencies which have also faded over the last 50 years are scanned using narrow bandwidth light sources ensuring that the recorded optical densities are proportional to the photographic dye concentrations. The original color of the Ektachromes is then digitally reconstructed using a chemical fading model based on these dye concentrations. Further digital processing is required to compensate for the overemphasis of red in the Ektachrome film and the uneven illumination of the paintings when photographed. With a camera-projector system we calculate the geometric mapping and the radiometric compensation. The geometric mapping yields the coordinate transformations between the projector, the camera, and the digital target image. Subsequently, the color mixing matrix and nonlinear projector response are calculated. With all parameters of the system known, we can calculate the compensation image pixel by pixel and project it with the correct registration onto the faded canvas. This novel restoration technique uses colored light from a digital projector to compensate for color alteration. To our knowledge this approach has not been used for the restoration of paintings before. It recreates the original color appearance without physically changing the paint surface and is therefore completely reversible. In fact, one can easily compare the unrestored and color corrected object by switching the projector on or off. Microfading tests insure that the paintings will not continue to fade as a result of this treatment. As a result, Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals can be viewed and experienced as in 1962.

Neoracism and Scientific Racism in “Post-Racial” Societies Organized by: Nina Jablonski, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Robert W. Sussman, Washington University, St. Louis, MO Discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, or national origin was outlawed in many countries in the latter half of the 20th century. Despite this, differential treatment of people by race and color has persisted, and new forms of racism—here termed neoracism—are being invented. Most forms of neoracism are covert, and are based on assumptions that groups of people called races actually exist and that they differ systematically in aspects of biology, behavior, and/or culture. In this symposium, speakers examine some of the causes and manifestations of neoracism, including the rise of new biomedical and genomic constructs of race, the growth of colorism in communities of color, the historical development of racist ideologies and their rhetoric, and the effects of race labeling and racial iconography on attitudes and performance. Presenters will demonstrate that the persistence of deep-seated beliefs in biogenetic determinism has wide-ranging detrimental effects, including low levels of interest and belief in evolution and the pursuit of education and careers in science. The lived experience of racism and neoracism will be discussed with respect to its effects on human social well-being and health, and on the future of science.

THE PERSISTENCE OF ESSENTIALIZING DISCOURSES IN 'NO SUCH THING AS BIOLOGICAL RACE' Yolanda T. Moses, University of California, Riverside In this paper the author looks at how our notions of biological, social and historical race play out in our institutions and in our everyday lives and in our discourses or everyday conversations, in our media and in our popular culture. In 2013, at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, we still


have very real repercussions in our national institutions and in our lives from the power of both the concept and reality of believing that race is real, both biologically and culturally. While, in the paper the author has established the fact that “race” is a social construct, the reality is that there are still racial disparities in every aspect of our society. There is no basis in reality for the statements often heard in political and policy circles that we live in a “postracial world” or that we should be striving for a “colorblind society.” As long as structural and institutional racism exist, and there is a racialized social hierarchy in which those in power (economic, social and political) are still in place, true racial equity is a myth. All of the conversations about race that we have in this country will not change those racialized status and power dynamics. This continues to be a fruitful area of research well into the 21st century. We still have much to learn about the intractability of this deeply embedded system of privilege in our society.

GENOMICS, RACIAL MEDICINE, AND NEORACISM Joseph Graves Jr., University of North Carolina, Greensboro Color-blind racism is an ideology in which persons of the dominant sociallydefined race (European Americans) claim that racism is no longer the central factor determining the life chances of persons of non-European descent (particularly dark-skinned individuals of African descent.) They argue that instead of the ongoing institutional and individual racism of American society; that non-racial factors such as market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and the cultural attitudes of minorities themselves are the main causal factors of their social subordination. In addition to social subordination, African Americans and other ethnic/racial groups also display pronounced patterns of health disparity (measured by increased morbidity and mortality rates) compared to European Americans. With the development of modern genomics techniques an increasingly genomic determinism narrative is developing around these health disparities. This narrative is particularly influential in biomedical research and clinical practice despite the growing consensus that anatomically-modern humans does not have biological races, and certainly if there are biological races that such races do not match American socially-defined categories. This talk will outline the nature of human genomic variation, why that variation does not justify the classification of biological races within the species, but also why knowledge of genomic differences between populations alone is insufficient to address their patterns of health disparity. Furthermore it will explain why membership in a socially-defined race has real biological consequences; including reducing the mental and physical well-being of the socially-subordinated. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University, Durham, NC In 2008, many Americans as well as people all over the world believed the election of Barrack Obama represented a monumental change in American racial history. In this presentation, I will argue that his election was predictable and in line with the recent (last 40 years) racial history of the country. To make my case, I will do three things. First, outline the basic components of the “New Racism,” the racial regime of Post-Civil Rights America. Second, describe “color-blind racism” or the dominant racial ideology of the nation. Third, explain how the Obama phenomenon fits the “New Racism” and “colorblind racism.” I will conclude my talk by suggesting what needs to be done to advance the struggle for racial justice in the USA.

A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON NEORACISM Jennifer Eberhardt, Stanford University, CA Long ago, those of African descent were likened to apes. Professor Eberhardt will discuss research findings demonstrating the continued dehumanization of African Americans in contemporary society. She will discuss the consequences of the Black-ape association and will highlight a potential culprit in maintaining that association: lay notions of human evolution.

THE SOCIOGENOMIC PARADIGM Catherine Bliss, University of California, San Francisco I will discuss the move in the genomic sciences toward recasting race as a multifaceted entity worth understanding from a genomic perspective. Since the Human Genome Project, geneticists have led public health efforts to recruit racial minorities and innovate health disparities research. Today, as public funding is channeled into racial research that takes a gene-environment

approach, race is being redefined in terms of innate biology, thereby masking critical issues like trans-generational health effects, institutionalized racism, and unequal living conditions.

THE EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC RACISM Nina Jablonski, Pennsylvania State University, University Park The earliest formal descriptions of human “types” by Carolus Linneaus in the mid-eighteenth century were simple and nonhierarchical. Within a few decades, these were followed by descriptions of human “races” by Immanuel Kant and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach that were more detailed and explicitly hierarchical, and that included opinions on the relationship between race and temperament, and race and the capacity for civilization. Skin color became convenient shorthand for these concepts, and the resulting color meme has endured. The widespread distribution of racialist philosophy and racist attitudes profoundly influenced intellectual discussions in Europe and the Americas, and shaped political policy and attitudes toward trade and commerce in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Supported by a new bulwark of scientific evidence, the international and, especially, the transatlantic slave trade, flourished. Concepts of racial superiority and inferiority were supported by a mutually reinforcing network of scientific claims, misinterpretations of the Bible, and commercial interests. The rise of Social Darwinism in the late nineteenth century further reinforced the notion that the superiority of lightly pigmented Europeans was part of the natural order because certain “stocks” were more highly evolved and culturally superior because of their “fitness” and “adaptations.” In the United States and South Africa, especially, color-based hierarchies were reinforced by legal institutions and rhetorical traditions of superiority and inferiority that rested on foundations of scientific racism.

Variability in Speech and Language in Individuals with Autism and Associated Traits Organized by: Alan C. Yu, University of Chicago, IL Individuals on the autism spectrum are characterized by deficits in social interaction, communication, and behavioral flexibility. Recent studies have shown that autistic traits are not restricted to individuals who have clinical diagnoses of autism. Research has focused on identifying markers of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the associated traits (the broader autism phenotype, or BAP) in auditory and language processing, particularly in the domain of pragmatics and discourse. Until recently, however, few studies have looked at the impact that autism spectrum and associated traits have on speech perception and production. Also not yet fully explored is how these findings inform the broader inquiries concerning the nature of human linguistic abilities. Are the differences in linguistic behaviors a reflex of a broken language “faculty” or should they be thought of as quantitative extremes of the normal distribution? This symposium reviews the most current research in the field and considers its implications from linguistic, psychological, and neuropsychological perspectives. The findings highlight the tremendous variations in linguistic abilities among individuals with varying degrees of autistic traits on and off the spectrum. Better understanding the sources of this variability will not only inform future studies of autism, it will also contribute to better appreciation of the complexity of the human language faculty.

VARIABILITY IN SPEECH PRODUCTION IN ADULTS WITH SELF-REPORTED AUTISTIC-LIKE TRAITS Alan C. Yu, University of Chicago, IL Recent studies have shown that speech processing is mediated by “autistic” traits, as measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), in neurotypicals. Do such individual differences also mediate the way one speaks? This presentation will review recent findings suggesting that variation in speech production is mediated by subjects' “autistic” traits.

PERCEPTION OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC VARIATION BY YOUNG ADULTS WITH HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISM Cynthia G. Clopper, Ohio State University, Columbus The complex patterns of strengths and weaknesses of people with highfunctioning autism (HFA) in a range of sociolinguistic tasks, including dialect and age classification, attitude judgments, and implicit imitation, will


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be described. The results demonstrate attention by participants with HFA to relevant sources of social variation, particularly with respect to age and intelligence, suggesting that social abilities in autism are gradient and reflected in language use.

THE BROADER AUTISM PHENOTYPE AND SPEECH PROCESSING STYLE Amanda Seidl, Purdue University, West Lafeyette, IN This talk will examine whether speech processing style on a variety of speech processing tasks (both segmental and suprasegmental) interacts with diagnosis of autism, the presence/absence of specific autistic traits, as well as verbal and non-verbal IQ. Preliminary results indicate clear interactions between diagnosis and task performance style for both segmental and suprasegmental speech perception tasks regardless of IQ.

Rethinking Repatriation of Human Remains: Is It Possible to Move Beyond Conflict? Organized by: Norman MacLeod and Margaret Clegg, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom The repatriation of human remains is often presented as a fundamental dichotomy between scientists and the claimant communities across which no common ground can possibly exist. With education, understanding, and goodwill on both sides, however, it is possible to bridge this perceived gap and develop a respectful approach to human remains access management that satisfies the needs of both communities. This session focuses on how the remains of past peoples are understood, managed, and used by contemporary indigenous and scientific communities. Its purpose is to explore how, by adopting a more holistic approach, we can achieve more successful outcomes and encourage collaborations rather than conflicts. Presentations will emphasize the importance of the connections between past and present societies, and provide examples of how, by building bridges between archaeologists/anthropologists and indigenous claimant communities, collaborations can be initiated. These types of collaborations can help both communities move away from debates that emphasize differences and toward discussion on the valuable contribution both approaches make to the preservation, curation, study, and veneration of human remains.

TRANSCENDING REPATRIATION ISSUES: THE IMPORTANCE OF DIALOGUE T. J. Ferguson, University of Arizona, Tucson Scholarly studies are often commissioned by museums and federal agencies in the United States to provide a basis for determining cultural affiliation pursuant to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Cultural affiliation is the historically traceable shared identity between a present-day Indian tribe and an earlier identifiable group. The determination of cultural affiliation requires examination of scientific, historical and traditional information, and government-to-government consultation with Indian tribes. In addition to documenting significant information about human remains and cultural items subject to repatriation, NAGPRA research and consultation create an opportunity for dialogue between anthropologists and Indian tribes. This dialogue can act as a springboard that leads to productive collaboration on other research projects. In this presentation, I discuss several recent NAGPRA studies that led to academic research that transcended repatriation issues and produced significant new knowledge.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN GENETIC ANALYSIS OF MODERN AND ANCIENT ABORIGINAL DNA Alan Cooper, University of Adelaide, Australia I’ll discuss both the Genographic Project, and more importantly, with our subsequent efforts to engage Aboriginal groups in the genetic analysis of museum archive material, and modern descendants of those individuals, and groups. I’ll cover the role of high level elder contact, personal privacy (approach through elders personal contact, and not local or civic leadership), detailed interactions between scientists and indigenous participants, and the positive feedback that we have received.

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Abstracts

ENGAGEMENT WITH INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES OVER HUMAN REMAINS AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Margaret Clegg, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom The repatriation of human remains is often presented as a simple dichotomy between scientists and the claimant communities in which no common ground can possibly exist. It is however possible, with goodwill on both sides, to understand the values and viewpoints of the other. The Natural History Museum has over the past decade adopted more constructive approaches when meeting with and supporting claimant communities which strives to combine respect for their needs and beliefs while still engaging in discussion about the importance of ancestral human remains to science. This approach necessitated several changes in our traditional way of working in this area, including a requirement to be open in our dealings with indigenous communities, sharing findings, and being prepared to leave the ‘ivory tower’ of the institution and meet with claimant communities on their home territory. We feel, and evidence shows that these initiatives are beginning to break down barriers and enable the scientists at the NHM and the communities to see each other as fellow human beings and cultural allies rather than political adversaries. Our experiences with communities have been many and varied. Our first repatriation, to Tasmania, was a difficult experience but our discussions with the community revealed a mismatch between expectations and understanding. This has formed the basis for a new way forward for the museum. The repatriation of ancestral remains to Torres Strait was the first using our new methods and has allowed an exchange of ideas and understanding to be made which has culminated in the community deciding to leave ancestral Torres Strait remains in trust with the NHM for molecular analysis. This would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Our most recent return was to Hawaii, this was a different experience as there is an expectation in the community that remains will be reburied immediately upon return. However, our long discussions, through meetings and conference calls allowed the community and the museum to move from being adversaries to collaborators, working to ensure that remains of doubtful provenance were correctly identified. Our current claim is from a group of communities in South Australia and we have and are working with these communities and their representatives to share our knowledge with each other and provide a greater understanding of the value and importance of these ancestral remains to all parties. Working with communities is allowing the emphasis to shift from conflict to mutual understanding and the realisation that both researchers and communities have a shared interest, respect and veneration of the remains.

RETURN, RECONCILE, RENEW: NGARRINDJERI RETHINKING REPATRIATION Daryle Rigney, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia Fifty years after the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay the founding documents for the establishment of the British Province of South Australia (1834) promised a just settlement for the original Indigenous habitants and their descendants. Those original commitments were not honoured and South Australia looks today very much like the other Australian States; land taken without consent, without a treaty and where the pre-existing sovereignty of Indigenous peoples was ignored by the South Australian Company in its executive action to establish the Province of South Australia. This presentation considers the original promises made in the Letters Patent in the context of contemporary moves by Ngarrindjeri people to seek repatriation of ancestors stolen from burial grounds on Ngarrindjeri lands. Indigenous campaigns for the return of human remains have been a significant instrument of change in professional practice in museums and other cultural institutions including universities over the past thirty years. Repatriation, however, remains a contentious and often traumatic issue for communities, museums, universities and governments as a result of the continued retention of Indigenous human remains. In 2008 preliminary discussions were held between representatives of the Ngarrindjeri nation and the Natural History Museum London about the repatriation of Ngarrindjeri Old people’s (human) remains held in the collections of the NHM. The Ngarrindjeri want to build on this earlier discussion with the NHM for the return of the Old people from a position which recognises and enacts the promises made by the early British colonists. The sovereign position taken by the Ngarrindjeri nation, through the negotiation of contract agreements with the South Australian Government on other issues, paves the way to rethink repatriation as a process of renewal. Renewal that moves beyond neoliberal biopolitical ‘solutions’ of human remains access management to


acknowledgment of a wrong, the resetting of boundaries on the exercise of power and as a collaborative effort to interrupt colonialisms continuities.

RELINQUISHMENT, REMEMBRANCE, AND REPOSE: MODELS TO SOLVE THE DESTINATION OF HISTORIC RELICS Norman Palmer, Barrister and Adviser, London, United Kingdom Human remains impose numerous and diverse demands upon those who are charged with their custody or release. Demands can be public and private, communal and individual, according to circumstance. At different times the prevailing interests may coincide, coalesce or conflict. Divergent principles may emerge at the point of discovery, relocation, attribution, treatment and destination. In some quarters the role of museums may be pivotal, in others marginal. In no sphere is the challenge to institutions more exacting and delicate than in the treatment of the remains of indigenous persons. This is partly because museums have inherited the possession of remains deposited in earlier times, and partly because their own standards have changed. Public decency and developing notions of the public interest have also played their part. The proportions of the countervailing interests, and the prevalence of one over another, depend in part upon the nature of the remains, their location and the relationships of petitioners. This paper will examine two classes of human remains, concentrating on their possible interrelationship, their association with the public domain at large, the rights of individuals connected to those remains and the varying degrees of intimacy between mortal relics and museums. It will emphasise the legal dimension, the pull of policy and principle, and the recent experience of European jurisdictions. The classes are: (i) the relics of royalty, national leaders and other magnates of particular interest to the history or identity of particular nations or communities, and (ii) indigenous human remains that have come to reside in modern institutions following experiences and events related to colonialism, occupation, exploitation and genocide.

CONFLICT VS CONCORD: AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL FOR HUMAN REMAINS REPATRIATION Norman MacLeod, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom The repatriation of human remains from western museums back to their communities of origin is often presented as a symbolizing a fundamental dichotomy between the scientific research and the claimant communities with regard to the manner in which these remains are valued, across which little other than a common and intense interest in them exists. Examples of insensitivity, misunderstanding, and stereotyping by both sides pepper the history of interactions between these groups. Nevertheless, both groups share a larger number of common interests than is often appreciated. These include interests in the light these remains can shed—tangibly and symbolically—on the origins, history and cultural practices of the groups they represent, the manner in which they can be used—tangibly and symbolically—to educate young people about human history, and the evidence they provide of the common humanity of all people across vast spans of time and space. At The Natural History Museum (London) we have, over the past decade, been deeply engaged in a process of institution-wide constructive engagement with indigenous communities over these issues. It has been our experience that, with education, understanding, and goodwill on both sides, it is possible to bridge the perceived interest gap and develop respectful approaches to human remains access management that satisfies the needs of both communities. These approaches have taken different forms in different cases, but together they span the gamut from full repatriation and surrender of all administrative duties to claimant communities to retention, by mutual agreement, of a larger part of the collections belonging to particular communities to a community-sanctioned commitment to increase the amount of scientific research performed on these collections, in some cases with the active participation of individuals from the owner communities. It is our belief that this process of direct and constructive engagement represents a viable (if not the only) process by which both communities can attain the full and legitimate aspirations. Moreover, we see the products of this approach operating in the repatriation and scientific research programmes of many other institutions. The time has now come to shift the emphasis of human remains repatriation and research work from a focus on ownership to one of engagement and collaboration based on mutual understanding of, and respect for, the valuable contribution both communities’ shared interest in these remains can make to their preservation, study and veneration.

Comparative Advantage: Global Perspectives on Human Biology and Health Organized by: Thomas McDade and William Leonard, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Human physiological systems are products of natural selection, evolved to develop and function in whole organisms that are integral components of surrounding social and physical environments. Developmental plasticity and ecological sensitivity are defining characteristics of human biology, and, as a result, global environmental variation produces substantial variation in human biology around the world. Yet the vast majority of research on human biology is conducted in controlled clinical settings in affluent industrialized countries, and cannot capture the full range of socio-ecological environments that may be important for gaining insights into the development, function, and evolution of critical physiological systems. A field-based, comparative approach to research on human biology in diverse communities around the world has the potential to advance our understanding of the causes and consequences of human biological variation, and to complement—and at times challenge—prevailing clinic- and lab-based research paradigms. This symposium features recent research in biological anthropology that highlights the value of a comparative human biology approach. Presentations will draw on data collected from field sites in North and South America, Asia, the South Pacific, and Africa to generate insights into human immune function, reproductive aging, nutrition and metabolism, and chronic disease.

THREE EVOLUTIONARY ROUTES TO THE ROOF OF THE WORLD: THE ANDES, TIBET, AND ETHIOPIA Cynthia M. Beall, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH High-altitude native populations, exposed to the lifelong stress of low barometric pressure and partial pressure of inspired oxygen, represent natural experiments in evolution and adaptation. Fieldwork on the major high-altitude plateaus discovered that Andean, Tibetan, and Ethiopian Amhara highlanders differ from their lowland counterparts in ways that appear to offset the unavoidable stress of hypoxia. Unexpectedly, the three highland populations also differ among themselves. For example, Andean highlanders have persistently elevated hemoglobin concentration levels, while Tibetan and Ethiopian Amhara do not. The Tibetan trait of relatively low-hemoglobin concentration associates, in multiple studies, with single nucleotide polymorphism sites in an oxygen sensor (EGLN1) and an oxygen homeostasis transcription factor (EPAS1) gene. In contrast, the Ethiopian Amhara trait of relatively low-hemoglobin concentration associates, in one study, with one SNP. The genetic basis of the Andean response of elevated hemoglobin concentration is unknown, although the trait reverses when Andean highlanders migrate to low altitudes, suggesting that for some reason this population has acclimatized while the other two have undergone natural selection. Discovering the explanation for the three different microevolutionary patterns offers insight into ongoing evolutionary processes. Identification of relevant genes paradoxically leads to considering other environmental factors that may influence their expression in these three populations. The different phenotypes and involved pathways have implications for vulnerability to disease and have the potential to point the way to new therapies for hypoxic patients at all altitudes.

DEVELOPMENTAL AND TEMPORAL APPROACHES TO HUMAN BIOLOGY AND HEALTH IN SAMOA Stephen McGarvey, Brown University, Providence, RI The impact of global socio-economic forces on current population biology and health among Samoans has produced very high body mass index (BMI), adiposity and cardiometabolic risk levels over time. These are associated with individual and ecological measures of modernization. In particular, obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and lipid and lipoprotein risk levels are at extremely high levels throughout the Samoan archipelago, and among Samoans and other Polynesians in the US and other high income nations to which they emigrated in the last 40 years. The presentation will emphasize the integration of evolutionary, demographic and historical forces with contemporary nutritional exposures, genetic and epigenetic influences, culturally patterned behaviors, and world economic forces as a way to understand the high levels of non-communicable disease in Samoans. This approach may also allow for efficacious and sustainable interventions. Globally obesity is rising rap-


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idly with each generation more overweight than the last, suggesting that the Samoan pattern of obesity, once remarkable and uncommon, may become more common. Thus, this relatively isolated and rapidly modernizing population can stand as an excellent model for environmental and genetic forces driving global obesity and non-communicable disease risk trends. Earlier results documented the rise in NCD risk factors with economic development and individual dietary intake and physical activity pattern across sex and age groups. Recent work showed how global and Pacific political-economic forces influence food availabilities and prices. The unique population history of the Samoas has led to evolutionary scenarios about the forces of genetic drift and natural selection on key reproductive success traits related to energy storage, availability and metabolic use. This led us to search for the biologically-based susceptibilities underlying the body fatness and NCD risk factors. We identified familial aggregation and associations with genetic variation for NCD traits and also found gene-by-environment interactions. We do not have any solid evidence for any special unique genetic variants that predispose Samoans to obesity. Two new research directions may also contribute interdisciplinary answers to questions about NCDs in Samoans, We are conducting genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of with quality dietary and physical activity data. New studies on maternal, pregnancy and early life factors on child health are also underway, including establishing a Samoan birth cohort focused on fetal growth rates in relation to maternal factors and gestational exposures and how fetal growth rate variations influence postnatal growth rates in this overweight population. This lifespan developmental approach emphasizing fetal and early life influences and adaptive mechanisms along with the broader temporal perspectives about changes in ways of life should will yield novel findings and interpretations about Samoan health and human biology.

THE METABOLIC IMPERATIVE: EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN ENERGY DYNAMICS William Leonard, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL The study of energy is central to the field of human evolutionary biology because it is an important currency for measuring both adaptation and health. Indeed, shifts in the acquisition and allocation of energy underlie most of the major trends in human evolution. This paper draws on data from contemporary human populations around the world to show the influence of both natural selection and lifestyle change in shaping variation in energy dynamics and nutritional health.

YOU ARE WHAT YOUR MOTHER ATE: HOW OUR ANCESTORS' DIETS SHAPE OUR HEALTH Christopher Kuzawa, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL It is increasingly well known that our current health also reflects diets eaten in the recent past by our parents and even grandparents. Anthropological research in diverse populations illustrates the myriad ways that our bodies “remember” the diets consumed by recent ancestors, with implications for development and well-being in current and future generations.

VARIATION IN THE MENOPAUSAL TRANSITION: HAWAII, MEXICO, AND BANGLADESH Lynette Leidy-Sievert, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Ages at menopause and symptom experiences at midlife differ within and across populations. These differences may explain some of the global variation in chronic health concerns. In this talk, three studies are detailed in which median ages at menopause were computed for diverse populations. Menstrual histories were collected in the same way, and identical methods of analyses resulted in median ages at menopause that span five years: 48.1 years among Bangladeshis living in Sylhet, Bangladesh; 49.2 years among Bangladeshi immigrants living in London; 49.6 years in Puebla, Mexico; 52.8 years among British women of European descent living in London; and 53.0 years in Hilo, Hawaii, regardless of ethnicity. Within populations, determinants of an earlier age at menopause included smoking, lower levels of education, fewer children, rural birthplace, more infectious diseases during childhood, and being unmarried. Some determinants were common across studies (e.g., level of education), others were specific to a particular context (e.g., infectious diseases during childhood). A comparative approach is also applied to examine symptom frequencies at midlife in relation to diverse climates, diets, reproductive histories, health-related behaviors, and cultures that influence the degree to which symptoms are noticed, labeled, and ap-

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propriate to report. For example, in Hilo, Hawaii, Japanese-American women reported fewer hot flashes but objectively demonstrated the same number of hot flashes as their European-American neighbors. This presentation addresses variation in age at menopause, the measurement and interpretation of variation in symptom experience among women at midlife, and potential health consequences.

IS CHRONIC INFLAMMATION A DISEASE OF AFFLUENCE? INSIGHTS FROM ASIA AND AMAZONIA Thomas McDade, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Recent research has implicated inflammatory processes in the pathophysiology of a wide range of chronic degenerative diseases, even though inflammation has long been recognized as a critical line of defense against infectious disease. But current scientific understandings of the links between chronic lowgrade inflammation and diseases of aging are based primarily on research in high income nations with low levels of infectious disease, and high levels of overweight/obesity. From a comparative and historical point of view, this epidemiological situation is relatively unique, and may not capture the full range of ecological variation necessary to understand the processes that shape the development of inflammatory phenotypes. The human immune system is characterized by substantial developmental plasticity, and a comparative, developmental, ecological framework is needed to understand the complex associations among early environments, the regulation of inflammation, and disease. This presentation discusses results from recent studies in the Philippines and lowland Ecuador that reveal low levels of chronic inflammation despite higher burdens of infectious disease, and point toward nutritional and microbial exposures in infancy as important determinants of inflammation in adulthood. By shaping the regulation of inflammation, early environments moderate responses to inflammatory stimuli later in life, with implications for the association between inflammation and chronic diseases. A comparative human biology approach suggests that chronic inflammation may be a “disease of affluence”, and it points toward promising directions for future research on inflammation and the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.

The Large Cognitive Implications of Small Languages Organized by: D. H. Whalen, City University of New York, New York City Human infants seem ready to learn any language, arguing for an impressive array of universal language-learning strategies. However, the end result of learning is clearly not uniform. Languages are different, by definition, because speakers of one language can't understand the other. Do speakers process the languages differently as well? This symposium explores several aspects of this issue, with a focus on smaller, often endangered languages: languages are falling silent at a higher rate than bird and mammal species are going extinct. In the meantime, linguists are exploring indigenous knowledge of remaining speakers to better understand how languages can be so different and yet function in similar brains. Function words such as, "the" and "from" are often lost in agrammatic (Broca's) aphasia; what happens when similar brain areas are affected in a speaker of a language like Navajo, that essentially lacks function words? Is expression easier, or is a different kind of grammatical process lost? How do the typical structures of a language change the way information is presented in a sentence? How different is the soundscape of a language that can distinguish words just by choosing one of five pitches for it? How different are sentence processing strategies in small, unwritten languages from those large, written languages that are typically studied? The symposium explores these issues and highlights the urgency of studying them while we still can.

STUDYING NAVAJO APHASIA: CULTURAL ROADBLOCKS AND THEIR IMPACT ON SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS Mary Ann Willie, University of Arizona, Tucson Navajo is agglutinative, incorporating much of a sentence’s material into the verb. It thus has very few function words (such as “the” and “from” in English). Broca’s aphasics often lose their function words, so what happens when the patient speaks Navajo? In attempting to study this question, roadblocks appeared. First, there were no psycholinguistic tests for Navajo. Surprisingly, cultural strictures interfered as well, making the project require an unusually large amount of rethinking.


TONE PERCEPTION IN RURAL MEXICO: CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS AND SPEECH THEORY Christian DiCanio, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT Trique, an indigenous language of Mexico, has an elaborate tone system that distinguishes words using up to nine distinct pitch patterns. Some of the intriguing questions in languages like this are "Exactly how do native speakers tell the different words apart?" and "Are speakers of these languages exceptional in their ability to perceive pitch differences?" Linguistic research on other tone languages, like Chinese or Thai, has found that native listeners of a tone language are better at perceiving pitch than native listeners of non-tonal languages. Here, the opposite was found. Listeners of French, a non-tonal language, were better at discriminating pitch than native Trique listeners. Along with listeners' differing educational backgrounds, differing linguistic and cultural expectations seem to be the cause.

CONTACT LANGUAGES AS A WINDOW INTO COGNITION Marlyse Baptista, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Creole languages may arise when languages in contact are mixed. The selection of features has long been seen as rich evidence for universals in language. But how do the features get selected and why do some features get selected (or disfavored) over others? We investigate the case of Cape Verdean Creole showing how morphological similarity and functional overlap between elements in multiple source languages collaborated to the development of this new language.

LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN CHAMORRO: THEORETICAL LESSONS FROM A LANGUAGE OF THE PACIFIC Matt Wagers, University of California, Santa Cruz Language processing is usually investigated in university laboratories, severely limiting the range of languages and populations. We relate the challenges and implications of our onsite psycholinguistic research in the Mariana Islands, where we study sentence comprehension in Chamorro, an endangered language spoken by 45,000 people. In Chamorro, the verb comes early in the sentence and we show how its pattern of inflection guides speakers to predict the meaning of only partially heard sentences.

LOOK WHERE MY LANGUAGE TELLS YOU TO LOOK! TZELTAL WORD ORDER DETERMINES EYE GAZE Elisabeth Norcliffe, Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen, Netherlands To what extent does the language we speak influence how we plan our utterances? Eye tracking evidence from Tzeltal, a Mayan language, reveals that the uptake of visual information in pictures of simple events is affected by the word order of the to-be-uttered sentence. This indicates that the time course of sentence formulation may be mediated by language-specific grammatical properties. The freer word order of Tzeltal, as compared with English, allows us to see this difference.

THE POLYSYNTHETIC LEXICON: WORD RETRIEVAL AND LEARNING IN PARADIGMATIC SYSTEMS Joyce McDonough, University of Rochester, NY Complex ‘polysynthetic’ word formation, common in indigenous languages of North America, makes for a very different kind of word finding than isolating language like English. Each word in such languages is embedded in dense neighborhoods of related words. Dense neighborhoods have been shown to impede lexical retrieval in English, but polysynthetic languages are still effective. We show how the Dene languages organize word forms into paradigms to efficiently achieve word retrieval and learning.

Behavioral and Social Sciences Using Social Science to Change Decisions and Improve Health Outcomes Organized by: Arthur Lupia, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor People make many decisions that affect their health. Some of these decisions serve them well; other decisions lead to tragic outcomes such as

heart attacks and strokes. Despite the existence of information that can help people make better decisions, unfortunate outcomes occur. Health practitioners, government agencies, and other concerned citizens continue to raise important questions about why people ignore information that could improve the quality of their lives. A growing number of social scientists are working to improve health decision-making and related outcomes by conducting rigorous and innovative evaluations of what people know about their health and when they are willing to learn more about it. This research offers new insights on the comparative effectiveness of various existing and new ways to communicate health-related information. It also shows how and when distinct approaches are needed to change the behaviors of particular audiences. This symposium includes insights from the social sciences that demonstrate how to present information in ways that change health-related decisions and improve health-related outcomes.

HOW VARIATIONS IN THE PUBLIC'S KNOWLEDGE AFFECTS ITS OPINIONS OF NEW HEALTH POLICIES Trevor Tompson, Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Bethesda, MD Knowledge can sometimes influence public support for health-related policies and programs, while other times knowledge may have little impact. I will present examples from several recent surveys to show that in some cases, such as the Affordable Care Act, knowledge is significantly related to support for public policy. On the other hand, such as in the case of the obesity epidemic, knowledge has less impact on opinions about policy solutions. I will use these examples to frame a broader discussion of the relationship between knowledge and public opinion about health policy.

HOW TO ASSESS DECISION-RELEVANT KNOWLEDGE Wandi Bruine de Bruin, Leeds University, United Kingdom Measures of health knowledge often cover basic facts that are not central to people's health decisions. It should therefore be no surprise when such knowledge measures are unrelated to health behaviors. This paper shows how the mental models methodology can be used to design and evaluate measures of decision-relevant knowledge, and to identify additional skills that are necessary for behavior change.

WHEN CAN THE POLITICIZATION OF SCIENCE AFFECT PUBLIC VIEWS OF HEALTH INNOVATIONS? James N. Druckman, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL The politicization of science occurs when political interests shape the presentation of scientific facts to fit distinct models of “reality.” Yet, virtually no work explores how politicization influences support for innovations such as nanotechnology. We address this increasingly pressing issue using an experiment that focuses on how health concerns about new innovations are affected by other considerations.

Building Babies: Development, Evolution, and Human Health Organized by: Katie Hinde, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA How do we, as individuals, become who we are? How our bodies function, our minds perceive the world, and we behaviorally respond to the challenges we face are shaped by early life experiences. Recent research by evolutionary anthropologists, biopsychologists, nutritionists, and behavioral neuroscientists has demonstrated that a developmental, evolutionary perspective substantially informs our understanding of the phenomena of individual differences. This symposium discusses mechanisms and pathways through which early life environment exert profound influences on humans and non-human primates and considers the potential functions of this developmental plasticity regulating life-history trade-offs. In this symposium, speakers will juxtapose the behavioral care of mothers, fathers, and wider social networks with physiological investment of the placenta and mother’s milk. Moreover, epigenetic modification can result from the interaction between the infant’s genome and the behavioral and physiological environments of early life and previous generations. This symposium will provide exposure to a wide range of methodological and theoretical ap-


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proaches to developmental trajectories and model how researchers might productively integrate these different perspectives into their own work.

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE CYCLES: IMPLICATIONS FOR FERTILITY Kathryn Clancy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign At many points within a woman’s reproductive span, it is more normal to have variable menstrual cycles than regular ones. Yet we pathologize women who stray too far from the 28-day norm, naming and medicalizing these states rather than understanding them in the context of age, reproductive state and environment. Psychosocial stress, energy availability and immune challenges are environmental factors that particularly influence cycles across the reproductive span, from ovarian hormones and follicular dynamics, to the lining of the uterus. These effects are largely reversible when these challenges diminish, providing yet more evidence that modulation of the menstrual cycle is functional and adaptive. Numerous lines of research have unequivocally demonstrated that when subject to ecological constraint, the first components of ovarian function to experience suppression are in the luteal phase. Yet the proximate mechanisms that underlie variation in conception, implantation, and thus pregnancy rates, all of which require an understanding of luteal reproductive function, are under-described. Emergent themes in the evolutionary study of women’s reproductive function allow us to explain and promote additional research on the functional modulation of menstrual cycles. This in turn makes it possible to examine unique aspects of human conception, implantation and pregnancy, and more carefully bound definitions of pathology. Examining environmental effects via an inflammatory mechanism offer a new way to understand variation in ovarian hormones, follicular dynamics, and endometrial function.

personalized clinical recommendations and health optimization for mothers and their infants. Such research also highlights the importance of establishing infrastructure and institutional support for breastfeeding promotion and facilitation. Lastly, and quite importantly, a better understanding of the composition and function of milk informs the manufacture of more representative infant formulas. Milk matters.

EARLY EXPERIENCES AND EPIGENETIC PLASTICITY IN NON-HUMAN PRIMATES Erin L. Kinnally, California National Primate Research Center, Davis Early psychosocial experiences exert a potent effect on lifelong socio-emotional well-being and health in humans and non-human primates, but the neurogenomic mechanisms are only recently emerging. Dynamic reorganization of stress pathway gene expression patterns has been documented across species following many types of early life experiences. We know that these changes may contribute to healthy and pathological socio-emotional behavior. We know less about how these changes are maintained across the lifespan. The epigenetic landscape in neural stress pathway structures and genes may play a role in some of the long-term neurobehavioral effects of early stress. I will discuss the relationships among early stress, the neural epigenetic landscape, and behavioral development in a non-human primate, the rhesus macaque. This area of research has evolutionary as well as biomedical implications. Unraveling pathways of inheritance and development will help us understand their effects at the individual and potentially even evolutionary levels. This area of research further engenders optimism that, while the epigenetic landscape may put some children at risk for poor health outcomes, it may also be one key to interventions that improve the socio-emotional wellbeing of at-risk children and their families.

A PLACENTIFESTO: MATERNAL ECOLOGY AND FETAL PROGRAMMING AMONG PRIMATES

FATHERS, PHYSIOLOGY, AND FAMILY SYSTEMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PARENT/CHILD WELL-BEING

Julienne Rutherford, University of Illinois, Chicago

Lee T. Gettler, University of Notre Dame, IN

The primate placenta serves as the biological bridge between mother and fetus. Cues about the immediate maternal ecology as well as her historic experience are conveyed by the placenta via many anatomical and physiological paths. The placenta is thus ground zero for shaping the health of young during infancy, adulthood, and inter-generationally to subsequent offspring. My particular focus will be on bridging a female primate’s experience in utero and the in utero experience she provides her developing daughter in a “Womb to Womb” framework of developmental programming. This discussion is based on my work in two primate species: common marmoset monkeys and humans.

In humans, relatively little is known about how paternal hormones underlie male behavior within family systems and the implications for parent/child well-being. Recently, Gettler’s prospective studies revealed an “Endocrinology of Fatherhood” -decreased testosterone, increased prolactin- previously documented in other taxa with evolved paternal care. In this way natural selection may have shaped male biology during hominin evolution, increasing male efficacy as partners and parents.

FOOD, MEDICINE, AND SIGNAL: MOTHER'S MILK PROGRAMS INFANT DEVELOPMENT Katie Hinde, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Milk is abundant at our local grocery store in the form of dairy products and infant formulas. This ubiquity of standardized milk in our modern environment has the potential for the general public, and even researchers, to think of milk one dimensionally. Milk is not just food though, milk is also medicine and signal. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of other “bioactives” are present in mother’s milk. Importantly, milk is not uniform across mothers or within a single mother across time. Maternal health, nutrition, culture, reproductive history, early-life conditions, and genes all contribute to differences in milk composition. Less understood are the consequences of that variation for infant development and fitness outcomes. Here I will present emerging research that addresses the magnitude, sources, and consequences of inter-individual variation of bioactive constituents in milk in the rhesus monkey. Long-term research at the Comparative Lactation Lab and the California National Primate Research Center has produced >1000 milk samples from hundreds of rhesus macaque mothers (Macaca mulatta) since 2005. Fats, proteins, sugars, minerals, hormones, bacteria, and other constituents in mother’s milk are highly variable and often differ between milk produced for sons and daughters. Milk exerts important influences on infant behavior, growth, and development and through those effects has consequences for transitions to adulthood and initiation of the reproductive career. Better understanding of variation in milk composition, especially for milk constituents linked to infant cognition, neurodevelopment, behavior, and metabolism, enhances an evolutionary biological perspective of parent-offspring dynamics. Moreover, biological and social scientific research on this topic can be directly translated into more

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PARENTAL CARE, INSTITUTIONAL ALLOPARENTING, AND CHILD HEALTH OUTCOMES IN JAMAICA Robin Nelson, University of California, Riverside Studies in human reproduction consistently find that survival in infancy and early childhood is largely dependent upon the presence of reliable and highly invested caretakers. More often than not, these caretakers consist of biologically related kin. However, it is widely accepted that humans create and maintain families in a multitude of ways. Although humans have the cognitive ability and social complexity to modify the enactment of these familial forms, all kin and caretakers are not equally able to invest in dependent offspring. In this presentation, I will discuss the diversity of familial forms in the Caribbean, and my research on parental and alloparental investment, institutional care settings and child health outcomes in Jamaica. Specifically, this study examines the growth and development of children living in state-sponsored residential childcare facilities as compared to their age and gender matched peers who are living with their biological family members. Ethnographic, anthropometric, and biometric data were collected from children living throughout the central mountainous region of the Jamaica. Investment received by these children varies considerably in different care settings. This variability in received care correlates to differential health outcomes. This research explores whether institutional care settings simulate parental investment behaviors, and whether living with biological kin is consistently more beneficial to the growth and development of young children. It also examines how cultural variability in parenting styles may correlate to different forms of investment. By investigating the setting and the contexts of care for these children, we gain broader insights into the various pathways by which children obtain access to essential psychosocial and material resources essential to their successful navigation of this important developmental period. Most critically, we also learn what happens when these avenues of investment are unavailable.


How to Rebuild Informed Trust in Science: Insights from Social Sciences Organized by: Rainer Bromme, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany Many decisions in one’s personal, public, or professional spheres are based on scientific information, and advances in information technologies make access to information easy. However, ease of access forces non-experts to make informed choices about which source to trust. Non-experts can understand only at a broad level why a certain science-based knowledge claim might be true. Hence, the public has to rely on a (preferably informed) trust in science-based information and in the sources of such information. Developing informed trust is challenging because difficulties in understanding scientific information come along with the experience that establishing scientific evidence is a continuous and ongoing process, and that thereby many results as well as theories are discussed as tentative truth within the discourse of science. Even those scientific findings where a majority of scientists agree (e.g., climate change) are continuously subject to debate and all findings are, in principle, revisable. However, in the face of needing concrete answers and immediate problem solving, the evolving nature of science knowledge may lead the public to question and discount the general veracity of science information. Researchers from communication science as well as from psychology and learning sciences will discuss detrimental as well as enhancing conditions for the evolution of informed trust in science in light of fragile and conflicting scientific evidence.

INTRO: PERSONAL RESOURCES FOR THE EVOLVEMENT OF INFORMED TRUST IN SCIENCE INFORMATION Rainer Bromme, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany Based on empirical evidence from psychological research on trust and on vigilance against cheating the paper will decompose the elements of informed trust. Mostly people judge heuristically about the competence, pertinence and the intentions of those who provide science based knowledge claims, based on everyday assumptions (a folk theory of Science) as well as on everyday experiences with trust and distrust. Such everyday assumptions could be a resource for (re-) building informed trust in Science.

WHAT CITIZENS THINK THEY KNOW ABOUT SCIENCE AND WHY IT MATTERS Nick Allum, University of Essex, United Kingdom In some areas of science, beliefs and attitudes among citizens are becoming increasingly polarised, even politicised, despite all sides having access to the same information. Why? In this paper we examine the distinct roles of information and misinformation in explaining public mistrust of early-childhood vaccination programmes. We show how personalised media environments can amplify or attenuate these effects and we make recommendations for appropriate communication strategies.

SELECTIVE SEARCH FOR AND EVALUATION OF RESEARCH: THE VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES DEBATE Mario Gollwitzer, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany Laypersons' distrust in science might be due to a lack of understanding, but distrust can also be motivated in the sense that research programs and findings challenge people's "sacred" value systems or their social identity. One area in which motivated biases among laypersons can be fruitfully investigated is research on the (harmful) effects of playing violent video games. In three studies, we found that people who strongly identify with the group of "gamers" devalue research findings (and the respective researchers) if these findings suggest that playing violent video games does have harmful effects. Such research implies a threat to the social identity of highly identified gamers; thus, devaluing it can be understood as a coping response ("collective action") to a social identity threat. Two further studies show that people who consider nonviolence to be a sacred value (i.e., "deontological pacifists") selectively search for research findings that confirm harmful effects of violent video games if their moral value system is threatened. Taken together, these findings suggest that simply teaching laypersons how science works may not be sufficient for building their trust in science. Rather, sincere attempts to (re)build trust in science should take social and moral identity concerns of the general public, and the motivated biases that follow from these concerns, into account.

THE ROLE OF LEARNING IN BUILDING TRUST Bruce V. Lewenstein, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Many current efforts to build trust in science operate under the label of "public engagement." But in recent research on "learning science in informal environments" and in research on public knowledge and attitudes, "public engagement" has been used in different ways. This has been especially true when addressing global issues (such as climate change) or issues with strong national culture components (such as ethics of genetic counseling). This talk will explore how specific understandings of "public engagement" affect issues of public trust in science.

DOES IT HARM TRUST TO OPENLY COMMUNICATE SCIENTIFIC UNCERTAINTY? Michaela Maier, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany To ensure informed decision making, citizens should know about uncertainties that accompany scientific innovations. However, scientists and journalists fear adverse effects from the presentation of scientific uncertainties on citizens’ attitudes towards science. Our presentation summarizes the research on how media reports that include information about scientific uncertainty affect citizens’ trust and other related dimensions such as interest in science or beliefs about scientific knowledge.

TRUST DEFICIT MODELS: THE NEW DEAD END FOR COMMUNICATING CONTROVERSIAL SCIENCE? Dietram A. Scheufele, University of Wisconsin, Madison This talk examines recent claims that that declining levels of trust in the scientific enterprise are responsible for a lack of support for science among U.S. publics. Using a combination of data from the General Social Survey since the 1960s and a series of recent national survey data on nanotechnology, nuclear energy and synthetic biology, it (a) shows that levels of trust in science have in fact not declined over time, and (b) examines the relative impact of trust in science on attitudes, when compared to more stable predispositions, such as deference toward scientific authority.

Rhythmic Entrainment in Non-Human Animals: An Evolutionary Trail of Time Perception Organized by: Patricia M. Gray, University of North Carolina, Greensboro There is increased research interest in the temporal dynamics of real-time behavior, a pathway that offers enriched opportunities to study fundamental determinants of animal communication systems. Because temporal processing is the underlying component of many neuronal networks in animal brains, there is strong support that many characteristics encompassing communicative behaviors are in some way influenced by time. For instance, synchronization between human brains has been observed in a variety of communicative situations, and synchronization of brain rhythms to acoustic and/or visual stimuli has been observed in both the macaque brain and the human brain. Evidence continues to mount that in humans, temporal processing underlies most, if not all, auditory processing abilities with specific importance to multi-timescale, quasi-rhythmic properties of speech and musical communication. Thus, the fundamental and ubiquitous role that temporal dynamics serve for humans is driving increased pursuits in this research with non-human animals, and particularly other primates. These new studies hold increasing promise for understanding the evolutionary trajectories of perception and cognition of temporal dynamics, for non-verbal/first-order languaging behaviors, for biological anthropology, and for research focused on the underlying structures of animal communication systems.

SEA LIONS CAN KEEP A BEAT: IMPLICATIONS FOR A COMPARATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF RHYTHM Peter Cook, University of California, Santa Cruz We've shown that a vocally stereotypic animal, a California sea lion, can move in time to a wide range of rhythmic auditory stimuli, up to and including music. Along with other recent findings, this suggests that the neural mechanisms underpinning flexible beat keeping may be much more widely distributed across the animal kingdom than previously thought. Our findings will be discussed from a broadly comparative evolutionary perspective.


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PREFERRED TEMPO AND TEMPO MATCHING IN BONOBO APES (PAN PANISCUS) Edward W. Large, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton We conducted a preferred tempo experiment with bonobo apes (Pan paniscus). In this study a human experimenter performed a series of metronome matched tempi ranging from 160 to 280 bpm. Our results suggest that this bonobo prefers faster tempi (approximately 230 bpm), plays slower in response to slower tempi, and is capable of matching stimulus tempo in this form of social interaction. Implications for the evolution of rhythmic auditory communication are discussed.

SPONTANEOUS SYNCHRONIZED TAPPING TO EXTERNAL RHYTHMS IN CHIMPANZEES Yuko Hattori, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan Humans actively use behavioral synchrony such as dancing and singing when they intend to make affiliative relationships. Such advanced synchronous movement occurs even unconsciously when we hear rhythmically complex music. A foundation for this tendency may be an evolutionary adaptation for group living but evolutionary origins of human synchronous activity is unclear. Here I introduce our study showing that our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, spontaneously synchronize their movements with auditory rhythms: After a training to tap illuminated keys on an electric keyboard, one chimpanzee spontaneously aligned her tapping with the sound when she heard an isochronous distractor sound. Another chimpanzee also spontaneously coordinated his tapping timing to the auditory rhythm. These results suggest that sensitivity to, and tendency toward synchronous movement with an auditory rhythm already existed in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, although humans may have expanded it to unique forms of auditory and visual communication during the course of human evolution.

ARE MACAQUES CAPABLE OF RHYTHMIC ENTRAINMENT? Hugo Merchant, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Querétaro On the basis of previous work from our and other labs studies we propose the auditory timing dissociation hypothesis that suggests that humans share rhythm perception (or interval-based timing) with other primates, but where rhythmic entrainment (or beat-based timing) is only present in a primitive fashion in macaques and strongly present in humans and some bird species.

THE EVOLUTION OF MUSICAL RHYTHM: WHICH SPECIES CAN SYNCHRONIZE WITH A BEAT, AND WHY? Aniruddh Patel, Tufts University, Medford, MA Moving in synchrony with a musical beat is seen in every human culture, yet is not commonly observed in our familiar animal companions such as dogs, cats, and farm animals. How did this capacity arise in evolution, and is it really restricted to certain species? According to the “vocal learning and rhythmic synchronization hypothesis” (Patel, 2006), only animals capable of vocal learning (learning to produce complex vocal signals based on auditory experience and sensory feedback) have the capacity to synchronize to a musical beat in a manner similar to humans, because only these species have the rich auditory-motor neural connections that support this ability. This hypothesis has now been tested by different scientists examining a variety of species, including several parrot species, Asian elephants, macaque monkeys, chimpanzees, and California sea lions. I will review these studies and point the way to future research with other species (including dogs and horses) which can help further test and refine the vocal learning hypothesis.

Physiological and Cultural Foundations of Human Social Behavior Organized by: Geraldine Barry, European Commission, Joint Research Center, Brussels, Belgium The human animal is the most sophisticated cooperator in the animal kingdom. No other species disposes of such fine-tuned social interactions, enabling the "human animal" to create complex societies and economies. To make this complex cooperation work, it needs elements of human social behavior like empathy, fairness perceptions and betrayal aversion. This session focuses on recent findings in social neurosciences and behavioral

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economics on the physiological and cultural foundations of these traits of human social behavior.

CULTURAL AND NEURAL BASIS OF EMPATHY Joan Chiao, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Empathy is a key facet of social behavior and precursor to altruism. This session will provide a cultural neuroscience approach to understanding how cultural and biological mechanisms foster empathy and altruism as adaptive behavior. In particular, theory and evidence that cultural values for fairness in hierarchical and egalitarian groups are associated with neural mechanisms of empathy will be presented. Implications of this research for public policy and population health will be discussed.

NEURAL SIGNATURES OF BETRAYAL AVERSION Daniel Houser, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Decisions are said to be “risky” when they are made in environments with uncertainty caused by nature. In contrast, a decision is said to be “trusting” when its outcome depends on the uncertain decisions of another person. A rapidly expanding literature reveals economically important differences between risky and trusting decisions, and further suggests these differences are due to “betrayal aversion”. While its neural foundations have not been previously illuminated, the prevailing hypothesis is that betrayal aversion stems from a desire to avoid negative emotions that arise from learning one’s trust was betrayed. Here we provide evidence from an fMRI study that supports this hypothesis. In particular, our data indicate that anterior insula modulates trusting decisions that involve the possibility of betrayal.

SPITE VERSUS FAIRNESS: WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN THE BRAIN? Benedikt Herrmann, European Commission, Joint Research Center, Ispra, Italy Human sense for fairness is intrinsically related to the readiness to punish free-riders even at self-cost. This behavior is fundamental to keep complex human cooperation running. It has been dubbed as "altruistic punishment". However, the driving psychological forces behind it are still unclear. This presentation will show some recent neurobiological findings indicating that not all of this punishment is purely fairness driven, but rather associated with competitive spite.

Guns and Violence: Psychological, Economic, Political and Public Policy Implications Organized by: Richard N. Aslin, University of Rochester, NY; Martin S. Banks, University of California, Berkeley; Garen J. Wintemute, University of California, Davis The factors that lead to gun violence are complex and multifaceted. Over the past decade, there have been a number of high-profile instances of gun violence in the United States and a passionate debate about Second Amendment rights versus public safety. This symposium touches on key factors in this debate by first reviewing the empirical research on policy interventions designed to mitigate gun violence. The impact of mental illness on gun use, including domestic violence and suicide, will then be reviewed to evaluate the effectiveness of public policy initiatives. Technological and biometric methods of limiting gun use to legal gun owners will be reviewed, along with the political ramifications of such methods. Finally, the economics of the gun market will be reviewed, with a focus on illegal transfer of gun ownership and the methods available to mitigate such illegal transfers. Of particular relevance to illegal gun transfers are a variety of studies that have implications for gun access by non-authorized users and the burden that such access places on law enforcement officials. This symposium covers the range of issues that impact the use of guns in the U.S. and other countries, and provides a comprehensive assessment of how psychological, economic, political, technological, and public policy factors affect violence in society.


POLICY INTERVENTIONS TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE: CURRENT FINDINGS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS Garen J. Wintemute, University of California, Davis Do firearms laws prevent crimes? Research on the effectiveness of policies intended to prevent firearm violence has yielded sometimes-conflicting results. This presentation will survey that research, focusing in part on policies that prohibit firearm ownership and possession by high-risk persons. It will discuss new “policy experiments” that could yield important data to help guide future violence prevention efforts.

MENTAL ILLNESS, VIOLENCE RISK, AND GUN POLICY REFORMS: EVIDENCE FOR NEW APPROACHES Jeffrey Swanson, Duke University, Durham, NC After the Sandy Hook tragedy, several states have enacted or proposed new firearms laws with broad implications for people with mental disorders and for mental health providers. Federal laws restricting gun access for mentally ill individuals may also be changed. This presentation will describe and compare public policy approaches to reducing risk of gun violence and suicide in people with mental disorders and will critically examine evidence for the likely effectiveness of these strategies.

KEEPING GUNS FROM PERPETRATORS OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE Daniel Webster, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD A study conducted in 11 U.S. cities will be reviewed. That research found that the risk of women being murdered by a current or former intimate partner increased five-fold when the abuser owned a firearm. Laws prohibiting persons subject to restraining orders for domestic violence from possessing firearms have reduced intimate partner homicides. Proactive enforcement of these laws could increase the number of lives saved.

PERSONALIZED GUNS: BENEFITS, TECHNOLOGY, AND POLITICS Stephen Teret, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Personalized guns are operable only by authorized users. The technology for such guns exists, and could be implemented to replace the traditional guns that can be transferred to any user. Estimates of the lives saved by single-user guns will be reviewed. Political and public-policy hurdles that must be overcome to shift to single-user guns will be discussed.

THE DYNAMICS OF ILLEGAL GUN MARKETS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS Anthony A. Braga, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ Studies using a variety of methods have revealed much about the general structure and function of illegal firearm markets and variation in specifics from place to place. These findings have implications for firearm policy and law enforcement practice and have been used to guide interventions. This presentation reviews the evidence and its applications and suggests possibilities for the future.

THE ECONOMICS OF ILLEGAL GUN MARKETS Philip J. Cook, Duke University, Durham, NC; Jens Ludwig, University of Chicago, IL Nearly every gun used in a crime was legally manufactured and initially sold by a licensed firearm dealer. Yet almost no individuals incarcerated for gun crimes obtained their gun directly from a licensed dealer. Firearm regulations and enforcement strategies are intended to disrupt the distribution chains that supply guns to criminals, but remarkably little is currently known about this illegal distribution process. A study of illegal gun markets in several major U.S. cities will be reviewed.

Project Teams and Public Expenditures of Scientific Research: An International Comparison Organized by: Julia Lane, American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC Public expenditures on scientific research have a key role in the promotion of discovery and innovation. Yet the way in which these investments work their way through to these goals remains largely a black box, because so little is known about the project teams supported by the funding. However, regional effects of major research organizations are widely attributed to the people who work on research projects; as J. Robert Oppenheimer once said, “the best way to send information is to wrap it up in a person." The lack of evidence about the contribution of people on project teams to discovery and innovation is largely due to the lack of data; for example, a recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) report on the biomedical workforce noted that members were “frustrated and sometimes stymied” by the quality of the data available. This panel describes the results of projects that have filled that gap by using data on grants to identify who is supported by research funding. This includes not only chief investigators but also individuals on research teams, including graduate and undergraduate students as well as postdocs. The data are drawn from the STAR METRICS data in the United States, the parallel ASTRA project in Australia, and HELIOS in France. The symposium will present results of statistical analyses that go beyond simply counting patents and publications to measure scientific productivity and explore the contributions of all members of project teams.

USING STAR METRICS DATA TO DESCRIBE THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC TEAMS Paula Stephan, Georgia State University, Atlanta We use STAR METRICS data from the California Institute of Technology to examine the structure of scientific teams, focusing primarily on the role of faculty principal investigators (PIs), staff scientists, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Data are for individuals who receive support from Federal grants for the period 2000-2012. We provide descriptive statistics, showing how lab size per principal investigator has changed over time and we model the production of articles and patents as a function of different types of labor and different categories of equipment.

FINDING RESEARCH STARS THROUGH THE AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ASSESSMENT AND BEYOND Paul Jensen, University of Melbourne, Australia Understanding the keys to the productivity of the innovation process is fundamental to addressing the global challenges currently facing the world. By 'productivity of the innovation process', we mean understanding the various mechanisms (and policies) which might enhance the creation and diffusion of knowledge. For many of the wicked challenges facing the world—such as the spectre of climate change—it is crucial that we not only create green technologies but that we increase the speed with which they are adopted by individuals, households and firms. As part of the Australian Science, Technology and Research Assessment (ASTRA), we have examined one commonly-used mechanism used by governments and universities to improve the productivity of the innovation process: rewarding star researchers. The rationale for such schemes is that, by freeing up researchers star researchers from teaching and administrative duties, they can allocate more of their scarce time to valuable research issues. Moreover, star researchers can improve the quality of student/postdoc training, attract extra (industry) funds, participate on other research grant applications and raise the productivity of their peers within the university. In this paper, we observe all of those researchers (Australian and international) who applied for one of a range of Fellowships designed for 'star researchers'. Using this unique dataset enables us to quantify the effects of being granted one of the Fellowships, thereby evaluating one of the chief policies designed to promote Australian research productivity

PROJECT TEAMS: THE CASE OF FRANCE Valerie Thibaudeau, Curie Institute, Paris, France This presentation will examine the results of the French HELIOS project which examine the potential to build a data infrastructure around scientists and their collaborations while keeping the information about what were the targeted topics in each case. This new approach to the information about mak-


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ing research is the key step to unlock the way for describing the results of funding on research collaborations and the resulting scientific activities.

The Science of Resilient Aging Organized by: Elizabeth A. L. Stine-Morrow, University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign Contrary to popular beliefs about inevitable deterioration with age, there is accumulating evidence for wide variation in patterns of growth and decline through the adult lifespan. In fact, many adults exhibit high levels of physical and mental fitness, engage in satisfying activities, and sustain rich and nurturing social relationships into very late in the life span. Longer life spans are contributing to aging on a global scale. Population aging is unprecedented, pervasive, and projected to endure such that by 2050, for the first time in history, the proportion of adults over the age of 60 is expected to match the number of people who are younger than 15 years of age (with 21percent for each segment of the population). These trends create challenges for virtually every facet of human life, including health, families, work, and civic engagement. It is critical to discover the scientific principles underlying resilient aging and ways to translate these principles so that successful aging becomes the typical, rather than the exceptional, case. This interdisciplinary symposium considers a broad array of factors that promote resilient aging, within each domain addressing: What is known about the pathways to aging well? What are the critical outcomes that provide evidence for resilience? Where is the untapped potential for translational intervention, and at what point in the lifespan?

EXPLORING LIFE-COURSE STRESS AND RESILIENCE FACTORS IN RELATION TO BIOLOGICAL AGING Teresa Seeman, University of California, Los Angeles This presentation will examine evidence linking individual differences in biological aging over the life-course to experiences with stressful and resilience factors. Specific attention will be given to identification of potentially modifiable factors and to evidence for continued plasticity and opportunities for interventions to slow biological aging across the life-course.

COGNITIVE RESERVE: THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND COMPLEX WORK AND LEISURE TO RESILIENCE Yaakov Stern, Columbia University, New York City Epidemiologic evidence indicates that a set of life exposures including higher educational and occupational attainment, and engaging in leisure activities is associated with a lower risk of incident dementia and a reduced rate of cognitive aging, suggesting that these life exposures may enhance reserve against brain changes or pathology. Findings from imaging studies designed to explore the neural substrates of this cognitive reserve will be discussed.

AGING, EXERCISE, AND BRAIN PLASTICITY Kirk Erickson, University of Pittsburgh, PA Evidence from neuroscience, psychology, and kinesiology suggests that physical activity is effective as both a prevention and treatment for cognitive dysfunction throughout the lifespan. A conceptual model for underlying mechanisms will organize empirical findings showing that physical activity decreases the risk for brain disorders, improves cognitive and brain function, and increases regional brain volume. Physical activity is an important modifiable lifestyle that has consequences for learning, memory, and brain health.

COGNITIVE PLASTICITY IN ADULTHOOD: THEORY AND DATA Ulman Lindenberger, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany According to Lövdén et al. (2010, Psychological Bulletin), adult cognitive plasticity, or the brain’s capacity for anatomically implementing reactive changes in the range of performance, is driven by a prolonged mismatch between functional organismic supplies and environmental demands, and may alter processing efficiency or representations. Based on this framework, I will evaluate the available evidence on cognitive plasticity in adulthood and old age, recommend design features for cognitive-training studies, and outline future research questions.

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PERSONALITY, HEALTH AND LONGEVITY Daniel K. Mroczek, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Personality traits have emerged as unique predictors of health, well-being, and longevity, across various segments of the adult lifespan. New evidence also suggests an association between personality and cognitive outcomes as well. Why would personality be related to these myriad outcomes? The health behavior model is one possible explanation for this association, and this talk will discuss recent evidence.

REWARDING SOCIAL CONNECTIONS PROMOTE SUCCESSFUL AGING John T. Cacioppo, University of Chicago, IL Using a nationally representative sample of 2,101 adults aged 50 years and over from the 2002 to 2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we estimate the effect of loneliness (i.e., the absence of rewarding social relationships) at one point on mortality over the subsequent six years, and investigate social relationships, health behaviors, and health outcomes as potential mechanisms through which loneliness affects mortality risk. Loneliness was associated with increased mortality risk over a 6-year period, and that this effect is not explained by objective social relationships or health behaviors. We also find that loneliness contributes to pathophysiological processes, including fragmented sleep and alterations in gene expression. These studies contribute to a growing literature indicating that rewarding social relationships is a protective factor for morbidity and mortality and point to potential mechanisms through which this process works.

Learning about People and Society via Analysis of LargeScale Data on Human Activities Organized by: Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA Large-scale datasets can be used to harvest valuable results and insights about people, society, and the environment. For example, studies of largescale anonymized mobile phone data have been used to understand patterns of human mobility and to understand the influence of seismic events on a population. In other work, anonymized logs of online search activity have been used to detect interactions among medications, highlighting how such data can be used in pharmocovigilance, and researchers have demonstrated how Twitter feeds can be used to predict the onset of depression in users. This session explores several projects that show how such large-scale, often planetary scale, data can be used as new tools in support of efforts in science and society.

STUDYING SOCIAL PHENOMENA BY MINING MASSIVE ONLINE NETWORKS Jure Leskovec, Stanford University, CA Social interactions of hundreds of millions of people on the Web leaves massive digital traces, which can naturally be represented, studied and analyzed as networks of interactions. Computationally analyzing such massive networks offers enormous potential to address long-standing scientific questions as well as a new perspective on fundamental questions in the social sciences. The talk discusses how analysis of massive networks can be applied to study online interactions and the dynamics of information flows through such networks.

THE MESH OF CIVILIZATIONS IN THE GLOBAL NETWORK OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION Michael W. Macy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY In The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington challenged the prevailing consensus that the axes of international geo-political alignments reflect economic and ideological divisions. Based on a top-down analysis of the alignments of nation states, Huntington famously concluded, “The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.” On the 20th anniversary of the publication of Huntington’s thesis, we revisit his analysis, taking instead a bottom-up view using hundreds of millions of anonymized email and Twitter communications among tens of millions of worldwide users to map the global alignment of interpersonal relations. We also extend previous research on spatial and geographic patterns by examining economic, demographic, historical, political, and cultural correlates of


international communication densities. Results confirm the existence of the eight culturally differentiated “civilizations” posited by Huntington, with the divisions corresponding to differences in language, religion, economic development, and geo-location.

INSIGHTS ABOUT HEALTH AND WELL-BEING FROM LARGE-SCALE LOGS Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA Large-scale anonymized logs of human activities are becoming available via search engines, cellular communication systems, social media, and databases of news events. I will discuss several efforts on using machine learning and inference to transform data drawn from logs of behavioral data and other data sources into sensor networks for public health. I will discuss several recent projects, including performing pharmacovigilance from search logs, predicting postpartum changes in affect for new mothers from social media, tracking the influence of earthquakes from data drawn from wireless communications, and predicting cholera epidemics from news corpora.

Biology and Neuroscience Addiction: Our Compulsions and Brain Reward Systems Organized by: Wilson Compton, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD; Aidan Gilligan, SciCom–Making Sense of Science, Brussels, Belgium Wouldn’t it be wonderful to attribute our compulsion for addictive damaging activities, such as overeating, taking illicit drugs, or smoking, wholly to our genetic makeup? Then we could blame our parents for everything! We know it is bad for us, but we still do it. Why? This session explores the latest scientific evidence behind compulsive behavior. Personalized medicine provides plenty of research linking genetics and disease, but establishing a relationship between genetic variation and behavior is trickier. How does over-consumption of high-fat food trigger addiction-like neuro adaptive responses in our brain-reward circuitry? Why are less than 25 percent of heroin users proven to be dependent, while other addictive substances need only one try for a permanent susceptibility to addiction to occur? How does nicotine work as the principal reinforcing component in tobacco smoke responsible for addiction? This symposium highlights new research showing that genetics plays but one part, demonstrating that compulsive behavior usually comes about after extended access. As biologically deterministic as that may sound, we all have our aptitudes, traits, and susceptibilities—and free will can prevail. The speakers contend that the same is true with addiction. This session sheds new light on how the three strands of biological, psychological, and social elements work together and emphasizes the importance of continued global research into many unknown underlying mechanisms.

UNDERSTANDING GENE-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTIONS IN THE ETIOLOGY OF ADDICTIONS Wilson Compton, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD Family, twin and adoption studies have documented that addictions of all types have a strong genetic basis and recent research is uncovering the specific genetic factors associated with the onset of these conditions. Yet, epidemics of smoking, obesity and similar behaviors can change rapidly suggesting extreme environmental modification of genetic risks. Current models include assessment of broad social environmental factors and their modification of genetic predisposition. Recent findings that provide important clues about gene-environment interactions include studies which show that family-based prevention interventions may be particularly effective in a subset of adolescents at increased genetic risk for onset of substance abuse (Brody G, et al. 2009). Other studies show intriguing interactions of genotype with responses to tobacco taxation policies (Fletcher JM, 2012), and family genetic studies suggest important interactions of genetic and environmental risk factors (Kendler K, et al. 2012). Furthermore, understanding of epigenetics may provide insights into mechanisms of the impact of genetic variation on response to environment. Studies such as the Gene-Environment-Development-Initiative (GEDI) at NIDA show great promise in unraveling these complex diseases and pointing the way toward effective prevention and treatment.

UNDERSTANDING VULNERABILITY TO OBESITY Paul J. Kenny, Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL Obesity and overweight together are the second leading cause of preventable death in the US and a major cause of premature death in all developed, and increasingly developing, countries. Global science is only beginning to understand why variation in our genetic material can increase our vulnerability to develop food dependence and become obese. Recent clinical and preclinical findings have shed important new light on the mechanisms by which genetic variation can increase vulnerability to gain weight. They evidence the fundamental importance of better understanding gene and environment interactions. In this presentation, I will discuss new findings made in conjunction with teams of global researchers on the genetics of obesity. In particular, I will show how genetic variation in the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) can increase vulnerability to develop compulsive eating and gain weight. I will also explain how D2R variation interacts with so-called "obesogenic" environments to control risk of weight gain. Together, these findings will highlight the important contribution that our genes make to vulnerability to weight gain, while equally evidencing how many of the underlying mechanisms remain unknown.

UNDERSTANDING VULNERABILITY TO NICOTINE Delon Human, Health Diplomats, Geneva, Switzerland Placed in the context of international efforts to reduce the harm caused by smoking classic cigarettes and an ever-increasing range of nicotine-based products, this presentation will place under the microscope the principal reinforcing component responsible for addiction—nicotine. A much maligned substance, nicotine gets the blame for the harm caused by smoking. Yet scientifically speaking, nicotine is a relatively innocuous substance. Medical products containing purified nicotine, for example, are not associated with adverse health effects. Neither are people becoming addicted to nicotine replacement therapies like patches, gums or nasal sprays. In this presentation, I will examine what recent clinical and preclinical findings are telling us about variations in our genetic material that can increase our vulnerability to develop nicotine dependence. In particular, I will focus on what the behavioral, molecular and biochemical evidence is telling us about the brain's regulation of the aversive properties of nicotine on one hand, and increases in vulnerability to nicotine dependence on the other.

Non-Coding RNA in Development and Disease Organized by: Gary Felsenfeld, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD; Jeannie T. Lee, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston During the past few years, it has become clear that one type of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that does not code for protein plays central roles in epigenetic regulation. The emerging understanding is revolutionizing the way we think about the genome and how it is controlled. These RNAs are transcribed from the cell’s DNA and perform a wide variety of gene regulatory functions, some of which were once thought to be the exclusive purview of proteins. It has also become clear that a large part of the genome, previously thought to have no significant function, is highly actively expressed as non-coding RNA. Speakers in this symposium will describe recent studies of microRNAs that can target coding RNA for destruction, and of long non-coding RNAs that can deliver regulatory proteins to genes. Proper functioning of these RNAs is critical, as loss of their expression can have profound effects on development and cell growth.

X-CHROMOSOME INACTIVATION AND LONG NON-CODING RNAS Jeannie T. Lee, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston The X-linked region known as the 'X-inactivation center' (Xic) was once dominated by protein-coding genes but, with the rise of Eutherian mammals some 150-200 million years ago, became infiltrated by genes that produce long noncoding RNA (lncRNA). Some of the noncoding genes have been shown to play crucial roles during X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), including the targeting of chromatin modifiers to the X. The rapid establishment of lncRNA hints at a possible preference for long transcripts in some aspects of epigenetic regulation. We will consider advantages lncRNA offers in delivering allelic, cis-limited, and locus-specific control. Examples include Xist, Tsix, and Jpx. The mechanisms by which they repress and activate gene expression will be discussed.


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THE REGULATION AND FUNCTIONS OF MAMMALIAN MICRORNAS Joshua Mendell, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas MicroRNA (miRNA) gain- and loss-of-function can potently influence cellular behavior in normal physiologic states and in diseases such as cancer. The regulation of miRNA expression and activity by cellular signaling cascades can therefore result in dramatic phenotypic outputs. We previously demonstrated extensive control of miRNA expression by well-characterized oncogenic and tumor suppressor networks including the Myc, Kras, and p53 pathways. We are now employing novel mouse models with gain and loss of miRNA function to investigate the physiologic functions of the miRNAs embedded within these signaling pathways and the pathologic consequences when their functions are disrupted. Insights gained from these studies are revealing unanticipated roles for miRNAs in vivo and are informing our understanding of how dysregulated miRNA activity contributes to tumorigenesis. I will present our latest findings related to the regulation and function of mammalian miRNAs in normal physiology and in cancer and how these findings may be exploited for the development of novel therapeutic approaches.

LONG NON-CODING RNAS AND ENHANCERS Ramin Shiekhattar, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA Establishment and maintenance of cell identity is shaped by a set of core regulatory factors with positive and negative influences on gene expression leading to the assembly of specialized chromatin structures. Studies of noncoding RNAs have led to the proposal that non-coding RNAs may constitute such regulatory factors helping to balance the gene expression programs during development. We have uncovered a class of long non-coding RNAs with enhancer-like function, which positively regulate gene expression and chromatin architecture.

THE ROLE OF LONG NON-CODING RNAS IN CANCER David L. Spector, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY Our recent studies have identified a role of the long non-coding RNA Malat1 in breast cancer progression. In addition, some long non-coding RNAs candidates are differentially expressed between pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells and neural progenitor cells, suggesting a significant role in development.

THE EMERGENCE OF LONG NON-CODING RNAS IN CANCER Arul M. Chinnaiyan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The discovery of numerous noncoding RNA (ncRNA) transcripts in species from yeast to mammals has dramatically altered our understanding of cell biology, especially the biology of diseases such as cancer. In humans, the identification of abundant long ncRNA (lncRNA) >200 bp has catalyzed their characterization as critical components of cancer biology. Recently, roles for lncRNAs as drivers of tumor suppressive and oncogenic functions have appeared in prevalent cancer types, such as breast and prostate cancer. In this review, we highlight the emerging impact of ncRNAs in cancer research, with a particular focus on the mechanisms and functions of lncRNAs.

Solitary Confinement: Legal, Clinical, and Neurobiological Perspectives

symposium explores the use of solitary confinement in prison systems, discusses its possible impact, and raises questions about whether it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment according to the U.S. Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, and other national and international conventions and statements.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN PENAL SYSTEMS: AN HISTORICAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS Peter Scharff Smith, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen The use of large scale solitary confinement became common with the rise of the modern penitentiary during the first half of the 19th century and has remained a feature of Western prison systems. A central feature of the new prisons was a belief in the ability to rehabilitate criminals through the use of isolation regimes. In Pennsylvania-model institutions prisoners spent almost all their time in the cell. Here the inmate was supposed to turn his thoughts inward, to meet God, to repent his crimes and eventually to return to society as a morally cleansed Christian citizen. Pennsylvania-model prisons experienced extensive problems with inmate mental health throughout the 19th century but the use of large scale solitary confinement according to this model continued well into the 20thcentury in Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The debate about the effects of solitary confinement was largely settled in the 19th century in the United States and early in the 20th century in Europe, when both experts and practitioners tended to agree that solitary confinement was very harmful. Discussions on the effects of solitary confinement resurfaced in the 1950s when sensory deprivation studies were carried out in response to, among other things, stories about brainwashing of United States prisoners of war in Korea. This caught the interest of intelligence services: the CIA’s manual on Counterintelligence interrogation from 1963, for example, described how solitary confinement could be used coercively. During the 1980s, the debate on solitary confinement resurfaced in the wake of the creation of supermax prisons in the United States. According to estimates, more than 80,000 prisoners are currently held in solitary confinement or restricted housing across the US. Notwithstanding the United States experience, isolation regimes have also been used, debated, and researched extensively elsewhere in the West. Solitary confinement has, for example, been an integral part of Scandinavian pre-trial prison practice for many years. In Denmark this practice was introduced in 1846 for all remand prisoners but became disputed and gave rise to research on the effects of solitary confinement from the late 1970s onwards. In Sweden today around half of all remand prisoners are still subjected to pre-trial solitary confinement, including children who find themselves in pre-trial detention.

PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS AND PSYCHIATRIC RISKS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT Craig W. Haney, University of California, Santa Cruz Dr. Haney, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, is one of the nation’s leading experts on the psychological effects of incarceration, and has conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews and assessments of persons in isolated confinement in US prisons. He has published widely on these topics, including the book, Reforming Punishment: Psychological Limits to the Pains of Imprisonment.

STRESS, THE BRAIN, AND HOW THE ENVIRONMENT SHAPES US

Organized by: Michael J. Zigmond, University of Pittsburgh, PA

Huda Akil, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Solitary confinement involves isolation of prisoners for up to 23 hours a day, a condition that often lasts for several years and, in some cases, for 20 years or more. Estimates of the number of prisoners held in such conditions in the United States are as high as 80,000. By comparison, less than 50 inmates are thought to be held in solitary confinement in Great Britain. One such prison in the U.S. is the “super-max” California facility, Pelican Bay State Prison, which houses more than 1,000 prisoners in 8 by10 foot concrete cells with no windows and meal delivery though a slot in the door. Although claims have been made that solitary confinement reduces crime and recidivism, the evidence for this is scant. Moreover, some clinical studies suggest that such conditions can have severe psychiatric and even neurologic consequences for the inmates. This possibility is further supported by studies of prisoners of war, sensory deprivation, and environmental enrichment, and research with laboratory animals in which behavioral assessments have been supplemented with neurobiological analyses. This

Dr. Akil, Co-director of the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan, studies the neurobiology of stress and emotions, including anxiety and depression. She was the first person to describe the role of endogenous opiates in brain function and is a co-editor of Social Neuroscience: Gene, Environment, Brain, and Body.

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Abstracts

Epigenetic Control of Brain and Behavior Organized by: Joseph Coyle, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA Epigenetics is an environmentally-induced persistent alteration in gene expression that has only recently been shown to play a powerful role in brain function. Epigenetic alterations of DNA may be pharmacologically modifiable and also offer novel interventions for brain disorders. This session will provide an overview of epigenetic processes and how they can be moni-


tored in the brain. The role of epigenetic alterations in gene expression and the phenotypic manifestations of autism, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and Huntington’s disease will be reviewed, as well as the implications for novel pharmacologic treatments.

tive Aging Study exposed to particulate matter. Ultimately, understanding the implications of genetic and epigenetic changes related to age on the effects of chemical exposure will help to better assess the impacts of environmental exposures on the health of children and older adults.

EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS OPERATIVE IN THE BRAIN: AUTISM AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

GENOMIC AND EPIGENOMIC CHANGES IN THE LIVER AND KIDNEY DURING THE RAT LIFE CYCLE

Schahram Akbarian, Hess Center for Science and Medicine, New York City

James C. Fuscoe, FDA, Jefferson, AR

Akbarian will provide an overview of epigenetic mechanisms operative in the brain, how they are measured and their impact on brain function and behavior. Epigenetic markings such as DNA methylation, post-translational histone modifications, and histone variants, in concert, define three-dimensional genome architectures inside the nucleus and serve as a ‘molecular bridge’ by which external (environmental) and internal factors mold and shape the genetic material throughout the brain and peripheral tissues over the entire lifespan. Epigenetic processes impacting the manifestations of schizophrenia and autism will be discussed.

The susceptibility of individuals at the extremes of the population age-distribution (the very young and the very old) and differences between sexes are often not adequately assessed. By understanding the genes expressed in each sex at the various life stages, the assessment of health risk versus benefit can be more rationally determined. Comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome, including miRNA, and the epigenome in the liver and kidney of Fisher 344 rats from 2 weeks to 2 years of age reveals substantial differences at various life-stages and between the sexes. In the liver and kidney, the expression of nearly 4000 genes was found to significantly vary with age and/or sex. Many of these genes are involved in xenobiotic metabolism and transport, processes that impact drug efficacy and safety. The expression of genes that code for some of the kidney injury protein biomarkers recently qualified by the FDA were found to vary substantially with age and sex, in some cases up to 100-fold. Such dramatic differences may impact the interpretation of biomarker results. Examination of miRNA expression in the liver showed nearly 200 miRNAs varied with age and/or sex. Notably, a group of 42 miRNAs was expressed at a relatively high level at 2 weeks of age in both sexes followed by low or no detectable expression at older ages. However, this 2 week-specific miRNA expression was not evident in the kidney. Analysis of potential target mRNAs for liver miRNAs suggests roles in disease susceptibility involving fibrosis as well as regulation of xenobiotic metabolism related genes. A similar number of kidney miRNAs also displayed sex and age-related changes which may be linked to gene regulation. These differences may be related to ageand sex-specific susceptibilities to adverse drug reactions or disease states. Understanding these differences should improve personalized medicine both in terms of disease prevention and management, and safer use of drugs.

THE ROLE OF EPIGENETICS IN CONDITIONED FEAR J. David Sweatt, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, Birmingham, AL Sweatt will review evidence that epigenetic processes, especially DNA methylation and demethylation, drive long-term behavioral change through active regulation of gene transcription in the brain. Specifically, epigenetic processes underlie the formation and stabilization of context- and cue-triggered fear conditioning localized to the hippocampus and amygdala. Pharmacologically manipulating these epigenetic changes associated with fear conditioning might provide novel, effective treatments for disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

THE ROLE OF HISTONE ACETYLATION IN THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE Ghazaleh Sadri-Vakili, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown In recent years the epigenetic regulation of gene expression through histone modifications has come to light as an important mechanism of transcriptional control. Transcriptional dysregulation is a key feature in Huntington’s disease (HD), an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterized by problems with movement, cognition, and behavioral functioning. Previous work from our group has demonstrated that post-translational modifications of histone proteins are altered in multiple cellular and animal models of HD. Specifically acetylated histone H3 association with the promoters of downregulated genes is decreased in the presence of mutant huntingtin. In addition, chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by microarray hybridization (ChIPon-chip) indicated that there is a significant decrease in the levels of acetylated histone H3 at gene loci in a transgenic mouse model of HD. More importantly, treatment of cellular and animal models of HD with histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors reversed the decrease in acetylated histone binding to gene promoters and normalized mRNA levels for the downregulated genes. Together, our findings demonstrate that histone acetylation is altered in HD and provides evidence for the role for HDAC inhibitors as potential novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Our current efforts are aimed at identifying novel HDAC inhibitors for the treatment of HD.

Molecular Basis of Age-Related Susceptibility to Chemicals and Environmental Hazards Organized by: Janice S. Lee, EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC The susceptibility of individuals to chemicals and environmental hazards at the extremes of the population age-distribution is often not adequately assessed. By understanding genes expressed at the various life stages, the assessment of health risk can be more rationally determined. Children and older adults may be more susceptible to chemicals compared to adults because of differences is physiology, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. Genetic and epigenetic changes that occur with age and chemical exposure may also alter susceptibility to chemicals. This session examines the genomic and epigenomic changes that occur with age in the rat liver and kidney. Human relevance will be addressed using data from human studies, including a longitudinal birth cohort study in Mexican-American children exposed to pesticides and a cohort of older men from the Norma-

GENETIC AND EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS OF SUSCEPTIBILITY TO EXPOSURES IN CHILDREN Nina Holland, University of California, Berkeley Children are more susceptible to exposures to environmental toxicants than adults, and in utero exposures may result in developmental problems and chronic diseases. Some children can be particularly vulnerable due to their genetic makeup which can affect their bodies’ abilities to detoxify pesticides and other environmental chemicals. Epigenetic changes, particularly DNA methylation, play a significant role in the mediation of the effects of environmental exposure on human health and are hypothesized to be major contributing factors to the early-life origins of adult disease. Results from the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) birth cohort study will be presented to illustrate complex relationships of the effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides and other environmental toxicants with genetic and epigenetic factors on children’s health. The CHAMACOS longitudinal birth cohort study (N=601) investigates exposure to pesticides in low-income Mexican-American farmworker families; mothers and their children were followed from early pregnancy to 9 years of age. We have previously found that trans-placental exposures to several of these pollutants are associated with adverse birth outcomes including shorter gestational duration as well as abnormal reflexes in children at different ages, higher risk of attention disorders, and decreased IQ at age 7. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1), which can detoxify OPs, provides an example of a metabolic enzyme whose broad variability within populations may confer differential susceptibility to environmental exposures. Someone with low PON1 levels may be less protected from OP exposures than people with higher PON1 levels. We determined PON1 genotypes and three PON1 enzyme activities in more than 450 mothers and their children from pregnancy through age 9 and found that both age and genetics were strong determinants of PON1 variability and thus susceptibility to pesticides. We also used cutting edge technology including lllumina 450K BeadChip arrays and pyrosequencing to investigate global and site-specific DNA methylation in CHAMACOS children. Unlike genetics, epigenetic mechanisms can be reversible and an enhanced understanding of their role may lead to better protection of pregnant women and children, and improved public health.


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PARTICULATE POLLUTION, SUSCEPTIBILITY, AND EPIGENETIC PATHWAYS IN AN ELDERLY COHORT Jaime Madrigano, Columbia University, New York City DNA methylation is a potential pathway linking environmental exposures to disease, and lower blood DNA methylation has been found in processes related to cardiovascular morbidity. Genetic and other host characteristics, such as psychological functioning, have been found to modify the association between air pollution and morbidity. In our study, DNA methylation of repetitive elements, as well as specific genes, was measured in 1406 blood samples from 706 elderly participants in the Normative Aging Study (NAS). We will discuss our estimated changes in repetitive element DNA methylation, as well as two specific genes (the inducible nitric oxide synthase gene, iNOS, and the glucocorticoid receptor gene, GCR) associated with ambient particles (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC), with mixed models.

New Insights into Animal Behavior: The Role of the Microbiome Organized by: Joy Bergelson, University of Chicago, IL; Vanessa Ezenwa, University of Georgia, Athens; Daniel Rubenstein, Princeton University, NJ How and why animals behave the way they do has fascinated humans for centuries. Many insights into the causes and consequences of animal behavior have been gleaned by considering how an animal’s genotype and physical or social (e.g., competitors, mates, predators) environment influence behavior. Now, new studies are revealing that the trillions of microbes in and on most animals’ bodies also play a fundamental role in determining behavior. Microbes in the gut can influence levels of anxiety and depression in mice; blood-feeding mosquitoes select victims based on the microbial composition of human skin; and even the mating preferences of fruit flies are strongly shaped by microbes. Studies spanning laboratory animal models and natural field systems are essential for uncovering the nature and implications of these host-microbe interactions. This session explores how research across a diversity of settings is elucidating the mechanisms by which microbes alter behavior and vice versa, and the broader consequences of these effects. The session also highlights how understanding connections between microbes and animal behavior may translate into novel approaches for treating behavioral disorders in humans.

FIAT LUX: SYMBIONT BIOLUMINESCENCE DRIVES THE SQUID-VIBRIO SYSTEM Margaret McFall-Ngai, University of Wisconsin, Madison The bioluminescence of the symbiont Vibrio fischeri is the principal ‘product’ that the bacterial partner translocates to the host animal Euprymna scolopes. In their life-long relationship, the host animal uses the symbiont luminescence in its nocturnal behavior. This presentation will discuss the reciprocal dialogue between host and symbiont that relies on V. fischeri light production, and the control of that light by the host animal.

SYMBIOTIC BACTERIA MEDIATE HYENA SOCIAL ODORS Kevin Theis, Michigan State University, East Lansing All animals harbor beneficial microbes, and one way these microbes can benefit their animal hosts is by increasing the diversity and efficacy of communication signals available to them. The symbiotic hypothesis for mammalian chemical communication posits that bacteria in the specialized scent glands of mammals generate odorous metabolites used by their hosts for communication, and that variation in host chemical signals is, in large part, a product of underlying variation in the bacterial communities inhabiting these glands. An effective test of this hypothesis would require accurate surveys of the bacterial communities in mammals’ scent glands and complementary data on the odorant profiles of scent secretions—both of which have been historically lacking. We used next-generation sequencing technologies to deeply survey bacterial communities in the scent glands of wild spotted and striped hyenas. We showed that these communities were dominated by odor-producing, fermentative bacteria, and that the structures of these communities covaried with the volatile fatty acid profiles of scent secretions in both hyena species. The bacterial and odor profiles of secretions differed between spotted and striped hyenas and, controlled for social group, both profiles varied with sex and reproductive state among spotted hyenas. These results strongly support

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Abstracts

the symbiotic hypothesis for chemical communication, suggesting that symbiotic bacteria underlie species-specific odors in both spotted and striped hyenas, and underlie sex and reproductive state-specific odors among spotted hyenas. These results suggest that symbiotic bacteria are critical contributors to hyenas’ signaling phenotypes, and that they are therefore important mediators in the complex social lives of hyenas.

GUT-BRAIN-IMMUNE CONNECTIONS IN AUTISM AND SCHIZOPHRENIA Paul Patterson, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena While autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by language and social deficits, recent studies have highlighted striking dysregulation in the immune system as well. There are also reports that a very significant subset of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display gastrointestinal (GI) abnormalities, including increased intestinal permeability and altered composition of GI microbiota. To explore potential connections between GI problems and the brain and behavior, we use a mouse model of a known ASD risk factor, maternal infection or maternal immune activation (MIA). In this model, immune activation for one day during gestation results in adult offspring that display the cardinal ASD behavioral abnormalities and neuropathology. MIA offspring also display decreased intestinal barrier integrity (leaky gut) and corresponding changes in levels of tight junction proteins. These symptoms are associated with altered expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the colon, changes in serum metabolite levels, and alterations in the composition of the gut microbiome that resemble findings in human ASD. Postnatal treatment with the human commensal bacterium B. fragilis for one week permanently restores GI barrier integrity, normalizes certain serum metabolites and gut bacteria. Most importantly, this transient, postnatal, probiotic treatment also prevents the development of most ASD-related behaviors. These results reinforce the potential relevance of the gut-brain axis for ASD, showing that manipulation of the intestinal microbiome can influence GI physiology and behavioral performance. The findings also raise the possibility of testing a probiotic therapy in individuals with ASD and GI symptoms. Moreover, the altered serum metabolite profiles in the MIA mouse model suggest testing particular metabolites as candidate biomarkers for subsets of human ASD. Extending this animal model further, our collaboration with researchers at the MIND Institute at U.C. Davis has recently validated the MIA model in non-human primates; immune-activating pregnant monkeys yields offspring that display a series of ASD-relevant behaviors.

Video Games, Brains, and Society Organized by: Daphne Bavelier and Susan Hagen, University of Rochester, NY Computer and video games have emerged as one of the most powerful media of the 21st century, generating billions of hours of highly engaging entertainment. A growing body of research is also highlighting the enormous potential of games and game-infused experiences to help address some of the most pressing social, cultural, scientific, and economic challenges of the 21st century. To take advantage of this power to captivate, we need to create therapeutic and educational video games that are as much fun and as appealing as the most popular commercial games. As President Obama told a college audience, “I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that’s teaching you something other than just blowing something up.” Unfortunately, a significant gap remains between the growing body of research highlighting the potential for game-based learning and the transformation of these findings into scalable products and services. This symposium discusses how to understand and bridge this gap.

YOUR BRAIN ON VIDEO GAMES: MYTH AND REALITY Daphne Bavelier, University of Rochester, NY Can we harness video games to improve lives? Recent studies show that this might indeed be the case. In a surprising twist, the often-maligned action video game genre turns out to enhance sensory, attentional, and cognitive skills. Understanding how video games impact brain functions is helping scientists refine their knowledge of learning processes and further identify the principles of brain plasticity.


GAMES AND EDUCATION REFORM: NEW PROSPECTS FOR DEEPER LEARNING Michael Levine, Sesame Workshop, New York City The National Science Foundation, the National Academies, and major foundations are funding research into using digital games to deepen learning, personalize assessments, and engage and motivate students. This presentation will take stock of what we know about the use of digital games for education reform, from expanding learning environments for children to helping new teachers prepare for the rigors of the classroom.

MIND THE GAP Alan Gershenfeld, E-Line Media, Montclair, NJ Non-profits, academic institutions, and government agencies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to harness the power of video games for learning, health, and social goals. Unfortunately, most of these organizations are not in a position to effectively manage the game development and publishing process. This talk will highlight strategies, best practices, and case studies for creating highly engaging, effective, and sustainable educational and therapeutic video games.

Synthetic Biology Approaches to New Chemistry Organized by: Michelle C. Chang and Jay D. Keasling, University of California, Berkeley The ability to manipulate the chemistry of small molecules and macromolecules has long been a focus of modern chemical research. Post-genomic advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis have revolutionized our ability to re-encode genetic function and begin designing living cells and organisms using synthetic biology approaches. Living systems have evolved streamlined solutions to many challenges that face chemists today, such as the ability to carry out multi-step chemical syntheses from renewable resources, to sense target analytes with high selectivity and sensitivity, and to construct advanced materials from earth-abundant elements. Thus, synthetic biology offers new opportunities for innovation in chemistry by tapping into these functions and providing an inexpensive and sustainable path for chemical production and device engineering. This symposium explores recent advances in the design of parts and devices used for construction of new chemical functions in cells, as well as either application to the production of pharmaceuticals, fuels, and materials.

ENGINEERING HYDROCARBON PRODUCTION Jay D. Keasling, University of California, Berkeley This talk will describe how tools of synthetic biology have been used to engineer hydrocarbon metabolism in microorganisms for production of advanced fuels, including diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel replacements.

INTEGRATING CHEMISTRY AND EVOLUTION TO PROGRAM AND ILLUMINATE BIOLOGY David R. Liu, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA A key behavior of living systems is their ability to evolve new and optimized function. Although this process can be accelerated in the laboratory, we remain limited in our ability to redesign genetic parts at will in order to construct cells with desired functions that are not found in Nature. This talk will discuss advances in developing new methods for directed evolution and their applications.

REFACTORING NITROGEN FIXATION Christopher A. Voigt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA Many chemical transformations of interest to industry can already be achieved by living systems with low energy input. However, these functions are often complex and difficult to transplant into heterologous systems. One important example is nitrogen fixation, which is a key process with respect agriculture and the production of ammonia thus consumes a large amount of energy each year. This talk will cover recent advances in refactoring the genetic cluster that encodes this function so that it can be engineered into new cell types.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY APPROACHES TO NEW BIOFLUORINE CHEMISTRY Michelle C. Chang, University of California, Berkeley The catalytic diversity of biological systems provides enormous potential for the use of living cells to provide new methods for organic and inorganic synthesis. Because of the unique elemental properties of fluorine, site-selective fluorination has emerged as a powerful tool for improving the efficacy of small-molecule drugs. This talk will describe synthetic biology approaches for the production of complex fluorinated compounds.

DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF RNA-BASED DEVICES Christina Smolke, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Molecular devices built from RNA offer broad potential for the modular construction of biological parts, such as logic gates to control cell function or macromolecular evolution. This talk will describe advances in the design and engineering of RNA devices and their application to problems in energy and medicine.

BIOLOGICALLY-TEMPLATED MATERIALS SYNTHESIS Joanna Aizenberg, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Biological systems have discovered unique mechanisms for the mineralization of novel materials. This talk will discuss recent advances in the development of methods for bioinspired synthesis of new materials.

Intelligent Autonomous Robots: Biologically Inspired Engineering Organized by: John G. Hildebrand, University of Arizona, Tucson Through hundreds of millions of years of evolution by natural selection, animals have become equipped with diverse, powerful, and adaptive means of locomotion and corresponding control systems. Much of the success of these creatures depends on their ability to navigate autonomously, flexibly, and accurately in water, on land, or in the air. Today evolution by engineering is complementing and even extending what nature has accomplished, through the production of biologically inspired, autonomous robots. These devices enable testing what is understood about biomechanics and sensorimotor control systems and promise to serve mankind in previously unimagined ways. This symposium brings together leaders in the field of bio-robotics to present examples of progress in development and testing of robots based on knowledge about the sensorimotor systems of insects, the remarkable ability of weakly electric fish to navigate in murky water, and the amazingly rapid and elegant gait of a running cheetah.

SENSORIMOTOR SYSTEMS IN INSECTS AND ROBOTS Barbara Webb, University of Edinburgh, Scotland The sensorimotor tasks solved by insects, despite their small brains, are often comparable to those faced by vertebrates and humans. For example they need to smoothly combine multiple behaviors depending on context, and learn to anticipate predictable events. Our approach to investigating this behavioral flexibility combines behavioral experiments and testing of the hypothesized neural control circuits on robots.

ELECTRIC FISH ROBOTICS Malcolm A. MacIver, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Weakly electric knifefish have intrigued both biologists and engineers for decades with their unique ability to sense with a self-generated electric field and capacity for multi-directional swimming. Study of these fish has resulted in bio-inspired robots that illuminate the principles behind their electrosensory system and unique swimming abilities. These robots have uncovered the mechanisms by which knifefish generate thrust for swimming forward and backward, hovering, and moving vertically with an elongated fin along their belly. Robotic active electrosense enables sensing in murky waters where other sensing modalities fail. Artificial electrosense is capable of aiding navigation, detection and discrimination of objects, and mapping the environment, all tasks for which the fish use electrosense extensively. While robotic ribbon fin and artificial electrosense research has been pursued separately to reduce complications that arise when they are combined, electric fish have succeeded


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in their ecological niche through close coupling of their sensing and mechanical systems. Future integration of electrosense and ribbon fin technology into a knifefish robot should likewise result in a vehicle capable of navigating complex 3D geometries unreachable with current underwater vehicles, as well as provide insights into how to design mobile robots that integrate high bandwidth sensing with highly responsive multidirectional movement.

HOW WE ARE BUILT AND HOW WE BUILD: DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIT CHEETAH ROBOT Sangbae Kim, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA In designing a new generation of legged robots, it is critical to understand the locomotion principles employed by animals. One of the key steps toward successful development of such bio-inspired robots is to systematically extract relevant biological principles, rather than direct copying features of an animal solution, which may be impossible to realize or irrelevant in engineering domain. The talk will introduce several examples that successfully implement bio-inspired design principles learned from animals. The highlighting research topic is the development of the MIT Cheetah, currently running at 13.5mph demonstrating an locomotion efficiency rivaling animals. The research thrusts of the MIT Cheetah include optimum actuator design, biotensegrity structure design, and the momentum balancing control architecture for a fast and stable gallop. Each research component is guided by the biomechanics studies of runners such as dogs and cheetahs capable of fast traverse on rough and unstructured terrains. Through this project, we seek to derive design principles of quadrupedal locomotion that share characteristics with available mechanical and electrical capabilities in order to develop most efficient, robust mobile robots, which will be part of our life in near future.

Inventing New Ways To Understand the Human Brain Organized by: Hillary Sanctuary and Richard Walker, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne; Megan Williams, Swissnex, San Francisco, CA Understanding the human brain is one of the greatest challenges facing 21st century science. If we can rise to the challenge, we can gain profound insights into what makes us human, develop new treatments for brain diseases, and build revolutionary new computing technologies that will have far reaching effects, not only in neuroscience. Scientists at the European Human Brain Project, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and the U.S. BRAIN initiative, are developing new paradigms for understanding how the human brain works in health and disease. This symposium highlights pioneering researchers working to uncover the circuitry of human cognition, identify the genetic roots of disease, unlock the power of Big Data for diagnosis, build a new generation of computing hardware inspired by the brain, and perform revolutionary experiments on a realistic model of the brain that could never be done in animals or humans. It is also the opportunity to discover global initiatives towards understanding the brain.

BUILDING ELECTRONIC BRAINS FOR IN SILICO NEUROSCIENCE Henry Markram, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland Modern neuroscience is producing exponentially growing volumes of experimental data. The supercomputer-based models and simulations proposed by the Human Brain Project integrates this data in unifying models, identifying gaps that need to be filled and predicting values that cannot be measured experimentally. Biologically detailed modeling and simulations opens the prospect of a new kind of in silico neuroscience, enabling experiments impossible to perform in animals or humans.

FROM GENES TO COGNITION: UNDERSTANDING DISEASE Seth Grant, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Neuroscience and medicine both need a better understanding of the complex mechanisms leading from genes to cognition. Cognitive dysfunction in diseased brains and specific cognitive capabilities both have a strong genetic component. But individual genes explain only a very small proportion of the observed variance. Engineering genes and developing techniques to compare cognitive traits in mammals provide vital data for brain modeling and understanding disease.

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Abstracts

MIMICKING THE BRAIN FOR BETTER COMPUTING Karlheinz Meier, Heidelberg University, Germany The brain has the ability to efficiently perform computations that are impossible even for the most powerful computers –while consuming only 30 Watts of power. Neuromorphic Computing Systems merging realistic brain models with new hardware offer a completely new paradigm of computing, moving away from current “bit-precise” power-intensive models towards those that generate precise results from very large numbers of imprecise computing elements.

BUILDING AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF THE BRAIN Sean Hill, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland Neuroscience data is rapidly increasing in quantity but remains highly diverse and widely distributed around the globe. Developing an integrated picture of the brain requires sharing, searching, annotating, analyzing and modeling this diverse data. A global collaborative infrastructure for integrating neuroscience data into brain atlases will facilitate new methods in international sharing, integration and publication of neuroscience data across multiple levels from genes to behavior.

EXPLORING CORTEX IN A HIGH-THROUGHPUT MANNER Christof Koch, Allen Institute, Seattle, WA We are engaged in a ten year project to provide a quantitative taxonomy of cell types and their interconnections in visual cortex and associated brain regions, to observe their dynamics under physiological conditions in behaving mice, to construct cellular models of how their dynamics and function arise from the structural description, and to understand how this function relates to visual perception. The fruits of this cerebroscope will be freely available to the public.

BRAIN RESEARCH THROUGH ADVANCING INNOVATIVE NEUROTECHNOLOGIES George Church, Harvard University, Boston, MA The BRAIN initiative leverages exponentially advancing technologies (optical, electronic, nano, and synthetic biology) to radically improve accuracy, cost, and comprehensiveness of neurotechnologies for measuring and altering brain development and functioning in animals and clinical settings. A key aspect is integrating a variety of such methods in a single brain sample. This includes an initial live behavioral phase including MRI, ultrasound, and electrical/optical stimulation/recording—followed by a serial section phase to assess RNAs and neuronal connections.

Genetic and Epigenetic Determinants of Susceptibility to Toxicants Organized by: Berran Yucesoy, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV; Victor J. Johnson, Burleson Research Technologies Inc., Morrisville, NC The most common chronic disorders are multifactorial in nature, influenced by complex sequences of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. While gene expression is a dynamic process that varies in response to a myriad of internal and external triggers and the surrounding micro-environment, epigenetic mechanisms play a key role in mediating environmental influences on gene expression and epistatic interactions. In this respect, the expression of complex phenotypes should be assessed in a functional context that examines the interplay between environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors. Recent advances in genetic and epigenetic research offer new opportunities to integrate experimental approaches, including animal models and in vitro/in vivo translational research, with computational strategies to predict such interactions at multiple levels of complexity. This session focuses on current research investigating the role of genetic factors, epigenetic factors, and gene-environment interactions in the development and outcomes of complex diseases caused by environmental and occupational toxicants.


TOXICOGENOMIC APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BENZENE TOXICITY AND SUSCEPTIBILITY Cliona M. McHale, University of California, Berkeley Benzene is an established cause of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and may cause one or more lymphoid malignancies in humans. Occupational exposure to benzene, even at levels below the current U.S. occupational standard of 1 ppm, causes hematotoxicity. Toxicogenomics (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics and epigenomics) and systems biology (study of the interactions among toxicogenomic endpoints using bioinformatics) approaches in human populations, animals, and in vitro models, exposed to a range of benzene levels, are key to understanding gene-environment interactions in benzene toxicity and can identify biomarkers of exposure, early effect and susceptibility. Through analysis of the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) transcriptomes of 125 workers exposed to a wide range of benzene levels, we recently reported highly significant widespread perturbation of gene expression at all exposure levels, as well as alterations in acute myeloid leukemia and immune response pathways. Sequencing of the PBMC transcriptomes from a subset of the study subjects revealed additional alterations in gene expression. From preliminary epigenomic data in the human subjects, we have identified benzene-induced alterations in the DNA methylome and miRNome. Using genomic screens in yeast and human screening systems, with subsequent confirmation in human cells, we have identified potential biomarkers of susceptibility. We are developing bioinformatic methods to integrate these and future toxicogenomic datasets, in a systems biology approach, to further understand pathways of benzene toxicity and to reveal potential biomarkers associated with a range of exposures.

SUSCEPTIBILITY TO LUNG DISEASE: INTEGRATED GENETIC AND GENOMIC APPROACHES Steven R. Kleeberger, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC Genetic background has an important role in susceptibility to complex lung diseases, and the genetic contribution to disease phenotypes varies between populations. Interaction between genetic background and exposures to environmental stimuli, and understanding the mechanisms through which environmental exposure interact with susceptibility genes, are critical to disease prevention. Inbred mouse models provide important insight to understand human disease etiologies because genetic background and environmental exposures can be controlled. Tools including in silico haplotyping, collaborative cross and diversity outcross mouse panels, bioinformatic applications, and -omics technologies have enhanced our ability to identify disease genes and pathways to guide translational investigations to human populations. Combined genetic and genomic approaches have yielded important insight to mechanisms of susceptibility to many complex traits and diseases. We have integrated inbred mouse and cell-based models with haplotype association mapping (genetic), global gene expression analyses (genomic), and expression quantitative trait locus mapping (eQTL or genetical genomics) to identify candidate susceptibility genes and associated gene networks important in toxicant-induced lung injury. The overarching goal of these investigations is to determine whether human homologues of these susceptibility genes associate with disease risk in human populations. Efforts to identify and validate susceptibility genes in mouse models of environmental disease with a goal towards translational application have enabled identification of individuals who are susceptible to disease. For example, epidemiological and clinical investigations have associated functional polymorphisms in human NRF2 (NFE2 related factor 2) and TNF (tumor necrosis factor alpha) with susceptibility to acute lung injury and ozone-induced changes in lung function, respectively. Importantly, these discoveries may also lead to novel intervention or therapeutic strategies to prevent disease.

PERINATAL ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES: EFFECTS ON METABOLIC HOMEOSTASIS AND THE EPIGENOME Dana Dolinoy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

following dose-dependent exposures. Thus, epigenomic profiling facilitates the identification of biomarkers of exposure, enabling clinicians to identify at-risk individuals prior to disease onset. Utilizing a multi-pronged approach with an in vivo mouse model, human clinical samples, and an ongoing 15-year longitudinal epidemiological study, the overall goal of this presentation is to elucidate the impact of perinatal bisphenol A (BPA) and lead (Pb) exposure on metabolic homeostasis and DNA methylation, and the interplay between the two. Developmental exposure to environmentally relevant levels of BPA has been shown to affect both global and gene-specific DNA methylation patterns in rodents. We now draw upon data from multiple whole-epigenome platforms to show that multiple dose levels of BPA affect DNA methylation in mice and humans and that these epigenetic effects are non-monotonic in dose response. Preliminary studies also indicate that Pb exhibits epigenetic effects that may contribute to its known neurotoxic and obesogenic activities.

Your Genome: To Share or Not To Share? Organized by: Yaniv Erlich, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA The last decade has witnessed breathtaking developments in the performance of DNA sequencing. We produce genetic information for research and clinical care at exponential rates, with some new projects aiming to sequence hundreds of thousands of individuals. Sharing these genetic datasets is crucial to understand the genetic basis of diseases, accelerate biomedical discoveries, and produce better interpretation and diagnosis. The problem is that public sharing of genetic information risks the genetic privacy of participants and their families. Multiple lines of research have shown that genetic privacy cannot be guaranteed even if the data is disseminated without identifiers. But do we really need to choose between privacy and better clinical care? This symposium will illuminate the opportunities and complexities in sharing genetic data and discuss potential cryptographic and policy mitigation schemes for this problem.

GENOME HACKING Yaniv Erlich, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA Sharing sequencing datasets is essential for human genetics. I will present common techniques that were thought to de-identify these datasets, such as removing explicit identifiers, pooling, and data masking. Then, I will survey a range of techniques to bypass these methods and re-identify the “anonymous” samples. Specifically, I will show how publicly-available Internet resources can identify participants of genetic studies in some scenarios.

PRESERVING PRIVACY THROUGH ENCRYPTION IN GENOMIC COMPUTATIONS Kristin Lauter, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA This talk will describe new ways to enable computation on genetic data in encrypted form. New solutions for homomorphic encryption enable systems which can compute on encrypted data without knowing the encryption/decryption key. Many algorithms in genomic analysis can be described via mathematical functions which are amenable to these types of computations. We will discuss the current status and potential for this technology.

DO WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO GIVE AWAY OUR DATA, OR NOT? John Wilbanks, Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, WA Abstract: Although data outside of health is regularly analogized to oil, and inside of health it holds enormous value, we as people rarely have access to our own data. Genomics is a remarkable case because we can go straight to companies to get ourselves sequenced. Yet it is remarkably hard to donate our genomes to research once we've been sequenced. This talk will explore the ironies and complexities of integrating consumer genomic data into the traditional research infrastructure.

Environmental exposures during early development and other critical life stages may induce changes to the epigenome resulting in potentially deleterious phenotypic effects including metabolic disease, cancer, and neurological disorders. The field of epigenetics is experiencing a rapid advancement in technology, methodology, and data acquisition that now allows for the identification of the constellation of genomic loci with altered epigenetic status


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Communication and Public Programs What Do People Think about Science and Technology? U.S. and International Public Opinion Organized by: John C. Besley, Michigan State University, East Lansing The public opinion environment affects countries’ ability to meet global challenges by helping to shape policymaking and individual choices such as what to study and where to invest. This symposium builds on the early 2014 release of Science and Engineering Indicators 2014 to provide an update on the current state of public opinion about science and technology (S&T) in the U.S. and around the world. Indicators is the National Science Board’s biennial report to the U.S. Congress on S&T and includes a detailed chapter on “public attitudes and understanding.” It uses the best available data from the U.S. and around the world to provide a portrait of what Americans think about S&T in comparison to previous years and other countries. The report includes extensive reporting of data from the Pew Research Center and Gallup, both of which provide the public with extensive, ongoing public opinion data about key S&T issues such as climate change, energy, and health topics. An additional primary source of data is a special section of the General Social Survey that includes questions that the National Science Foundation has fielded for more than three decades, addressing both public knowledge about basic S&T and S&T attitudes. The 2014 indicators also features several special sections, including one on views about scientists and engineers.

GALLUP PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT Lydia Saad, Gallup, Princeton, NJ The proposed presentation will feature the most current S&T data available from the regular surveys that Gallup conducts in the U.S. and around the world. Gallup, for example, has unique trend data on energy, environmental concern, climate change, stem cell research, animal protection and a host of other topics.

PEW RESEARCH INSIGHTS ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES AND UNDERSTANDING ABOUT SCIENCE Cary Funk, Pew Research Center, Washington, DC This presentation will feature the most current data on public attitudes and understanding about S&T available from the Pew Research Center, including new surveys on public knowledge about science, views about scientists and medical doctors, and attitudes and beliefs about new issues in biotechnology. It will include the most recent trend data from surveys in the U.S. and around the world on climate change and other environmental and energy issues.

KEY PUBLIC OPINION FINDINGS FROM THE NSB'S SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING INDICATORS 2014 John C. Besley, Michigan State University, East Lansing The presentation will feature highlights from the Science and Engineering Indicators 2014 chapter on “public attitudes and understanding.” This will include a focus on the 2012 General Social Survey (GSS) data on public S&T interest and engagement, knowledge about facts and processes, and funding support. It also will also address confidence in S&T community leaders, and views about science and engineering occupations. A number of international comparisons will be made.

utopian future, science fiction has produced numerous cautionary tales and explored ethical dilemmas associated with the use of new technologies before such capabilities were even possible. Along the way, it has inspired countless young minds to choose careers in the sciences, highlighted the importance of scientific literacy, and entertained millions. This symposium gathers prominent science fiction authors and scientists to discuss the constant interplay between this literary genre and the conduct and applications of science, as well how the public’s vision of the future has changed over time and what that might tell us about what comes next.

SCIENCE FICTION AND THE HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE David Brin, Futures Unlimited, Encinitas, CA Science fiction has begun to branch in recent years into a number of categories, such as can-do problem solving, dystopian futures, or even as a predictor of future events. This presentation will focus on the idea that science fiction offers hope for a better world that does the most good, in the long run. An undercurrent of hope runs strong in some of the best science fiction written, providing the hope that people may improve themselves, and humanity, in the future.

PHYSICS OF THE FUTURE Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University, Tempe From warp drives to hyperspace, science fiction has continuously borrowed from, and sometimes first conceived of, the state of the art in scientific progress. From his perspective as a renowned theoretical physicist and science popularizer, Dr. Krauss will discuss the various ways in which science fiction has taken inspiration from the cutting-edge science of its day. By observing current trends in both science and science fiction, Krauss will discuss what that may suggest for the future of both fields.

GENIUS MACHINES: THE FUTURE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, VIRTUAL REALITY, ROBOTICS, AND BIOMECHANICS Catherine Asaro, science fiction author, Baltimore, MD Can humanity remake itself with science? We may someday download our brains into computers or other technologies yet to be invented, or we may live in virtual universes so well developed that we can no longer tell created worlds from reality. Our technology has developed at an unprecedented rate in recent years. This talk considers where we might be in another few decades, in particular in regards to artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and biomechanics, the combination of robotics and neural prosthetics with the living body. We may someday reach a point where we can augment our minds and bodies to such a great extent that we are no longer purely human as we know that term today. The possibilities of genius machines, super humans both physically and intellectually, and immortality are considered, with applications in the government, civilian, commercial, and military arenas.

VISIONS OF LIFE: THE FRUITFUL FEEDBACK BETWEEN SCIENCE FICTION AND ASTROBIOLOGY David H. Grinspoon, Library of Congress, Washington, DC The ideas and images of science fiction writers have both mirrored and inspired “serious” scientific speculation about alien life. Many modern astrobiologists have been influenced by science fiction in their career pursuits and scientific research. I will discuss these feedbacks from both personal and professional angles.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction author, Davis, CA

Where's My Flying Car? Science, Science Fiction, and a Changing Vision of the Future Organized by: Susan Wolfinbarger and Jonathan Drake, AAAS Center for Science, Policy, and Society Programs, Washington, DC Since the late 19th century, science fiction has captivated the imaginations of readers around the world. Always looking beyond the current state of the art, its authors have envisioned, often with considerable accuracy, the emergence of numerous new technologies and fields of study—from space travel and communications satellites to genetic engineering and the resurrection of extinct species. In addition to producing sweeping vistas of a

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Despite its frequent extraterrestrial settings, Kim Stanley Robinson's work is as much about climate change as exploring new worlds, and, given the current global climate situation, present compelling speculative narratives of a very pressing topic. In this talk, Robinson will discuss the ways in which mankind has the ability to influence climate, both now and in the future. While some of these capabilities may lead to positive outcomes, such as the terraforming of Mars, the perils associated with them are legion.


Stakeholder Engagement in Science: Strategies, Experiences, and Implications Organized by: Samantha J. Jones and Louis J. D'Amico, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, DC, Stakeholder engagement has gained attention as a tool available for decision-makers to improve public communication, transparency, trust, and understanding of scientific issues under deliberation. Stakeholders may come from a variety of constituencies, including potentially regulated industries, state and local governments, and the general public, typically represented by community groups and/or non-profit organizations with shared interests. However, building stakeholder engagement into processes may raise concerns about potential delays for releasing products or making decisions. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the implications and effectiveness of various types of engagement. Additionally, the inherent diversity of a stakeholder population can create a challenge for meaningful and equitable engagement, particularly on scientific issues where stakeholders may have varied levels of understanding. This symposium discusses stakeholder engagement strategies used in different environmental and public health programs and evaluates the contributions of these strategies. Panelists will identify stakeholder populations and discuss lessons learned, addressing how to balance the benefits of stakeholder engagement with the implications for process and project management and how stakeholder engagement results in more effective risk communication with increased transparency, trust, and public support for decisions.

RISK PERCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION IN NANOTECHNOLOGY STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Barbara Harthorn, University of California, Santa Barbara Equitable participation challenges engagement leaders to embrace diverse audiences and viewpoints in new technology assessment. Nanotechnology stakeholder engagement poses significant challenges. Public awareness about nano remains low despite escalating use, industry safe handling practices are uneven, and scientists’ risk perception varies across applications. This talk discusses challenges and successes in multiple stakeholder engagements at two national centers in California.

A CHANGING BAY: A NEW PARADIGM FOR STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Lucinda Power, EPA, Annapolis, MD The Chesapeake Bay’s natural and cultural resources face challenges from increased pollution, greater housing density and growth, as well as a changing climate. The Chesapeake Bay Program partnership is promoting voluntary practices while adapting to new regulatory and enforcement activities. This presentation will describe how management and stakeholder engagement strategies will adapt to a changing landscape marked by cultural shifts and new scientific information and technologies.

STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION: PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT AND OTHER BENEFITS Michele Ross, Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul When the Minnesota Department of Health established a new program to assess contaminants of emerging concern, they sought input from stakeholder groups who were doing work in this area. These stakeholders collaborated with MDH to establish protocols for screening chemicals, to develop a nomination process, and to provide feedback on communication materials. This collaboration has also resulted in connecting a network of people who work on contaminants of emerging concern issues across the state.

Teen Cafés: Innovative Model for Effective Science Communication with Key Demographic Organized by: Michelle Hall, Science Education Solutions Inc., Los Alamos, NM The Teen Science Café Network is a growing community creating opportunities for teens to learn from experts about science and technology that is changing their world. Teen cafés are informal, interactive programs that promote exploration, creativity, and lifelong learning. Like adult science café programs, teen café programs are highly successful because they en-

gage teens in conversation with scientists. What is different is the added opportunity for hands-on explorations in science and technology. The programs provide teens a rich perspective on the nature of science and a picture of scientists as real people leading interesting lives, which has been a key influencer of positive attitudes about careers in science. This session focuses on key elements for success with teen cafés: coaching scientists in public communication and helping them think in new ways about the significance of their own research; engaging teens as leaders of their programs to instill ownership and better ensure the programs are relevant; and infusing hands-on exploration and other interactive elements. The Teen Science Café Network is a dynamic, mutually supportive community helping organizations that wish to start their own teen café. This session will feature current participants in the Network to discuss key aspects of the teen café model, relate their personal experience in the program, and provide guidance on starting teen café programs.

INSTILLING YOUTH LEADERSHIP IN A TEEN CAFÉ Carolyn Noe, Academy of Science - St. Louis, MO Youth leadership in a teen science café program is key to ensuring topics are relevant and the atmosphere of the program is engaging. Youth are responsible for recruiting peers, planning menus, introducing presenters and planning the overall program. Managing, motivating and keeping the voluntary youth leadership teams focused will be discussed.

USING PRESENTATION BOOTCAMP METHODS TO PREPARE PRESENTERS FOR TEEN AUDIENCES Richard Tankersley, NSF, Arlington, VA Science Café presenters typically are chosen for their strong presentation skills, but most all scientists can benefit from coaching and a practice talk. We use the Presentation Boot Camp methods to help scientists prepare and critique their own presentations for our teen programs.

DEVELOPING TEEN CAFÉ PROGRAMMING FOR DIVERSE AUDIENCES Stacey Forsyth, Science Discovery, University of Colorado, Boulder The national Teen Science Café Network (teensciencecafe.org) connects teens with scientists from a range of STEM disciplines in order to increase their understanding and appreciation of the nature of science and the lives of scientists. In Colorado, the Science Discovery Teen Café, based at the University of Colorado, Boulder, works with diverse teen audiences in the Boulder/Denverarea. Each month, a scientist conducts two cafés in different locations, including Boulder, Denver and Longmont. Language, educational and cultural differences pose significant challenges for recruiting students, creating a welcoming environment, designing café presentations and related activities, and facilitating conversation and interaction among students who frequently come from very different backgrounds. We will share some of our challenges, successes and lessons learned from the first year of our Café program.

Religious Communities, Science, Scientists, and Perceptions: A Comprehensive Survey Organized by: Jennifer Wiseman and Paul Arveson, AAAS Center for Science, Policy, and Society Programs, Washington, DC Many scientific and technological issues are of fervent interest to religious communities. While evolution often takes the spotlight, other issues are at least as provocative in both positive and negative ways, ranging from implications of genetics and neuroscience to advances in technology for aiding the world’s poor. A deeper probe shows that it is actually underlying philosophical concerns of religious citizens and their perceptions of scientists that can lead to responses of either enthusiastic support or rejection of science, in ways that can be sometimes baffling to scientists. To increase understanding of these deeply nuanced perceptions, AAAS and Rice University have conducted a major survey of several religious communities regarding their beliefs about science and their perceptions of scientists. A second survey component investigated the views scientists hold regarding the attitudes of religious people toward science. This symposium features the preliminary findings from 3,000 respondents, including evangelical Christians, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and a wide swath of scientific professionals. Unifying and polarizing scientific issues, perceptions


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of motivations, and the influence of authority figures in both religious and scientific communities in shaping attitudes toward each other will be discussed. The survey results serve as a basis for enriched dialogue and informed understanding between scientists and religious communities.

SURVEYING RELIGIOUS PEOPLE ABOUT SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS Elaine Howard Ecklund, Rice University, Houston, TX As the principal investigator and sociologist from Rice University for this comprehensive survey, Dr. Ecklund will discuss the methods used to probe how a broad range of religious people understand and think about science, and their perceptions of scientists. She will discuss the uniqueness and value of this kind of survey and her parallel qualitative studies including interviews, focus groups, and case studies from several religious congregations.

FAITH COMMUNITIES AND PERCEPTIONS: WHY THIS MATTERS FOR SCIENCE James McCarthy, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Professor McCarthy, a former AAAS President, will discuss the importance of this survey for the health of science. As a member of the project advisory committee, Dr. McCarthy will discuss how the survey questions were formulated from the perspective of the interest to the scientific community. He will also discuss the urgency, challenges, and rewards of building better understanding between scientists and religious communities, based on his own experience working on a coalition between scientists and evangelicals to build public consensus on recognizing and responding to climate change.

EVANGELICALS AND SCIENCE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Galen Carey, National Association of Evangelicals, Washington, DC Galen Carey serves as the vice president for government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), a partnering organization for this survey project. For the AAAS, the responses of evangelical Christians in this national survey are of paramount importance. AAAS advisory committees have urged the AAAS to focus on building dialogue with evangelicals, because they make up roughly 30% of the U.S. population and have a strong interest and influence in public policy. Mr. Carey will discuss the unique perceptions of scientists and concerns regarding science amongst evangelicals as revealed by the survey, as well as next steps in engaging this community.

EQUIPPING SCIENTISTS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND AND CONVERSE WITH RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES Eugenie C. Scott, National Center for Science Education, Oakland, CA Survey research shows that fewer scientists believe in God or a higher power than members of the general public, but by no means does scientist equate to atheist. Scientists, like bricklayers or ballet dancers, can be religious, nonreligious, anti-religious, or religiously indifferent. Scientists who are nonbelievers sometimes generalize their views to all scientists, which can miscommunicate to religious communities and the public in general that science is incompatible with religion. Although some religious views clearly are incompatible with the discoveries of science, and certain religious perspectives clash with the evidence-based method science uses to derive conclusions, most religious perspectives found among Americans do not reject either the methods or the conclusions of science. This in itself, though a simple idea, is also one that scientists need to communicate to the public. Conservative Christians, in particular, often reject science because they believe that in accepting science, they will be forced to accept materialist philosophy. Distinguishing between the methodological materialism of science and the philosophical materialism of humanism and other non-theistic views frees science for acceptance on its own terms. Scientists also must realize that the presentation of science, though necessary, is not sufficient in itself. For topics such as religion or climate change, where there may be religiously-based opposition, “mere” science will not be persuasive on its own. Research shows that ideological orientation trumps empiricism: liberals are more likely to accept information if they believe the position originates from a fellow liberal, conservatives are more likely to accept the identical information if they believe the position originates from a fellow conservative, and so on. To overcome ideological barriers to the acceptance of science requires establishing a relationship of trust and respect. This relationship is most easily established by individuals of the same ideology, but it is not impossible for “outsiders” to do

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so. Otherwise, an adversarial relationship is the default, to the detriment of the public understanding of science

Science Festivals as Regional Collaborations: Extending Resources by Working Together Organized by: Ben Wiehe, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA Achieve more, with less money, in less time. This has become a mantra in science education amidst shrinking budgets and limited resources. Many communities across the U.S. have addressed this by transforming the collaborations inherent in science festivals into larger STEM networks and campaigns. These initiatives often involve dozens to hundreds of collaborating organizations, across broad geographic areas, and each reaching tens of thousands of students and families. Since 2007, at least three-dozen science festival initiatives have formed in the U.S. alone, and many of these are now growing into roles that utilize broad partnerships to maximize the impact of existing resources. This symposium examines the emergence of these regional collaborations through the lens of a variety of organizational types: a science museum, a university, and a corporation. It also examines the history and impact of these collaborations and how they are maintained, and considers their future with respect to science education.

WISCONSIN SCIENCE FESTIVAL AS CASE STUDY FOR REGIONAL COLLABORATION Laura M. Heisler, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison The Wisconsin Science Festival, based in Madison, has grown rapidly in the past three years to involve scores of collaborating organizations, including research universities, informal science institutions, area companies, and arts groups. In concert with the overall symposium, we will discuss ways in which the inherently collaborative nature of the festival has led to consolidated effort by these organizations, and what opportunities remain to be seized as we work to increase the impact of our collaborators by working together.

REGIONAL COLLABORATION FROM A CORPORATE PERSPECTIVE Janet Auer, Chevron USA, San Ramon, CA As the presenting sponsor of the Bay Area Science Festival since its inception, Chevron has realized unique benefits to being a leader of this regional collaboration. From the perspective of a company that invests deeply in a wide range of education efforts throughout the state of California, the festival collaborative model has provided the ideal stage on which to gather and present its many efforts in the Bay Area.

FROM COLLABORATION TO LARGER CAMPAIGN Todd Boyette, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill When staff at the University of North Carolina's Moorehead Planetarium and Science Center set out to build the relationships needed to pull off the country's first statewide science festival it started with a lot of listening to potential partners. As it turns out, just about everyone was enthusiastic about participating in a science festival, but they also each had agendas of their own. This presentation will provide an overview of how the listening tour that launched the festival has now transformed into a statewide campaign that addresses the many concerns of festival partners, from STEM education to research.

Improvisation for Scientists: Making a Human Connection Organized by: Valeri Lantz-Gefroh and Elizabeth Bass, Stony Brook University, NY Improvisational theater training is evolving as a promising tool to help scientists communicate more effectively with the public, including policymakers, the media, students, funders, and even other scientists. The purpose of improvisation is not to teach scientists to become actors or comedians. Instead, the aim is to help them become more dynamic listeners who can focus their attention on the needs of their audience, read unspoken cues, and respond with openness, flexibility, and awareness. Improvisational games engage participants on a personal level, helping them tap into their passion when talking about science, and encourage the use of storytelling. The process teaches that personal connection with science is


not inappropriate when talking to the public—it is imperative. This symposium brings together practitioners who have been using improvisation with scientists in a variety of settings, including courses for graduate students, workshops for medical students, and team-building exercises for scientists in the workplace. Through discussion of experiences, techniques, and challenges, it will provide an understanding of the ways improvisation can be used to help scientists tell their own story and connect directly with people outside their own field.

IMPROVISATION IN GRADUATE SCIENCE EDUCATION: WHAT'S THE USE? Valeri Lantz-Gefroh, Stony Brook University, NY Valeri Lantz-Gefroh will describe how “Improvisation for Scientists,” an innovative program pioneered by Alan Alda, uses improvisational theater exercises to help young scientists speak more spontaneously and be more responsive to lay audiences. As lead improv instructor at Stony Brook University, she teaches workshops and courses for graduate students and post-docs and has been using improv, integrated with other communication techniques, to help TAs become more effective teachers.

IMPROVISATION AT WORK IN PLAY: BUILDING COLLABORATIVE COMMUNICATION AMONG SCIENTISTS Raquell Holmes, Improvscience, Boston, MA Over a thousand graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, administrators and lab directors have participated in improvisational theater based sessions led by Dr. Holmes. At conferences, departmental events or short courses, these scientists enter the room with curiosity, skepticism and varying degrees of self-protection. After one to three hours of conversation and games that have participants on their feet, laughing, and creatively completing simple and playful tasks together, they leave having built new relationships with the creative process, with each other, and a new understanding of what scientific culture can be. Improvisational ensembles willingly go into unknown areas, collaboratively discover next steps, and risk making mistakes together. These traits are increasingly recognized as central components of creative, inclusive organizations, teaching and innovation. Learning to work together as improvisational ensembles that flexibly work with constraints informs participants’ interactions and their approach to science. From the first workshop at Harvard Medical School’s Systems Biology Department and those that followed, scientists were eager for opportunities to build community and stretch their collaborative, creative capacities. Holmes created improvscience to meet the newly identified need. For herself, Holmes discovered the benefits of performance and improvisation through the East Side Institute and All Stars Project, independently funded grassroots organizations focused on community and youth development. Their practice of collective performance and play that re-initiates human development have shaped Holmes approach to building more open, inclusive and innovative scientific communities. Through her National Science Foundation project Improvisational Theater for Computing Scientists, Holmes met STEM professionals nation-wide who also see collaborative groups (ensembles) as important for creative learning, developing scientists, and communication. These scientists create social contexts in which they, their colleagues, students and staff improvise new scientific, cultural performances. A cross-section of their work is visible in the abstracts of the Cultivating Ensembles in STEM Education and Research (CESTEMER) meeting convened in 2012 at University of Connecticut Health Center. In this talk, Holmes shares the voices and projects of this growing community of STEM professionals and her work as a pioneer of the improv(e) science community that is innovating the performance of science.

MEDICAL IMPROVISATION: APPLICATIONS FOR CREATIVITY AND TEAMWORK IN THE SCIENCES Katie Watson, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL Katie Watson, a bioethicist who is also an adjunct faculty member at the Second City Training Center, coined the term “medical improv” to describe a course she created and taught her students at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine for more than 10 years. Watson will share what she’s learned using this appliedarts training with medical students, and describe how her curriculum could be adapted to promote teamwork and creativity in the sciences.

Securing the Future of Science: Using the Higgs to Inspire the Young Organized by: Terry O'Connor, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Swindon, United Kingdom; Timothy Meyer, TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada Big science inspires: a 2009 U.K. survey of physics undergraduates revealed 90 percent of respondents were first attracted to science by the fundamental questions about the universe posed by particle and nuclear physics, space science, and astronomy. Since 2003, the global particle physics community has successfully sought to translate initial interest into firm commitment, with a clear goal to increase the number of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduates from high school and university. In the U.K. alone, despite a tripling of undergraduate fees, enrollment in physics rose 8.3 percent in 2012 against an overall 8.7 percent fall in university admissions. The British success is attributed to an integrated national campaign, organized in close collaboration with CERN, and operated as a partnership between the particle physics community, its funding body, learned societies, and educational organizations, with international engagement and sharing of ideas. The campaign, and similar efforts in the U.S. and Europe, involves direct engagement between researchers and students, training for teachers, development of curriculum material, mass media campaigns, and events targeting elected officials and senior decisionmakers in government and industry so as to demonstrate the longer-term economic and societal benefits of investment in “Big Science." This session includes an overview of these efforts, lessons learned for researchers including assessment and monitoring, and specific examples of successes relevant to other disciplines.

HOW THE HIGGS BOSON ACHIEVED ROCK STAR STATUS John Womersley, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Swindon, United Kingdom How did the Higgs Boson, a theoretical sub-atomic particle, gain rock star status? This session will explain how the “search for the Higgs” was embedded in popular culture, as a way of inspiring more young people to study science. The session will include specific examples of relevance to other disciplines of the benefits—and risks—of adopting a cooperative and inclusive approach, and the joys and pitfalls of explaining Big Science to children, parents, the public, and Members of Parliament.

THE CHALLENGES OF COORDINATING GLOBAL SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONS James Gillies, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland In 2003, CERN decided to conduct its science in public, and embarked on a campaign to leverage the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider to raise the profile of physics. A key part of CERN’s approach was to tell the LHC story locally, regionally and globally, such that it had as much relevance to people in Geneva, Illinois, for example, as to those in Geneva, Switzerland. This involved close coordination between participating institutions, and a degree of openness new to the laboratory.

BRINGING HIGGS BOSONS INTO HIGH SCHOOLS Marjorie G. Bardeen, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL July 4, 2012 was the date particle physicists announced the discovery of a Higgs boson. QuarkNet was ready with two powerful instructional activities that allowed high school teachers and their students to analyze datasets that included a candidate Higgs event. We will discuss ATLAS and CMS masterclasses and the CMS e-Lab. Preparatory activities ensure that students have the understandings necessary to learn how physicists discover knowledge and how they talk about their work. We will present data from independent evaluation that support our findings. QuarkNet is a long-term, national professional development and workforce development program that brings over 500 high school physics teachers and their students into the particle physics research community annually. Located at 53 universities and labs across the United States, the program is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.


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Science, Religion, and Modern Physicists: New Studies Organized by: Paul Arveson and Jennifer Wiseman, AAAS Center for Science, Policy, and Society Programs, Washington, DC Recent work on the religious lives and beliefs of leading physicists raises interesting questions about the interaction of science and religion in the modern period. How can religious values and attitudes influence the actual practice of science? How do religious beliefs and experiences shape the ways in which scientists interpret science for non-scientific audiences? These questions are addressed in this symposium, which focuses on three influential scientists who regarded themselves as religious and who wrote about science for wider audiences: Arthur Eddington, a Quaker; Arthur Holly Compton, a Presbyterian; and Albert Einstein, a Jew.

ON BEING A RELIGIOUS SCIENTIST: THE CASE OF A.S. EDDINGTON Matthew Stanley, New York University, New York City A.S. Eddington (1882-1944) was a pioneer of modern astrophysics. He was also a devout Quaker, and believed strongly that those two sides of his life were compatible and mutually helpful. He argued that there was an outlook on the world that was shared between religion and science. In particular, he said that this framework, which the Quakers called “seeking,” was critical for the innovation and growth of science.

PROPHET OF SCIENCE: ARTHUR HOLLY COMPTON ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION Edward B. Davis, Messiah College, Mechanicsburg, PA American physicist Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962), who shared the Nobel Prize with C. T. R. Wilson in 1927, was a leading public intellectual in the decades surrounding World War II. A very active Presbyterian, Compton’s “modernist” Christian beliefs influenced his views on several important topics about which he wrote extensively: evolution and the design argument, human freedom and the limits of science, immortality, anti-Semitism, and the morality of atomic warfare. This talk briefly presents his approach to each of those topics.

EINSTEIN: THE “JEWISH” PHYSICIST Steve Gimbel, Gettysburg College, PA Between the World Wars, Nazi sympathizers labeled the theory of relativity "Jewish science" in an attempt to denigrate it. They were, of course, wrong. Although Descartes' and Newton's theories of space, time, and gravitation (those that preceded Einstein's) were directly influenced by their Catholicism and Protestantism, respectively, Einstein's theory was not based in any way on anything Judaic. But while everyone loves Einstein, Jews really love Einstein. Is there any way the phrase "Jewish science could be reinterpreted and applied to the theory of relativity to ground the pride Jews feel in having the greatest name in physics as a member of the tribe? The answer is typically Jewish—yes and no.

Innovative Vehicles for Vetted Information in a Wiki World Organized by: Sarah Bates, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC This symposium highlights how societies and foundations are working effectively in a new media landscape to build awareness and appreciation of science by sharing authoritative, scientist-vetted information via new media, coordinated outreach campaigns, and global reach. The reduction of traditional science and health journalism has led to the emergence of new communication platforms, and an organic online culture that engages readers as news consumers, creators, and distributors. This change creates a challenge to ensure that authoritative and accurate information is widely disseminated, opening up opportunities for scientist-organizations to fill the space. Attendees of this symposium will hear from project leaders from interdisciplinary fields—neuroscience, medicine, and the physical sciences—that effectively take advantage of new dissemination venues to counteract misinformation with accessible, accurate material. Speakers will provide an overview of their projects, describe how these initiatives have reached audiences from around the globe, and discuss how their projects have made accessible scientific information available directly to the public. This session will compare and contrast approaches, explore avenues for global collaboration in this emerging sphere, and engage attendees in discussion.

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Abstracts

BRAINFACTS.ORG: MAKING BRAIN SCIENCE EXCITING, ACCESSIBLE, AND SOCIAL Debra Speert, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC BrainFacts.org provides the public with frequently updated, scientist-vetted brain information and adds active social media strategies. Launched by the Kavli Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Society for Neuroscience in May 2012, it shares the excitement and importance of neuroscience, as well as “brain basics,” in ways everyone can understand. This presentation will describe how the project has surpassed set benchmarks and attracted a global audience in less than a year.

SMART SYNDICATION FOR SCIENCE-SLIM MEDIA OUTLETS Ben Stein, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD Inside Science produces editorially independent research news on science, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and related fields for the general public, with a special emphasis on reaching members of the general public who do not ordinarily seek out STEM news. Inside Science syndicates its articles, videos, and columns to mainstream media organizations, from the Fox News national website to the local NBC TV affiliate in Davenport, Iowa, while building a growing direct audience on its website and social media platforms. In its State of the News Media 2013 report, the Pew Research Center lists Inside Science as an emerging organization “producing content that could advance citizens’ knowledge of public issues.” This presentation will describe how the American Institute of Physics created a nonprofit news organization, supported by a coalition of STEM organizations, that aims to provide accurate, quality STEM news in this time of shrinking newsroom staff.

WELLCOME TRUST: ENGAGING READERS WITH STORIES FROM THE BRIGHTEST MINDS Mark Henderson, Wellcome Trust, London, United Kingdom The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to driving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We do this by funding the brightest minds in biomedical science and the medical humanities, to the tune of approximately $1billion each year. Our interest in biomedical science, however, isn't limited to research: we also think it is critical that society at large can engage with and discuss advances in biomedicine and their implications for us all. To that effect, we strive to promote public engagement with science, and its place in national and international conversation. Compelling science writing that explains research and sets it in context for a general audience is a critical part of those conversations, but has faced increasing challenges as the mainstream media struggles to find sustainable business models in the face of the digital revolution. Many newspapers have cut back on science coverage, particularly the long-form feature material that is often best at exploring science in full detail. But while digital has challenged traditional media, it has also created opportunities for new players. The Wellcome Trust is embracing these through the imminent launch of a new digital publication, Mosaic, which will publish long-form features about biomedical science and its impact on society. The aim will be to get behind subjects and explore them from different angles, and we are commissioning the best freelance writers we can find to do it. The features we publish won't be limited to Wellcome Trust funded research, but will encompass the most interesting contemporary stories in bioscience wherever they are. The content will not only be free to read, it'll also be free to share. We are publishing under a Creative Commons Attibution licence (CC-BY), so that anyone else can take our content and republish it. We think this material is important, and we want it to find the broadest possible audience, and we don't mind if people read it in other publications. In this talk, I will explore what we're doing, why the Wellcome Trust thinks it's important, and some of the issues we've faced as we explore an innovative science media model.

THE DANA FOUNDATION: INFORMAL OUTREACH WITH SCIENTIFIC VETTING Nicky Penttila, Dana Foundation, New York City, NY The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization that supports brain research through grants, publications, and educational programs. The Foundation also coordinates the annual Brain Awareness Week (March 10— 16, 2014), a global campaign to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research. In 2013, campaign partners held more than


950 events in 58 countries on six continents. (http://dana.org/brainweek) The presentation will describe how we have extended the reach of this campaign and our other programs by putting scientist-vetted content in the hands and on the screens of people around the world.

Computer Science, Mathematics, and Statistics Intelligent Context-Aware Systems for Healthcare, Wellness, and Assisted Living Organized by: Louise Byrne, European Commission, Research Executive Agency, Brussels, Belgium Context awareness has the potential to revolutionize the way people interact with information technology. Whereas conventional computers merely interpret explicit user input, context aware systems analyze and automatically respond to users' behavior and the current situation. This enables electronic systems to assist users in situations in which the use of conventional computers and mobile devices is out of question. This is of particular relevance in the field of healthcare, wellness, and assisted living (HWA) applications. Research on context awareness has continued to intensify in the last decade due to the availability of cheap sensing technologies and mobile systems. Still, building reliable context aware systems that can deal with complex real-life situations and environments remains an open research challenge and requires a multidisciplinary effort. An international consortium of 24 universities, companies, and research organizations have formed to provide a decisive contribution toward solutions, leveraged through an interdisciplinary perspective ranging from sensing and sensor integration to human computer interaction and social factors involved in the deployment of context aware applications and, in doing so, train the next generation of researchers in the field. The symposium illustrates the advances made in the field of context awareness by this large consortium and the benefits for HWA applications in particular.

CONTEXT AWARE SYSTEMS: FROM SENSORS TO SOCIAL FACTORS Olivier Amft, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands Building reliable context aware systems that can deal with complex real life situations and environments requires a multidisciplinary effort. This presentation showcases the combined interdisciplinary approach ranging from sensing and sensor integration, to human computer interaction and social factors involved in deploying solutions.

LONG-TERM ACTIVITY MONITORING IN ASSISTED LIVING USING A LARGE-AREA SENSITIVE FLOOR Miguel Sousa, Future-Shape GmbH, Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, Germany Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) focuses on assisting individuals in all sorts of everyday tasks, taking into account specific health impairments. Prevention and detection of falls can increase the time an elder can live independently while at the same time giving the older citizen a sense of security. An AAL system has been adapted from SensFloor for use in the entire living environment, wet rooms included. The use of additional sensors can help identify different users in multi-person scenarios.

EARLY DETECTION OF WORSENING HEART FAILURE USING CONTINUOUS NONINVASIVE MEASUREMENTS Illapha Cuba Gyllensten, Philips Research, Eindhoven, Netherlands During the course of Chronic Heart Failure (HF) patients regularly experience periods of acute worsening symptoms requiring hospitalisation which account for a major cost in HF management & are associated with increased mortality. Monitoring at home could provide caregivers with early warning signs of a worsening condition, enabling timely & tailored interventions. Accurate early alarms of worsening HF can be provided through robust algorithms for non-invasive thoracic impedance measurements.

Outsourcing Science: Will the Cloud Transform Research? Organized by: Ian Foster, Argonne National Laboratory, IL Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), also known as “software on demand,” is a software delivery model in which software and associated data are located in the cloud rather than a user’s desktop or institution. First proposed as a cost reduction mechanism, SaaS has been widely adopted in industry as a disruptive technology. Businesses operate fundamentally differently today than just five years ago because of the rise of SaaS. Startups, larger companies, and consumers all outsource major information management and manipulation tasks to cloud providers. This symposium investigates the question of whether, how, and when a similar transformation may occur in science. In principle, challenging needs and limited budgets should create strong pressures for outsourcing many research functions—driving, perhaps, the complete relocation of laboratories to the cloud. In practice, we see far less adoption of such technologies in the research community. Is this limited adoption due to fundamental properties of science or alternatively to complacency, conservatism, funding models, and/or university bureaucracy? The answer likely contains shades of all these theories and many more. This symposium brings together pioneers in the research SaaS field to discuss what has worked and what has not, and to identify challenges going forward.

A SCIENCE SERVICES MARKETPLACE Elizabeth Iorns, Science Exchange Inc., Palo Alto, CA Research has traditionally been conducted by a single scientist or a small team of scientists within a single laboratory. The scientist(s) would conduct the majority of required experiments themselves, even if they did not initially have the necessary expertise or equipment. If they could not conduct an experiment themselves, they would attempt to find a collaborator to help them by using a barter system. This barter system involves one scientist asking for a favor from another, with the potential upside being co-authorship on any publications that are produced by the work. This type of collaborative arrangement depends heavily on personal networks developed by scientists. As research has become increasingly specialized and complex, this DIY/barter system has ceased to function effectively. It is no longer possible for a single scientist to master all the techniques or purchase all the equipment required to conduct their experiments, and they cannot maintain sufficient personal networks to enable effective bartering for all of the complex experiments required. Frequently, an entire university cannot provide all the expertise necessary for a research project, over 60% of papers are now co-authored by investigators from multiple institutions. The amount of collaboration required in research will continue to increase, driven by many factors including increased specialization, more complex and large scale instrumentation, and an increasing desire to obtain crossfertilization across disciplines. With large teams of scientists, often based at remote institutions, increasingly needing to work together to solve complex problems, there will be a demand for new tools to help facilitate collaboration. Specifically, there will be an increasing need for tools that allow researchers to easily find and access other scientists with the expertise required to advance their research projects. To operate most efficiently these tools also need new methods to reward researchers for participating in these collaborations. The digital marketplace model provides a mechanism for researchers to list their expertise so that other researchers can easily find them and request collaborations. Several sites that allow for scientific networking exist including Mendeley, ResearchGate, and BiomedExperts, but these are not specifically designed to facilitate formal transactions between scientists. ScienceExchange serves less of a social networking and discussion function, and instead offers a fee-forservice marketplace, delineating a clear incentive for experts to participate in collaborations that they may not have been interested in previously. Although serendipity in human interactions across many domains can be wonderful and fruitful, there is a downside to relying exclusively on chance bringing the right scientists together at the right time. By formalizing and democratizing access to scientific collaboration, the internet age will be a powerful force in improving the speed and quality of scientific research.

SCIENTIFIC SIMULATION SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE Gerhard Klimeck, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Dr. Klimeck will describe his experiences creating and operating what is arguably the largest and most successful software as a service system in the sci-


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ences, nanoHUB. Tens of thousands of researchers, educators, and students use nanoHUB to access hundreds of simulation software packages.

Elections Through the Lens of Mathematics

ACCELERATING BACTERIAL GENOMICS AND METAGENOMICS VIA SCIENCE SERVICES

This session features an interdisciplinary approach to a wide range of issues related to electoral systems. Elections are recognized as cornerstones of democracy. Yet today there are increasing calls to change our electoral systems, and criticisms of past practices are attracting more and more adherents. Ideas for reform include changes not only to the information that voters are asked to enter on their ballots, but also to the way information on ballots is combined to determine a winner. The most important properties of electoral systems, those that determine how well the winner reflects the voters’ preferences, can be formulated mathematically. So far, no electoral system free from undesirable properties has been identified, suggesting that the choice of an electoral system amounts to a trade-off of properties. This session explores the difficulty of finding and implementing a “good” electoral system. Even such simple desiderata as “one-voter, one-vote” have proven extremely difficult to achieve in practice. Mathematical study of such fairness-related properties typically finds systems that are successful on some dimensions but unsuccessful on others. Simulation or empirical study can be used to assess the frequency with which properties fail under particular electoral systems.

Rick Stevens, Argonne National Laboratory, IL Rick will speak to experiences gained running the highly successful RAST and MG-RAST services for genome and metagenome sequence assembly and analysis. These services are used by tens of thousands of people, and have proved transformative in enabling researchers in many countries to contribute meaningfully to research in these domains.

The Importance of Recreational Mathematics in Solving Practical Problems Organized by: Jason Rosenhouse and Laura Taalman, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA Mathematical and scientific research inspired by games and puzzles has proved surprisingly resilient in finding practical applications. For example, the development of probability theory resulted from the earnest contemplation of problems faced by gamblers. In the 20th century, much progress in computer science resulted from trying to program a machine to play chess. Far from being a mere historical artifact, the relationship between pure mathematics and practical considerations is as strong today as it ever has been. The symposium brings together experts whose research has bridged the gap between recreational and practical mathematics, with particular emphasis on recent work in computer science and economics. The multidisciplinary nature of this research, typical of modern mathematics, will also be featured prominently. The discoveries and innovations that will solve global problems will not necessarily come from direct approaches to those problems, and the freedom of researchers to explore seemingly impractical problems is essential.

THE USEFULNESS OF TRIVIAL PURSUITS: THE SUCCESSES OF RECREATIONAL MATHEMATICS Jason Rosenhouse, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA Probability theory, central to modern science, emerged from a seventeenthcentury conversation on gambling between Pascal and Fermat. Non-Euclidean geometry, studied for its own sake in the nineteenth century, is today a critical tool for physicists. These are just two examples of a recurring theme. This presentation will make explicit a central truth of solving practical problems: You never know where the next great idea is coming from.

HOW WE PROVED THE 17 CLUE CONJECTURE Gary McGuire, University College Dublin, Ireland Sudoku enthusiasts have long conjectured that a sound puzzle must have at least seventeen starting clues. They were proved correct in early 2012, by a team of researchers led by the speaker. They key advance was a new algorithm for solving the covering set problem, a question of general importance in computer science. We will explain the major ideas that went into the proof, with particular emphasis on the close relationship between mathematics and computer science in modern research.

FROM CAKE-CUTTING TO MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS Francis Su, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA The problem of how to cut a cake fairly may seem recreational, but it connects some beautiful mathematical ideas with practical solutions to applied problems. We trace connections with solving nonlinear equations in applied mathematics, computing Nash equilibria in mathematical economics, and recent solutions to questions of 'fair division': the problem of fairly dividing the rent among roommates.

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Abstracts

Organized by: D. Marc Kilgour, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada

GETTING A BETTER DENOMINATOR: U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND THE NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE COMPACT Vikram David Amar, University of California, Davis The current electoral college system deviates from the one-voter, one-vote baseline that characterizes almost all of the rest of American constitutional democracy. The situation is complicated by the rise of the winner-take-all approach vs. proportional allocation of presidential electors in each state, the resulting incentives candidates have to ignore the vast majority of states in which the winner (though not the margin of victory) is foreordained, the impossibility of amending the Constitution to change any of this because of the high supermajority (75%) requirement for ratification in the states. The National Popular Vote Compact has been adopted in states comprising almost half the number of presidential electors needed for the plan to take effect, is a creative way around these constraints. But there have been constitutional and logistical objections people have advanced against the plan. Other recent reform proposals, unlike the NPV, are undeniably partisan in nature and, if adopted, would have a deeply corrosive effect on American democracy

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF VOTING RULES AND MANIPULATION WITH LARGE DATASETS Judy Goldsmith, University of Kentucky, Lexington The study of voting systems often takes place in the theoretical domain due to a lack of large samples of sincere, strictly ordered voting data. We derive several million elections (more than all the existing studies combined) from a publicly available data, the Netflix Prize dataset. The Netflix data is derived from millions of Netflix users, who have an incentive to report sincere preferences, unlike random survey takers. We use this data to induce elections over a set of candidates (movies) and study the results. We evaluate each of these elections under the Plurality, Borda, k-Approval, and Repeated Alternative Vote (RAV) voting rules. We examine the Condorcet Efficiency of each of the rules and the probability of occurrence of Condorcet’s Paradox, that a pairwise majority winner is not selected. We compare our sets of voters to existing theories of domain restriction such as single-peakedness, where some candidate represents an ideal point for all the voters. We also compare our data to statistical models used to generate election data for testing in areas of computer science, political science, and social choice. We also examine the safety and robustness of the Borda voting rule to manipulation by coalitions of voters. We find a high consensus among the different voting rules; almost no instances of Condorcet’s Paradox; almost no support for restricted preference profiles, very little support for many of the statistical models currently used to generate election data for testing, and very small coalitions needed to promote second-place candidates to the winning position in elections. Finally we discuss ongoing work to compile a large database of preference and election data. Some of our ongoing work in this area has shined an interesting light on the models and assumptions that have been used over the years to study elections. We will discuss the implications of these decisions on our studies.


ARE THERE CYCLES IN NATIONAL POLITICS? Samuel Merrill III, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA Are there predicable, cyclical patterns in national politics? In particular, does the proportion of the Democratic/Republican vote share for the U.S. president or does the seat share in Congress or other parliaments rise and fall over extended periods of time? If so, are such cycles regular, what are the cycling periods, and have periods changed over time? In joint work with Bernard Grofman (University of California, Irvine) and Thomas Brunell (University of Texas, Dallas), we use spectral analysis to test for the presence and determine the length of those cycles, showing that regular cycles do, in fact, exist—with periods in the U.S. of 25-30 years that conform to those predicted by the Arthur Schlesingers, Sr. and Jr., for swings between liberalism and conservatism. In an effort to identify the forces that might drive such cycling, we offer a voter-party interaction model—a negative feedback loop—that depends on the tensions between parties’ policy and office motivations and between voters’ tendency to sustain incumbents while reacting against extreme policies. We find a plausible fit between the regular cycling that this model projects and the time series of two-party politics in both the U.S. and Britain over the past century and a half. Finally, we report work on wavelet analysis by other researchers that permits the assessment of changes in cycle length over time. Analysis hints that cycle lengths in the U.S. may have shortened in recent decades.

People and Computing: On Human-Computer Collaborations for Tackling Hard Problems Organized by: Erwin P. Gianchandani, NSF, Arlington, VA; Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA A breathtaking pace of advances over the last two decades has brought computing to the forefront of science, medicine, commerce, and the arts, transforming the way individuals live, work, learn, play, and communicate. However, with the advent of large amounts of data, computational methods for machine perception, learning, decision-making, and increasing amounts of autonomy and automation, people are sometimes squeezed out of the equation even though the integration of humans with computing solutions often yields the most innovative results. This symposium explores the critical role of people in larger computational solutions—with a focus on recent efforts and opportunities in new forms of human-computer collaboration and symbioses with automated methods designed to work well with people so as to complement their abilities and availabilities. Such efforts include new approaches to visualization, human-in-the-loop strategies for effective monitoring and analysis, principles of mixed-initiative interaction, collaborative computing, and methods for crowdsourcing and “human computation.” Collectively, these strategies stand to power us forward to solutions for current and future global challenges spanning a host of disciplines, including healthcare, transportation, and energy.

PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS OF COMPLEMENTARY COMPUTING Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA I will describe several examples of collaborative problem-solving between people and computing systems that demonstrate how we can leverage the complementarity of humans and machines in tackling challenging problems. I will present on methods that employ machine learning and decision making to couple the complementary intellect of machines and people, studies of techniques that enable a dialog between people and machines in interactive machine learning, directions with modeling human surprise, and efforts to guide the display of information in time-critical settings.

CROWDS, COMMUNITIES, AND MIXED-INITIATIVE SYSTEMS Haoqi Zhang, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL In this talk, I highlight opportunities for designing new forms of crowd-supported, mixed-initiative systems that tightly integrate crowd work, community process, and intelligent user interfaces to solve complex problems that no machine nor interested party can solve alone. I focus on two examples. My first example is Mobi, a system that coordinates a crowd to plan custom trip itineraries. By using automatically generated todo items to focus the crowd's attention on what needs work, Mobi illustrates a novel approach for handling human computation tasks that are difficult to decompose. My second example is Cobi, a system that engages an entire academic com-

munity in planning a conference. Communitysourcing applications collect preferences, constraints, and affinity data from community members, and intelligent session-making and scheduling interfaces combine communitysourced data and constraint-solving to enable organizers to make informed decisions when creating and improving the schedule. I will share findings from recent deployments for planning CHI and CSCW, the two largest conferences in human computer interaction.

COLLABORATIVE COMPUTING IN INTERVENTIONAL MEDICINE Gregory D. Hager, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD With the rapidly growing popularity of the Intuitive Surgical da Vinci system, robotic minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) has crossed the threshold from the laboratory to the real world. There are now hundreds of thousands of humanguided robotic surgeries performed every year, and the number is growing rapidly. This is a unique example of the larger paradigm of human-machine collaborative systems—namely systems of robots collaborating with people to perform tasks that neither can perform as effectively alone. In this talk, I will describe our work toward developing effective human-machine collaborative teams. Our research largely focuses on two inter-related problems: 1) recognizing and responding to the intent of the user and 2) evaluating the effectiveness of their performance. We consider surgery to be composed of a set of identifiable tasks which themselves are composed of a small set of reusable motion units that we call "surgemes." By creating models of this "Language of Surgery," we are able to evaluate the style and efficiency of surgical motion. These models also lead naturally to methods for effective training of RMIS using automatically learned models of expertise, and toward methods for supporting or even automating component actions in surgery. I will close by briefly describing our aspirations for this work through a recently funded National Robotics Initiative consortium.

Advances in Citizen Science: Large-Scale Community Engagement for Sensing and Analysis Organized by: Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA With citizen science, volunteers are engaged to help with tracking, analysis, and discovery on scientific projects. Citizen science efforts provide valuable contributions that advance scientific inquiry and knowledge, while engaging and educating volunteers. Examples include enlisting volunteers to help with the labeling of heavenly bodies in astronomical images, identification of birds in the wild, the tracking of neuronal paths through multiple cross-sections in microscopic images, and engaging the public with online games that help molecular biologists find better solutions to protein folding problems. This symposium describes several citizen science projects, focusing on key efforts in astronomy and biology. It includes presentations on the GalaxyZoo and Zooniverse projects, based at Oxford University and the Adler Planetarium of Chicago; work on eBird at Cornell University; and efforts at Microsoft Research to develop computational methods aimed at providing a “science of citizen science,” with the development of methods for the ideal fusing of multiple contributions via Bayesian inference procedures.

CITIZENS OF SCIENCE: WHEN ADVANCES ARE POWERED BY CROWDS Caren Cooper, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Relocating science into the heart of society—by expanding a process called citizen science—can deliver two keys that humanity needs to create a sustainable world: reliable knowledge and social capital. Even though curiosity is a universal human trait, the enterprise of scientific discovery is kept outside our culture, not a part of our collective identity, not integrated into our rituals and customs. It is carried out by an elite few, making it an easy target for attacks on its credibility and requiring specialized communicators to bridge the enormous gap between those creating knowledge and those for whom the knowledge is created. This is a serious problem because there are two interlocking keys needed to solve problems: (i) reliable knowledge of what can be done and (ii) social capital to make it happen. (The social networks, cohesion, and individual investment in community that makes democracy work better are social capital). Right now these two keys are separated from each other. The scientific enterprise is not broken (it is still making knowledge), but it can’t efficiently do its part in solving problems while located apart from society. The remedy is to relocate science from its isolation and foster its growth in the mainstream of society as an ongoing collaboration between the public and professionals. How can we


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do this? Citizen Science has already begun to do it, every day, and we need to expand the process. From the last decade of studying the phenomena of citizen science, we now know that citizen science co-creates highly reliable scientific knowledge and weaves social capital. Citizen science is still in its infancy and if we grow it, we have an opportunity to develop systems of engagement and participation aimed at collective problem-solving. In this context, I will discuss the current trends and frontiers in the emerging discipline of citizen science.

THE HISTORY OF CITIZEN SCIENCE AND RISE OF ONLINE CITIZEN SCIENCE Chris Lintott, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL There is a long history of the public contributing to science be it amateur astronomers discovering and monitoring variable stars or large scale biological monitoring. With the advent of the internet the bar for participating in such projects has been remarkably lowered and an unprecedented number of people are getting involved in science. Chris Lintott will explore the recent history of citizen science and the breadth of projects and discoveries it has enabled.

EYEWIRE, A GAME TO MAP THE BRAIN Sebastian Seung, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA EyeWire, the first game to map the brain, has attracted over 80,000 players from 130 countries. By coloring the branches of neurons in electron microscopic images, EyeWirers trace the "wiring" of the retina. Their efforts are already helping neuroscientists understand how the brain perceives motion.

LEARNING AND MOTIVATION IN CITIZEN SCIENCE Carsten Oesterlund, Syracuse University, NY Online citizen science projects support public engagement in scientific research processes. However, it remains an open question what motivates citizens to participate and learn about science and the scientific process. Until recently, research investigating citizen science projects has conceptualized learning and motivation as a potential consequence of individual participation. The present research explores the intersection of individual and collective types of participation and learning in Zooniverse citizen science projects. We discuss learning as legitimate peripheral participation in scientific communities and describe the various types of participation and resources that new users engage as they learn to contribute to science in Zooniverse.

TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CITIZEN SCIENCE Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA I will discuss opportunities to harness methods from computer science and statistics in pursuit of a science of citizen science, via leveraging principles of probability and decision theory. I will focus particularly on the use of machine learning and automated planning under uncertainty to mesh the intellects of human and machines, fuse inputs from multiple citizen scientists, make decisions about continuing versus halting to seek input on tasks, and predicting and extending the engagement of volunteer citizen scientists on tasks.

BUILDING A REACTIVE CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM THAT ADAPTS TO USERS AND MACHINES Stuart Lynn, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL Despite the successes of Citizen Science as a new mode of scientific discovery, the needs of the next generation of telescopes and data intensive experiments will outstrip the ability of even the largest citizen science community. What is needed is a system that can combine machine and human effort, where machine learning algorithms can improve with examples from humans and humans can be deployed effectively when machines fail. Such a platform requires the ability to continually model the proficiencies of its classifiers and the characteristics of its data. We will discuss infrastructure that is currently being developed at the Zooniverse to facilitate and assess such a system touching on our approaches to bootstrapping learning algorithms, real time modeling, decision making and a/b split assesment of potential strategies.

Re-Identification Risk of De-Identified Data Sets in the Era of Big Data Organized by: Leslie Taylor, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA; Xiao Hua Andrew Zhou, University of Washington, Seattle Federal statistical agencies and their contractors often collect data from individuals or other entities under a pledge of confidentiality. Dissemination of these results in the form of public microdata files can facilitate advances in research, inform public policy, and further citizens’ knowledge. As the demand for access to publicly available microdata files increases, there are growing concerns regarding the confidentiality of the collected information. Federal agencies are ethically and legally obligated to protect the confidentiality of subjects’ identities and failure to do so can break promises and violate laws. Ideally, publicly available microdata should be released in a way that balances the usefulness of the data and the privacy of the subjects. Numerous statistical methods to assess re-identification risk have been proposed in the literature, and it is important that U.S. federal government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and Veterans Affairs invest in gaining a comprehensive understanding of these methods for the purpose of creating a guidance or checklist of recommended procedures. This session will provide guidance regarding methods that have been used or could be applied to protect health data that is already de-identified according to the Safe Harbor method. Speakers will provide descriptions and information on techniques that have been applied in practice and are interpretable by the general community.

DE-IDENTIFYING HEALTH DATA LaTanya Sweeney, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Computational techniques and integrated policies for sharing information in such a way that privacy and confidentiality are maintained while the data remain practically useful. (2) Characterizes the nature and extent of data privacy problems as society becomes increasingly technically-empowered. (3) Assess the impact of proposed practices, policies and regulations on data privacy problems.

DE-IDENTIFIED MEDICAL DATA AND HIPAA Bradley Malin, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN The Privacy Rule of HIPAA allows such data to be shared under different scenarios—all of which relate to providing a "minimal risk of re-identification." While HIPAA provides this operational privacy standard in words, the technical details are often misunderstood. This talk will present ways to measure risks of re-identification in datasets, and explore methods for sharing data which adhere to the HIPAA standard while remaining practically useful. He should also discuss whether blanket policies for data protection may or may not be useful.

PROTECTING PRIVACY IN CLINICAL GENOMICS DATABASES Eran Halperin, Tel Aviv University and University of California, Berkeley This talk will provide an overview of the vulnerabilities of genomic databases, and recent advances in re-identification methods for genomics data. Dr. Halperin co-authored a recent paper on identifying genomes by surname inference

RE-IDENTIFICATION RISK: PERCEPTION VERSUS REALITY Daniel Barth-Jones, Columbia University, New York City A recent paper by Daniel Barth-Jones critically examines the historic Weld re-identification and the dramatic reductions of re-identification risks for de-identified health data under HIPAA Privacy Rule provisions for de-identification since 2003. This talk should critique current views of re-identification risk, provide recommendations for enhancements to existing HIPAA de-identification policy, and discuss critical advances routinely made in medical science and improvement of our healthcare system using de-identified data.

STATISTICAL METHODS FOR RE-IDENTIFICATION Xiao Hua Andrew Zhou, University of Washington, Seattle In this presentation, we will discuss statistical methods for estimating the reidentification risk. We will discuss both individual and global measures for risks of re-identification. A global measure provides a single risk value for the

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Abstracts


entire micro data file to be released whereas an individual measure gives re-identification risk at level of the individual record. We will illustrate the application of these methods in a VA Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) Registry data. VARA data was de-identified according to HIPAA “Safe Harbor” standards.

ISSUES IN PRIVACY REGULATION, LAW AND SOCIETY Paul Ohm, University of Colorado, Boulder Issues in Privacy Regulation, Law and Society

Statistical Methods for Large Environmental Datasets Organized by: Charmaine Dean, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada There is great need for novel statistical methods for the analysis of massive environmental data to address challenges that examine the interdependences between multiple processes that influence the biosphere. The statistical challenges within just climatology or atmospheric chemistry or oceanography have been a focus for intense activity; however, considering the atmospheric and oceanic sciences as a whole will allow us to examine the critical aspect of interdependencies between processes. For example, in order to understand climate fully, it is essential to understand weather, atmospheric chemistry, oceans, ice, and terrestrial processes, particularly with respect to the carbon and water cycles. Biological processes and human activities are both affected by and affect climate on local (urban heat islands), regional (land use patterns), and global scales (greenhouse gas emissions), such that a comprehensive study also requires hydrology, forestry, ecology, agriculture, economics and public policy. The development of appropriate statistical models for these processes remains a challenge because of the immense difficulty of accurately capturing dynamic aspects of spatio-temporal processes, especially nonlinear and non-stationary behavior. This session discusses common statistical themes across these major scientific problems and innovations developed to address these challenges.

REGIONAL CLIMATE MODELS, SPATIAL DATA AND EXTREMES Doug Nychka, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO This talk discusses statistical experimental design and analysis to explore the effect of parameters or other factors upon which climate models depend, incorporating the complex dependences which exist, including interactions. The statistical procedures are used to develop tools for quantifying uncertainty and for assessments.

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON MORTALITY Montse Fuentes, North Carolina State University, Raleigh In this talk, an innovative framework to assess climate model performance based on the entire distribution of models and field data is presented. The approach better characterizes the tails of future temperature distributions where the greatest health impacts are likely to occur. Accounting for uncertainty, the number of excess deaths attributed to heat waves in the southern US is calculated.

STATISTICAL METHODS FOR SPATIO-TEMPORAL INTERACTIONS AND THEIR ASSESSMENT Michael Stein, University of Chicago, IL There are large literatures on statistical methods for processes observed over time (time series analysis) and processes observed over space (spatial statistics). Proper statistical methods for environmental processes in space-time require more than just combining approaches from time series and spatial statistics, particularly on time scales on which dynamics of the process are relevant, yielding complex spatio-temporal interactions. This talk discusses some approaches for addressing these challenges, including the development of models, estimation methods for the parameters of these models and diagnostics for assessing the appropriateness of spatio-temporal models. These issues will be explored in the context of measurements taken from sun-synchronous polar-orbiting satellites, which are commonly used for environmental monitoring and which create specific difficulties related to the fact that observations from such a satellite are concentrated near noon local time.

Virtual Humans: Helping Facilitate Breakthroughs in Medicine Organized by: Ram D. Sriram, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD; Ramesh Jain, University of California, Irvine; Donald Henson, George Washington University, Washington, DC Advances in computer hardware and software has made it possible to model the human system in silico, conduct virtual experiments, and validate these with in vitro/in vivo experiments. In addition to developing realistic simulations of the human, a new emerging field—systems medicine—is facilitating the integration of various “omics” along with detailed engineering and mathematical models of the human system. This, in turn, has allowed significant improvements in medical diagnosis and treatment. In this symposium, experts in computer graphics, engineering, and medicine discuss current state-of-the-art and future directions in computer-based modeling of humans at various levels of abstraction and how computational models and simulations are aiding new discoveries in medicine. Key topics covered are P4 Medicine (Personalized, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory), drug validations through a virtual liver, cardiovascular simulation models, advancing education through virtual human anatomy and physiology, neural disorders modeling and simulation, and physics-based models of hip injury.

SYSTEMS MEDICINE: REACTIVE TO PROACTIVE TRANSFORMATION OF CLINICAL CARE Leroy Hood, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA The challenge for biology in the 21st century is the need to deal with the incredible complexity of biological systems. Our work on taking a systems approach to diseases have given us fundamental new “systems insights” into disease processes that include a deep understanding of pathophysiology, as well as new approaches to diagnostics and therapy. This has enabled the emerging field of predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory medicine—an innovation in health care delivery.

VIRTUAL LIVER: TOWARDS DRUG DISCOVERY USING IN SILICO BIOLOGICAL PATHWAYS Vijay Chandru, Strand Life Sciences, Bengaluru, India Virtual Liver has been developed with a deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underpin liver biology. We have incorporated several key pathways in the liver such as the antioxidant metabolism, energy metabolism, lipid and bile acid metabolism. As a result our model not only mimics normal liver function faithfully but also generates likely outcomes under a variety of perturbations including drug exposure. Our system has been validated with well-known hepatotoxic drugs.

WHOLE-BRAIN SIMULATION FOR MODELING NEURAL DISORDERS AND DISEASES Terrence Stewart, University of Waterloo, Canada Neurological diseases cause damage to individual neurons within the brain in relatively well-understood ways. However, it is not yet clear how these low-level changes to the brain result in the complex behavioural changes exhibited by individuals with these diseases. To understand how neural effects lead to high-level symptoms, we developed the first large-scale functional simulation of the human brain. This model includes sensory, cognitive, and motor areas interacting to perform basic clinical tasks. Initial results show that inducing perturbations (damage) in the model led to behavior consistent with several diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

COMPUTATIONAL BIOMEDICINE: TOWARDS THE VIRTUAL HUMAN Peter V. Coveney, University College, London, United Kingdom The virtual human concept is a compelling one, offering an in silico environment within which truly personalised medicine can be implemented, taking into account the specific features of every one of us as an individual, from our personal genome to the anatomy of our connected organ systems. Such virtual humans will not only support medical and clinical treatment and decision making, they will also reduce the need for animal testing and serve as personal avatars which will assist every one of us in making healthcare and lifestyle choices. The modelling, software and computational challenges associated with the virtual human are immense and will require many years of


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intensive research effort to bring to fruition. However, the modern principles of modular assembly of tried and tested components will take advantage of the considerable progress already being made in many aspects of the overall virtual human. Indeed, building virtual humans presents a multiscale challenge, as we must integrate data and models at every level ranging between molecular, sub-cellular, cells, tissues and organs (and even beyond the single human to population health to address epidemiological issues). This is probably the most ambitious project for what is often called "systems biology". To make progress at this stage in the development of high fidelity virtual humans, we invoke Sydney Brenner's famous phrase and address its various components “from the middle out". My talk will outline several biomedical issues which are being addressed today, based on various components of the future virtual human. These examples illustrate how future patient-specific medicine treatments will draw increasingly on the massive power of modern IT systems, including both big data and high performance computing aspects. The examples address patient-specific HIV and cancer drug therapy as well as personalised treatment of aneurysms in the brain.

PREDICTING HIP DEFORMATIONS THROUGH COMPUTER MODELING AND SIMULATION Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore This presentation describes a methodology for the simulation of musculoskeletal disorders. Our clinical study is related to osteoarthritis of the hip, a pathogenesis possibly due to impingements. These bone collisions lead to abnormal joint mechanics which is characterized by contact pressure and stress distribution upon the joint cartilages. The proposed methodology combines different approaches from modeling to 3D simulation. The simulation is based on patient-specific anatomical models, where acquisition modalities are noninvasive and flexible. Based on static MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) data, a discrete deformable models method is used for modeling the organs of the musculoskeletal system. Femoroacetabular movements are estimated using an optical motion capture system and are validated by a dynamic MRI analysis. To achieve accurate deformations, techniques to generate volumetric meshes are developed based on the medial axis information. Finally, a computationally-efficient fast functional joint model is used to simulate the mechanical behavior of the soft tissues. The goal of such a simulation is to allow the investigation of the relevant contact and cartilages deformation under movement, which can be useful for diagnosis, pre- or post- operative planning and training. This will benefit further developments in surgical techniques and minimally invasive procedures. A complete case study has been done on 6 ballerinas who perform daily extreme motions. It was possible to identify the cartilage deformation while a ballerina was dancing. We have also shown a correspondence with the information obtained from MRI data set.

BRINGING INTERACTIVE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM Christian Jacob, University of Calgary, Canada Human anatomy and physiology are among the most difficult aspects of medical knowledge to learn and communicate. This holds true for medical students faced with the material for the first time through to doctors consulting with their patients. Cadavers serve the needs of anatomy for students, but they are expensive and difficult to acquire and maintain. Also cadavers offer, at best, clumsy opportunities to explore the human body at different scales. Textbooks and other illustrative material can overcome some of the shortcomings of cadavers, but not all. They are largely static and provide only limited opportunities to shift from the macro to the micro scale, and back. The LINDSAY Virtual Human (LINDSAY) project aims to develop an accurate virtual representation of the human body on a computer system. A prototype of LINDSAY is already in use, with constantly expanding visions. These include navigating to any part of the body (approaching from any departure point), exploring that site at scales ranging from life-size to molecular, superimposing the important physiological reactions located at that site, and seeing the effects of disruptions of normal physiology. We will demonstrate the LINDSAY system and present our first experiences of using LINDSAY as an innovative approach to medical education. More information on the LINDSAY Virtual Human project can be found at: http://lindsayvirtualhuman.org

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Abstracts

Education and Human Resources Building National Capacity in Science Communication for STEM Graduate Students Organized by: Erica Goldman, Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS), Silver Spring, MD; Elizabeth Neeley, COMPASS, Seattle, WA Along with research excellence, effective science communication is an essential skill needed by the science workforce of tomorrow. To engage more effectively across disciplinary boundaries and at the interface of science and society, next-generation scientists must be ready to recognize the “so what” of their science and be equipped to share it with varied audiences using many diverse channels. However, building systemic communications capacity will require academy-wide buy-in and changes in the funding mechanisms that support graduate education. In 2013, COMPASS conducted a survey of existing communications training opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate students and convened a workshop to explore how to systemically improve the quantity and quality of such training. This session builds upon the findings of the workshop by setting the stage for STEM graduate education at a crossroads; discussing communication capacity as a core professional component necessary in a changing workforce; introducing the challenge of scaling, including aligning expectations of core communication competencies and evaluation techniques, along with ensuring connectivity between people and institutions; and providing case studies as examples of how large-scale change might occur. The material presented will motivate a discussion on how to move forward, integrating panel feedback with ideas for actionable steps from audience members.

GRADUATE EDUCATION MODERNIZATION Gerald Blazey, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, DC Since 2012, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President has been discussing graduate education modernization with Federal agencies and with academic institutions and organizations. OSTP has convened an informal discussion group to consider requirements, possible actions, and outcomes for graduate education modernization. This talk will share observations on emergent themes regarding graduate preparation for the 21st Century workforce, diverse career paths, mentorship opportunities, harmonization, and best practices.

A NATIONAL SNAPSHOT OF SCIENCE COMMUNICATION TRAINING OPTIONS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS Erica Goldman, COMPASS, Silver Spring, MD Over the past decade, COMPASS has witnessed demand for science communications training for graduate students far outstrip what either external organizations or institutional offerings can provide. In 2013, COMPASS surveyed the current state of communication training availability for graduate scientists across STEM disciplines, using a mix of interviews and crowd-sourced data. We anticipated, and found, a fragmented landscape with knowledge nodes often poorly connected across disciplines, agencies, and domains— even within the same institution. We have identified that defining a set of core competencies for science communication training will be an essential component in tackling the challenge of how to “scale up” available capacity. We also identified that there are likely to be multiple pathways toward systemic change, including institution-driven, funder-driven, and student-driven. Change could take place through a combination of all of these mechanisms, with any single pathway able to serve as a catalyst for systemic change. In December 2013, COMPASS convened an NSF-funded workshop to develop a roadmap that articulates what skills need to be taught and how they can be delivered at a scale commensurate with current demand.

DEFINING CORE COMPETENCIES IN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION Bruce V. Lewenstein, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Science communication describes everything from manuscript and grant-writing to engaging public audiences through media interviews, public lectures, science-art installation, social media presence, citizen science activities, and more. Accomplishing communication goals in this wide range of settings re-


quires a broad set of theoretical understanding and practical skills. New understandings of the science of science communication and the tools of new media are among the necessary topics to address. Yet to judge the success of communication training, we need to be able to assess across the set of ideas and skills. This talk will define core competencies that training should achieve, knowledge and skills that can be measured in useful ways. These competencies include knowledge of the science communication system, understanding of communication and engagement opportunities, specific communication skills, and conceptual understanding of learning science in informal environments.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT: EVALUATING EFFICACY OF COMMUNICATION TRAINING FOR SCIENTISTS Richard Tankersley, NSF, Arlington, VA How do we know if science communication training for graduate students is achieving its intent? Evaluation of communication skills and training effectiveness is an often undervalued and underused component of the training process. Based on protocols developed for the NSF-sponsored Presentation Boot Camp program, this talk will share lessons learned on best practices for coupling presentation training with skill evaluation to inform an integrated and connected community of practitioners.

CASE STUDY: SUPPORTING GRADUATE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT MICHIGAN STATE Karen Klomparens, Michigan State University, East Lansing For more than a decade, Michigan State University has developed innovative models for graduate career and professional development, with communications training as a core component. From programs that prepare future faculty to those that for explore alternative careers, MSU offers graduate students and postdocs workshops and experiences for diverse career pathways. Communications is considered an “essential competency” for academic success, as well as for career planning and success. Faculty appreciation for the value of this training is critical for institution adoption. This talk will highlight MSU’s journey, with a focus on bolstering faculty buy-in and participation. Three examples will be highlighted; the Setting Expectations and Resolving Conflicts program (offered face-to-face as well as via an interactive, adaptive website), the Career Success interactive website (with assessments of current skills and knowledge, plus the capability for building an electronic portfolio), and the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate learning community program (focused on our diverse graduate student community and multigenerational mentoring).

CASE STUDY: GRASSROOTS ENGAGE-MENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Rachel M. Mitchell, University of Washington, Seattle As federal funding and university budgets come under substantial pressure, and science denialism becomes mainstream, public outreach has become of critical importance. It is an important vehicle for promoting science literacy in the era of anthropogenic global change, and for increasing support for the sciences. Although the need for science outreach and communication is recognized, at present few programs or courses exist to allow young scientists the opportunity to hone and practice their outreach skills. Engage: The Science Speaker Series represents a unique, graduate student-led effort to improve public outreach skills. Founded in 2009, Engage was created by three science graduate students at the University of Washington. The students developed a novel, interdisciplinary curriculum to investigate why science outreach often fails, to improve graduate student communication skills, and to help students create dynamic, public-friendly presentations. The course incorporates elements of story-telling, improvisational arts, and development of analogy, all with a focus on clarity, brevity and accessibility. This course has been offered to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers from a wide variety of sciences since 2010. Students that have participated in the Engage course present their talks at Town Hall Seattle, and have been invited speakers at a number of venues throughout the city. Demand for access to the course continues to grow. The growing success of Engage illustrates the need for similar programs in graduate level science curricula. We present the impetus for the development of the program, elements of the curriculum covered in the Engage course, and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach. We will also discuss the challenges inher-

ent to a student-led organization, and the need for faculty, departmental, and institutional support of student-led efforts.

Use of Digital Games To Support Youth's Engagement with Science and Technology Organized by: Patricia L. Ward, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL In this session, two museums describe projects that draw upon digital, collaborative game play and simulation to foster students’ interest, learning, and engagement with science and technology concepts as they play out in the real world. The projects focus on topics of broad societal importance— energy and genetics—and are designed for middle and high school-aged students. Future Energy Chicago is a collaborative, multi-player simulation that provides an in-museum experience coupled with a pre-and post-visit in-classroom curriculum. GeniGames is a video game that incorporates competitive gaming elements into an existing curriculum designed for high school students. Presenters will also discuss ongoing research studies that investigate how specific gaming and simulation elements can contribute to students’ understanding of scientific concepts. Research examining longer term impacts of these games-based experiences on cognitive dimensions of students’ learning, and affective dimensions such as motivation and engagement will also be discussed. Research results will be based within the field of the learning sciences– applying techniques and frameworks from the fields of child development, psychology, science education, and more to insure a wide range of applicability to other settings.

FUTURE ENERGY CHICAGO: A MUSEUM-BASED, MULTI-PLAYER SIMULATION EXPERIENCE Patricia L. Ward, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL Future Energy Chicago is a museum-based simulation that challenges middleschool students to create innovations that contribute to Chicago’s future energy landscape. Its primary objective is to engage young people, particularly youth between the ages of 10-14, in the topic of energy and to inspire, encourage and empower them to envision their own role in our energy future. In this 45 minute experience, students visiting the Museum in their school groups are divided into teams of approximately six players each, and play the simulation’s set of five games that combine both physical and digital elements. The students take on the roles of an automotive engineer, energy consultant, urban planner, transportation planner and power engineer as they design an energy-efficient car, house, neighborhood, transportation system, and manage an array of power plants to supply power to the city of Chicago. To add realism and challenge to this quest, various constraints and opportunities will appear, compelling students to balance various factors without losing sight of the goal. Players are given a virtual supply of “energy points” in a virtual “Energy Tank.” During game play, this tank reflects the energy impact of each choice: the more energy in the tank, the better. The Future Energy Chicago simulation is both a collaborative and a competitive experience and the teams’ ongoing results are aggregated on the scoreboard in real time. The simulation’s scoring system is grounded in real-world data and the software includes a content management system allowing the Museum to update the raw data as conditions change over time. The games incorporate a variety of design elements to provide students with incentives and a variety of difficulty levels as well as support mechanisms such that the students can feel both challenged and successful. Through this collaborative game-based play, students learn science and technology concepts related to energy efficiency and how they play out in the real world. The museum-based experience is facilitated by the Museum’s education staff and is accompanied by a pre-and post visit in-classroom curriculum. The presentation will include visual representations of the simulation as well as a discussion of how games-based learning has been incorporated into the experience design. In this session, the panel will also present ongoing research and evaluation results designed to understand the impact on students’ learning and engagement with the topic of energy and its underlying science and technology.

MUSEUM-BASED EDUCATION RESEARCH: FUTURE ENERGY CHICAGO, A MULTI-PLAYER SIMULATION Aaron Price, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL This presentation will describe an education research study that investigates how the Future Energy Chicago simulation experience at the museum,


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together with the in-classroom pre- and post- curriculum supports students' engagement with the topic of energy as well as their learning of key science and technology concepts. The study investigates various elements of the simulation's game play for their role in supporting students' learning and motivation, and the impact of the in-classroom curriculum that prepares students prior to and following their museum experience.The presentation will include a discussion of both the methodologies used and the findings from this study, drawing upon frameworks from the fields of child psychology, psychology, and K-12 education.

INVESTIGATING GAME-BASED DESIGN ELEMENTS: AFFECTIVE DIMENSIONS OF GENETICS LEARNING

global differences to improve the working climate, how have women carved out their success, and what can we do to get women (at all points in their careers) to the next level?

AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON GENDER INEQUITY EFFECTS Saadia Zahidi, World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland She is the Founder and Co-Author of the Global Gender Gap Report series that benchmarks countries according to the size of their gender gaps on health, education, economic participation and political empowerment. She will compare and contrast counties and discuss what mechanisms are effective for forwarding women’s careers.

David Kanter, Kanter Learning Design & Research, New York City

RETAINING WOMEN TRAINED AS ENGINEERS IN THE PROFESSION

When we observe kids “glued to games” (Rigby & Ryan, 2011), it is natural to want to harness that eagerness for educational ends. The New York Hall of Science’s Center for Play, Science and Technology Learning (SciPlay), in partnership with Concord Consortium, set out to explore the impact of an educational game on students’ motivation, engagement, affect, science aspirations, and learning. Thus we created GeniGames, an online game where high school students breed dragons—dragons that are based on real lizard genes. In order to generate a gaming experience, we built into the game the three game-based design elements of narrative, competition, and sociality. Our research compared the following conditions: (1) GeniGames with its game-based design elements (GG), (2) GeniGames without any game-based design elements (GLO) and (3) business as usual (BAU). GG and GLO used similar technology and GLO imparted the same genetics content taught through a project-based science curriculum; BAU teachers taught the content using their typical approaches. This spring, 18 New York City high school biology teachers received professional development and they and their 812 students participated in one of these three interventions. During this session, we will share what we have learned about the impact of game-based design elements on students’ affective dimensions and learning using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Surveys, originating from psychological research on affective dimensions, were administered to students. Additionally, a genetics assessment was constructed and administered that integrated what is known in the literature about typical student misconceptions in genetics. Initial results using Hierarchical Linear Modeling indicated that by the end of the study, GG students as a whole felt significantly more intrinsic motivation regarding science learning than BAU students (F=6.57, p500 permits in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. To assess associated water demands, data from nearly 500 drilled and producing wells in the Utica shale play were evaluated. Total water volumes were calculated by month, as well as the relative percentages of freshwater and recycled water consumed. Results demonstrate that the development of the Utica shale play is increasing the demand for freshwater resources regionally. Initial temporal trends indicate that the percentage of recycled water increased from 2011 to 2013, though varies greatly by well operator. While these preliminary results are useful, we suggest integrating these data with a detailed watershed scale model to further investigate the impact on regional hydrological regimes. The results of this preliminary assessment can be used to guide future research needs and facilitate a regulatory framework for regional water sustainability by contributing to an understanding of the current state of water consumption related to the development of this emerging energy resource.


TREE SELECTION FOR REHABILITATION OF SUMATRAN ORANGUTAN HABITAT IN BATANGTORU, INDONESIA Onrizal, University of Sumatera Utara; Mashhor Mansor, Universiti Sains, Malaysia Orangutans are the only great ape in Asia. Then, Sumatran orangutans (SOU) are only distributed in Northen Sumatra, Indonesia and their populations are dropped dramatically and continuing to fall every year. The main factor of decline of the SOU populations is habitat loss from deforestation and forest degradation. Therefore, SOUs are very vulnerable to extinction. Batangtoru forests are important habitat of SOU outside of conservation areas of Gunung Leuser National Park and most significant wild SOUs are found in Batangtoru forest, which hold 550 individuals in 97,500 ha of forest. The objective of this study is to select the suitable of tree species for rehabilitation of SOUs habitat corridor in Hutaibaru and Lobu Pining as connection of West Batangtoru and East Batangtoru forests. The tree selections are based on 3 criterions, i.e. (1) as feeding source of SOU, (2) suitable in ecological aspect (soil properties, level of shaded tolerant and site altitude), and (3) not usage by local people both social and economical activities. Vegetation analyses in 20 plots (1 plot is 400 m2) were carried out to know the tree species diversity and tree species as feeding source. Tree soil samples are collected in each rehabilitation site and analyzed to assess the soil properties. The 378 tree species are found which 173 tree species (45.8%) are as feeding source of SOU. Most of SOU nesting is found on Dipterocarpaceae, Sapindaceae and Sapotaceae trees. Based on selection criteria, 18 and 19 tree species (as shade intolerant) were selected for rehabilitation of bareland and shrubland areas in Hutaibaru and Lobu Pining, respectively. Shade intolerant trees are dominated by genus of Payena (4 species), Litsea (4 species) and Macaranga (3 species). Then, 118 and 111 tree species (as shade tolerant) were selected for rehabilitation of secondary forest in Hutaibaru and Lobu Pining, respectively. Only few of tree species as SOU feeding source (10.4%) was unsuitable for rehabilitation of SOUs habitat corridor. The top five genus of shade tolerant trees are Syzygium (19 species), Lithocarpus (8 species), Palaquium (8 species), Litsea (7 species) and Cinnamomum (6 species). Planting the suitable tree species in SOU habitat corridor in Batangtoru would guarantee the rehabilitation success in one side, and decreased the conflict between human and SOU in other side. Finally, this rehabilitation activity will support the SOU population and regeneration.

Math, Technology, and Engineering 3D-PRINTING AND SCANNING AS A LIBRARY SERVICE: IMPLEMENTATION, SPECIFICS, AND USAGE Patrick Tod Colegrove, University of Nevada, Reno Background: In Summer 2012, the DeLaMare Science & Engineering Library became one of the first academic libraries in the United States to implement 3D printing and scanning as a library service. Rather than restricted by disciplinary boundaries, the service was made explicitly available across disciplinary and institutional boundaries and implemented on a cost-recovery basis. Methods: Over the course of its first year of operation over 1,700 individual pieces have printed; implementation specifics of the service as implemented are presented, along with a breakdown of use of the service along disciplinary and cross-disciplinary boundaries as determined by analysis of the log files associated with each print job. Photographs and specifics of selected examples are shared to demonstrate use. Results: Rather than the expected primary use of the resource in support of the original department advocating for the service, or as might be expected among more traditional engineering disciplines, Biotechnology and Neuroscience are proving to be the top users of the service. In addition to the breakdown by discipline, specific use examples will be shared that may be of interest to others contemplating such a service. Tangible examples and how-to specifics will include the rendering of quantum potential surfaces and chemical models as 3D-printable models, rapid prototyping of experimental apparatus, K-12 STEM outreach and community engagement. Conclusions: As demonstrated by the inaugural year of a recently-implemented service, there is a real need for 3D printing and scanning as a service available across disciplinary and institutional boundaries: from Chemistry to Art, Engineering to Neuroscience—particularly promising is the relative explosion of cross-disciplinary projects and entrepreneurial innovation growing directly out of the availability and use of the shared resource. Specifics provide practical take-away for those contemplating implementing a similar service, and details that may be of use in advocacy.

Medicine and Public Health (-)-EPICATECHIN AS A SELECTIVE RADIOSENSITIZER IN CANCER CELLS Hosam Elbaz, Wayne State University Background: Radiotherapy is ideal for solid tumors as pancreatic cancer, but treatment efficacy is limited by radiation resistance. Resistance to radiotherapy is associated with reduced mitochondrial respiration and drugs that stimulate mitochondrial respiration may decrease radiation resistance. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the potential of (-)-epicatechin to stimulate mitochondrial respiration in cancer cells and to selectively sensitize cancer cells to radiation. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we investigated (-)-epicatechin for effects on mitochondrial respiration and radiation resistance of pancreatic and glioblastoma cancer cells using a Clark type oxygen electrode, clonogenic survival assays, and Western blot analyses. Results: (-)-Epicatechin activated mitochondrial respiration and oxygen consumption in Panc-1 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. (-)-Epicatechin sensitized Panc-1, U87, and MIA PaCa-2 cells with an average radiation enhancement factor (REF) of 1.7, 1.5, and 1.2, respectively. (-)-Epicatechin did not sensitize normal fibroblast cells to ionizing radiation with a REF of 0.9, suggesting selectivity to cancer cells. (-)-Epicatechin induced Chk2 phosphorylation and p21 expression when combined with radiation. Conclusion: Taken together, (-)-epicatechin radiosensitized cancer cells, but not normal cells, and may be a promising candidate for pancreatic cancer treatment when combined with radiotherapy.

CELL-TYPE SPECIFIC CHROMATIN IMMUNOPRECIPITATION IN NORMAL MAMMARY TISSUE Beth A. Russell and Swati Kulkarni, University of Chicago; Dario M. Villamar, Weill Cornell Medical College; BACKGROUND: The essential study of cancer-promoting and cancer-repressing mechanisms in normal tissue is severely hampered by the rarity of appropriate tissue samples, and difficulties of performing cheomoprevention or risk reduction studies in well patients. About 75% of tumors are derived from luminal epithelial cells that are highly responsive to estrogen. Estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) positive luminal epithelial cells are reported to make up 7% of the cells in normal breast and 10% of the luminal epithelial cells. The relative rarity of such cells, as well as the high degree of cellular variation among patient samples indicate the necessity of a method to isolate specific pools of cells prior to chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments in order to make accurate comparisons between and within individual patient samples. METHODS: We have developed a protocol that we call fluorescence activated cell sorting mediated small sample chromatin immunoprecipitation (FACS-ssChIP) to isolate ESR1 positive nuclei from small tissue samples by mechanical disruption of cells, filtration of nuclei and fluorescent labeling with a FITC-H.222 (ESR1 antibody) conjugate. Labeled nuclei are separated from the rest of the population by FACS. Sorted nuclei are then sonicated and the resulting chromatin is immunoprecipitated with the HC-20 (Santa Cruz) ESR1 antibody using a modified ChIP protocol adapted for small samples. Quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing are used to identify the ESR1 binding patterns that occur in normal breast tissue. RESULTS: We have validated the FACS-ssChIP procedure with a series of controlled experiments. MCF7, ESR1 positive breast cancer cells, and MCF10a, ESR1 negative normal mammary cells, were used as positive and negative controls. Our experiments demonstrate that FACS can be used effectively with the H.222 antibody to isolate ESR1 positive fractions from mixed populations with a low false positive rate. We have observed that ChIP signal in ESR1 specific fractions is increased over non-sorted populations from both cell line pools and normal mammary tissue samples collected from mastectomy patients. Additionally, we observe unique ESR1 binding patterns in normal mammary tissue samples that are not observed in the breast cancer cells. Finally, replicate experiments with tissue samples from the same individual demonstrate the reproducibility of the FACS-ssChIP technique. CONCLUSIONS: These experiments show that FACS-ssChIP technique is a high quality method for performing ChIP on small human biopsy samples. We have shown that the FACS process permits the isolation of nuclei from specific cellular populations and that this step increases the specificity and sensitivity of small sample ChIP experiments. The ability of the FACS-ssChIP technique to generate high quality datasets from the smallest possible biopsy samples significantly expands the experimental options available for prevention studies in well patients.


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EXACERBATION OF BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER BREAKDOWN, EDEMA FORMATION AND BRAIN PATHOLOGY AFTER HEAT STROKE IN DIABETIC AND HYPERTENSIVE RATS. POTENTIAL NEUROPROTECTION WITH CEREBROLYSIN TREATMENT Dafin F. Muresanu, Aruna Sharma, and Hari Shanker Sharma, Uppsala University Hospital Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) upregulation in the CNS is a common phenomena following hypertension or diabetes. Previous reports from our laboratory showed marked upregulation of neuronal and inducible NOS in different brain regions in rats brain after 4 h heat stroke at 38° C. This NOS upregulation correlates well with blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown, edema formation and brain pathology. When diabetic or hypertensive arts were subjected separately to identical heat stress, BBB disruption and brain pathology were exacerbated as compared to normal rats. However, the states of NOS expression in these diabetic or hypertensive animals after heat stress are still not known. In clinical situations, stroke is associated with both diabetes and hypertension. Thus, it would be interesting to examine whether a combination of diabetes and hypertension could further aggravate brain damage following heat stress. In this investigation chronic hypertensive rats (two kidney one clip 2K1C for 6 weeks) were made diabetic by administering streptozotocine (50 mg/kg, i.p./day for 3 days in week 3 during 2K1C) so after 6 weeks these rats were both diabetic (20-30 mM/L Blood Glucose) and hypertensive (180-200 mmHg mean arterial blood pressure, MABP) akin to clinical situation. When these diabetic and hypertensive arts were subjected to 4 h heat stress at 38°C, they demonstrated massive increase in BBB breakdown to proteins and neuronal injuries (850% from normal and 350 to 420 % higher than diabetic or hypertensive rats alone) in the whole brain. In these animals nNOS or iNOS expression increased over 600 % from the normal rats about 250 to 340 % higher than diabetic or hypertensive rats alone. Interestingly, in normal rats after heat stress nNOS expression was higher than iNOS expression. However, in diabetic or hypertensive rats iNOS expression superseded than nNOS upregulation. Cerebrolysin in high doses (10-ml/kg, i.v. instead of 5-ml/kg) induced significant neuroprotection and downregulation of nNOS and iNOS in diabetic and hypertensive animals whereas normal animals need only 5-ml/kg doses for this purpose. Our observations demonstrate that co-morbidly factors exacerbate brain damage in HS through NOS expression and require double dose of cerebrolysin for neuroprotection as compared to normal rats, not reported earlier.

AN INSULIN DELIVERY SYSTEM BASED ON CALCIUM ALGINATE NANOPARTICLES Kush H. Patel, Nachiket A. Patel, and Jerry Nesamony, University of Toledo Background: About 1 in 10 adults in the US is a diabetic patient. Approximately one-fourth of all diabetic patients require insulin, alone or in combination with other oral antidiabetic agents, to manage the disease. Routine insulin injections carry potential health risks such as local hypertrophy, fat deposition at injection site, and peripheral insulinemia. In this abstract, an oral insulin delivery system via incorporation in biopolymeric calcium alginate nanoparticles (CANp) is presented. Methods: Two water-in-oil (w/o) nanoemulsions containing an oil (cyclohexane), surfactant dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (DOSS) and aqueous calcium chloride or aqueous sodium alginate in the water phase were prepared separately and mixed to prepare the CANp. The nanoparticles were isolated and characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was incorporated as a model protein in the CANp to test feasibility of the nanoparticles to assimilate such a macromolecule. In vitro release studies were performed to evaluate BSA release from CANp. BSA stability was assessed using poly acrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Subsequently human recombinant insulin was loaded in the CANp. An in vitro release and insulin stability study from CANp was performed via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and enzyme linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The CANp were of approximately 150 nm in size with a—21 mV surface charge. TEM images showed oval or spherical calcium alginate nanoparticles. High magnification TEM image of CANp demonstrated uniformly cross-linked calcium alginate matrix possessing the “egg box” structure. The release profile of incorporated BSA was characterized by an initial rapid release within the first hour followed by a sustained release phase. The presence of bands representative of BSA on the stained PAGE gel indicated that the protein did not suffer covalent

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aggregation or fragmentation during nanoparticle preparation. In vitro insulin release tests using HPLC and ELISA demonstrated that the protein in its biologically active form was successfully incorporated in the nanoparticle matrix. Conclusions: CANp of about 150 nm was prepared and characterized using DLS, zeta potential, and TEM. BSA and insulin were successfully incorporated within the nanoparticles. The CANp’s can potentially be used in an oral insulin delivery system.

MARINE PHARMACOLOGY AND THE MARINE PHARMACEUTICAL PIPELINE Alejandro M. Mayer, Midwestern University As the renaissance in the pharmacology of marine natural products continues (See commentary in Glaser and Mayer, Biochemical Pharmacology 78:440-448, 2009), the status of the clinical marine pharmaceuticals pipeline was assessed in 2013. There were five FDA-approved marine-derived drugs in the US market, namely cytarabine for cancer (Cytosar-U®, Depocyt®, FDA-approved 1969), ziconotide for pain (Prialt®, FDA-approved 2004), omega-3-acid ethyl esters for hypertriglyceridemia (Lovaza®, FDAapproved 2004), eribulin mesylate for cancer (Halaven®, FDA-approved 2010), and brentuximab vedotin for cancer (Adcertis®, FDA-approved 2011), while vidarabine as an antiviral (Vira-A®, FDA-approved 1976) was no longer available, and trabectedin for cancer (Yondelis®, FDA-orphan drug approval 2005) being EU-registered. In October 2013, the clinical marine pharmaceutical pipeline (Reviewed in Mayer et al. TIPS 31:255-265, 2010) consisted of 10 marine-derived compounds in clinical development. Included in the clinical pipeline were three new monoclonal antibodies conjugated to monomethyl auristatin E, a synthetic analog of the marine compound dolastatin, which were in either Phase I, Phase II or Phase III clinical trials. Updated information about the clnical pipeline is available at http://marinepharmacology.midwestern.edu/clinPipeline.htm. Furthermore, the preclinical marine pharmacology pipeline remained a global enterprise with researchers from several countries reporting multiple marine chemicals with novel mechanisms of action (Reviewed in Mayer et al. MARINE DRUGS 11:2510-2573, 2013). We conclude that both the marine pharmacology preclinical pipeline as well as the clinical pharmaceutical pipeline remained very active in 2013. Supported by Midwestern University.

PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF WEIGHT POLE DURING NORDIC WALKING ON THE TREADMILL Takayuki Watanabe, Hachinohe Gakuin University; Takeshi Sato, Jissen Women's University; Hidehisa Takani and Shoji Igawa, Nippon Sport Science University Physical inactivity is one of the major causes of lifestyle disease. It is necessary to do aerobic endurance exercise to maintain or improvement of physical fitness and health conditions. In recent years, Nordic walking was noted as an exercise for health. This exercise was developed off season training of cross country skier, and used two poles. In the previous study of walking, hand weight was used to increased intensity. This method may increase the effectiveness of Nordic walking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was investigated to physiological responses of weight pole during Nordic walking on the treadmill under the same experimental conditions. Healthy seven men and women participated in this study after informed consent. There physical characteristic were follows; height, 164.5 ± 8.3 cm; body mass, 57.8 ± 5.3 kg. Participants were walked with weight pole of 1kg (WNW), normal pole (NW) and without pole (W) on treadmill each 5 minutes. Walking speed was 6 km per hours in all trials. All trial were chosen at random and performed. Heart rate response and oxygen up take were measured every 10 seconds during walking, and data was analyzed last 1 minute for trial. Statistical processing was used one way repeated measures of analysis of valiance. Three group’s comparisons were made using Tukey’s post hoc tests. Statistical significance was accepted at p < 0.05. The result of this study, heart rate response of WNW and NW were significant higher than W. Oxygen up take of WNW was significant higher than W. However, Heart rate and oxygen up take were not significant difference between WNW and NW. Consequently, it was clear that Nordic walking was benefit as health exercise than normal walking, but suggested that walking with weight pole dose not necessary to increase the exercise intensity.


PREPARING AND EVALUATING SOLID LIPID NANOPARTICLES CONTAINING 5-FLUORO URACIL Jerry Nesamony, Mohamed S. Majrad, and Ameya A. Deshpande, University of Toledo Background: Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) consist of spherical lipid particles in the nanometer size range. They offer several advantages in drug delivery due to their small particle size, large surface area, and ability to modify their surface properties easily. SLNs are used for controlled and targeted delivery, to improve bioavailability, to improve drug stability against enzymatic degradation, and for the incorporation of hydrophilic, and lipophilic drugs. The aim of this research is to advance SLN preparation methodology by preparing glyceryl monostearate (GMS) nanoparticles using a novel temperature modulated solidification process developed in our laboratory. The technique is reproducible and prepares nanoparticles without the need of organic solvents. Methods: An anticancer agent used to treat colon cancer 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was incorporated in the SLNs. The SLNs were characterized by particle size analysis, zeta potential analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and in vitro drug release studies via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The SLNs were tested in cell cultures including human colon adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cells and human red blood cells (RBC). Results: Particle size of the SLN dispersion was below 100 nm with a - 25 mV surface charge. TEM and AFM images showed well defined spherical to oval particles. In vitro drug release studies using HPLC showed that 80 % of the encapsulated drug was released within 1 hour. In vitro Caco-2 cell cultures were biocompatible with blank SLNs (SLNs that do not contain 5-FU) but demonstrated concentration dependent changes in cell viability to 5-FU containing SLNs. The viability data of 5-FU loaded SLN treated cells were statistically significant (p < 0.05) when compared to cells exposed to blank SLNs. SLNs were incubated with human RBCs to assess hemolysis, which is a measure of its biocompatibility. For the 5-FU loaded and blank SLN samples, the % hemolysis were under the critical limit of 5% hemolysis, which is accepted as the upper limit for materials that are compatible with blood. Conclusions: In this study, SLNs were successfully prepared via a technique that was developed in our research laboratory. Particle characterization studies showed particles with a well-defined periphery. In vitro cell exposure studies demonstrated that the blank SLNs were biocompatible. 5-FU loaded SLNs produced a concentration dependent decrease in cell viability. The SLNs can potentially be utilized in an anticancer drug delivery system.

TICKS, DEER, MICE, AND A TOUCH OF SENSITIVITY: A RECIPE FOR CONTROLLING LYME DISEASE Joan L. Ponce, University of Florida; Matthew Jastrebski, University of Northeastern Illinois Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, a bacterial spirochete prevalent in the Northeastern United States is the causative agent of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is the most common arthropod-borne disease in the United States; affecting mice, deer, humans and other mammals. The disease is spread by Ixodes Scapularis, a species of tick whose primary food source are deer and mice. Reducing the population of ticks feeding on both large and small mammals below some critical threshold can decrease the prevalence of Lyme disease among humans which is a major public health issue. A simplified, six-dimensional Susceptible-Infected, SI, model is used to capture the micedeer-tick dynamics while considering the impact of varying population-specific death rates on infected population size. The stability of the models two equilibria, the unstable disease free equilibrium and the endemic equilibrium were analyzed. Static forward sensitivity analysis was conducted on the basic reproduction number and the endemic equilibrium. A dynamic approach was explored to observe change in the sensitivity of the death rates over time. These analyses were conducted to determine the efficacy of changing death rates in order to reduce prevalence of the disease.

VALIDITY OF A SIMPLE METHOD OF EVALUATING BODY FAT PERCENTAGE AND ESTIMATED MUSCLE MASS: C Tomomi Narita, Kazuyo Muramoto, Erina Muramatu, Yoshiko Kinoshita, and Shoji Igawa, Nippon Sport Science University The validity of simple methods that evaluate body fat percentage has been previously assessed, but the validity of the methods for muscle mass evaluation has yet to be adequately studied. The evaluation of muscle mass is particularly important for the diagnosis of sarcopenia, which has recently become the fo-

cus of attention, and inexpensive, simple methods to assess large numbers of individuals will be required in the future. In this study, we evaluated body fat percentage and muscle mass using two simple body tissue evaluation methods: subcutaneous fat thickness (ST) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). The subjects were nine normal female students attending a junior college (age: 18.8 ± 0.3 years, height: 162.5 ± 7.0 cm, weight: 60.1 ± 5.6 kg, body mass index: 22.8 ± 4.6 kg/m2). Body fat percentage and muscle mass were measured using the simple evaluation methods, BIA and ST. We assessed the validity of these simple evaluation methods with reference to the gold standard evaluation technique, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). We found a significant positive correlation between body fat percentage measured by BIA and ST and that measured by DEXA (r = 0.758, p < 0.05; r = 0.761, p < 0.05), and a significant positive correlation between muscle mass measured by these two methods and that measured by DEXA (r ¬= 0.737, p < 0.05; r = 0.851, p< 0.01). These results demonstrated that the simple evaluation methods, BIA and ST, are adequately effective evaluation methods not only for body fat percentage but also for muscle mass.

Molecular and Cellular Sciences A2E MEDIATED PHOTOCHEMICAL MODIFICATION TO FIBRONECTIN AND ITS EFFECTS ON ARPE-19 CELLS Mai Thao, Northern Illinois University Background: Lipofuscin accumulates normally with age and is more pronounced in retinal dystrophies such as Age-Related Macular Degeneration. The major bis-retinoid component of lipofuscin is A2E. In addition to cell damage effects by A2E, we have previously demonstrated that blue light mediated A2E leads to modifications of the basement membrane protein laminin. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of A2E photo-oxidation effects on fibronectin, the major glycoprotein of Bruch’s membrane. It is also to investigate the effects of blue light A2E modified fibronectin on retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE). Methods: A2E was irradiated with blue light in the presence of a fibronectin peptide consisting of amino acids from the integrin binding region. The modification sites were identified via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. To determine the effects of modified fibronectin, ARPE-19 cells were seeded onto wells that were coated with either fibronectin or A2E modified fibronectin. The cell attachment and viability were evaluated using MTT assay. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry were used to assess the apoptosis or necrosis population. Results: Our research indicated that blue light irradiation caused cleavage throughout the A2E molecule closest to the pyridinium ring, and attached to the fibronectin peptide preferentially at lysine and arginine residues. We observed a greater detachment of ARPE-19 cells on the A2E modified fibronectin wells. Furthermore, less ARPE-19 cells were viable on these wells. Conclusion: Blue light irradiated A2E modified the structure of fibronectin. As a consequence, the integrity of ARPE-19 cells was compromised. These effects may help explain the structural changes in Bruch’s membrane and RPE observed during AMD pathogenesis.

ARE-MEDIATED POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF HUMAN IL-3 IN T CELLS Marimar Hernández, José A. González-Feliciano, Pablo González, and Carlos I. González, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Human Interleukin-3 (hIL-3) is a lymphokine that supports a broad range of hematopoietic cells and is involved in the body’s inflammatory response. IL-3 is expressed endogenously in stimulated T-cells after activation of a signal transduction pathway. Aberrant expression of this lymphokine is implicated in chronic inflammation and several types of cancer. IL-3 is a member of a class of transiently expressed mRNAs that harbor Adenosine/Uridine-Rich Elements (ARE) in their 3’-Untranslated Regions (3’-UTR). Previous results from our laboratory suggest a regulatory role for the hIL-3 AREs. We identified four different ARE clusters within the IL-3 3’-UTR. To understand the role of these sequences in translational regulation, we conducted site-directed mutagenesis to interrupt each ARE cluster. Firefly luciferase reporters harboring different mutations in the ARE clusters were transfected into HeLa and Jurkat cell lines. The luciferase chimeras lacking the IL-3 ARE region showed an increase in luciferase activity suggesting a loss of translational repression. The chimeric reporter with a mutated ARE3 cluster, which is a nonamer class ARE, appears to be mainly responsible for the 3’-UTR exerted repression. The regulatory effects of AREs are


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often mediated by specific ARE-binding proteins (ARE-BPs) that recognize these elements. EMSA assays using Jurkat cytoplasmic extracts activated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA)/Ionomycin demonstrated that HuR binding to the IL-3 ARE is modulated upon T-cell activation. Western blot analyses suggested that changes in HuR binding to the IL-3 ARE during T-cell activation could be influenced by changes in HuR protein sub-cellular localization. Together, these results suggest that HuR and specific ARE clusters play a role in the posttranscriptional regulation of IL-3 mRNA upon T-cell stimulation.

DETERMINING THE ROLE OF SOMATIC MUTATIONS IN SERM-RESISTANT METASTATIC BREAST CANCERS Sean W. Fanning and Geoffrey L. Greene, University of Chicago

CIB1 SYNERGIZES WITH EPHRINA2 TO REGULATE KAPOSI'S SARCOMA-ASSOCIATED HERPESVIRUS ENTRY

The estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) is a member of the nuclear hormone receptor (NHR) family and is critical for the etiology and treatment of breast cancer. In fact, up to 70% of breast cancers express ERa and are sensitive to anti-estrogen therapies. Tamoxifen and raloxifene represent members of a family of anti-estrogen drugs, termed selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), which are approved to treat or reduce the risk of ER-dependent breast cancers. Classical SERMs act by competitively binding to the ERα ligand-binding domain (LBD). Unfortunately, SERM resistance is acquired in about half of ER-positive patients after five years of treatment. Since these mutations are conserved in a significant population and are adjacent to the SERM binding site they represent a possible mechanism for acquired SERM insensitivity. Our goal is to rationalize the effect of these mutations from the molecular level (ERα LBD-SERM interactions) with their effect on ERα within the tumor. As such, our research uses structural biology, in vitro co-activator/ co-repressor assays, and in situ co-activator/co-repressor assays along with gene reporter assays for each mutant. Our research accomplishes two important goals which will significantly and positively impact breast cancer patient prognosis. First, these studies will lead more potent SERMs which bypass the impact of somatic mutation leading to improved patient survival. Secondly, our research will immediately provide a necessary guide for clinicians treating patients with acquired SERM resistant metastatic breast cancers. We have had early success in obtaining WT-BZA as well as the D538G-4OHT complex structures. Preliminary structural data of the D538G mutant-4OHT complex revealed clear structural differences compared to the WT-LBD-4OHT structure. The greatest of which is an altered conformation of the loop between helices 11 and 12 (positions 526-536).The loop is displaced 10 Å towards the 4-OHT binding site (V534 Cα to Cα). Additionally, a less ordered 4-OHT ligand along with altered positioning indicates perturbed interactions with the mutant LBD. Interestingly, the space occupied by the displaced loop in the D538G mutant-4OHT structure corresponds to that occupied by Helix-12 in the WT agonist conformation. Together this suggests a possible structural explanation of the observed decreased potency of tamoxifen against D538G. However, further structural investigations are necessary before conclusions can be made concerning this altered conformation.

Chirosree Bandyopadhyay, Mohanan Valiya-Veettil, Dipanjan Dutta, Sayan Chakraborty, and Bala Chandran, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences

EVALUATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MASTER REGULATORY MIRNAS ON PROTEIN LEVELS

ASCT2 & LAT1 SILENCING IN HCC AFFECTS PROLIFERATION, GROWTH & MTOR SIGNALIN Paige J. Bothwell and Barrie P. Bode, Northern Illinois University Amino acid transporters ASCT2 and LAT1 are coordinately enhanced in human cancers where, among other roles, they are thought to drive mammalian target-of-rapamycin (mTOR) growth signaling. To assess their value as therapeutic targets in hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HCC), both transporters were targeted and silenced in SK-Hep1 cells with lentiviral vectors that produce short hairpin RNA. Five ASCT2 and four LAT1 stably silenced cell lines were produced, each expressing a unique shRNA sequence. In these cell lines, the glutamine and leucine transport activity and transporter protein levels were suppressed by 20% to 50% relative to controls. Surprisingly, transporter silencing in both cases failed to suppress and instead enhanced cell proliferation, manifested by more but slightly smaller cells relative to controls. Diminished cell size in transporter-silenced cells suggested shorter gap-periods in the cell cycle which may be due to compromised mTOR growth signaling. Subsequent analysis of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling output, assessed by 4EBP1 phosphorylation, revealed no compromise to basal or amino acid-stimulated mTORC1 signaling in transporter silenced cells. This work indicates that the ASCT2 and LAT1 amino acid transporters are closely tied to growth signaling and cell cycle regulation. Further work with ASCT2 and LAT1 targeted siRNA treatment will help determine if the remaining transporter activity in these stable knockdowns is essential to growth and survival. This research is currently supported by Grant # 2R15CA108519-02 from the National Cancer Institute.

KSHV envelope glycoproteins interact with cell surface heparan sulfate, integrins and xCT, and activate FAK, Src, PI3-K, c-Cbl, and Rho-GTPase signal molecules in human microvascular dermal endothelial (HMVEC-d) cells. cCbl mediates the translocation of virus bound α3β1 and αVβ3 integrins into lipid rafts (LRs), where KSHV interacts and activates EphrinA2 (EphA2), a receptor tyrosine kinase. EphA2 associates with c-Cbl-myosin IIA and augmented KSHV-induced Src and PI3-K signals in LRs, leading to bleb formation and macropinocytosis of KSHV. To identify the factor(s) coordinating the EphA2-signal complex, the role of CIB1 (calcium and integrin binding protein-1) known to be involved in integrin-associated signaling was analyzed. CIB1 knockdown did not affect KSHV binding to HMVEC-d cells but significantly reduced its entry and gene expression, and CIB1 overexpression increased virus entry in 293 cells. As early as 5 min of HMVEC-d cell infection, CIB1 was associated with KSHV in membrane blebs and macropinocytic vesicles. CIB1 knockdown abrogated virus induced blebs, macropinocytosis and virus association with the macropinosome. Infection increased the association of CIB1 with LRs, and CIB1 was associated with EphA2 and KSHV entry associated signal molecules such as Src, PI3-K and c-Cbl. CIB1 knockdown significantly reduced the infection induced EphA2, Src and Erk1/2 activation. Mass spectrometry revealed the simultaneous association of CIB1 and EphA2 with the actin cytoskeleton modulating myosin IIA and alphaactinin 4 molecules, and CIB1 knockdown reduced EphA2’s association with myosin IIA and alpha-actinin 4. Collectively, these studies revealed for the first time that CIB1 plays a role in a virus entry and macropinocytosis, and suggested that KSHV utilizes CIB1 as one of the key molecule(s) to coordinate and sustain the EphA2 mediated signaling involved in its entry, and CIB1 is an attractive therapeutic target to block KSHV infection.

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Amy L. Stark, Ronald J. Hause, Ashraf G. Madian, Richard Baker Jones, and M. Eileen Dolan, University of Chicago To elucidate a clearer understanding of the mechanisms involved in the cellular dynamics of gene regulation, the field has devoted considerable focus on studying the role of genetics, epigenetics, and microRNA. Although numerous studies have reported on the relationship between miRNAand mRNA expression, few reports have described global relationships between miRNA and protein expression due to the methodological challenges in high-throughput, reproducible protein measurements. Here, we quantified 220 miRNAs and 441 protein isoforms across 68 lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from individuals of Yoruba descent residing in Ibadan, Nigeria. We then evaluated the number of baseline protein levels correlated with each miRNA. Using permutation analysis, a random miRNA was found to be associated with more protein levels than would be expected by chance. This enrichment was independent of the significance level of the protein-miRNA relationship (p < 0.05, p