Ninein, a candidate gene for ethanol anxiolysis, shows complex exon-specific expression and alternative splicing differences between C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice.

Ethanol's anxiolytic actions contribute to increased consumption and the development of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Our laboratory previously identified genetic loci contributing to the anxiolytic-like properties of ethanol in BXD recombinant inbred mice, derived from C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) progenitor strains. That work identified Ninein () as a candidate gene underlying ethanol's acute anxiolytic-like properties in BXD mice.

Bayesian-knowledge driven ontologies: A framework for fusion of semantic knowledge under uncertainty and incompleteness.

The modeling of uncertain information is an open problem in ontology research and is a theoretical obstacle to creating a truly semantic web. Currently, ontologies often do not model uncertainty, so stochastic subject matter must either be normalized or rejected entirely. Because uncertainty is omnipresent in the real world, knowledge engineers are often faced with the dilemma of performing prohibitively labor-intensive research or running the risk of rejecting correct information and accepting incorrect information.

Telehealth's New Horizon: Providing Smart Hospital-Level Care in the Home.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical providers have expanded telehealth into daily practice, with many medical and behavioral health care visits provided remotely over video or through phone. The telehealth market was already facilitating home health care with increasing levels of sophistication before COVID-19. Among the emerging telehealth practices, telephysical therapy; teleneurology; telemental health; chronic care management of congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes; home hospice; home mechanical ventilation; and home dialysis are some of the most prominent.

A Whole Methylome Study of Ethanol Exposure in Brain and Blood: An Exploration of the Utility of Peripheral Blood as Proxy Tissue for Brain in Alcohol Methylation Studies.

Background: Recent reviews have highlighted the potential use of blood-based methylation biomarkers as diagnostic and prognostic tools of current and future alcohol use and addiction. Due to the substantial overlap that often exists between methylation patterns across different tissues, including blood and brain, blood-based methylation may track methylation changes in brain; however, little work has explored the overlap in alcohol-related methylation in these tissues.

Methods: To study the effects of alcohol on the brain methylome and identify possible biomarkers of these changes in blood, we performed a methylome-wide association study in brain and blood from 40 male DBA/2J mice that received either an acute ethanol (EtOH) or saline intraperitoneal injection.

HazBot: Development of a telemanipulator robot with haptics for emergency response.

Objectives: To design a remotely operated robot, "HazBot," for bioevent disaster response; specifically, to improve existing commercial robots' capabilities in handling fixed-facility hazmat incidents via a unique robot controller that allows the human operator to easily manipulate HazBot in disaster situations.

Design: The HazBot's design objectives were for a robot to approach a building, open doors, enter, and navigate the building. The robot's controlling device was designed to provide features not available in current robots: dexterous manipulation and enhanced sensory (touch) feedback via "haptic" technology.