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Psoriasis is a common, chronic, autoimmune condition characterized by excessive growth and differentiation of keratinocytes that affects approximately 1% to 3% of the general population in the United States. Mounting evidence has led to an increasing awareness that psoriasis as a disease is more than "skin deep" and that it shares systemic manifestations with other chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's and diabetes mellitus. Recent studies have not only shown an increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in psoriasis but have also identified psoriasis as an independent risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease. This calls for an approach beyond managing traditional risk factors, which remain the standard guidelines at present.

This report showcases a new type of online homework system that provides students with a free-form interface and dynamic feedback. The ORCCA Tutor (Open-Response Chemistry Cognitive Assistance Tutor) is a production rules-based online tutoring system utilizing the Cognitive Tutoring Authoring Tools (CTAT) developed by Carnegie Mellon University. In this report, we discuss the interface design and the production rules that allow for a multitude of chemistry calculations to be solved in a wide variety of ways by students. We discuss improvements of the software, already implemented or planned for the future, based on think aloud/interviews with students.

What kinds of amino acid sequences could possibly be protein sequences? From all existing databases that we can find, known proteins are only a small fraction of all possible combinations of amino acids. Beginning with Sanger's first detailed determination of a protein sequence in 1952, previous studies have focused on describing the structure of existing protein sequences in order to construct the protein universe. No one, however, has developed a criteria for determining whether an arbitrary amino acid sequence can be a protein. Here we show that when the collection of arbitrary amino acid sequences is viewed in an appropriate geometric context, the protein sequences cluster together. This leads to a new computational test, described here, that has proved to be remarkably accurate at determining whether an arbitrary amino acid sequence can be a protein. Even more, if the results of this test indicate that the sequence can be a protein, and it is indeed a protein sequence, then its identity as a protein sequence is uniquely defined. We anticipate our computational test will be useful for those who are attempting to complete the job of discovering all proteins, or constructing the protein universe.