University of Minnesota

About: University of Minnesota is a education organization based out in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 117432 authors who have published 257986 publications receiving 11944239 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities & University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Multimodal population brain imaging in the UK Biobank prospective epidemiological study

Abstract: Medical imaging has enormous potential for early disease prediction, but is impeded by the difficulty and expense of acquiring data sets before symptom onset. UK Biobank aims to address this problem directly by acquiring high-quality, consistently acquired imaging data from 100,000 predominantly healthy participants, with health outcomes being tracked over the coming decades. The brain imaging includes structural, diffusion and functional modalities. Along with body and cardiac imaging, genetics, lifestyle measures, biological phenotyping and health records, this imaging is expected to enable discovery of imaging markers of a broad range of diseases at their earliest stages, as well as provide unique insight into disease mechanisms. We describe UK Biobank brain imaging and present results derived from the first 5,000 participants' data release. Although this covers just 5% of the ultimate cohort, it has already yielded a rich range of associations between brain imaging and other measures collected by UK Biobank.

Pedagogies of Engagement: Classroom-Based Practices

Abstract: Educators, researchers, and policy makers have advocated student involvement for some time as an essential aspect of meaningful learning. In the past twenty years engineering educators have implemented several means of better engaging their undergraduate students, including active and cooperative learning, learning communities, service learning, cooperative education, inquiry and problem-based learning, and team projects. This paper focuses on classroom-based pedagogies of engagement, particularly cooperative and problem-based learning. It includes a brief history, theoretical roots, research support, summary of practices, and suggestions for redesigning engineering classes and programs to include more student engagement. The paper also lays out the research ahead for advancing pedagogies aimed at more fully enhancing students’ involvement in their learning.

Trinucleotide Repeat Disorders

Abstract: The discovery that expansion of unstable repeats can cause a variety of neurological disorders has changed the landscape of disease-oriented research for several forms of mental retardation, Huntington disease, inherited ataxias, and muscular dystrophy. The dynamic nature of these mutations provided an explanation for the variable phenotype expressivity within a family. Beyond diagnosis and genetic counseling, the benefits from studying these disorders have been noted in both neurobiology and cell biology. Examples include insight about the role of translational control in synaptic plasticity, the role of RNA processing in the integrity of muscle and neuronal function, the importance of Fe-S-containing enzymes for cellular energy, and the dramatic effects of altering protein conformations on neuronal function and survival. It is exciting that within a span of 15 years, pathogenesis studies of this class of disorders are beginning to reveal pathways that are potential therapeutic targets.

Context-aware recommender systems

Abstract: The importance of contextual information has been recognized by researchers and practitioners in many disciplines, including e-commerce personalization, information retrieval, ubiquitous and mobile computing, data mining, marketing, and management. While a substantial amount of research has already been performed in the area of recommender systems, most existing approaches focus on recommending the most relevant items to users without taking into account any additional contextual information, such as time, location, or the company of other people (e.g., for watching movies or dining out). In this chapter we argue that relevant contextual information does matter in recommender systems and that it is important to take this information into account when providing recommendations. We discuss the general notion of context and how it can be modeled in recommender systems. Furthermore, we introduce three different algorithmic paradigms – contextual prefiltering, post-filtering, and modeling – for incorporating contextual information into the recommendation process, discuss the possibilities of combining several contextaware recommendation techniques into a single unifying approach, and provide a case study of one such combined approach. Finally, we present additional capabilities for context-aware recommenders and discuss important and promising directions for future research.

Chemoprevention of Cancer

Abstract: Chemoprevention of cancer is a means of cancer control in which the occurrence of this disease is prevented by administra tion of one or several chemical compounds. This Perspective deals with the areas in cancer control that this field addresses, the promise that it holds, and the problems that must be solved in order to realize its goals. The most desirable way of eliminating the impact of cancer in humans is by prevention. The first set of strategies for achieving this objective is to remove the causative agents. In some instances, as with cigarette smoking, it is possible to eliminate the etiological agent. However, in others it is not. The causes of most cancers in the human are not known. Under some circumstances, even when causative factors are known, neoplasia may have been initiated, and prevention now falls into the realm of suppressing the evolution of the neoplastic process. Individuals already exposed to carcinogens fall into this category as do individuals at high risk to cancer because of genetic factors. Finally, there are a considerable number of suspect carcinogens in the environment that have been identified by virtue of mutagenicity testing. Many of these mutagenic substances occur in food. The carcinogenic potential of these compounds for the human is not clear. If they do in fact play a role in the occurrence of cancer, it would be exceedingly difficult to remove them from the environment. Flavones in food are an example of a class of compounds that are mutagenic and that would be virtually impossible to remove because of their ubiqui tous distribution. Likewise, if exposure to oxygen radicals and epoxides poses a hazard, as has been suggested by some investigators, such exposures would be difficult to prevent. While removal of causative agents is the primary goal of cancer pre vention, for the foreseeable future it is likely to be incomplete. Accordingly, the development of a second line of prevention based on Chemoprevention assumes considerable importance. The human constituencies that would be the target for Chemoprevention vary. Two extremes are apparent, but in all likelihood a continuum exists between them. At one extreme are individuals at very high risk of developing cancer because of genetic predisposition or exposure to carcinogens. At the other end of the risk spectrum are individuals lacking any evidence of an increase in risk factors. The strategies for dealing with groups at varying risks differ. As the risk for developing cancer increases, the compounds likely to be most effective are those that sup press evolution of the neoplastic process. The permissible risk of toxicity from the chemopreventive agent also will increase. In contrast, when one considers chemopreventive agents to be directed at populations with no enhanced risk from cancer, protection against attack from compounds that are involved in the causation of cancer assumes a greater importance. For this