ASU Scholarship Showcase

NeuroML is an XML-based model description language, which provides a powerful common data format for defining and exchanging models of neurons and neuronal networks. In the latest version of NeuroML, the structure and behavior of ion channel, synapse, cell, and network model descriptions are based on underlying definitions provided in LEMS, a domain-independent language for expressing hierarchical mathematical models of physical entities. While declarative approaches for describing models have led to greater exchange of model elements among software tools in computational neuroscience, a frequent criticism of XML-based languages is that they are difficult to work with directly. Here we describe two Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) written in Python (http://www.python.org), which simplify the process of developing and modifying models expressed in NeuroML and LEMS. The libNeuroML API provides a Python object model with a direct mapping to all NeuroML concepts defined by the NeuroML Schema, which facilitates reading and writing the XML equivalents. In addition, it offers a memory-efficient, array-based internal representation, which is useful for handling large-scale connectomics data. The libNeuroML API also includes support for performing common operations that are required when working with NeuroML documents. Access to the LEMS data model is provided by the PyLEMS API, which provides a Python implementation of the LEMS language, including the ability to simulate most models expressed in LEMS. Together, libNeuroML and PyLEMS provide a comprehensive solution for interacting with NeuroML models in a Python environment.

Pay-for-performance (PFP) is a relatively new approach to agricultural conservation that attaches an incentive payment to quantified reductions in nutrient runoff from a participating farm. Similar to a payment for ecosystem services approach, PFP lends itself to providing incentives for the most beneficial practices at the field level. To date, PFP conservation in the U.S. has only been applied in small pilot programs. Because monitoring conservation performance for each field enrolled in a program would be cost-prohibitive, field-level modeling can provide cost-effective estimates of anticipated improvements in nutrient runoff. We developed a PFP system that uses a unique application of one of the leading agricultural models, the USDA’s Soil and Water Assessment Tool, to evaluate the nutrient load reductions of potential farm practice changes based on field-level agronomic and management data. The initial phase of the project focused on simulating individual fields in the River Raisin watershed in southeastern Michigan. Here we present development of the modeling approach and results from the pilot year, 2015-2016. These results stress that (1) there is variability in practice effectiveness both within and between farms, and thus there is not one “best practice” for all farms, (2) conservation decisions are made most effectively at the scale of the farm field rather than the sub-watershed or watershed level, and (3) detailed, field-level management information is needed to accurately model and manage on-farm nutrient loadings.

Supplemental information mentioned in the article is attached as a separate document.

Illicit psychostimulant addiction remains a significant problem worldwide, despite decades of research into the neural underpinnings and various treatment approaches. The purpose of this review is to provide a succinct overview of the neurocircuitry involved in drug addiction, as well as the acute and chronic effects of cocaine and amphetamines within this circuitry in humans. Investigational pharmacological treatments for illicit psychostimulant addiction are also reviewed. Our current knowledge base clearly demonstrates that illicit psychostimulants produce lasting adaptive neural and behavioral changes that contribute to the progression and maintenance of addiction. However, attempts at generating pharmacological treatments for psychostimulant addiction have historically focused on intervening at the level of the acute effects of these drugs. The lack of approved pharmacological treatments for psychostimulant addiction highlights the need for new treatment strategies, especially those that prevent or ameliorate the adaptive neural, cognitive, and behavioral changes caused by chronic use of this class of illicit drugs.

The emerging field of neuroprosthetics is focused on the development of new therapeutic interventions that will be able to restore some lost neural function by selective electrical stimulation or by harnessing activity recorded from populations of neurons. As more and more patients benefit from these approaches, the interest in neural interfaces has grown significantly and a new generation of penetrating microelectrode arrays are providing unprecedented access to the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS). These microelectrodes have active tip dimensions that are similar in size to neurons and because they penetrate the nervous system, they provide selective access to these cells (within a few microns). However, the very long-term viability of chronically implanted microelectrodes and the capability of recording the same spiking activity over long time periods still remain to be established and confirmed in human studies. Here we review the main responses to acute implantation of microelectrode arrays, and emphasize that it will become essential to control the neural tissue damage induced by these intracortical microelectrodes in order to achieve the high clinical potentials accompanying this technology.

In several group-living species, individuals' social preferences are thought to be influenced by cooperation. For some societies with fission–fusion dynamics, sex-specific association patterns reflect sex differences in cooperation in within- and between-group contexts. In our study, we investigated this hypothesis further by comparing sex-specific association patterns in two closely related species, chimpanzees and bonobos, which differ in the level of between-group competition and in the degree to which sex and kinship influence dyadic cooperation. Here, we used long-term party composition data collected on five chimpanzee and two bonobo communities and assessed, for each individual of 10 years and older, the sex of its top associate and of all conspecifics with whom it associated more frequently than expected by chance. We found clear species differences in association patterns. While in all chimpanzee communities males and females associated more with same-sex partners, in bonobos males and females tended to associate preferentially with females, but the female association preference for other females is lower than in chimpanzees. Our results also show that, for bonobos (but not for chimpanzees), association patterns were predominantly driven by mother–offspring relationships. These species differences in association patterns reflect the high levels of male–male cooperation in chimpanzees and of mother–son cooperation in bonobos. Finally, female chimpanzees showed intense association with a few other females, and male chimpanzees showed more uniform association across males. In bonobos, the most differentiated associations were from males towards females. Chimpanzee male association patterns mirror fundamental human male social traits and, as in humans, may have evolved as a response to strong between-group competition. The lack of such a pattern in a closely related species with a lower degree of between-group competition further supports this notion.

We recommend using backward design to develop course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). The defining hallmark of CUREs is that students in a formal lab course explore research questions with unknown answers that are broadly relevant outside the course. Because CUREs lead to novel research findings, they represent a unique course design challenge, as the dual nature of these courses requires course designers to consider two distinct, but complementary, sets of goals for the CURE: 1) scientific discovery milestones (i.e., research goals) and 2) student learning in cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains (i.e., pedagogical goals). As more undergraduate laboratory courses are re-imagined as CUREs, how do we thoughtfully design these courses to effectively meet both sets of goals? In this Perspectives article, we explore this question and outline recommendations for using backward design in CURE development.

The research project entitled “Local Policing in the Context of Immigration” (LPCI) was active from 2007 through 2016. The purposes of the study were to explore and describe the types of local policies and policing practices that local jurisdictions and police agencies throughout the United States were undertaking with regard to police encounters with immigrants (specifically, unauthorized or undocumented immigrants), and to investigate the characteristics of local communities that were associated with these various approaches to immigration policing as well as the potential consequences of local immigration policing for immigrants, communities, and the nation.

In this study, a low-cycle fatigue experiment was conducted on printed wiring boards (PWB). The Weibull regression model and computational Bayesian analysis method were applied to analyze failure time data and to identify important factors that influence the PWB lifetime. The analysis shows that both shape parameter and scale parameter of Weibull distribution are affected by the supplier factor and preconditioning methods Based on the energy equivalence approach, a 6-cycle reflow precondition can be replaced by a 5-cycle IST precondition, thus the total testing time can be greatly reduced. This conclusion was validated by the likelihood ratio test of two datasets collected under two different preconditioning methods Therefore, the Weibull regression modeling approach is an effective approach for accounting for the variation of experimental setting in the PWB lifetime prediction.

Studies about the data quality of National Bridge Inventory (NBI) reveal missing, erroneous, and logically conflicting data. Existing data quality programs lack a focus on detecting the logical inconsistencies within NBI and between NBI and external data sources. For example, within NBI, the structural condition ratings of some bridges improve over a period while having no improvement activity or maintenance funds recorded in relevant attributes documented in NBI. An example of logical inconsistencies between NBI and external data sources is that some bridges are not located within 100 meters of any roads extracted from Google Map. Manual detection of such logical errors is tedious and error-prone. This paper proposes a systematical “hypothesis testing” approach for automatically detecting logical inconsistencies within NBI and between NBI and external data sources. Using this framework, the authors detected logical inconsistencies in the NBI data of two sample states for revealing suspicious data items in NBI. The results showed that about 1% of bridges were not located within 100 meters of any actual roads, and few bridges showed improvements in the structural evaluation without any reported maintenance records.

The New World assassin bug genus Zelus Fabricius, 1803 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Harpactorinae: Harpactorini) is revised based on more than 10,000 specimens. Seventy-one species are recognized and twenty-four described as new: Zelus aithaleos sp. n., Zelus amblycephalus sp. n., Zelus antiguensis sp. n., Zelus auralanus sp. n., Zelus bahiaensis sp. n., Zelus banksi sp. n., Zelus casii sp. n., Zelus championi sp. n., Zelus cordazulus sp. n., Zelus fuliginatus sp. n., Zelus gilboventris sp. n., Zelus gracilipes sp. n., Zelus grandoculus sp. n., Zelus kartaboides sp. n., Zelus lewisi sp. n., Zelus panamensis sp. n., Zelus paracephalus sp. n., Zelus rosulentus sp. n., Zelus russulumus sp. n., Zelus spatulosus sp. n., Zelus truxali sp. n., Zelus umbraculoides sp. n., Zelus umbraculus sp. n., and Zelus xouthos sp. n. Five species, Zelus araneiformis Haviland, 1931, Zelus gradarius Bergroth, 1905, Zelus modestus (Stål, 1862), Zelus subfasciatus Stål, 1860 and Zelus vittaticeps Stål, 1866, are removed from Zelus and placed incertae sedis within Harpactorini.

Nine new synonyms are recognized (senior synonym in parentheses): Zelus atripes Champion, 1898 syn. nov. (=Zelus conjungens [Stål, 1860]), Zelus dispar Fabricius, 1803 syn. nov. (=Zelus pedestris Fabricius, 1803), Zelus formosus Haviland, 1931 syn. nov. (=Zelus laticornis Herrich-Schaeffer, 1853), Zelus obscuridorsis (Stål, 1860) syn. nov. (=Zelus pedestris), Zelus pallidinervus Haviland, 1931 syn. nov. (=Zelus kartabensis Haviland, 1931), Zelus personatus Berg, 1879 syn. nov. (=Zelus versicolor Herrich-Schaeffer, 1848), Zelus trimaculatus Champion, 1898 syn. nov. (=Zelus means Fabricius, 1803), Zelus trimaculicollis (Stål, 1855) syn. nov. (=Zelus means), and Zelus tristis Haviland, 1931 syn. nov. (=Zelus laticornis). Zelus conjungens (Stål, 1860) stat. rev. Is resurrected from junior synonymy with zealous armillatus (Lepeletier & Seville, 1825). Zelus ambulans Stål, 1862 stat. rev. and Zelus cognatus (Costa, 1862) stat. rev. are resurrected from synonymy with Zelus exsanguis Stål, 1862. Iquitozelus Bérenger syn. nov. is synonymized with Zelus and its only species transferred to Zelus, hence resulting in a new combination, Zelus couturieri (Bérenger, 2003) comb. nov. Lectotypes, paralectotypes or neotypes are designated for a number of species.

Habitus images, illustrations of male genitalia, distribution maps and measurements are provided for nearly all species. The three previously recognized subgenera of Zelus are found to be based upon superficial characters and these divisions do not reflect natural groupings. Using sets of characters, especially those of the male genitalia, eleven species groups are proposed. It is also hypothesized that Zelus is closely related to three other New World genera: Atopozelus Elkins, Ischnoclopius Stål and an undescribed genus "Hartzelus" [manuscript name]. Zelus is endemic to the New World, occurring naturally in the Caribbean and all but one of the continental countries, with introductions to Pacific islands, Europe and Chile.