The MAP test for multimodality

We introduce a test for detecting multimodality in distributions based on minimal constrained spanning trees. We define a Minimal Ascending Path Spanning Tree (MAPST) on a set of points as a spanning tree that has the minimal possible sum of lengths of links with the constraint that starting from any link, the lengths of the links are non-increasing towards a root node. We define similarly MAPSTs with more than one root. We present some algorithms for finding such trees. Based on these trees, we devise a test for multimodality, called the MAP Test (for Minimal Ascending Path). Using simulations, we estimate percentage points of the MAP statistic and assess the power of the test. Finally, we illustrate the use of MAPSTs for determining the number of modes in a distribution of positions of galaxies on photographic plates from a rich galaxy cluster.     

Plasma enteroglucagon,peptide YY and gastrin in rats deprived of luminal nutrition,and after urogastrone-EGF administration. A proliferative role for PYY in the intestinal epithelium?

Intestinal tissue mass was significantly reduced throughout the gastrointestinal tract (p<0.001) of=" intravenously=" fed=" (tpn)=" rats.=" urogastrone-epidermal=" growth=" factor,=" (uro-egf),=" reversed=" these=" changes.=" although=" plasma=" enteroglucagon=" and=" gastrin=" levels=" showed=" a=" small=" increase=" with=" uro-egf,=" this=" was=" far=" less=" than=" the=" gut=" tissue=" weight=" change,=" suggesting=" that=" it=" was=" unlikely=" that=" they=" were=" involved=" in=" modulating=" the=" proliferative=" response=" of=" the=" intestine=" to=" uro-egf.=" peptide=" tyrosine=" tyrosine=" (pyy)=" levels=" were=" however=" significantly=" increased=" by=" uro-egf,=" indicating=" that=" pyy=" may=" possibly=" have=" a=" role=" in=" the=" modulation=" of=" intestinal=" cell=">We thank the Cancer Research Campaign for their financial assistance and acknowledge the technical assistance of Mr W. Lenton.     

The naturalism of the sciences

The sciences are characterized by what is sometimes called a “methodological naturalism,” which disregards talk of divine agency. In response to those who argue that this reflects a dogmatic materialism, a number of philosophers have offered a pragmatic defense. The naturalism of the sciences, they argue, is provisional and defeasible: it is justified by the fact that unsuccessful theistic explanations have been superseded by successful natural ones. But this defense is inconsistent with the history of the sciences. The sciences have always exhibited what we call a domain naturalism. They have never invoked divine agency, but have always focused on the causal structure of the natural world. It is not the case, therefore, that the sciences once employed theistic explanations and then abandoned them. The naturalism of the sciences is as old as science itself.     

A linguistic model for the rational design of antimicrobial peptides

Antimicrobial peptides (AmPs) are small proteins that are used by the innate immune system to combat bacterial infection in multicellular eukaryotes. There is mounting evidence that these peptides are less susceptible to bacterial resistance than traditional antibiotics and could form the basis for a new class of therapeutic agents. Here we report the rational design of new AmPs that show limited homology to naturally occurring proteins but have strong bacteriostatic activity against several species of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis. These peptides were designed using a linguistic model of natural AmPs: we treated the amino-acid sequences of natural AmPs as a formal language and built a set of regular grammars to describe this language. We used this set of grammars to create new, unnatural AmP sequences. Our peptides conform to the formal syntax of natural antimicrobial peptides but populate a previously unexplored region of protein sequence space.     

Superfluid helium: visualization of quantized vortices

When liquid helium is cooled to below its phase transition at 2.172 K, vortices appear with cores that are only ?ngstr?ms in diameter, about which the fluid circulates with quantized angular momentum. Here we generate small particles of solid hydrogen that can be used to image the cores of quantized vortices in their three-dimensional environment of liquid helium. This technique enables the geometry and interactions of these vortices to be observed directly.     

Transforming Self and Society: A "Critical Appreciation" Model

This paper sets out to uncover some relationships between reflection, discourse and action. By challenging and synthesizing some polemical arguments concerning the creation, maintenance, and transformation of self and society, a model of self-society dynamics that operates through reflection, discourse, and action is developed. The model of self-society dynamics brings together aspects of self-reflection and ideology-critique (explored in the paper), which it is suggested are required for any intervention (transformative action) to be grounded in locally meaningful ways. By creating a dialog community in which self- and group assumptions can be subjected to validation through discourse, it is proposed that a dynamic balance between individual needs and broader societal aims may be achieved. If individuals can be open to such discourse (i.e., they can become critically self-reflective), then it is argued that possibilities for achieving sustainable change will be significantly enhanced.     

作为认识论的信息论:从莱布尼茨到欧米茄数

1686年,莱布尼茨在他的《形而上学谈》中指出,如果某个任意复杂理论是被允许的话,那么"理论"的观念就是个空观念,因为总是会有一种理论存在的。这种思想现在被发展成现代的算法信息论,这种理论所涉及的是计算机程序的大小并为哥德尔不完全性工作以及图灵的不可计算性的工作提供了一个新视角。尤其重要的是,停机概率欧米茄数,其比特位是不可还原的,也就是说,其最大值是不可知的数学事实。更一般地说,这些思想构成了一类"数字哲学",由Edward Fredkin,Stephen Wolfram以及其他人所倡导的,他们将世界视为一台巨大的计算机。最近还有人将其进行"数字物理学"的思辨,认为宇宙实际上是离散的而非连续的。这一世界系统在作者本人的《元数学》一书中作了简要论述。     

Early motor activity drives spindle bursts in the developing somatosensory cortex

Sensorimotor coordination emerges early in development. The maturation period is characterized by the establishment of somatotopic cortical maps, the emergence of long-range cortical connections, heightened experience-dependent plasticity and spontaneous uncoordinated skeletal movement. How these various processes cooperate to allow the somatosensory system to form a three-dimensional representation of the body is not known. In the visual system, interactions between spontaneous network patterns and afferent activity have been suggested to be vital for normal development. Although several intrinsic cortical patterns of correlated neuronal activity have been described in developing somatosensory cortex in vitro, the in vivo patterns in the critical developmental period and the influence of physiological sensory inputs on these patterns remain unknown. We report here that in the intact somatosensory cortex of the newborn rat in vivo, spatially confined spindle bursts represent the first and only organized network pattern. The localized spindles are selectively triggered in a somatotopic manner by spontaneous muscle twitches, motor patterns analogous to human fetal movements. We suggest that the interaction between movement-triggered sensory feedback signals and self-organized spindle oscillations shapes the formation of cortical connections required for sensorimotor coordination.     

Structural basis for vinculin activation at sites of cell adhesion

Vinculin is a highly conserved intracellular protein with a crucial role in the maintenance and regulation of cell adhesion and migration. In the cytosol, vinculin adopts a default autoinhibited conformation. On recruitment to cell-cell and cell-matrix adherens-type junctions, vinculin becomes activated and mediates various protein-protein interactions that regulate the links between F-actin and the cadherin and integrin families of cell-adhesion molecules. Here we describe the crystal structure of the full-length vinculin molecule (1,066 amino acids), which shows a five-domain autoinhibited conformation in which the carboxy-terminal tail domain is held pincer-like by the vinculin head, and ligand binding is regulated both sterically and allosterically. We show that conformational changes in the head, tail and proline-rich domains are linked structurally and thermodynamically, and propose a combinatorial pathway to activation that ensures that vinculin is activated only at sites of cell adhesion when two or more of its binding partners are brought into apposition.