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Living and non-living things
NSDL National Science Digital Library
Living things often rely on non-living things to accomplish daily tasks. Living things have several characteristics that non-living things do not, such as the ability to move, eat, breathe, and reproduce. Living things and non-living things can interact even though they do not have the same characteristics.
Olivia Worland (Purdue University;Biological Sciences)
Living things and non-living things interact
Living things and non-living things interact on a daily basis. The man is a human, a living thing. The corn crop and grass are also living things. The soil that the grass and corn crops are rooted in is a non-living thing.
Ken Hammond (USDA-ARS;)
Primary students' conceptions of living things
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Elementary school teachers are pressed for time throughout the instructional day to teach all curricular areas as expected by states and districts because of the current focus on reading and mathematics. Thus, foundational science concepts may be overlooked. For example, students' understandings of living and nonliving things may be overlooked by teachers, yet is useful in understanding the nature of living things. In this qualitative study, K-3 grade students were asked to sort objects as either living or nonliving and to give rationales for their choices. It was found that K-3 students readily used physical characteristics, such as having body parts, and physical abilities, such as being able to move, as criteria for living things. Students in grades 1 through 3 were able to articulate their reasons with more adult-like logic based on Jean Piaget' s research on developmental stages.
Legaspi, Britt Anne
Fuel for Living Things
In this activity, learners observe what happens when yeast cells are provided with a source of food (sugar). Red cabbage "juice" will serve as an indicator for the presence of carbon dioxide. Learners will observe how carbon dioxide gas is given off by yeast cells, as indicated by turning the mixture bright pink. This activity is broken up in three parts or sessions: making the indicator (can be done in advance), demonstration of cabbage juice indicator, and conducting the investigation.
Moreno, Nancy P.; Tharp, Barbara Z.; Dresden, Judith
Living Things and Where They Live
This self-contained module on living things and their habitats includes a range of fun activities that students can perform in the classroom and at home with family members. They impart important concepts such as observation, identification, measurement, and differentiation.
Science, Houghton M.
Classification of Living Things: Introduction
Dr. Dennis O'Neal of Palomar College designed this site to introduce students to a tutorial on the Classification of Living Things. Topics addressed at this site include the Linnaen system of classification, amount of species in our world, the importance of biological diversity, the history of classification, and the relevancy of classification in the present day. There are links to the Main Menu, a Practice Quiz, and the other topics in the tutorial including Principals of Class, Kingdom to Subphylum, Class, and Subclass to Infraclass. Additionally, to link to a comprehensive glossary of relevant terms click on the Ecological Niches or Natural Selection links at the bottom of the site. For users with QuickTime there are several sound files that provide correct pronunciation of key terms.
O'Neal, Dennis
Interactions Between Living and Nonliving Things
When you finish this webquest you will know more about how living things interact with each other and with nonliving things in their environment. 1. What are the basic parts of a food chain? Read this page and write down the three main parts of a food chain onto your worksheet along with a one sentence description of each one. Parts of a food chain 2. So, what do decomposers do for each environment? Write a sentence telling what ...
Benson, Carrie
The Concept of Living and Non-Living Things in the World of Primary School Students in Turkey
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
The purpose of this research is to reveal how the concepts of living and non-living things are in the world of the primary school (4th and 5th classes) students, what they remember when they are told about living and non-living things and what the characteristics of living and non-living things are according to them. The research is a descriptive�
Topsakal, Unsal Umdu
Consumers Get Energy from Other Living Things
This is a lesson where learners explore how animals obtain and store energy, and draw conclusions about the interconnectedness of living things in the flow of energy. The lesson models scientific inquiry using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes, prerequisite concepts, common misconceptions, student journal and reading. This is lesson four in the Astro-Venture Biology Training Unit that were developed to increase students' awareness of and interest in astrobiology and the many career opportunities that utilize science, math and technology skills. The lessons are designed for educators to use with the Astro-Venture multimedia modules.
Demonstrating the Influence of UV Rays on Living Things.
Describes an experiment that introduces students to the different types of UV rays and their effects on living things by using appropriate teaching materials and equipment. Demonstrates the effects of exposure to UV-B (fluorescent) and UV-C (germicidal) lamps by using bananas, duckweed, and the fruit fly. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/YDS)
Morimoto, Kouichi
The Internet of Things for Ambient Assisted Living
Microsoft Academic Search
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the logical further development of today's Internet. Technological advancements lead to smart objects being capable of identifying, locating, sensing and connecting and thus leading to new forms of communication between people and things and things themselves. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) encompasses technical systems to support elderly people in their daily routine to allow an
A. Dohr; R. Modre-Opsrian; Mario Drobics; Dieter Hayn; G�nter Schreier
Persistence of the Intuitive Conception of Living Things in Adolescence
This study investigated whether intuitive, naive conceptions of "living things" based on objects' mobility (movement = alive) persist into adolescence and affect 10th graders' accuracy of responses and reaction times during object classification. Most of the 58 students classified the test objects correctly as living/nonliving, yet they�
Babai, Reuven; Sekal, Rachel; Stavy, Ruth
How to Care for Living Things in the Classroom.
In this National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) publication, the advantages of having living things in the classroom are discussed. Also given is a brief description of the facilities and environments required for various common mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and plants. (CP)
Pratt, Grace K.
How Living Things Obtain Energy: A Simpler Explanation.
Examines five basic reactions which describe the biochemical pathways for living things obtaining energy. Shows the reactions that occur in respiration after glycolysis, the dehydrogenation reaction, decarboxylation, and two kinds of make-ready reactions which prepare molecules for further dehydrogenation and decarboxylation. Diagrams are�
Igelsrud, Donald E.
Investigating Biological Classification: Organization of All Living Things
Students will investigate the organization of all living things through and learn how to classify through process of classifying their own shoes. Students will complete the classification of a Jaguar and write their own pneumonic device to remember the order of biological classification. (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species)
Lindsey Oliver, Fridley Middle School, Fridley, MN
This study investigated whether intuitive, naive conceptions of "living things" based on objects' mobility (movement = alive) persist into adolescence and affect 10th graders' accuracy of responses and reaction times during object classification. Most of the 58 students classified the test objects correctly as living/nonliving, yet they demonstrated significantly longer reaction times for classifying plants compared to animals and for classifying dynamic objects compared to static inanimate objects. Findings indicated that, despite prior learning in biology, the intuitive conception of living things persists up to age 15-16 years, affecting related reasoning processes. Consideration of these findings may help educators in their decisions about the nature of examples they use in their classrooms.
When a Bilingual Child Describes Living Things: An Analysis of Conceptual Understandings from a Language Perspective
With increasing numbers of students learning science through a second language in many school contexts, there is a need for research to focus on the impact language has on students� understanding of science concepts. Like other countries, Brunei has adopted a bilingual system of education that incorporates two languages in imparting its curriculum. For the first three years of school, Brunei children are taught in Malay and then for the remainder of their education, instruction is in English. This research is concerned with the influence that this bilingual education system has on children�s learning of science. The purpose was to document the patterns of Brunei students� developing understandings of the concepts of living and non-living things and examine the impact in the change in language as the medium of instruction. A cross-sectional case study design was used in one primary school. Data collection included an interview ( n = 75), which consisted of forced-response and semi-structured interview questions, a categorisation task and classroom observation. Data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results indicate that the transition from Malay to English as the language of instruction from Primary 4 onwards restricted the students� ability to express their understandings about living things, to discuss related scientific concepts and to interpret and analyse scientific questions. From a social constructivist perspective these language factors will potentially impact on the students� cognitive development by limiting the expected growth of the students� understandings of the concepts of living and non-living things.
Salleh, Romaizah; Venville, Grady J.; Treagust, David F.
Invitations to Life's Diversity. Teacher-Friendly Science Activities with Reproducible Handouts in English and Spanish. Grades 3-5. Living Things Science Series.
This booklet, one of six in the Living Things Science series, presents activities about diversity and classification of living things which address basic "Benchmarks" suggested by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the Living Environment for grades 3-5. Contents include background information, vocabulary (in English and�
Camp, Carole Ann, Ed.
The social lives of handmade things: configuring value in post?apartheid South Africa
Taking Arjun Appadurai�s suggestive argument about the �social lives� of things as its starting point, this paper traces the pathways of two commodities for sale in South Africa: a pottery bowl and a resin spoon. Both these objects acquire their value in part from the quality of being handmade. The aim of this paper is not to demystify the claim
Louise Green
Science K-12, Living Things Are Products of Their Heredity and Their Environment. Utica City School District Articulated Curriculum: Project SEARCH, 1975.
Two-column objectives are listed for an integrated science curriculum (grades K-12), often subheaded according to science area (biology, health, general science, physical science) and grade level. Concepts regarding characteristics of living things are stressed in objectives for the primary grades (K-5), and reproductive biology is covered�
Utica City School District, NY.
Invitations to Interdependence: Caught in the Web. Teacher-Friendly Science Activities with Reproducible Handouts in English and Spanish. Grades 3-5. Living Things Science Series.
This booklet, one of six in the Living Things Science series, presents activities about ecosystems which address basic "Benchmarks" suggested by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the Living Environment for grades 3-5. Contents include background information, vocabulary (in English and Spanish), materials, procedures,�
Invitations to Cells: Life's Building Blocks. Teacher-Friendly Science Activities with Reproducible Handouts in English and Spanish. Grades 3-5. Living Things Science Series.
This booklet, one of six in the Living Things Science series, presents activities about cells which address basic "Benchmarks" suggested by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the Living Environment for grades 3-5. Contents include background information, vocabulary (in English and Spanish), materials, procedures, extension�
Revisiting preschoolers' living things concept: a microgenetic analysis of conceptual change in basic biology.
Many preschoolers know that plants and animals share basic biological properties, but this knowledge does not usually lead them to conclude that plants, like animals, are living things. To resolve this seeming paradox, we hypothesized that preschoolers largely base their judgments of life status on a biological property, capacity for teleological action, but that few preschoolers realize that plants possess this capacity. To test the hypothesis, we taught 5-year-olds one of four biological facts and examined the children's subsequent categorization of life status for numerous animals, plants, and artifacts. As predicted, a large majority of 5-year-olds who learned that both plants and animals, but not artifacts, move in goal-directed ways inferred that both plants and animals, but not artifacts, are alive. These children were considerably more likely to draw this inference than peers who learned that the same plants and animals grow or need water and almost as likely to do so as children who were explicitly told that animals and plants are living things and that artifacts are not. Results also indicated that not all biological properties are extended from familiar animals to plants; some biological properties are first attributed to plants and then extended to animals. PMID:15342257
Opfer, John E; Siegler, Robert S
Little Things
We present LITTLE THINGS (Local Irregulars That Trace Luminosity Extremes, The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey), which is aimed at determining what drives star formation in dwarf galaxies. This is a multi-wavelength survey of 37 dwarf irregular and 4 blue compact dwarf galaxies that is centered around H I-line data obtained with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA). The H I-line data are characterized by high sensitivity (<=1.1 mJy beam-1 per channel), high spectral resolution (<=2.6 km s-1), and high angular resolution (~6''). The LITTLE THINGS sample contains dwarf galaxies that are relatively nearby (<=10.3 Mpc; 6'' is <=300 pc), that were known to contain atomic hydrogen, the fuel for star formation, and that cover a large range in dwarf galactic properties. We describe our VLA data acquisition, calibration, and mapping procedures, as well as H I map characteristics, and show channel maps, moment maps, velocity-flux profiles, and surface gas density profiles. In addition to the H I data we have GALEX UV and ground-based UBV and H? images for most of the galaxies, and JHK images for some. Spitzer mid-IR images are available for many of the galaxies as well. These data sets are available online.
Hunter, Deidre A.; Ficut-Vicas, Dana; Ashley, Trisha; Brinks, Elias; Cigan, Phil; Elmegreen, Bruce G.; Heesen, Volker; Herrmann, Kimberly A.; Johnson, Megan; Oh, Se-Heon; Rupen, Michael P.; Schruba, Andreas; Simpson, Caroline E.; Walter, Fabian; Westpfahl, David J.; Young, Lisa M.; Zhang, Hong-Xin
Primacy of functional knowledge in semantic representations: the case of living and nonliving things.
In 3 experiments, participants decided whether sensory and functional features were true of living and nonliving concepts. In Experiments 1 and 2, concepts were presented twice: test phase followed study phase after either 3 min (Experiment 1) or 3 s (Experiment 2). At test, concepts were paired with the same feature as that at study, or a different feature from either the same modality (within-modality priming) or another modality (cross-modality priming). In both experiments functional decisions were faster than sensory decisions for living and nonliving concepts. Whilst no semantic priming occurred between study and test in Experiment 1, the shorter study-test interval of Experiment 2 did lead to test phase semantic priming. Here there was greater within- than cross-modality priming for sensory decisions, but equivalent within- and cross-modality priming for functional decisions owing to significantly greater facilitation of functional decisions from prior sensory decisions than vice versa. Experiment 3 involved a single verification phase: For half the participants the feature name preceded the concept name, and for half the concept name preceded the feature name. The functional processing advantage persisted irrespective of presentation order. Results suggest that functional information is central to the representation of all concepts: Function is processed faster than sensory information and is activated obligatorily. PMID:16987785
Phelps, Fiona G; Macken, William J; Barry, Chris; Miles, Chris
Active Living by Design
Members of the public health community and those from the world of urban planning have teamed up to create the Active Living By Design program, and by extension, this fine website. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and an academic home at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, the program was created �to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies.� On the site�s homepage, visitors can browse through sections that include information on �Active Living Essentials�, �Active Living Programs�, and �Active Living Resources�. The �Essentials� section is a good place to start as visitors can learn about the organization�s major fields, which include information on the links between physical activity, urban design, and health. Visitors who are looking to learn about the specific �on the ground� programs will want to look over the �Community Partnerships� area, as it contains information on initiatives in Chicago, Nashville, Orlando, and Cleveland.
Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children.
This book examines children's many connections to animals and their developmental significance, exploring the growth of the human animal connection, and showing how children's innate interest in animals is shaped by their families and their social worlds, and may in turn shape the kind of people they will become. Chapter 1 documents how theory and�
Melson, Gail F.
Disaster's Aftermath: Rebuilding Schools Is One Thing--Rebuilding Children's Lives Is Quite Another.
Children who experience disasters such as Hurricane Andrew in southern Florida, are prone to severe and debilitating stress. Districts can prepare by designating a disaster management commander, a search-and-rescue team, and a reuniting team. Planning should include drills, recovery, and restoration elements. (Contains 10 references.) (MLH)
Black, Susan
Stars are Small Dark-Coloured Things That Live in Holes in the Ground
In this chapter, attention is drawn to some indigenous stories about disguise and transformation, taken from this magnificent country Namibia and from southern Africa as a whole, with a focus on a complex of ideas about the stars. Astonishingly, these stories suggest a meeting of minds from different worlds - Ken Freeman's and that of the San or Bushmen 130 years ago. San stories about the stars contribute to our understanding of our relationship to the universe in a similar way to that which Ken Freeman's revelations of masking and shrouding help understand the universe itself. The cosmology of the San universe construed at times through the agency of masked and shrouded beings known as therianthropes was partly illuminated by the work of George Stow (the father of San rock art research in southern Africa), two !kun San boys, a group of ?xam San and a remarkable woman called Lucy Lloyd.
Skotnes, Pippa
How Living Things Function
This self-contained module on biological organisms and their systems includes a range of fun activities that students can perform in the classroom and at home with family members. They impart important concepts such as observation, identification, measurement, and differentiation.
Interactions Among Living Things
This self-contained module on ecology includes a range of fun activities that students can perform in the classroom and at home with family members. They impart important concepts such as observation, identification, measurement, and differentiation.
Organization of LIving Things
Living Things: Habitats & Ecosystems
Text and photographs regarding habitats, populations and communities, biomes, niches and ecosystems in general with numerous links to lessons, activities, and organizations on specific subtopics in ecology.
"The second thing to hell is living under that bridge": narratives of women living with victimization, serious mental illness, and in homelessness.
The increasing rates of violence committed against homeless women living with serious mental illness (SMI) have been well documented. These increasing rates of violence need attention as they are a serious public health concern. The purpose of this qualitative study is to increase our understanding of victimization among this population as perceived by those who have lived the experience. The study sample consists of 15 homeless adult women who self-reported having been diagnosed with a SMI. The findings highlight the reality that, provided with the right type of resources, positive growth can occur among these women despite lifelong events of trauma, victimization, and loss. PMID:24131415
Bonugli, Rebecca; Lesser, Janna; Escandon, Socorro
Live, by Satellite.
The University of Illinois used teleconferencing to ignite volunteers and leaders for a five-year capital campaign. The program was live with two-way audio communications from meeting sites back to the main studio. Suggestions for planning and organizing a teleconference are presented. (MLW)
Gobberdiel, Jim
Smallest Thing
What's the world's smallest living creature? It depends on what you mean by "living." This science update explores the meaning of life and what is considered "living". The text in this Science Update explains the difference among the cell, virus, and prions and why the latter two are not considered living. This Science Update also contains in text format details of the research, which leads to these findings presented in the Science Update podcast. It also offers links to the other podcasts topics and resources for further inquiry.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (;)
Becoming a nurse faculty leader: taking risks by doing the right thing.
Risk taking is a key aspect of academic leadership essential to meeting the challenges and opportunities in higher education. What are the practices of risk taking in nurse faculty leaders? This interpretive phenomenological study examines the experience and meaning of risk taking among nurse leaders. The theme of doing the right thing is brought forth through in-depth hermeneutic analysis of 14 individual interviews and two focus group narratives. The practice of doing the right thing is propelled and captured by leaders through a sense professional responsibility, visioning the future, and being true to self and follow one's core values. This study develops an evidence base for incorporating ways of doing the right thing in leadership development activities at a time when there is tremendous need for highly effective leaders in academic settings. Examining the practices of doing the right thing as a part of leadership development lays a foundation for building the next generation of nursing leaders prepared to navigate the ever-changing and complex academic and health care environments. PMID:24630679
Horton-Deutsch, Sara; Pardue, Karen; Young, Patricia K; Morales, Mary Lou; Halstead, Judith; Pearsall, Catherine
Metabolic characteristics of long-lived mice
PubMed Central
Genetic suppression of insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) can extend longevity in worms, insects, and mammals. In laboratory mice, mutations with the greatest, most consistent, and best documented positive impact on lifespan are those that disrupt growth hormone (GH) release or actions. These mutations lead to major alterations in IIS but also have a variety of effects that are not directly related to the actions of insulin or insulin-like growth factor I. Long-lived GH-resistant GHR-KO mice with targeted disruption of the GH receptor gene, as well as Ames dwarf (Prop1df) and Snell dwarf (Pit1dw) mice lacking GH (along with prolactin and TSH), are diminutive in size and have major alterations in body composition and metabolic parameters including increased subcutaneous adiposity, increased relative brain weight, small liver, hypoinsulinemia, mild hypoglycemia, increased adiponectin levels and insulin sensitivity, and reduced serum lipids. Body temperature is reduced in Ames, Snell, and female GHR-KO mice. Indirect calorimetry revealed that both Ames dwarf and GHR-KO mice utilize more oxygen per gram (g) of body weight than sex- and age-matched normal animals from the same strain. They also have reduced respiratory quotient, implying greater reliance on fats, as opposed to carbohydrates, as an energy source. Differences in oxygen consumption (VO2) were seen in animals fed or fasted during the measurements as well as in animals that had been exposed to 30% calorie restriction or every-other-day feeding. However, at the thermoneutral temperature of 30�C, VO2 did not differ between GHR-KO and normal mice. Thus, the increased metabolic rate of the GHR-KO mice, at a standard animal room temperature of 23�C, is apparently related to increased energy demands for thermoregulation in these diminutive animals. We suspect that increased oxidative metabolism combined with enhanced fatty acid oxidation contribute to the extended longevity of GHR-KO mice.
Bartke, Andrzej; Westbrook, Reyhan
Descriptive Characteristics and Health Outcomes of the Food by Prescription Nutrition Supplementation Program for Adults Living with HIV in Nyanza Province, Kenya
Background The clinical effects and potential benefits of nutrition supplementation interventions for persons living with HIV remain largely unreported, despite awareness of the multifaceted relationship between HIV infection and nutrition. We therefore examined descriptive characteristics and nutritional outcomes of the Food by Prescription (FBP) nutrition supplementation program in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Methods Demographic, health, and anthropometric data were gathered from a retrospective cohort of 1,017 non-pregnant adult patients who enrolled into the FBP program at a Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES) site in Nyanza Province between July 2009 and July 2011. Our primary outcome was FBP treatment success defined as attainment of BMI>20, and we used Cox proportional hazards to assess socio-demographic and clinical correlates of FBP treatment success. Results Mean body mass index was 16.4 upon enrollment into the FBP program. On average, FBP clients gained 2.01 kg in weight and 0.73 kg/m2 in BMI over follow-up (mean 100 days), with the greatest gains among the most severely undernourished (BMI <16) clients (p<0.001). Only 13.1% of clients attained a BMI>20, though 44.5% achieved a BMI increase ?0.5. Greater BMI at baseline, younger age, male gender, and not requiring highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) were associated with a higher rate of attainment of BMI>20. Conclusion This study reports significant gains in weight and BMI among patients enrolled in the FBP program, though only a minority of patients achieved stated programmatic goals of BMI>20. Future research should include well-designed prospective studies that examine retention, exit reasons, mortality outcomes, and long-term sustainability of nutrition supplementation programs for persons living with HIV.
Nagata, Jason M.; Cohen, Craig R.; Young, Sera L.; Wamuyu, Catherine; Armes, Mary N.; Otieno, Benard O.; Leslie, Hannah H.; Dandu, Madhavi; Stewart, Christopher C.; Bukusi, Elizabeth A.; Weiser, Sheri D.
Using the Real Thing.
Describes a program to bring farm animals into the classroom. Topics discussed include using the senses, health and safety for both children and animals, and rewards of using animals in special situations. Talks given include "Similarities and Differences of Living Things"; "From a Sheep to a Ball of Wool"; and "Food from the Farm." (PVD)
Watson, Gwendy
Words are not things
On a traditional view, words are the fundamental units of verbal behavior. They are independent, autonomous things that symbolically represent or refer to other independent, autonomous things, often in some other dimension. Ascertaining what those other things are constitutes determining the meaning of a word. On a behavior-analytic view, verbal behavior is ongoing, functional operant activity occasioned by antecedent factors and reinforced by its consequences, particularly consequences that are mediated by other members of the same verbal community. Functional relations rather than structure select the response unit. The behavior-analytic point of view clarifies such important contemporary issues in psychology as (a) the role of scientific theories and explanations, (b) educational practices, and (c) equivalence classes, so that there is no risk of strengthening the traditional view that words are things that symbolically represent other things.
Moore, J.
Living or Nonliving?
Categorizing organisms as living or nonliving things may seem to be intuitive by nature. Yet, it is regulated by scientific criteria. Students come to school with rules already in place. Their categorizing criteria have already been influenced by their personal experiences, also known as observations and inferences. They believe that all things�
Legaspi, Britt; Straits, William
Science K-12, Living Things in Continuous Change. Utica City School District Articulated Curriculum: Project SEARCH, 1975.
Two-column objectives are listed for an integrated science curriculum (grades K-12), often subheaded according to science area (biology, general science, physical science, earth science) and grade level. In grades K-6, objectives for topics of science study include conditions for plants and animals to live, adaptation, conservation,�
Heavy metal contents (Cd, Cu, Zn) in spiders ( Pirata piraticus) living in intertidal sediments of the river Scheldt estuary (Belgium) as affected by substrate characteristics
Metals are transferred into the food web by ground-dwelling organisms, among others. This study aimed to identify the most important factors that determine the bioavailability of heavy metals to the spider Pirata piraticus living in the intertidal sediments of the Scheldt estuary (Flanders, Belgium). At five locations, which represent a varying degree of metal contamination and salinity, the superficial layer
Gijs Du Laing; Nicolas Bogaert; Filip M. G. Tack; Marc G. Verloo; Frederik Hendrickx
Living Things in Their Environment
Comparative analyses of semen and endocrine characteristics of free-living versus captive jaguars (Panthera onca).
Semen and blood samples were obtained from free-living (n = 6) and captive (n = 8) jaguars (Panthera onca) to compare reproductive characteristics between the two populations. Semen samples were analysed for volume (ml), percentage of motile spermatozoa, rate of forward progression (0-5), concentration (10(6) ml(-1)), total sperm count (10(6)) and sperm morphology. Serum testosterone concentration was determined by radioimmunoassay. Although ejaculate volume was greater in captive jaguars (n = 47 samples) than in free-living jaguars (n = 7 samples) (P < 0.05), the free-living jaguars produced more total spermatozoa (59.3 +/- 12.8 versus 152.0 +/- 88.0 x 10(6), respectively; not significant) with better viability and forward progression (2.8 +/- 0.1 versus 3.5 +/- 0.2, respectively; P < 0.05) and more spermatozoa with normal morphology (73.5 +/- 3.9 versus 5.0 +/- 1.1%, respectively; P < 0.05). Serum testosterone concentrations were similar for captive and free-living male jaguars (3.1 +/- 0.7 and 2.1 +/- 0.8 ng ml(-1), respectively). In summary, the data showed that semen may be collected successfully from free-living jaguars and evaluated under field conditions to establish normative reproductive values in this species. The results also indicate that jaguars maintained in zoos show inferior seminal characteristics compared with free-living animals. PMID:11690535
Morato, R G; Conforti, V A; Azevedo, F C; Jacomo, A T; Silveira, L; Sana, D; Nunes, A L; Guimar�es, M A; Barnabe, R C
Revealing Things
Revealing Things is the Smithsonian Institution's first specifically web based exhibit; both the content and design of the site are fascinating. This work in progress is a prototype of a future, more fully-developed exhibit. It concentrates on "common, everyday objects to tell stories about people, their cultures, and the meanings they associate with their possessions." Items discussed include a 1937 chemistry set, a Vietnam memorial offering, a duckpin bowling ball, an early TV, and a celery vase, among many others. Organized according to theme, era, and object, the exhibit is presented in a new pop-up browser window. Within that window, navigation takes place via "maplets," a connected series of moving colored labels representing the three ways that the exhibit is organized. Users can move slider bars to effect the placement of the labels, and search on terms to create their own thematic or object-based exhibit. When the cursor is placed over an object label, scrolling text introduces it. Alternatively, the site can be navigated via a series of icons that run down the middle of the exhibition page. When an icon is clicked, the series of icons may rearrange. Each exhibit contains a photo of the object, along with written commentary on it. In addition, sound is sometimes available to play period music, or render out loud the exhibition text. The most fully-developed object at this time is "Patched Bellbottoms." Users are advised to read the help files on both the main page and the exhibit page for navigation tips. The exhibit is a fascinating precursor of what could be a new way to interactively view museum exhibits, allowing the user to cast off the restraints of a linear orientation. Note that the exhibit is extremely browser and bandwidth intensive.
Electrical charge characteristics of long-lived radioactive dust.
Respirable long-lived radioactive dust (LLRD), i.e., dust containing long-lived radionuclides such as 238U, 232Th, 226Ra, 224Ra and 228Th, interacts with unipolar and bipolar atmospheres through diffusion charging, electrical charge neutralization, and electrical self-charging mechanisms. Because of these interactions, and depending on the type of dust as well as its method of production, LLRD is found in electrically charged and neutral states. Electrical charge is important because it influences the deposition of particles in the human respiratory system. Particle size, electrical charge, and radioactive particle size distributions were measured in an area of an underground U mine where U ore crushing and transportation operations were conducted. In addition, concurrent measurements of 222Rn progeny and 220Rn progeny were made. A variety of instrumentation was used, such as particle counters. The electrical charge associated with dust generated in the primary crushing operation was substantially higher (3e- at 1 microns and approximately 500e- at 3 microns) than for the conveyor belt (2e- at 1 microns and approximately 50e- at 8 microns). In both cases the charge distribution was significantly higher than that predicted by Boltzmann's distribution. PMID:2155889
Bigu, J
Electrical charge characteristics of long-lived radioactive dust
SciTech Connect
Respirable long-lived radioactive dust (LLRD), i.e., dust containing long-lived radionuclides such as {sup 238}U, {sup 232}Th, {sup 226}Ra, {sup 224}Ra and {sup 228}Th, interacts with unipolar and bipolar atmospheres through diffusion charging, electrical charge neutralization, and electrical self-charging mechanisms. Because of these interactions, and depending on the type of dust as well as its method of production, LLRD is found in electrically charged and neutral states. Electrical charge is important because it influences the deposition of particles in the human respiratory system. Particle size, electrical charge, and radioactive particle size distributions were measured in an area of an underground U mine where U ore crushing and transportation operations were conducted. In addition, concurrent measurements of {sup 222}Rn progeny and {sup 220}Rn progeny were made. A variety of instrumentation was used, such as particle counters. The electrical charge associated with dust generated in the primary crushing operation was substantially higher (3e- at 1 microns and approximately 500e- at 3 microns) than for the conveyor belt (2e- at 1 microns and approximately 50e- at 8 microns). In both cases the charge distribution was significantly higher than that predicted by Boltzmann's distribution.
Bigu, J. (Elliot Lake Laboratory, CANMET, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, Ontario (Canada))
Modifiable Patient Characteristics and Racial Disparities in Evaluation Completion and Living Donor Transplant
Summary Background and objectives To reduce racial disparities in transplant, modifiable patient characteristics associated with completion of transplant evaluation and receipt of living donor kidney transplant must be identified. Design, setting, participants, & measurements From 2004 to 2007, 695 black and white patients were surveyed about 15 less-modifiable and 10 more-modifiable characteristics at evaluation onset; whether they had completed evaluation within 1 year and received living donor kidney transplants by 2010 was determined. Logistic regression and competing risks time-to-event analysis were conducted to determine the variables that predicted evaluation completion and living donor kidney transplant receipt. Results Not adjusting for covariates, blacks were less likely than whites to complete evaluation (26.2% versus 51.8%, P<0.001) and receive living donor kidney transplants (8.7% versus 21.9%, P<0.001). More-modifiable variables associated with completing evaluation included more willing to be on the waiting list (odds ratio=3.4, 95% confidence interval=2.1, 5.7), more willing to pursue living donor kidney transplant (odds ratio=2.7, 95% confidence interval=1.8, 4.0), having access to more transplant education resources (odds ratio=2.2, 95% confidence interval=1.5, 3.2), and having greater transplant knowledge (odds ratio=1.8, 95% confidence interval=1.2, 2.7). Patients who started evaluation more willing to pursue living donor kidney transplant (hazard ratio=4.3, 95% confidence interval=2.7, 6.8) and having greater transplant knowledge (hazard ratio=1.2, 95% confidence interval=1.1, 1.3) were more likely to receive living donor kidney transplants. Conclusions Because patients who began transplant evaluation with greater transplant knowledge and motivation were ultimately more successful at receiving transplants years later, behavioral and educational interventions may be very successful strategies to reduce or overcome racial disparities in transplant.
Peipert, John D.; Hyland, Shelley S.; McCabe, Melanie S.; Schenk, Emily A.; Liu, Jingxia
Youth Safety On a Living Internet: Report of the Online Safety and Technology Working Group.
National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
The Internet is a living thing. It mirrors and serves as a platform for a spectrum of humanity's lives, sociality, publications and productions. And as with all living things, its current state is guided and molded by the years of evolution it has gone th...
The internet of things for personalized health.
Advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) enable new personalized health care concepts which are often characterized by four "P" terms, i.e. personalized, predictive, preventive and participatory. However, real world implementations of the complete 4P spectrum hardly exist today. The Internet of Things (IoT) has been defined as an extension to the current Internet that enables pervasive communication between the physical and the virtual world. Smart devices and enabling elements like Near Field Communication (NFC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology already exist and increasingly will be a mainstream element of our lives. This future vision paper attempts to assess if and how the Internet of Things for personalized health (IoT4pH) can help to facilitate the 4P healthcare paradigm and discusses related challenges and opportunities. PMID:24851958
Schreier, G�nter
Study on the interconnection architecture and access technology for Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IOT) is a novel paradigm developed on the basis of existing technologies and closely related to RFID, WSN, CPS, Pervasive Computing and M2M (Machine to Machine). IOT has broad prospects in transportation, logistics, healthcare, smart environment, personal living and social domain. This paper researches on the concept, characteristics and supporting technology of IOT, proposes an interconnection architecture
Dong Chen; Guiran Chang; Jiajia Li; Jie Jia
Tell them you love them because you never know when things could change: voices of adolescents living with HIV-positive mothers.
This study analyzed the qualitative and quantitative responses of 60 minority teens affected by HIV. Relationships between adolescents' reports of: (1) feeling different, (2) having secrets, (3) worrying, and (4) caretaking were revealed. Six themes emerged from the content analysis of qualitative data that reflect how these adolescents have been affected by HIV: (1) core assumptions about life, (2) fearful anticipation of the death, (3) stigma and isolation, (4) current and future losses, (5) family role reassignment, and (6) lack of resources. Group treatment is presented as an effective method of intervention for adolescents living with an HIV-positive mother. PMID:11940285
Reyland, S A; Higgins-D'Alessandro, A; McMahon, T J
Anthropometric Characteristics of Pakistani School Children Living in Bahrain
Background This survey was designed to study the gender difference in physical growth of 1113 Pakistani children (646 male and 467 female)\\u000a living in Bahrain and to compare growth with their Bahraini and Pakistani counterparts. Methods Measurements of height, weight, mid-arm circumference, biceps, triceps, subscapular and suprailiac skinfold thickness were\\u000a carried out using the standard methods, and the median values
Abdulrahman O. Musaiger; Reshma D�Souza
Life Itself (A): How Do We Get Energy to Live by?
\\u000a Life! This wonderful thing! What is it to be alive? Where did life come from? How do living things operate themselves? There\\u000a are a number of different kinds of living organisms on this planet. How are they related and different from each other? How\\u000a have they evolved? These are �biology� questions. But they require some answers from chemistry as well.
Eiichiro Ochiai
'You learn to live with all the things that are wrong with you': gender and the experience of multiple chronic conditions in later life
This article examines how older adults experience the physical and social realities of having multiple chronic conditions in later life. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with 16 men and 19 women aged 73+ who had between three and 14 chronic conditions, we address the following research questions: (a) What is it like to have multiple chronic conditions in later life? (b) How do older men and women �learn to live� with the physical and social realities of multiple morbidities? (c) How are older adults� experiences of illness influenced by age and gender norms? Our participants experienced their physical symptoms and the concomitant limitations to their activities to be a source of personal disruption. However, they normalised their illnesses and made social comparisons in order to achieve a sense of biographical flow in distinctly gendered ways. Forthright in their frustration over their loss of autonomy and physicality but resigned and stoic, the men�s stories reflected masculine norms of control, invulnerability, physical prowess, self-reliance and toughness. The women were dismayed by their bodies� altered appearances and concerned about how their illnesses might affect their significant others, thereby responding to feminine norms of selflessness, sensitivity to others and nurturance. We discuss the findings in relation to the competing concepts of biographical disruption and biographical flow, as well as successful ageing discourses.
The Active Living by Design National Program
Public health advocates have increasingly highlighted the importance of implementing comprehensive physical activity interventions that use an ecologic framework. Such a framework can broadly address physical activity barriers, such as the lack of opportunities, social support, policies, built environments, and community awareness. The Active Living by Design (ALbD) was a community grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF),
Philip Bors MPH; Mark Dessauer MA; Rich Bell MCP; Risa Wilkerson MA; Sarah L. Strunk MHA
A Few New Things
Citing the website "43 Things" (http://www.43things.com/) and derivatives Learning 2.0 (http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/) and California's School Library Learning 2.0 (http://www.schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/), the author suggests other activities to help librarians and teacher-librarians train themselves for leadership in new information�
Valenza, Joyce Kasman
What Makes Things Move?
Students will use an inquiry based approach to discover how things move. They will discover that a push and a pull are forces that put things into motion. They will also investigate how friction is a force that slows a moving object.
Theresa Porter, Clearbrook-Gonvick School, Clearbrook, MN
Live cell imaging by multifocal multiphoton microscopy.
Multifocal multiphoton microscopy (MMM) permits parallel multiphoton excitation by scanning an array of high numerical aperture foci across a plane in the sample. MMM is particularly suitable for live cell investigations since it combines advantages of standard multiphoton microscopy such as optical sectioning and suppression of out-of-focus phototoxicity with high recording speeds. Here we describe several applications of MMM to live cell imaging using the neuroendocrine cell line PC12 and bovine chromaffin cells. Stainings were performed with the acidophilic dye acridine orange and the lipophilic dyes FM1-43 and Fast DiA as well as by transfection of the cells with GFP. In both bovine chromaffin and PC12 cells structural elements of nuclear chromatin and the 3-D distribution of acidic organelles inside the cells were visualized. In PC12 cells differentiated by nerve growth factor examples of neurites were monitored. Stainings of membranes were used to reconstruct the morphology of cells and neurites in three dimensions by volume-rendering and by isosurface plots. 3-D reconstructions were composed from stacks of about 50 images each with a diameter of 30-100 microm that were acquired within a few seconds. We conclude that MMM proves to be a technically simple and very effective method for fast 3-D live cell imaging at high resolution. PMID:11089921
Straub, M; Lodemann, P; Holroyd, P; Jahn, R; Hell, S W
THINGS: The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey
We present "The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS)," a high spectral (<=5.2 km s-1) and spatial (~6'') resolution survey of H I emission in 34 nearby galaxies obtained using the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA). The overarching scientific goal of THINGS is to investigate fundamental characteristics of the interstellar medium (ISM) related to galaxy morphology, star formation, and mass distribution across the Hubble sequence. Unique characteristics of the THINGS database are the homogeneous sensitivity as well as spatial and velocity resolution of the H I data, which is at the limit of what can be achieved with the VLA for a significant number of galaxies. A sample of 34 objects at distances 2 <~ D <~ 15 Mpc (resulting in linear resolutions of ~100 to 500 pc) are targeted in THINGS, covering a wide range of star formation rates (~10-3 to 6 M sun yr-1), total H I masses M HI (0.01 to 14 � 109 M sun), absolute luminosities M B (-11.5 to -21.7 mag), and metallicities (7.5 to 9.2 in units of 12+log[O/H]). We describe the setup of the VLA observations, the data reduction procedures, and the creation of the final THINGS data products. We present an atlas of the integrated H I maps, the velocity fields, the second moment (velocity dispersion) maps and individual channel maps of each THINGS galaxy. The THINGS data products are made publicly available through a dedicated webpage. Accompanying THINGS papers (in this issue of the Astronomical Journal) address issues such as the small-scale structure of the ISM, the (dark) matter distribution in THINGS galaxies, and the processes leading to star formation.
Walter, Fabian; Brinks, Elias; de Blok, W. J. G.; Bigiel, Frank; Kennicutt, Robert C., Jr.; Thornley, Michele D.; Leroy, Adam
Physical Performance Characteristics of Assisted Living Residents and Risk for Adverse Health Outcomes
Purpose: Researchers know little about the physical performance ability of residential care/assisted living (RC/AL) residents and its relationship to adverse outcomes such as fracture, nursing home placement, functional decline, and death. The purposes of this article are to (a) describe the functional characteristics of RC/AL residents, (b)�
Giuliani, Carol A.; Gruber-Baldini, Ann L.; Park, Nan S.; Schrodt, Lori A.; Rokoske, Franzi; Sloane, Philip D.; Zimmerman, Sheryl
Unprotected intercourse among people living with HIV\\/AIDS: The importance of partnership characteristics
The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance and interactive effects of partnership characteristics in unprotected intercourse among people living with HIV\\/AIDS (PLWHA). An interview study was conducted among a convenience sample of PLWHA in care. Of all the demographic, health status, risk history and behaviors and partnership covariates explored, only the partnership covariates were significantly associated
L. M. Niccolai; D. DEntremont; E. N. Pritchett; K. Wagner
Weighing Lives
We are often faced with choices that involve the weighing of people's lives against each other, or the weighing of lives against other good things. These are choices both for individuals and for societies. A person who is terminally ill may have to choose between palliative care and more aggressive treatment, which will give her a longer life but at
John Broome
The Things They Carried: Vietnam War Literature by and about Women in the Secondary Classroom.
Discusses the importance of Vietnam War literature by and about women and provides ideas for incorporating it into the reading/English language arts curriculum. Provides a rationale for such literature; discusses types of Vietnam War literature by and about women; and addresses pedagogical aspects. (RS)
Kazemek, Francis E.
Time to Talk: 5 Things to Know about Probiotics
Time to Talk Tips 5 Things To Know About Probiotics Probiotics are live microorganisms (e.g., bacteria) ... About Complementary Health Approaches for Quitting Smoking More Time To Talk Tip Sheets Home Home Page Contact ...
Beware of being captured by an analogy: dreams are like many things.
Classic traditions have linked dreams to memory (e.g., "dreaming is another kind of remembering" [Freud 1918/1955]) and modern notions like implicit memory subsume dreaming by definition. Llewellyn develops the more specific thesis that rapid eye movement (REM) dreams, because of their similarities to mnemonic techniques, have the function of elaboratively encoding episodic memories. This proposal is premature, requiring exigent testing. Other analogs of dreams, for example, jokes, do not invoke function but do contribute to dream science. PMID:24304758
Erdelyi, Matthew Hugh
Structural Characterisation of Complex Oxide & Rare Earth Manganite Thing Films by Microscopy
This PhD thesis presents the work on specific complex oxides and rare earth manganite thin films which were characterized mainly by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The scientific results are divided in two main parts: the first part is devoted to the complex oxide films and the second to the rare earth manganite films. I. Complex oxides: The compositional influence of Cr, Al and Y on the microstructure of Mg-Cr-O, Mg-Al-O, Mg-Y-0 and Y-Al-O films synthesized by a reactive magnetron sputtering technique is reported. The study was based on a series of films with a range of compositions (metal ratios) deposited on Si substrates (without external substrate heating). The film thickness is about 1 ?m (�200 nm). The effect of high temperatures (973 K to 1223 K) on the microstructural evolution of Mg-AlO, Mg-Cr-O and Y-Al-O films with specific metal ratios is also reported. II. Rare Earth Manganite Films: The microstructure and defect characterisation of hexagonal ReMnO3 (Re=Y, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er) thin films and multilayers is reported. The effect of off-stoichiometry on the microstructure of some hexagonal ReMnO3 (Re=Er, Dy and Ho) films with specific cationic ratios is also discussed. These thin films and multilayers were deposited on (111) YSZ and (111) Pt/TiO2/SiO 2/Si (stack) substrates by liquid injection metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). The thickness of the films and multilayers is between 10 nm and 500 nm.
Jehanathan, Neerushana
Cell biologists sort things out: Analysis and purification of intracellular organelles by flow cytometry.
Flow cytometry was established originally for measuring DNA content and for the analysis of cell-surface markers in combination with cell sorting. During the past two decades, it has added new dimensions to various areas of immunology and medicine. Increased sensitivity and precision of flow cytometers, accompanied by the development of new fluorescent dyes and probes, has led to new applications in molecular cell biology and genetics. This article focuses on applications of flow cytometry in analysis and sorting of intracellular organelles. PMID:17709014
B�ck, G; Steinlein, P; Huber, L A
The World of Tiny Living Things.
Discusses the culturing of microorganisms as a laboratory activity emphaszing the growth of microorganisms in food. Provides background and safety information, procedures, and additional ideas. The complete unit (teacher's guide, student worksheets, evaluation and assessment, and resources for students and teachers) is available from the author.�
Karstaedt, Debbrah A.
Books are meant to be shared, so why not share your personal favorites with others around the world? LibraryThing makes it easy to do just this, and visitors can catalog their books online here after creating a profile. After entering their books, visitors can offer their own sage wisdom on each title, and cross-reference their thoughts with others on the network who have read similar titles. Visitors can take a virtual tour before signing up, and there's also a series of discussion boards. Users can catalog their first 100 books at no charge, and LibraryThing is compatible across all platforms, including Linux.
Priming by DNA immunization augments T-cell responses induced by modified live bovine herpesvirus vaccine
DNA vaccines have several advantages over conventional vaccines. One of the most important characteristics is the presentation of antigen via both MHC class I and class II receptors. Although this generally results in strong T-cell responses, antibody production and protection achieved by DNA immunization are unfortunately not always adequate. In contrast, modified live virus (MLV) vaccines usually induce adequate antibody
B. I. Loehr; R. Pontarollo; R. Rankin; L. Latimer; P. Willson; L. A. Babiuk; S. van Drunen; Littel-van den Hurk
More about Charging Things
In the first chapter, you charged things up with excess electrons and saw what could happen as a result. Now we're going to get an idea of how to measure how much charge something has, figure out whether an object is positively or negatively charged, and make up a new concept called the electric field.
Robertson, William C.
Tear Things Down
These poems and stories, at their most basic level explore the role of secrets in the relationships of family, friends and one's own relationship to his or her self. The ways in which secrets define people more than the things they would willing share, how we compartmentalize our secrets and ultimately the way relationships and perceptions are forever altered after
Kathleen Raddatz
Psychology of everyday things
This topic considers the design of everyday things. It begins with examples of bad design. The goal here is to have students realize that human problems and errors when dealing with technology are usually a result of design failure, and that good design accounts for human capabilities. It then introduces concepts and design principles that help us analyze bad design
Donald A. Norman
Different Things Make Different People Happy: Examining Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being by Gender and Parental Status
This paper addresses a number of key challenges in current subjective well-being (SWB) research: A new wave of studies should\\u000a take into account that different things may make different people happy, thus going beyond a unitary �happiness formula�.\\u000a Furthermore, empirical results need to be connected to broader theoretical narratives. Using a re-examination of the social\\u000a context of well-being as its
Christian Kroll
Five Things Right, Five Wrong
This article is a brief description of a young librarians' first six months in the profession. The article lists five things the librarian knows he has done wrong, and five things he knows he has done right.
Morley, Gabriel
Remnant living cells that escape cell loss in late-stage tumors exhibit cancer stem cell-like characteristics.
A balance between cell proliferation and cell loss is essential for tumor progression. Although up to 90% of cells are lost in late-stage carcinomas, the progression and characteristics of remnant living cells in tumor mass are unclear. Here we used molecular imaging to track the progression of living cells in a syngeneic tumor model, and ex vivo investigated the properties of this population at late-stage tumor. The piggyBac transposon system was used to stably introduce the dual reporter genes, including monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) and herpes simplex virus type-1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) genes for fluorescence-based and radionuclide-based imaging of tumor growth in small animals, respectively. Iodine-123-labeled 5-iodo-2'-fluoro-1-beta-D-arabinofuranosyluracil was used as a radiotracer for HSV1-tk gene expression in tumors. The fluorescence- and radionuclide-based imaging using the single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography revealed that the number of living cells reached the maximum at 1 week after implantation of 4T1 tumors, and gradually decreased and clustered near the side of the body until 4 weeks accompanied by enlargement of tumor mass. The remnant living cells at late-stage tumor were isolated and investigated ex vivo. The results showed that these living cells could form mammospheres and express cancer stem cell (CSC)-related biomarkers, including octamer-binding transcription factor 4, SRY (sex-determining region Y)-box 2, and CD133 genes compared with those cultured in vitro. Furthermore, this HSV1-tk-expressing CSC-like population was sensitive to ganciclovir applied for the suicide therapy. Taken together, the current data suggested that cells escaping from cell loss in late-stage tumors exhibit CSC-like characteristics, and HSV1-tk may be considered a theranostic agent for targeting this population in vivo. PMID:23034334
Chen, Y L; Wang, S Y; Liu, R S; Wang, H E; Chen, J C; Chiou, S H; Chang, C A; Lin, L T; Tan, D T W; Lee, Y J
Remnant living cells that escape cell loss in late-stage tumors exhibit cancer stem cell-like characteristics
A balance between cell proliferation and cell loss is essential for tumor progression. Although up to 90% of cells are lost in late-stage carcinomas, the progression and characteristics of remnant living cells in tumor mass are unclear. Here we used molecular imaging to track the progression of living cells in a syngeneic tumor model, and ex vivo investigated the properties of this population at late-stage tumor. The piggyBac transposon system was used to stably introduce the dual reporter genes, including monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) and herpes simplex virus type-1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) genes for fluorescence-based and radionuclide-based imaging of tumor growth in small animals, respectively. Iodine-123-labeled 5-iodo-2?-fluoro-1-beta-𝒟-arabinofuranosyluracil was used as a radiotracer for HSV1-tk gene expression in tumors. The fluorescence- and radionuclide-based imaging using the single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography revealed that the number of living cells reached the maximum at 1 week after implantation of 4T1 tumors, and gradually decreased and clustered near the side of the body until 4 weeks accompanied by enlargement of tumor mass. The remnant living cells at late-stage tumor were isolated and investigated ex vivo. The results showed that these living cells could form mammospheres and express cancer stem cell (CSC)-related biomarkers, including octamer-binding transcription factor 4, SRY (sex-determining region Y)-box 2, and CD133 genes compared with those cultured in vitro. Furthermore, this HSV1-tk-expressing CSC-like population was sensitive to ganciclovir applied for the suicide therapy. Taken together, the current data suggested that cells escaping from cell loss in late-stage tumors exhibit CSC-like characteristics, and HSV1-tk may be considered a theranostic agent for targeting this population in vivo.
Chen, Y-L; Wang, S-Y; Liu, R-S; Wang, H-E; Chen, J-C; Chiou, S-H; Chang, C A; Lin, L-T; Tan, D T W; Lee, Y-J
Molecular signaling in live cells studied by FRET
Genetically encoded biosensors based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) enables visualization of signaling events in live cells with high spatiotemporal resolution. We have used FRET to assess temporal and spatial characteristics for signaling molecules, including tyrosine kinases Src and FAK, small GTPase Rac, calcium, and a membrane-bound matrix metalloproteinase MT1-MMP. Activations of Src and Rac by platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) led to distinct subcellular patterns during cell migration on micropatterned surface, and these two enzymes interact with each other to form a feedback loop with differential regulations at different subcellular locations. We have developed FRET biosensors to monitor FAK activities at rafts vs. non-raft regions of plasma membrane in live cells. In response to cell adhesion on matrix proteins or stimulation by PDGF, the raft-targeting FAK biosensor showed a stronger FRET response than that at non-rafts. The FAK activation at rafts induced by PDGF is mediated by Src. In contrast, the FAK activation at rafts induced by adhesion is independent of Src activity, but rather is essential for Src activation. Thus, Src is upstream to FAK in response to chemical stimulation (PDGF), but FAK is upstream to Src in response to mechanical stimulation (adhesion). A novel biosensor has been developed to dynamically visualize the activity of membrane type-1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP), which proteolytically remodels the extracellular matrix. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) directed active MT1-MMP to the leading edge of migrating live cancer cells with local accumulation of EGF receptor via a process dependent on an intact cytoskeletal network. In summary, FRET-based biosensors enable the elucidation of molecular processes and hierarchies underlying spatiotemporal regulation of biological and pathological processes, thus advancing our knowledge on how cells perceive mechanical/chemical cues in space and time to coordinate molecular/cellular functions.
Chien, Shu; Wang, Yingxiao
The right thing.
In my hospital experience working with families of seriously ill children, parents describe being stripped of confidence and having their functioning so compromised that they are unable to process facts or initiate action in a meaningful way. These narratives offer a glimpse into the minds of these parents and two things are clear: they love their children and they want to do the right thing. Treatment for pediatric brain tumors can last for long periods of time (months, even years) and cause significant damage even while seeking to save the child's life. Over the course of time, the family dynamic changes. Several important themes emerge from these stories and are explored in this commentary. An overarching theme is the agony that these parents go through as they struggle to make life and death decisions on behalf of their children. PMID:24748257
Barraza, Michael
The Nature of Things
This site features interactive tools related to The Nature of Things television show. The tools include different videos and descriptions of a wide variety of subjects. Some examples include biomimicry, human illness, indoor pollution, and other issues affecting humans. The subject area covered is a very wide range, but users studying or interested in the human brain, biology of human beings, or relationships between animals will no doubt find this site intriguing.
Fabrication of chitosan nanoparticles with aggregation-induced emission characteristics and their applications in long-term live cell imaging.
Chitosan with tetraphenylethene pendants (TPE-CS) are synthesized by reaction between amine and isothiocyanate groups of chitosan and tetraphenylethene (TPE), respectively. Nanoparticles of TPE-CS (TPE-CS NPs) are fabricated by ionic gelation method. The NPs are uniform in size, spherical in shape, monodispersed, and positive in surface charge. The suspension of TPE-CS NPs emits strong blue fluorescence under photoexcitation due to the aggregation-induced emission characteristics of the TPE moieties. The NPs can be internalized into cytoplasm through endocytosis pathway and retain inside the live cells to image the cells. Cytotoxicity assay reveals that TPE-CS NPs are cytocompatible and thus can be used for long-term live cell imaging. PMID:23401040
Li, Min; Hong, Yuning; Wang, Zhengke; Chen, Sijie; Gao, Meng; Kwok, Ryan T K; Qin, Wei; Lam, Jacky W Y; Zheng, Qichang; Tang, Ben Zhong
Descriptive models for Internet of Things
From a semantic analysis for Internet of things, a conclusion is drawn that the word thing here indicates actually the thing's information and the Internet here is actually the Internet application. Internet of Things is a new type of Internet application which makes the thing's information be shared on a global scale. Internet of Things has two attributes: being an
Yinghui Huang; Guanyu Li
Changes of immunophysiological characteristics in neonatal calves experimentally challenged with mixture of live bacteria and virus
The aim of the present study was to define efficient immunophysiological parameters in neonatal Holstein calves with an experimentally induced microbial infec- tion. Calves (n = 15) were challenged with classical swine fever virus (LOM strain) and Erysipelothrix in- sidiosa live vaccine by intravenous injection at 3 wk of age except for control calves (n = 4). The level of
M. H. Kim; C. H. Yun; J. Y. Ko; J. S. Kang; H. S. Kim; S. J. Kang; W. S. Lee; J. H. Kim; J. K. Ha
How We like to Live when We Have the Chance
This article has been written by a group of persons with intellectual disability, which is called the Consultative Committee of Persons with Intellectual Disability. This group works in Malta. The article is about how we would like to live. It looks at two things: "where we would like to live" and "going out in the community". This article shows�
Deguara, Marthese; Jelassi, Omar; Micallef, Brian; Callus, Anne-Marie
Long-lived radicals produced by ?-irradiation or vital activity in plants, animals, cells, and protein solution: their observation and inhomogeneous decay dynamics
Long-lived radicals produced by ?-irradiation or vital activity in plants, animals, cells, and protein (albumin) solution were studied by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Long-lived radicals produced by vital activity exist in biological systems, such as plants, animals, and cells, in the range of 0.1-20 nmol g -1. Since vital organs keep the radicals at a constant concentration, the radicals are probably related to life conservation. Long-lived radicals are also produced by ?-irradiation of cells or protein solution. The radicals decay after death of living things or after ?-irradiation. We found that the decay dynamics in all biological systems can be expressed by the same kinetic equation of an inhomogeneous reaction.
Miyazaki, Tetsuo; Morikawa, Akiyuki; Kumagai, Jun; Ikehata, Masateru; Koana, Takao; Kikuchi, Shoshi
Developing network software and communications protocols towards the internet of things
One of the most profound changes today is the increase in mobility of portable yet powerful wireless devices capable of communicating via several different kinds of wireless radio networks of varying link-level characteristics. This paper addresses how the design and implementation of future applications and protocols can be facilitated by network programming frameworks. For the Internet of Things, upholding a
Bilhanan Silverajan; Jarmo Harju
Effect of light intensity on live performance and processing characteristics of broilers.
This study investigated the effects of different light intensities provided via an increasing photoperiod program on broiler live performance and processing characteristics. A total of 1,080 male broilers were evenly distributed in 12 rooms. Six rooms were subjected to intensities of either 15 footcandles (FC) from 1 to 51 d (Bright), or 0.5 FC from 1 to 9 d and 0.1 FC from 9 to 51 d (Dim). Both intensity treatments were provided in an increasing photoperiod program (23L:1D, 1 to 9 d; 12L:12D, 9 to 16 d; 14L:10D, 16 to 23 d; 17L:7D, 23 to 30 d; 20L:4D, 30 to 37 d; and 23L:1D, 37 to 51 d). Feed consumption and BW were determined, and feed conversions were calculated approximately weekly. Mortalities were necropsied and recorded daily. At 51 d, 30 birds from each room were processed and cut up to determine weights and yields. Beginning at 23 and 30 d, respectively, BW and feed consumption were greater in the Dim treatment. At 51 d, Dim treatment BW was 4.7% greater and feed consumption was 3.9% greater. Feed conversion, metabolic and total mortality, and BW uniformity were not influenced by light intensity. Weights of lean carcass, total breast, fillets, tenders, and legs were from 4.9 to 6.2% greater in the Dim treatment, which was proportional to the BW difference and resulted in similar yields of these parts. However, wings were 9.9% heavier in the Dim treatment, which resulted in greater wing yield. Equal fat pad weights resulted in reduced fat pad yield in the Dim treatment. These results indicate that BW, feed consumption, and most parts weights were increased proportionally by providing 0.1 vs. 15 FC of light intensity via an increasing photoperiod program, and that only the yields of minor parts were affected by intensity. PMID:18420975
Lien, R J; Hess, J B; McKee, S R; Bilgili, S F
Elaphoidella grandidieri (Harpacticoida: Copepoda): demographic characteristics and possible use as live prey in aquaculture.
In freshwater ecosystems, rotifers and cladocerans are ideal prey for fish larvae whereas copepods, due to their purported low growth rate and predatory tendency, are not. We recently isolated the parthenogenetic Elaphoidella grandidieri (Gueme et Richard, 1893) a benthic freshwater harpacticoid, from a fish farm in the State of Morelos, central Mexico and tested its potential as a live prey organism for larval vertebrates. Population growth and life table demography experiments were conducted, in 100 ml recipients with 50 ml of test medium on a diet of Scenedesmus acutus at a density of 1.0 X 10(6) cell ml(-1); the former on live algae alone while the latter on live algae as well as detritus. We also conducted experiments to document the prey preference for this copepod by the larval Ameca splendens (Pisces: Goodeidae) and Ambystoma mexicanum (Amphibia: Ambystomatidae), fed the rotifer Plationus patulus, the ostracod Heterocypris incongruens, and the cladocerans Moina macrocopa and Daphnia pulex. Elaphoidella grandidieri is relatively easy to maintain under laboratory conditions, reaching densities (copepodites and adults) of more than 10,000 l(-1). The generation time ranged between 30-45 days, depending on the diet. The net reproductive rate was as high as 60 nauplii female(-1) day (1). Population growth rates ranged between 0.03 and 0.11 d(-1), live algae being the superior diet compared to detritus. Both predators showed no preference for E. grandidieri, but in the absence of alternate prey they consumed 80% of the harpacticoids offered. The data have been discussed in relation to the potential of E. grandidierias live food for aquaculture. PMID:22315830
Nandini, S; Nunez Ortiz, Alma Rosa; Sarma, S S S
Compressive force generation by a bundle of living biofilaments
To study the compressional forces exerted by a bundle of living stiff filaments pressing on a surface, akin to the case of an actin bundle in filopodia structures, we have performed particulate molecular dynamics simulations of a grafted bundle of parallel living (self-assembling) filaments, in chemical equilibrium with a solution of their constitutive monomers. Equilibrium is established as these filaments, grafted at one end to a wall of the simulation box, grow at their chemically active free end, and encounter the opposite confining wall of the simulation box. Further growth of filaments requires bending and thus energy, which automatically limit the populations of longer filaments. The resulting filament sizes distribution and the force exerted by the bundle on the obstacle are analyzed for different grafting densities and different sub- or supercritical conditions, these properties being compared with the predictions of the corresponding ideal confined bundle model. In this analysis, non-ideal effects due to interactions between filaments and confinement effects are singled out. For all state points considered at the same temperature and at the same gap width between the two surfaces, the force per filament exerted on the opposite wall appears to be a function of a rescaled free monomer density ??1eff. This quantity can be estimated directly from the characteristic length of the exponential filament size distribution P observed in the size domain where these grafted filaments are not in direct contact with the wall. We also analyze the dynamics of the filament contour length fluctuations in terms of effective polymerization (U) and depolymerization (W) rates, where again it is possible to disentangle non-ideal and confinement effects.
Ramachandran, Sanoop; Ryckaert, Jean-Paul
Kids' Concussions Defined by Where They Live, Study Finds
Science 101: Why do we classify things in science?
Each year, in thousands of classrooms across the country, students classify animals, rocks, and other things as part of their science studies. Each year, thousands of students no doubt ask, "Why in the heck are we doing this?" Classifying things according to their properties and characteristics is a big part of science, but what's the purpose? Why do it in science class, and why do scientists do it as part of their work? Discover the answers to these questions in this month's column.
Summarize the technology of the things of Internet
This article detailed introduction things of Internet technology in domestic and foreign research condition, trend of development as well as research goal and significance. Elaborated the things of Internet concept, the principle and the characteristic, then from home automation(HA), intelligent medical service(IM), intelligent transportation(ITS), intelligent electrical network (SPG), modern agriculture (MA) and intelligent Logistics (IL)from the intelligence aspects and so
Qiuxia Yang; Zhiguo Wang; Yinggao Yue
Things Are Looking Up
A young, first generation immigrant Chinese man named Ray living in Honolulu, Hawaii falls in love with a language student named Jessika. After a series of awkward encounters in which Ray fails to find a chance to express the full extent of his affection, Jessika makes off to the mainland United States for a green-card marriage. Months later, after failing
Ian Wang
Internet of things and privacy preserving technologies
In this paper we consider different approaches to technological protection of users' privacy in the world of internet of things. Particularly, we consider what kind of problems and which level of protection can be achieved by applying approaches using secure multi-party computations.
Vladimir Oleshchuk
Hispanics and Pancreatic Cancer: Things to Know
HISPANICS AND PANCREATIC CANCER: THINGS TO KNOW By the National Cancer Institute One of the leading causes of cancer?related deaths among ... a rare but often fatal disease known as pancreatic cancer. This cancer, which is often detected only after ...
The Pleasure of Finding Things out
"The pleasure of finding things out" is a collection of short works by the Nobel Prize winning scientist Richard Feynman. The book provides insights into his infectious enthusiasm for science and his love of sharing ideas about the subject with anyone who wanted to listen. Feynman has been widely acknowledged as one of the greatest physicists of�
Loxley, Peter
Where the Wild Things Are: Informal Experience and Ecological Reasoning
Category-based induction requires selective use of different relations to guide inferences; this article examines the development of inferences based on ecological relations among living things. Three hundred and forty-six 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children from rural, suburban, and urban communities projected novel "diseases" or "insides" from one�
Coley, John D.
Stanford How Things Work Project.
We provide an overview of the Stanford How Things Work (HTW) project, an ongoing integrated collection of research activities in the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. The project is developing technology for representing knowledge about...
R. Fikes T. Gruber Y. Iwasaki
Enhancing Live Practical Demonstration by Using Engagement Devices
This article outlines some engagement or "showmanship" devices that can enhance the impact of live practical demonstrations. The fifteen engagement techniques described herein are used by the author in his spectacular chemistry demonstration shows in theaters, but they can also be useful in the classroom environment. Many of the�
Sosabowski, Michael Hal; Campbell, David
Quantitative intracellular magnetic nanoparticle uptake measured by live cell magnetophoresis
Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particles have been used successfully as an intracellular contrast agent for nuclear MRI cell tracking in vivo .W e present a method of detecting intracellular SPIO colloid uptake in live cells using cell magnetophoresis, with potential applications in measuring intracellular MRI con- trast uptake. The method was evaluated by measuring shifts in mean and distribution of
Ying Jing; Niladri Mal; P. Stephen Williams; Maritza Mayorga; Marc S. Penn; Jeffrey J. Chalmers; Maciej Zborowski
The Geoscience Internet of Things
Internet of Things is a term that refers to "uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure" (Wikipedia). We here use the term to describe new and innovative ways to integrate physical samples in the Earth Sciences into the emerging digital infrastructures that are developed to support research and education in the Geosciences. Many Earth Science data are acquired on solid earth samples through observations and experiments conducted in the field or in the lab. The application and long-term utility of sample-based data for science is critically dependent on (a) the availability of information (metadata) about the samples such as geographical location where the sample was collected, time of sampling, sampling method, etc. (b) links between the different data types available for individual samples that are dispersed in the literature and in digital data repositories, and (c) access to the samples themselves. Neither of these requirements could be achieved in the past due to incomplete documentation of samples in publications, use of ambiguous sample names, and the lack of a central catalog that allows researchers to find a sample's archiving location. New internet-based capabilities have been developed over the past few years for the registration and unique identification of samples that make it possible to overcome these problems. Services for the registration and unique identification of samples are provided by the System for Earth Sample Registration SESAR (www.geosamples.org). SESAR developed the International Geo Sample Number, or IGSN, as a unique identifier for samples and specimens collected from our natural environment. Since December 2011, the IGSN is governed by an international organization, the IGSN eV (www.igsn.org), which endorses and promotes an internationally unified approach for registration and discovery of physical specimens in the Geoscience community and is establishing a new modular and scalable architecture for the IGSN to advance global implementation. Use of the IGSN will, for the first time, allow to establish links between samples (or the digital representation of them), data acquired on these samples, and the publications that report these data. Samples can be linked to a dataset by including IGSNs in the metadata record of a dataset's DOI� when the dataset is registered with the DOI� system for unique identification. Links between datasets and publications already have been implemented based on dataset DOIs� between some Geoscience journals and data centers that are Publication Agents in the DataCite consortium (www.datacite.org). Links between IGSNs, dataset DOIs, and publication DOIs will in the future allow researchers to find and access with a single query and without ambiguity all data acquired on a specific sample across the entire literature.
Lehnert, K.; Klump, J.
Characteristic zonal winds and long-lived vortices in the atmospheres of the outer planets.
The cameras on board the NASA Voyager spacecraft provided a survey of cloud systems within the atmospheres of the giant planets and allowed determination of zonal wind patterns, which constrain long-lived cloud systems. The basic atmospheric circulations are compared and long-lived cloud features are reviewed. The basic structure of the Great Red Spot is reviewed and the tendency of the spot to drift at -4 m s(-1) or -2 m s(-1) is presented. PMID:12780094
Beebe, Reta
Detecting Nanodomains in Living Cell Membrane by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy
Cell membranes actively participate in numerous cellular functions. Inasmuch as bioactivities of cell membranes are known to depend crucially on their lateral organization, much effort has been focused on deciphering this organization on different length scales. Within this context, the concept of lipid rafts has been intensively discussed over recent years. In line with its ability to measure diffusion parameters with great precision, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) measurements have been made in association with innovative experimental strategies to monitor modes of molecular lateral diffusion within the plasma membrane of living cells. These investigations have allowed significant progress in the characterization of the cell membrane lateral organization at the suboptical level and have provided compelling evidence for the in vivo existence of raft nanodomains. We review these FCS-based studies and the characteristic structural features of raft nanodomains. We also discuss the findings in regards to the current view of lipid rafts as a general membrane-organizing principle.
He, Hai-Tao; Marguet, Didier
Studying single living cells and chromosomes by confocal Raman microspectroscopy
MANY indirect methods have been developed to study the constitu-tion and conformation of macromolecules inside the living cell. Direct analysis by Raman spectroscopy is an ideal complement to techniques using directly labelled fluorescent probes or of indirect labelling with mono- and polyclonal antibodies. The high information content of Raman spectra can characterize biological macromolecules both in solution and in crystals1,2.
G. J. Puppels; F. F. M. de Mul; C. Otto; J. Greve; M. Robert-Nicoud; D. J. Arndt-Jovin; T. M. Jovin
Spicing Things up by Adding Color and Relieving Pain: The Use of "Napoleon's Buttons" in Organic Chemistry
For some students, organic chemistry can be a distant subject and unrelated to any courses they have seen in their college careers. To develop a more contextual learning experience in organic chemistry, an additional text, "Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History," by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson, was incorporated as a�
Bucholtz, Kevin M.
Successful expansion of the living donor pool by alternative living donation programs.
Between January 2000 and December 2007, 786 potential recipients and 1059 potential donors attended our pretransplant unit with the request for a living-donor renal transplant procedure. The recipients brought one potential donor in 77.2% and two or more donors in 22.8% of cases. In the regular living donor program, a compatible donor was found for 467 recipients. Without considering alternative donation, 579 donors would have been refused. Alternative living donation programs led to 114 compatible combinations: kidney-exchange program (35), ABO-incompatible donation (25), anonymous donation (37) and domino-paired anonymous donation (17). Together, the 114 alternative program donations and the 467 regular living donations led to 581 living donor transplantations (24.4% increase). Eventually for 54.9% (581/1059) of our donors, a compatible combination was found. Donor-recipient incompatibility comprised 19.4% (89/458) in the final refused population, which is 8.8% of the potential donor-recipient couples. Without considering alternative donation, 30.1% (174/579) of the refused donors would have been refused on incompatibility and 6.4% (37/579) because they were anonymous. This is 20% of the potential donor population (211/1059). The implementation of alternative living donation programs led to a significant increase in the number of transplantations, while transplantations via the direct donation program steadily increased. PMID:19624564
Roodnat, J I; Kal-van Gestel, J A; Zuidema, W; van Noord, M A A; van de Wetering, J; IJzermans, J N M; Weimar, W
Embedded security for Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) consists of several tiny devices connected together to form a collaborative computing environment. IoT imposes peculiar constraints in terms of connectivity, computational power and energy budget, which make it significantly different from those contemplated by the canonical doctrine of security in distributed systems. In order to circumvent the problem of security in IoT domain, networks and
Arijit Ukil; Jaydip Sen; Sripad Koilakonda
Object Recognition for the Internet of Things
We present a system which allows to request information on physical objects by taking a picture of them. This way, using a\\u000a mobile phone with integrated camera, users can interact with objects or �things� in a very simple manner. A further advantage\\u000a is that the objects themselves don�t have to be tagged with any kind of markers. At the core
Till Quack; Herbert Bay; Luc J. Van Gool
Characteristics of the I-2 Live Thermostable Newcastle Disease Vaccine Produced at INIVE
The I-2 thermostable live Newcastle disease vaccine was successfully produced and tested at the National Veterinary Research Institute in Mozambique. Local production of the vaccine has facilitated the supply of a low-cost, thermostable ND vaccine suitable for use in the control of ND in village chickens. For the vaccine to be used successfully in the field, the development of appropriate
R. G. Alders; R. Fringe; B. V. Mata
Live-animal imaging of renal function by multiphoton microscopy.
Intravital microscopy, microscopy of living animals, is a powerful research technique that combines the resolution and sensitivity found in microscopic studies of cultured cells with the relevance and systemic influences of cells in the context of the intact animal. The power of intravital microscopy has recently been extended with the development of multiphoton fluorescence microscopy systems capable of collecting optical sections from deep within the kidney at subcellular resolution, supporting high-resolution characterizations of the structure and function of glomeruli, tubules, and vasculature in the living kidney. Fluorescent probes are administered to an anesthetized, surgically prepared animal, followed by image acquisition for up to 3 hr. Images are transferred via a high-speed network to specialized computer systems for digital image analysis. This general approach can be used with different combinations of fluorescent probes to evaluate processes such as glomerular permeability, proximal tubule endocytosis, microvascular flow, vascular permeability, mitochondrial function, and cellular apoptosis/necrosis. PMID:23042524
Dunn, Kenneth W; Sutton, Timothy A; Sandoval, Ruben M
Ways to Join the Living Conversation about Young Adult Literature
Rarely do students and teachers see themselves as people who have the authority to talk back to the gatekeepers; instead, they are on the receiving end of a conversation begun by others. But the conversation about young adult (YA) books--like the authors who write them--is a living thing. Students and teachers can help to shape it. In this�
Buehler, Jennifer
Health-related characteristics of men who have sex with men: a comparison of those living in "gay ghettos" with those living elsewhere.
OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the limitations of probability samples of men who have sex with men (MSM), limited to single cities and to the areas of highest concentrations of MSM ("gay ghettos"). METHODS: A probability sample of 2881 MSM in 4 American cities completed interviews by telephone. RESULTS: MSM who resided in ghettos differed from other MSM, although in different ways in each city. Non-ghetto-dwelling MSM were less involved in the gay and lesbian community. They were also less likely to have only male sexual partners, to identify as gay, and to have been tested for HIV. CONCLUSIONS: These differences between MSM who live in gay ghettos and those who live elsewhere have clear implications for HIV prevention efforts and health care planning.
Mills, T C; Stall, R; Pollack, L; Paul, J P; Binson, D; Canchola, J; Catania, J A
Universal computing by DNA origami robots in a living animal.
Biological systems are collections of discrete molecular objects that move around and collide with each other. Cells carry out elaborate processes by precisely controlling these collisions, but developing artificial machines that can interface with and control such interactions remains a significant challenge. DNA is a natural substrate for computing and has been used to implement a diverse set of mathematical problems, logic circuits and robotics. The molecule also interfaces naturally with living systems, and different forms of DNA-based biocomputing have already been demonstrated. Here, we show that DNA origami can be used to fabricate nanoscale robots that are capable of dynamically interacting with each other in a living animal. The interactions generate logical outputs, which are relayed to switch molecular payloads on or off. As a proof of principle, we use the system to create architectures that emulate various logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, NAND, NOT, CNOT and a half adder). Following an ex vivo prototyping phase, we successfully used the DNA origami robots in living cockroaches (Blaberus discoidalis) to control a molecule that targets their cells. PMID:24705510
Amir, Yaniv; Ben-Ishay, Eldad; Levner, Daniel; Ittah, Shmulik; Abu-Horowitz, Almogit; Bachelet, Ido
African Americans and Pancreatic Cancer: Things to Know
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND PANCREATIC CANCER: THINGS TO KNOW By the National Cancer Institute BETHESDA, MD ? When NFL Hall of Famer Gene Upshaw died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, it was the first time that ...
Healthy living partnerships to prevent diabetes: recruitment and baseline characteristics. | accrualnet.cancer.gov
The Healthy Living Partnerships to Prevent Diabetes (HELP PD) trial presents a successful enrollment model for a community-based translation of a lifestyle intervention. Mass mailing proved to be the most effective strategy to enroll participants. A database of persons interested in participating in clinical studies was used to successfully generate mailings, costing only $40 per randomized patient and quickly generating 22 randomizations. Referral from primary care settings was the other source of trial participants.
Material civilization: things and society.
This paper argues that although classical sociology has largely overlooked the importance of social relations with the material world in shaping the form of society, Braudel's concept of 'material civilization' is a useful way to begin to understand the sociological significance of this relationship. The limitations of Braudel's historical and general concept can be partially overcome with Elias's analysis of the connection between 'technization' and 'civilization' that allows for both a civilizing and a de-civilizing impact of emergent forms of material relation that both lengthen and shorten the chains of interdependence between the members of a society. It is suggested that the concept of the 'morality of things' employed by a number of commentators is useful in summarizing the civilizing effects of material objects and addressing their sociological significance. From the sociology of consumption the idea of materiality as a sign of social relationships can be drawn, and from the sociology of technology the idea of socio-technical systems and actor-networks can contribute to the understanding of material civilization. It is argued that the concept of 'material capital' can usefully summarize the variable social value of objects but to understand the complexity of material civilization as it unfolds in everyday life, an analysis of 'material interaction' is needed. Finally the paper suggests some initial themes and issues apparent in contemporary society that the sociological study of material civilization might address; the increased volume, functional complexity and material specificity of objects and the increased social complexity, autonomy and substitutability that is entailed. A theory of 'material civilization' is the first step in establishing a sociology of objects. PMID:16759196
Dant, Tim
Molecular engineering of liquid crystalline polymers by living polymerization
Summary This paper describes the synthesis and characterization of poly{3-[4-cyano-4'-biphenyl)oxy]propyl vinyl ether} [poly(6-3)] macromonomers obtained by the functionalization of the growing chain end of the corresponding living polymer obtained by the initiation of the cationic polymerization of 3-[4-cyano-4'-biphenyl)oxy]propyl vinyl ether with CF3SO3H\\/S(CH3)2, with 2-hydroxy ethyl methacrylate [poly(6-3)-I], 2-[2-(2-allyloxyethoxy)ethoxy]ethanol [poly(6-3)-II] and 10-undecen-1-ol [poly(6-3)-III].
Virgil Percec; Myongsoo Lee; Dimitris Tomazos
Things to Know about Cosmetic Contacts
... they decided to reclassify cosmetic lenses as cosmetics. Contacts are not Cosmetics Classifying cosmetic contact lenses in ... and soaking solutions. Things to Know About Cosmetic Contacts Things to Know About Cosmetic Contacts� Continued Contact ...
Things You Can Try
A Snip of the Scissors" describes the geometry involved in making stars by paper folding, and Checking the Calculated Average Through Subtraction" suggests practice in operations with negative numbers. (MM)
Junge, Charlotte W.
How Things Work.
Discusses the physics of liquid crystal displays (LCD) which is based on polarizing properties of crystals controlled by electric command. Production of alphanumerics, display control, and input are considered. (JM)
Crane, H. Richard, Ed.
Protection by Live, Attenuated Simian Immunodeficiency Virus against Heterologous Challenge
We examined the ability of a live, attenuated deletion mutant of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), SIVmac239?3, which is missing nef and vpr genes, to protect against challenge by heterologous strains SHIV89.6p and SIVsmE660. SHIV89.6p is a pathogenic, recombinant SIV in which the envelope gene has been replaced by a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope gene; other structural genes of SHIV89.6p are derived from SIVmac239. SIVsmE660 is an uncloned, pathogenic, independent isolate from the same primate lentivirus subgrouping as SIVmac but with natural sequence variation in all structural genes. The challenge with SHIV89.6p was performed by the intravenous route 37 months after the time of vaccination. By the criteria of CD4+ cell counts and disease, strong protection against the SHIV89.6p challenge was observed in four of four vaccinated monkeys despite the complete mismatch of env sequences. However, SHIV89.6p infection was established in all four previously vaccinated monkeys and three of the four developed fluctuating viral loads between 300 and 10,000 RNA copy equivalents per ml of plasma 30 to 72 weeks postchallenge. When other vaccinated monkeys were challenged with SIVsmE660 at 28 months after the time of vaccination, SIV loads were lower than those observed in unvaccinated controls but the level of protection was less than what was observed against SHIV89.6p in these experiments and considerably less than the level of protection against SIVmac251 observed in previous experiments. These results demonstrate a variable level of vaccine protection by live, attenuated SIVmac239?3 against heterologous virus challenge and suggest that even live, attenuated vaccine approaches for AIDS will face significant hurdles in providing protection against the natural variation present in field strains of virus. The results further suggest that factors other than anti-Env immune responses can be principally responsible for the vaccine protection by live, attenuated SIV.
Wyand, Michael S.; Manson, Kelledy; Montefiori, David C.; Lifson, Jeffrey D.; Johnson, R. Paul; Desrosiers, Ronald C.
Discussion on the Application of Internet of Things in Logistics Production Management
Because of the bar code's disadvantage, information flow cann't match the physical flow in the logistics production industry this causes the efficiency very slowly. Internet of Things overcomes the shortcomings of the bar code, it will revolutionize logistics production management. This paper describes basic principles and characteristics of Internet of Things, and discusses the application of it in logistics production
Mao Cuiyun; Han Yuanhang
Things are Heating Up
In this demonstration, students learn that heat makes air expand and rise, and learn how pressure systems are formed by observing the creation of a convection current. A large rectangular pan, a salad dressing bottle, a small latex balloon and water are required materials. The resource is part of the teacher's guide accompanying the video, NASA SCI Files: The Case of the Phenomenal Weather. Lesson objectives supported by the video, additional resources, teaching tips and an answer sheet are included in the teacher's guide.
How Do Things Fall?
Students learn that it is incorrect to believe that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. By close observation of falling objects, they see that it is the amount of air resistance, not the weight of an object, which determines how quickly an object falls.
Integrated Teaching And Learning Program
Breaking Things on Purpose
*Materials such as metals (aluminum, iron, copper, etc.), ceramics (silicon carbide, porcelain) or polymers (milk jugs made of polyethylene) are tested by scientists and engineers to reveal certain mechanical properties such as the maximum stress a material can withstand. The stress at which a material breaks is a measure of its strength. In this lesson you will be testing the strength of a delicious material you know as chocolate!
Lecture and Lab Things
This page, created by David Howell of the University of Vermont, is a collection of examples, demonstrations, and exercises that can be used to motivate a lecture, demonstrate an important point, or create a laboratory exercise for students. Topics include the following: descriptives, normal distribution, sampling distributions, probability, Chi-square, t-tests, power, correlation/regression, one-way ANOVA, multiple comparisons, factorial ANOVA, repeated measures, multiple regression, general linear model, log linear models, and distribution-free tests. This is a large collection of materials pertaining to statistics.
Howell, David
The Size of Things
In this hands-on activity, learners begin by estimating the size of each planet in our Solar System and Pluto and making each out of playdough or a similar material. Then, learners follow specific instructions to divide a mass of playdough into the size of each planet and Pluto and compare the actual modeled sizes to the students' own predictions. This activity requires a large amount of playdough material per group of learners. Three pounds is the minimum amount required for each group.
Internet of Things in college application prospects
The Internet of Things to China's development will bring about profound changes in university management and far-reaching impact. This paper analyzes the Internet of things and working principle of key technologies, combined with our college management problems; make things networking technology in the future development of Chinese universities and applications.
Jianhua Wang; Yongsheng Song; Yan Yu; Jun Zhang
Working in group living homes for older people with dementia: the effects on job satisfaction and burnout and the role of job characteristics
Abstract:Background: Group living homes are a fast-growing form of nursing home care for older people with dementia. This study seeks to determine the differences in job characteristics of nursing staff in group living homes and their influence on well-being.\\u000aMethods: We examined the Job Demand Control Support (JDCS) model in relation to 183 professional caregivers in group living homes and
Selma te Boekhorst; Bernadette Willemse; Marja F. I. A. Depla; Jan A. Eefsting; Anne Margriet Pot
Ten Tips about 23 Things
Learning 2.0--aka the "23 Things"--is a self-paced online learning program that the author designed in 2006 as a one-person crusade to move an entire organization of 500-plus staff onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Along with numerous requests to duplicate the program, many seek insight on how to do this successfully. In this article, the author shares�
Blowers, Helene
Effects of genetic control of subcutaneous fat deposition via using restricted selection indexes on live Performance and carcass characteristics of Pekin ducklings
Summary Estimates of phenotypic and genetic parameters for live Performance and detaiied dissection traits of body components and carcass tissues in Pekin ducks were calculated and used to construct selection indexes. The expected reduction in potential gain in live weight, dressing percentage and carcass characteristics resulting from restricting change in subcutaneous fat level to zero were assessed. The aggregate genotype
Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particles have been used successfully as an intracellular contrast agent for nuclear MRI cell tracking in vivo. We present a method of detecting intracellular SPIO colloid uptake in live cells using cell magnetophoresis, with potential applications in measuring intracellular MRI contrast uptake. The method was evaluated by measuring shifts in mean and distribution of the cell magnetophoretic mobility, and the concomitant changes in population frequency of the magnetically positive cells when compared to the unmanipulated negative control. Seven different transfection agent (TA) -SPIO complexes based on dendrimer, lipid, and polyethylenimine compounds were used as test standards, in combination with 3 different cell types: mesenchymal stem cells, cardiac fibroblasts, and cultured KG-1a hematopoietic stem cells. Transfectol (TRA) -SPIO incubation resulted in the highest frequency of magnetically positive cells (>90%), and Fugene 6 (FUG) -SPIO incubation the lowest, below that when using SPIO alone. A highly regular process of cell magnetophoresis was amenable to intracellular iron mass calculations. The results were consistent in all the cell types studied and with other reports. The cell magnetophoresis depends on the presence of high-spin iron species and is therefore expected to be directly related to the cell MRI contrast level.�Jing, Y., Mal, N., Williams, P. S., Mayorga, M., Penn, M. S., Chalmers, J. J., Zborowski, M. Quantitative intracellular magnetic nanoparticle uptake measured by live cell magnetophoresis.
Jing, Ying; Mal, Niladri; Williams, P. Stephen; Mayorga, Maritza; Penn, Marc S.; Chalmers, Jeffrey J.; Zborowski, Maciej
Relative microelastic mapping of living cells by atomic force microscopy.
The spatial and temporal changes of the mechanical properties of living cells reflect complex underlying physiological processes. Following these changes should provide valuable insight into the biological importance of cellular mechanics and their regulation. The tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) can be used to indent soft samples, and the force versus indentation measurement provides information about the local viscoelasticity. By collecting force-distance curves on a time scale where viscous contributions are small, the forces measured are dominated by the elastic properties of the sample. We have developed an experimental approach, using atomic force microscopy, called force integration to equal limits (FIEL) mapping, to produce robust, internally quantitative maps of relative elasticity. FIEL mapping has the advantage of essentially being independent of the tip-sample contact point and the cantilever spring constant. FIEL maps of living Madine-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells show that elasticity is uncoupled from topography and reveal a number of unexpected features. These results present a mode of high-resolution visualization in which the contrast is based on the mechanical properties of the sample. PMID:9512052
A-Hassan, E; Heinz, W F; Antonik, M D; D'Costa, N P; Nageswaran, S; Schoenenberger, C A; Hoh, J H
The human capital characteristics and household living standards of returning international migrants in Eastern and Southern Africa
Africa�s experience with return migration is not new. However, few empirical studies have examined the social and economic characteristics of returning migrants within the continent. In this study, the human capital endowments and household living standards of returning migrants in Uganda and South Africa are examined using recently available data. The study compares returnees in both countries with immigrants as well as the native-born population with no international migration experience. It also investigates how factors such as previous country of residence, year of arrival, and other demographic factors predict levels of education and living standards among returning migrants. In Uganda, the results show that recently arrived returning migrants had better educational endowments than both immigrants and non-migrants. Migrants who returned to Uganda following the fall of Idi Amin�s regime had the lowest educational levels and lowest living standards compared to other returnees. Furthermore, the results indicate that previous residence in countries in the West was associated with four additional years of schooling while returning migrants arriving from other African countries had the lowest levels of schooling among returning migrants. In South Africa, the study finds that returnees arriving almost immediately following the end of Apartheid had the highest levels of education compared to either immigrants or non-migrants. Returnees on average also had the highest household living standards in South Africa. Among South African immigrants, the results indicate that those arriving towards the end of the century had lower educational endowments compared to immigrants who arrived in the country two to four years after the end of Apartheid.
Thomas, Kevin J A
Near-term climate mitigation by short-lived forcers
Emissions reductions focused on anthropogenic climate-forcing agents with relatively short atmospheric lifetimes, such as methane (CH4) and black carbon, have been suggested as a strategy to reduce the rate of climate change over the next several decades. We find that reductions of methane and black carbon would likely have only a modest impact on near-term global climate warming. Even with maximally feasible reductions phased in from 2015 to 2035, global mean temperatures in 2050 would be reduced by 0.16 �C, with a range of 0.04�0.35 �C because of uncertainties in carbonaceous aerosol emissions and aerosol forcing per unit of emissions. The high end of this range is only possible if total historical aerosol forcing is relatively small. More realistic emission reductions would likely provide an even smaller climate benefit. We find that the climate benefit from reductions in short-lived forcing agents are smaller than previously estimated. These near-term climate benefits of targeted reductions in short-lived forcers are not substantially different in magnitude from the benefits from a comprehensive climate policy.
Smith, Steven J.; Mizrahi, Andrew
Natural infection by endoparasites among free-living wild animals.
The objective of this study was to investigate the frequency of occurrence and variety of intestinal parasites among free-living wild animals. Fecal samples from wild mammals and birds at rehabilitation centers in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and S�o Paulo were analyzed by sedimentation and flotation-centrifugation methods. Parasite eggs, oocysts, cysts and/or trophozoites were found in 71% of the samples. Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts were detected in fecal samples from oncillas (Leopardus tigrinus) and scaly-headed parrots (Pionus maximiliani). Giardia cysts were identified in the feces of a gray brocket (Mazama gouazoubira). Among the most common parasites found, there were eggs from Toxocara cati, Toxascaris leonina and Ancylostoma tubaeforme, and from Cestoda. Several Enterobius sp. eggs were found in the feces of red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus). It can be concluded from this study that despite the small number of samples, the diversity of parasites found was noteworthy. Additional information about parasite endofauna in wild animals is needed, since their presence might suggest that there could be proximity to and interactions with domestic animals and/or humans. In addition, further studies on parasites from free-living wild animals are of prime importance for understanding the intensity of anthropic changes in wild environments. PMID:23778826
Holsback, Luciane; Cardoso, Mauro Jos� Lahm; Fagnani, Rafael; Patelli, Tha�s Helena Constantino
Near-term climate mitigation by short-lived forcers.
Emissions reductions focused on anthropogenic climate-forcing agents with relatively short atmospheric lifetimes, such as methane (CH4) and black carbon, have been suggested as a strategy to reduce the rate of climate change over the next several decades. We find that reductions of methane and black carbon would likely have only a modest impact on near-term global climate warming. Even with maximally feasible reductions phased in from 2015 to 2035, global mean temperatures in 2050 would be reduced by 0.16 �C, with a range of 0.04-0.35 �C because of uncertainties in carbonaceous aerosol emissions and aerosol forcing per unit of emissions. The high end of this range is only possible if total historical aerosol forcing is relatively small. More realistic emission reductions would likely provide an even smaller climate benefit. We find that the climate benefit from reductions in short-lived forcing agents are smaller than previously estimated. These near-term climate benefits of targeted reductions in short-lived forcers are not substantially different in magnitude from the benefits from a comprehensive climate policy. PMID:23940357
Smith, Steven J; Mizrahi, Andrew
The Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT): methodological issues and participant characteristics
Background Mental health problems and risk behaviours among young people are of great public health concern. Consequently, within the VII Framework Programme, the European Commission funded the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) project. This Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) was conducted in eleven European countries, with Sweden as the coordinating centre, and was designed to identify an effective way to promote mental health and reduce suicidality and risk taking behaviours among adolescents. Objective To describe the methodological and field procedures in the SEYLE RCT among adolescents, as well as to present the main characteristics of the recruited sample. Methods Analyses were conducted to determine: 1) representativeness of study sites compared to respective national data; 2) response rate of schools and pupils, drop-out rates from baseline to 3 and 12 month follow-up, 3) comparability of samples among the four Intervention Arms; 4) properties of the standard scales employed: Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (Z-SAS), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), World Health Organization Well-Being Scale (WHO-5). Results Participants at baseline comprised 12,395 adolescents (M/F: 5,529/6,799; mean age=14.9�0.9) from Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. At the 3 and 12 months follow up, participation rates were 87.3% and 79.4%, respectively. Demographic characteristics of participating sites were found to be reasonably representative of their respective national population. Overall response rate of schools was 67.8%. All scales utilised in the study had good to very good internal reliability, as measured by Cronbach�s alpha (BDI-II: 0.864; Z-SAS: 0.805; SDQ: 0.740; WHO-5: 0.799). Conclusions SEYLE achieved its objective of recruiting a large representative sample of adolescents within participating European countries. Analysis of SEYLE data will shed light on the effectiveness of important interventions aimed at improving adolescent mental health and well-being, reducing risk-taking and self-destructive behaviour and preventing suicidality. Trial registration US National Institute of Health (NIH) clinical trial registry (NCT00906620) and the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00000214).
Natural Pigments: Carotenoids, Anthocyanins, and Betalains � Characteristics, Biosynthesis, Processing, and Stability
Pigments are present in all living matter and provide attractive colors and play basic roles in the development of organisms. Human beings, like most animals, come in contact with their surroundings through color, and things can or cannot be acceptable based on their color characteristics. This review presents the basic information about pigments focusing attention on the natural ones; it
F. Delgado-Vargas; A. R. Jim�nez; O. Paredes-L�pez
Family Theory versus the Theories Families Live By.
Argues that there is significant disjunction between the way that families live their lives and the way that professionals theorize about families. Using the metaphor of positive and negative spaces, argues that there are many negative spaces in our theorizing--everyday family activities that take up considerable time, energy, and attention but�
Daly, Kerry
Live Performance, Water Intake and Excreta Characteristics of Broilers Fed All Vegetable Diets Based on Corn and Soybean Meal
A study was conducted to compare live performance and digestive metabolism of broiler chickens fed an all vegetable diet compared to a regular diet having a mix of animal by-products. The all vegetable diet was formulated with corn and soybean meal as major ingredients, whereas the feed with animal by-products had inclusions of 3.0% pork by-product, 2.5% poultry by-product, and
Where We Live: Fun With Compiling Data
In this activity, learners will find what is common and what is unique about where we live. Learners will count how many people, pets, windows, televisions and other things exist where they live. Everyone fills in information on a chart and then the group explores the data. Young learners focus on most, least, and simple comparisons; older ones look for typical responses and relationships among categories. For instance, does anyone have twice as many pets as people? Do those with more people mostly have more doors? This works well as a group activity or a display to which passers-by contribute. Available as a web page and downloadable pdf.
How Everyday Things Are Made
If you've ever wondered how things are made - products like candy, cars, airplanes, or bottles - or if you've been interested in manufacturing processes, like forging, casting, or injection molding, then you've come to the right place. AIM has developed an introductory website for kids and adults showing how various items are made. It covers over 40 different products and manufacturing processes, and includes almost 4 hours of manufacturing video. It is targeted towards non-engineers and engineers alike. Think of it as your own private online factory tour, or a virtual factory tour, if you wish.A good introduction to the world of manufacturing.
Comparison of the biosorption and desorption of hazardous organic pollutants by live and dead biomass
and 2-chlorobiphenyl by living and dead cells of the fungus R. arrhizus and activated sludge was studied. A generalization concerning the relative magnitude of biosorptive uptake between live and dead biomass cannot be made using the experimental data. Uptakes by live and dead cells are similarly correlated to the octanol\\/water partition coefficient of the organic pollutants. The desorption of the
Learning by Living: Life-Altering Medical Education through Nursing Home-Based Experiential Learning
The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine Learning by Living Project (referred to as Learning by Living) was piloted in 2006 as an experiential medical education learning model. Since its inception, medical and other health professions students have been "admitted" into nursing homes to live the life of an older adult nursing�
Gugliucci, Marilyn R.; Weiner, Audrey
Separation of Living and Dead Cells by Dielectrophoresis
High-frequency non-uniform electric fields were used to cause selective dielectrophoresis of yeast cells in an aqueous medium. Living cells separated from admixed dead ones remained viable after the separation process.
Herbert A. Pohi; Ira Hawk
Effects of live and killed vaccines against Mycoplasma gallisepticum on the performance characteristics of commercial layer chickens.
Different vaccine strains of Mycoplasma gallisepticum have been used on multiple-age commercial layer farms in an effort to protect birds against virulent field-strain infections. Use of the F-strain of M. gallisepticum (FMG), as an overlay vaccine during lay, may be necessary because of the lower level of protection afforded by M. gallisepticum vaccines of low virulence given before lay. Two replicate trials were conducted to investigate effects of live and killed M. gallisepticum vaccines administered individually and in combination before lay, in conjunction with an FMG vaccine overlay after peak egg production (EP), on the performance characteristics of commercial layers. The following treatments were utilized at 10 wk of age (woa): 1) control (no vaccinations); 2) ts11 strain M. gallisepticum (ts11MG) vaccine; 3) M. gallisepticum-Bacterin vaccine (MG-Bacterin); and 4) ts11MG and MG-Bacterin vaccines combination. At 45 woa, half of the birds were overlaid with an FMG vaccine. Hen mortality, BW, egg weight, percentage hen-day EP, egg blood spots, and egg meat spots were determined at various time periods between 18 and 52 woa. The data from each trial were pooled. Treatment did not affect performance in interval I (23 to 45 woa). However, during interval II (46 to 52 woa), the EP of control and MG-Bacterin-vaccinated birds that later received an FMG vaccine overlay was lower than that in the other treatment groups. Furthermore, treatment application reduced bird BW during interval II. Despite the effects on BW and EP, no differences were observed for egg blood or meat spots among the various treatments. It is suggested that the vaccination of commercial layers before lay with ts11MG, but not MG-Bacterin, may reduce the negative impacts of an FMG overlay vaccination given during lay. These results establish that the vaccination of pullets with ts11MG in combination with the vaccination of hens with an FMG overlay, for continual protection against field-strain M. gallisepticum infections, may be used without suppressing performance. PMID:24879690
Jacob, R; Branton, S L; Evans, J D; Leigh, S A; Peebles, E D
The AMEL study, a cross sectional population-based survey on aging and malnutrition in 1200 elderly Lebanese living in rural settings: protocol and sample characteristics
Background Lebanon is faced with a particular challenge because of large socioeconomic inequality and accelerated demographic transition. Rural residents seem more vulnerable because of limited access to transport, health and social services. No information is available regarding health, nutrition and living conditions of this specific population. The purpose of the AMEL (Aging and Malnutrition in Elderly Lebanese) study is to assess the nutritional status of community dwelling elderly people, aged 65�years and above, living in a rural settings in Lebanon, in line of socioeconomic factors, health and living conditions. The present paper will describe the gender specific characteristics of the study population. Methods AMEL is a cross-sectional population based study conducted between April 2011 and April 2012 including 1200 elderly individuals living in the 24 rural Caza (districts) of Lebanon. People aged greater than or equal to 65 y were randomly selected through multistage cluster sampling. Subjects were interviewed at their homes by trained interviewers. The questionnaire included the following measures: socio-demographic factors, nutritional status (Mini Nutritional Assessment, MNA), health related characteristics, functional ability, cognitive status, mood and social network. Results The sample included 591 men (49.3%) and 609 women (50.8%). Mean age was 75.32�years and similar between genders. Malnutrition (MNA?17) and risk of malnutrition (MNA between 17 and 23.5) were present in 8.0% (95%CI 4.9%-11.1%) and 29.1% (95%CI 24.0%-34.2%) respectively of the participants, and more frequent in women (9.1% and 35.3% respectively). Regarding socio-demographic status, among women the level of illiteracy and poor income was significantly higher than in men. Moreover, chronic diseases, poor self perceived health, frailty, functional disability, depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment were particularly high and significantly more frequent in women than in men. Conclusion The present study provides unique information about nutritional status, health and living conditions of community dwelling rural residents of Lebanon. These findings may alert policy makers to plan appropriate intervention in order to improve the quality of life and increase successful aging.
Gravitational Rotation Curves for the THINGS Survey
The use of Galactic Rotation Curves has long been thought to provide evidence for the existence of Dark Matter. Although dark matter is currently the commonly accepted solution to the discrepancies found in galactic rotation curves between observation and theory, numerous dark matter alternative theories are beginning to emerge as possible solutions as well, in part because the galactic halos used in dark matter fits involve one or two extra external free parameters per galaxy. Among these alternative theories, the Conformal Gravity theory first presented by Weyl and recently advanced by Mannheim and Kazanas presents a renormalizable, fourth order theory, which does not assume the existence of dark matter, nor is inferred as an ad hoc addition to standard gravity. Moreover, Conformal Gravity can serve to define the rotation curves of spiral and dwarf galaxies with no external free parameters, thus eliminating the ambiguity of the current dark matter halo mass models. The THINGS survey is a recent sample of 18 galaxies, consisting of both dwarf and spiral galaxies, at distances between 2 and 15 Mpc. We thus apply the conformal theory to the THINGS data to produce rotation curves that fit the data with very high accuracy without the need for dark matter. The results yield rotation curves, which being parameter free, are strikingly more convincing than those of the standard gravity with dark matter. )
O'Brien, James
Accuracy of pitch matching significantly improved by live voice model.
Singing is, undoubtedly, the most fundamental expression of our musical capacity, yet an estimated 10-15% of Western population sings "out-of-tune (OOT)." Previous research in children and adults suggests, albeit inconsistently, that imitating a human voice can improve pitch matching. In the present study, we focus on the potentially beneficial effects of the human voice and especially the live human voice. Eighteen participants varying in their singing abilities were required to imitate in singing a set of nine ascending and descending intervals presented to them in five different randomized blocked conditions: live piano, recorded piano, live voice using optimal voice production, recorded voice using optimal voice production, and recorded voice using artificial forced voice production. Pitch and interval matching in singing were much more accurate when participants repeated sung intervals as compared with intervals played to them on the piano. The advantage of the vocal over the piano stimuli was robust and emerged clearly regardless of whether piano tones were played live and in full view or were presented via recording. Live vocal stimuli elicited higher accuracy than recorded vocal stimuli, especially when the recorded vocal stimuli were produced in a forced vocal production. Remarkably, even those who would be considered OOT singers on the basis of their performance when repeating piano tones were able to pitch match live vocal sounds, with deviations well within the range of what is considered accurate singing (M=46.0, standard deviation=39.2 cents). In fact, those participants who were most OOT gained the most from the live voice model. Results are discussed in light of the dual auditory-motor encoding of pitch analogous to that found in speech. PMID:23528675
Granot, Roni Y; Israel-Kolatt, Rona; Gilboa, Avi; Kolatt, Tsafrir
Nuffield Secondary Science, Theme 1, Interdependence of Living Things.
Nuffield Secondary Science is a set of tested materials from which teachers can prepare courses for students in grades 9-11 (approximately) who do not intend to major in science. The materials are designed for British secondary schools. The Teachers' Guide to the entire set of Themes is described in SE 015 440. Each Theme is a teachers' guide to a�
Marson, J. Eric
IL-10 restrains IL-17 to limit lung pathology characteristics following pulmonary infection with Francisella tularensis live vaccine strain.
IL-10 production during intracellular bacterial infections is generally thought to be detrimental because of its role in suppressing protective T-helper cell 1 (Th1) responses. Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular bacterium that activates both Th1 and Th17 protective immune responses. Herein, we report that IL-10-deficient mice (Il10(-/-)), despite having increased Th1 and Th17 responses, exhibit increased mortality after pulmonary infection with F. tularensis live vaccine strain. We demonstrate that the increased mortality observed in Il10(-/-)-infected mice is due to exacerbated IL-17 production that causes increased neutrophil recruitment and associated lung pathology. Thus, although IL-17 is required for protective immunity against pulmonary infection with F. tularensis live vaccine strain, its production is tightly regulated by IL-10 to generate efficient induction of protective immunity without mediating pathology. These data suggest a critical role for IL-10 in maintaining the delicate balance between host immunity and pathology during pulmonary infection with F. tularensis live vaccine strain. PMID:24007881
Slight, Samantha R; Monin, Leticia; Gopal, Radha; Avery, Lyndsay; Davis, Marci; Cleveland, Hillary; Oury, Tim D; Rangel-Moreno, Javier; Khader, Shabaana A
Things to Avoid When Breastfeeding
... Teen: 12-18 yrs. Dating & Sex Fitness Nutrition Safety School Substance Abuse Young Adult: 18-21 yrs. Healthy Living Nutrition Fitness Sports Oral Health Emotional Wellness Growing Healthy Safety & Prevention Immunizations Chickenpox Tdap Haemophilus Influenzae Type B ( ...
[Characteristics of the antioxidant system of healthy people of main ethnic groups living near Baikal Lake].
The antioxidant system of blood is the important factor that characterizes the adaptive possibilities of human organism. The estimation of state of the antioxidant protection and lipid peroxidation systems at men and women of two Baikal Lake ethnic groups was carried out. Spectrophotometric and fluorometric methods were used during the study. Increase of by-products of lipid peroxidation with decrease of activity of the antioxidant protection system was observed at men of the Buryat ethnicity in comparison with Russian ones. At women of the Buryat ethnicity was observed the increase of the primary products of lipid peroxidation with the adequate antioxidant response in comparison with Russian ones. PMID:22888671
Kolesnikova, L I; Darenskaia, M A; Grebenkina, L A; Suturina, L V; Labygina, A V; Semenova, N V; Tsyrenov, T B; Darzhaev, Z Iu; Kurashova, N A; Tolpygina, O A
The Librarian Who Loves "LibraryThing"
"LibraryThing" is a great way for library media specialists to keep track of the books they personally read. "LibraryThing" allows them to create a personal library, give their books tags, choose book covers, give star ratings, generate citations, and review books. Library media specialists can also connect to other readers and see their reviews.�
Sibley, Roberta
Chemically imaging living cells by scanning electrochemical microscopy
Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is useful in probing and characterizing interfaces at high resolution. In this paper, the general principles of this technique are described and several applications of SECM to biological systems, particularly to living cells, is discussed, along with several example systems. Thiodione was detected and monitored electrochemically during the treatment of hepatocytes with cytotoxic menadione. The antimicrobial
Allen J. Bard; Xiao Li; Wei Zhan
Bound by Children: Intermittent Cohabitation and Living Together Apart
In this article, we examine variations in low-income mothers' patterns of intermittent cohabitation and the voluntary and involuntary nature of these unions. Intermittent cohabitation involves couples living together and separating in repeating cycles. Using Three-City Study ethnographic data, we identified 45 low-income mothers involved in these�
Cross-Barnet, Caitlin; Cherlin, Andrew; Burton, Linda
Mechanics of living cells measured by laser tracking microrheology.
To establish laser-tracking microrheology (LTM) as a new technique for quantifying cytoskeletal mechanics, we measure viscoelastic moduli with wide bandwidth (5 decades) within living cells. With the first subcellular measurements of viscoelastic phase angles, LTM provides estimates of solid versus liquid behavior at different frequencies. In LTM, the viscoelastic shear moduli are inferred from the Brownian motion of particles embedded in the cytoskeletal network. Custom laser optoelectronics provide sub-nanometer and near-microsecond resolution of particle trajectories. The kidney epithelial cell line, COS7, has numerous spherical lipid-storage granules that are ideal probes for noninvasive LTM. Although most granules are percolating through perinuclear spaces, a subset of perinuclear granules is embedded in dense viscoelastic cytoplasm. Over all time scales embedded particles exhibit subdiffusive behavior and are not merely tethered by molecular motors. At low frequencies, lamellar regions (820 +/- 520 dyne/cm(2)) are more rigid than viscoelastic perinuclear regions (330 +/- 250 dyne/cm(2), p < 0.0001), but spectra converge at high frequencies. Although the actin-disrupting agent, latrunculin A, softens and liquefies lamellae, physiological levels of F-actin, alone (11 +/- 1.2 dyne/cm(2)) are approximately 70-fold softer than lamellae. Therefore, F-actin is necessary for lamellae mechanics, but not sufficient. Furthermore, in time-lapse of apparently quiescent cells, individual lamellar granules can show approximately 4-fold changes in moduli that last >10 s. Over a broad range of frequencies (0.1-30, 000 rad/s), LTM provides a unique ability to noninvasively quantify dynamic, local changes in cell viscoelasticity.
Yamada, S; Wirtz, D; Kuo, S C
How Things Work: a Novel Approach for Teaching Physics to Non-Scientists
How Things Work has been taught at the University of Virginia for the past 5 years as an introduction to the physics of everyday life. This course focuses on common objects and looks within them for the physics that makes them work. How Things Work is conceptual in character, requiring the students to think about the world around them and to generalize ideas discussed in class and in the text (Louis A. Bloomfield, How Things Work: the Physics of Everyday Life) (John Wiley, New York, 1997). to things they encounter in their lives. It has been extremely successful at UVA, attracting 500 students each semester and giving over 40% of the 9,000 students in the College of Arts and Sciences a one or two semester introduction to physics before they graduate.
Bloomfield, Louis
Living with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency
... dust, fumes, or toxins. Check your living and working spaces for things that may irritate your lungs. Examples include flower and tree pollen, ash, allergens, air pollution, wood burning stoves, ...
Observation of living cells by x-ray microscopy with a laser-plasma x-ray source
We studied laser-produced plasma as an x-ray source for x-ray microscopy. Using water- window x rays, contact x-ray images of living sea urchin sperm were taken by a 500 picosecond x-ray pulse. The resist relief was examined by atomic force microscope and informations characteristic of x-ray microscopy were obtained. The finest feature noticed in the x-ray image was 0.1 micrometers
Toshihisa Tomie; Hazime Shimizu; Toshikazu Majima; Mitsuo Yamada; Toshihiko Kanayama; M. Yano; H. Kondo
Formation of Long-Lived Fireballs by Plasma Devices
Results of the long-lived plasma structure and fireball formation (so called ``plasmoids") investigations in the atmosphere have been presented and discussed. Lifetimes of these objects considerably (by several orders of magnitude) exceed typical times of their generation by power sources and of plasma decay time. Experiments on the formation of these objects have been carried out by means of different types of pulse erosive plasma injectors in a wide range of energy (100 J - 100 kJ) putted into the plasmoid. Acrylic glass, fabric-based laminate, caprolon, and different organic materials (waxes, paraffines, resins with natural fillers, wood, lignin, etc.) have been used as plasma forming materials. Injection was made both into undisturbed air and into air saturated by organic vapors. It is shown that the formation of plasmoids of different forms (spherical, torus -type, cylindrical and others) with typical sizes 10-20 cm and their lifetime up to ~1 s takes place during pulse plasma injection into the air. In so doing the time of energy input ranged from 10 mcs to 10 ms. Typical temperature's value at the initial stage of the plasmoid existence is 7 - 10 kK. Initial value of the electron concentration reaches ten in (16-17) power per cubic cm. Obtained plasma radiation spectra and their temporary evolution is under the analysis. It is shown that at late stages of the existence of fireballs their radiation spectra correspond to the radiation of solid carbon and metallic oxide particles, and to spectra of burning of organic materials. It is shown that different structures have been formed at the application of the organic plasma forming materials and /or at the injection of plasma jet into the air saturated by organic vapors. One of them with typical sizes 10-20 cm and temperature ~2000 K has a lifetime up to 0.5 s. Undertaken experimental and theoretical investigations have shown a possibility of different ball lightning type realization in nature in the result of erosion of organic and inorganic materials. Their appearance can be accompanied with complex gasdynamic phenomena.
Timofeev, I.
A scheme of data management in the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is a large network which integrates the current devices, such as RFID devices, sensors and other equipment and services. It extends the form of interaction between people to the interaction between people and things as well as things and things, and then, establishes a new ecological environment. In the Internet of Things, the heterogeneity of devices
Tongrang Fan; Yanzhao Chen
Live weight assessment based on easily accessible morphometric characteristics in the double-muscled Belgian Blue beef breed
Live weight is an important trait in cattle farming. Weighing is not always feasible and therefore live weight is often estimated from easily accessible data. In this study, data on live weight, age and gender, and four body measurements, withers height (WH), heart girth (HG) and width of the shoulders (SW) and hind quarters (BcW) of double-muscled Belgian Blue beef
Frank Coopman; Stefaan De Smet; Hans Laevens; Alex Van Zeveren; Luc Duchateau
Tasks performed by migrant live-in care workers during hospitalization of their older care recipients.
The goals of the study were to examine: (a) the tasks that migrant live-in care workers are expected to perform and actually perform during the hospitalization of their care recipients, and (b) the factors that explain the level of involvement by care workers in caring for hospitalized care recipients. A sample of 535 dyads of family caregivers and care workers of hospitalized care recipients in two general hospitals in Israel was interviewed. Results showed a high level of congruence between the care workers' and family caregivers' perceptions of the roles that the paid carers should perform. Paid carers' involvement in care provision varied by hospital and type of ward and was best explained by the hospital characteristics and congruence in the care workers' perceived roles. The extensive needs of hospitalized functionally disabled older adults necessitate explicit policies and guidelines regarding private care provided in hospital wards. PMID:23937645
Iecovich, Esther; Rabin, Barbara; Penchak, Michal
Design of an Improved Echo Canceller System Based on Internet of Things
This paper focuses on a modified echo canceller system developed to satisfy the requirements of long network time-delay in the Internet of Things. The NLMS algorithm used in it is modified to reduce the computational complexity with the characteristics of fast convergence speed and low steady-state mean-square error (MSE). Hardware platform and software program have been designed to verify this algorithm. The simulation results by MATLAB and practical system are presented in support of the feasibility and validity of the proposed algorithm and echo canceller system.
Li, Yi; Lu, Yi; An, Douwa
Individuation, Relationality, Affect: Rethinking the Human in Relation to the Living
This article searches for a way of theorizing the interconnectedness of processes of individuation, relationality and affect, with the aim of clearing the ground for an approach that establishes the basis of this interconnectedness by reference to mechanisms common to all living things. It establishes a number of shifts that enable us to think the categories and concepts like the
Couze Venn
Characteristics of the Colombian armed conflict and the mental health of civilians living in active conflict zones
Background Despite the fact that the Colombian armed conflict has continued for almost five decades there is still very little information on how it affects the mental health of civilians. Although it is well established in post-conflict populations that experience of organised violence has a negative impact on mental health, little research has been done on those living in active conflict zones. M�decins Sans Fronti�res provides mental health services in areas of active conflict in Colombia and using data from these services we aimed to establish which characteristics of the conflict are most associated with specific symptoms of mental ill health. Methods An analysis of clinical data from patients (N = 6,353), 16 years and over, from 2010�2011, who consulted in the Colombian departments (equivalent to states) of Nari�o, Cauca, Putumayo and Caquet�. Risk factors were grouped using a hierarchical cluster analysis and the clusters were included with demographic information as predictors in logistic regressions to discern which risk factor clusters best predicted specific symptoms. Results Three clear risk factor clusters emerged which were interpreted as �direct conflict related violence�, �personal violence not directly conflict-related� and �general hardship�. The regression analyses indicated that conflict related violence was more highly related to anxiety-related psychopathology than other risk factor groupings while non-conflict violence was more related to aggression and substance abuse, which was more common in males. Depression and suicide risk were represented equally across risk factor clusters. Conclusions As the largest study of its kind in Colombia it demonstrates a clear impact of the conflict on mental health. Among those who consulted with mental health professionals, specific conflict characteristics could predict symptom profiles. However, some of the highest risk outcomes, like depression, suicide risk and aggression, were more related to factors indirectly related to the conflict. This suggests a need to focus on the systemic affects of armed conflict and not solely on direct exposure to fighting.
Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccines by Computer-Aided Rational Design
Influenza claims 250,000 - 500,000 lives annually worldwide. Despite existing vaccines and enormous efforts in biomedical research, these staggering numbers have not changed significantly over the last two decades1, motivating the search for new, more effective, vaccines that can be rapidly designed and easily produced. Using influenza virus strain A/PR/8/34, we describe a systematic, rational approach, termed Synthetic Attenuated Virus Engineering (SAVE), to develop new, efficacious live attenuated influenza virus vaccine candidates through genome-scale changes in codon pair bias. Attenuation is based on many hundreds of nucleotide changes across the viral genome, offering high genetic stability and a wide margin of safety. The method can be applied rapidly to any emerging influenza virus in its entirety, an advantage that is significant for dealing with seasonal epidemics and pandemic threats, such as H5N1- or 2009-H1N1 influenza.
Mueller, Steffen; Coleman, J. Robert; Papamichail, Dimitris; Ward, Charles B.; Nimnual, Anjaruwee; Futcher, Bruce; Skiena, Steven; Wimmer, Eckard
Study of Short-Lived Nuclear Decays by Digital Spectroscopy
A new generation of pulse processing electronics based on digital signal processing technology has been successfully tested on-line and applied for the first time in particle and gamma-ray spectroscopy experiments. Systems based on commercially available Digital Gamma Finder (DGF) modules [1] were used to study the decays of short-lived states in exotic nuclei. Since the DGFs incorporate a RTPU, they
C. R. Bingham; E. Badura; J. C. Batchelder; C. J. Gross; R. Grzywacz; Z. Janas; M. Karny; W. Krolas; C. Mazzocchi; J. W. McConnell; M. Momayezi; M. Pf�tzner; K. Rykaczewski; K. Schmidt
The selective detection of mitochondrial superoxide by live cell imaging
A general protocol is described to improve the specificity for imaging superoxide formation in live cells via fluorescence microscopy with either hydroethidine (HE) or its mitochondrially targeted derivative Mito-HE (MitoSOX Red). Two different excitation wavelengths are used to distinguish the superoxide-dependent hydroxylation of Mito-HE (385�405 nm) from the nonspecific formation of ethidium (480�520 nm). Furthermore, the dual wavelength imaging in
Kristine M Robinson; Michael S Janes; Joseph S Beckman
Heavy-metal adsorption by non-living biomass
The adsorption of some heavy metals onto the walls of harvested, washed, and dried non-living biomass cells of different Pseudomonas strains was studied at optimum experimental conditions using a simplified single component system. The Langmuir adsorption model was found to be a suitable approach to describe the system via multi-step processes. Isotherms measured at 30.0�C and pH 5.5 with [M]total?=?10�100�mM
M. A. Shaker; H. M. Hussein
Survival characteristics of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli pathotypes and Helicobacter pylori during passage through the free-living ciliate, Tetrahymena sp.
Free-living protozoa have been implicated in the survival and transport of pathogens in the environment, but the relationship between non-Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli or Helicobacter pylori and ciliates has not been characterized. Six diarrheagenic pathotypes of E.�coli and an isolate of H.�pylori were evaluated for their susceptibility to digestion by Tetrahymena, an aquatic ciliate. Tetrahymena strain MB125 was fed E.�coli or H.�pylori, and the ciliate's egested products examined for viable bacterial pathogens by the BacLight(�) LIVE/DEAD (�) assay, a cell elongation method, and by colony counts. All six diarrheagenic E.�coli pathotypes survived digestion, whereas H.�pylori was digested. Growth of E.�coli on agar plates indicated that the bacteria were able to replicate after passage through the ciliate. Transmission electron micrographs of E.�coli cells as intact rods vs. degraded H.�pylori cells corroborated these results. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a net-like matrix around intact E.�coli cells in fecal pellets. These results suggest a possible role for Tetrahymena and its egested fecal pellets in the dissemination of diarrheagenic E.�coli in the environment. This bacterial-protozoan interaction may increase opportunities for transmission of diarrheagenic E.�coli to mammalian hosts including humans. PMID:22680607
Smith, Charlotte D; Berk, Sharon G; Brandl, Maria T; Riley, Lee W
In Vivo and Real-time Monitoring of Secondary Metabolites of Living Organisms by Mass Spectrometry
Secondary metabolites are compounds that are important for the survival and propagation of animals and plants. Our current understanding on the roles and secretion mechanism of secondary metabolites is limited by the existing techniques that typically cannot provide transient and dynamic information about the metabolic processes. In this manuscript, by detecting venoms secreted by living scorpion and toad upon attack and variation of alkaloids in living Catharanthus roseus upon stimulation, which represent three different sampling methods for living organisms, we demonstrated that in vivo and real-time monitoring of secondary metabolites released from living animals and plants could be readily achieved by using field-induced direct ionization mass spectrometry.
Hu, Bin; Wang, Lei; Ye, Wen-Cai; Yao, Zhong-Ping
An Autonomic-oriented Architecture for the Internet of Things
Electronic tags, usually referred as RFIDs, sensors, wireless VoIP terminals are likely to create a technological and cultural revolution similar to the one initiated by the Internet technology in the early nineties. These very cheap components are manufactured by billions, and are going to be inserted in quite all our everyday objects. Internet of things is a paradigm dealing with
Guy Pujolle
Academics 2000: First Things First. Evaluation Report, 1998-99.
This evaluation report profiles Academics 2000: First Things First, the Texas initiative under the Goals 2000 Educate America Act to raise the level of academic achievement of all Texas students by ensuring that each child achieves fourth-grade mastery of the foundation subjects by the end of fourth grade. The report states that, at the local�
Austin Independent School District, TX. Office of Program Evaluation.
49 CFR 511.33 - Production of documents and things.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
... Production of documents and things. 511.33 Section 511... Production of documents and things. (a) Scope. ...copy, test or sample tangible things which constitute or contain...party submitting the request may move for an order under §...
Atomic-scale dynamics inside living cells explored by neutron scattering
Single-particle neutron spectroscopy has contributed important experimental data on molecular dynamics in biological systems. The technique provides information on atomic and molecular motions in macromolecules on the picosecond to the nanosecond time scale, which are essential to biological function. Here, we report on recent neutron measurements performed directly in living cells by using isotope labelling to explore the dynamics of specific cellular components. The paper proposes an integrated view of results on atomic-scale cell water dynamics, internal and global macromolecular motions and solvent isotope effect on macromolecular dynamics. The work established the specific usefulness of the neutron scattering technique to get insight into biologically relevant dynamical features, in particular through comparative measurements. The method developed can now be applied to look for dynamical signatures related to cell characteristics in many different cell types and organelles.
Jasnin, Marion
Assessment of transferrin recycling by Triplet Lifetime Imaging in living cells
An optical method is presented that allows the measurement of the triplet lifetime of a fluorescent molecule. This is a characteristic specific to each fluorophore. Based on differences in triplet lifetimes of two fluorescent species (autofluorescence versus label), this novel approach measures relative quantities of a transmembrane receptor and associated fluorescently labeled ligand during its recycling in living cells. Similarly to fluorescence-lifetime based methods, our approach is almost insensitive to photobleaching. A simple theory for unmixing two known triplet lifetimes is presented along with validation of the method by measurements of transferrin recycling in a model system based on chinese hamster ovarian cells (CHO). Transferrin is the delivery carrier for Fe3+ to the cell.
Geissbuehler, Matthias; Kadlecova, Zuzana; Klok, Harm-Anton; Lasser, Theo
Living with vision loss
... things in different size containers, such as egg cartons, jars, and shoe boxes. Get familiar with common ... and pantyhose. Organize jewelry by color. Use egg cartons or a jewelry box to sort jewelry.
Actin dynamics at the living cell submembrane imaged by total internal reflection fluorescence photobleaching.
Although reversible chemistry is crucial to dynamical processes in living cells, relatively little is known about relevant chemical kinetic rates in vivo. Total internal reflection/fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (TIR/FRAP), an established technique previously demonstrated to measure reversible biomolecular kinetic rates at surfaces in vitro, is extended here to measure reversible biomolecular kinetic rates of actin at the cytofacial (subplasma membrane) surface of living cells. For the first time, spatial imaging (with a charge-coupled device camera) is used in conjunction with TIR/FRAP. TIR/FRAP imaging produces both spatial maps of kinetic parameters (off-rates and mobile fractions) and estimates of kinetic correlation distances, cell-wide kinetic gradients, and dependences of kinetic parameters on initial fluorescence intensity. For microinjected rhodamine actin in living cultured smooth muscle (BC3H1) cells, the unbinding rate at or near the cytofacial surface of the plasma membrane (averaged over the entire cell) is measured at 0.032 +/- 0.007 s(-1). The corresponding rate for actin marked by microinjected rhodamine phalloidin is very similar, 0.033 +/- 0.013 s(-1), suggesting that TIR/FRAP is reporting the dynamics of entire filaments or protofilaments. For submembrane fluorescence-marked actin, the intensity, off-rate, and mobile fraction show a positive correlation over a characteristic distance of 1-3 microm and a negative correlation over larger distances greater than approximately 7-14 microm. Furthermore, the kinetic parameters display a statistically significant cell-wide gradient, with the cell having a "fast" and "slow" end with respect to actin kinetics. PMID:10969025
Sund, S E; Axelrod, D
Live vaccines for human metapneumovirus designed by reverse genetics.
Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) was first described in 2001 and has quickly become recognized as an important cause of respiratory tract disease worldwide, especially in the pediatric population. A vaccine against HMPV is required to prevent severe disease associated with infection in infancy. The primary strategy is to develop a live-attenuated virus for intranasal immunization, which is particularly well suited against a respiratory virus. Reverse genetics provides a means of developing highly characterized 'designer' attenuated vaccine candidates. To date, several promising vaccine candidates have been developed, each using a different mode of attenuation. One candidate involves deletion of the G glycoprotein, providing attenuation that is probably based on reduced efficiency of attachment. A second candidate involves deletion of the M2-2 protein, which participates in regulating RNA synthesis and whose deletion has the advantageous property of upregulating transcription and increasing antigen synthesis. A third candidate involves replacing the P protein gene of HMPV with its counterpart from the related avian metapneumovirus, thereby introducing attenuation owing to its chimeric nature and host range restriction. Another live vaccine strategy involves using an attenuated parainfluenza virus as a vector to express HMPV protective antigens, providing a bivalent pediatric vaccine. Additional modifications to provide improved vaccines will also be discussed. PMID:17181442
Buchholz, Ursula J; Nagashima, Kunio; Murphy, Brian R; Collins, Peter L
Connected objects and the Internet of things � A paradigm shift
Emerging and future network requirements for the Internet of Things (IoT) or Connected Objects (CO) cannot be met by the networks and solutions we envisage today. The vision of IoT includes millions of objects that interact with the network using a plethora of applications. Some of these objects will require little attention and will generate little traffic, while on the
E. Zouganeli; I. E. Svinnset
There May Be Such a Thing as 'Too Much Exercise'
... Be Such a Thing as 'Too Much Exercise' Research suggests that moderate activity might be best for people with pre-existing heart disease (*this news item will not be available after 08/13/2014) By Robert Preidt Thursday, May 15, 2014 Related ...
Quality of Life of People Living with HIV/AIDS under the New Epidemic Characteristics in China and the Associated Factors
Background Improvement of quality of life has been one of goals in health care for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). In China, the epidemic characteristics have changed and transmission is now most commonly sexual contact. However, the assessment of quality of life of PLWHA under new characteristics has limited reporting. This study was designed to assess the quality of life among PLWHA who contracted disease mainly via sexual contact and to clarify the associated factors. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed in Liaoning Province. Sample size (800) was calculated based on the fatality rate and enlarged with consideration on the loss of response. Participants were sampled by tables of random numbers among all registered PLWHA. Questionnaires pertaining to quality of life (SF-36) and related factors (demographic characteristics, social support and network, HIV/AIDS awareness, and behavior factors) were distributed during December 2010-April 2011. 783 effective responses were obtained. Results The average scores of physical component summary (PCS), mental component summary (MCS), and total score (TS) were 66.8�21.9 (Mean�SD), 62.2�20.9, and 64.5�20.2. General linear model analysis revealed that, in standardized estimate (?) sequence, PCS was significantly associated with monthly income, perceived social support, antiretroviral therapy, transmission, and ethnicity; MCS was associated with perceived social support, antiretroviral therapy, condom use, monthly income, transmission, ethnicity, and alcohol consumption; whereas TS was associated with perceived social support, antiretroviral therapy, monthly income, transmission, condom use, and ethnicity. Conclusions Quality of life for PLWHA who contracted HIV mainly via sexual contact was worse and both physical conditions and social integration were impacted. Under current epidemic characteristics, efforts to increase social support and enhance the implementation of supporting policy are necessary to improve the quality of life of PLWHA.
Sun, Wei; Wu, Ming; Qu, Peng; Lu, Chunming; Wang, Lie
Architectural Solutions for Mobile RFID Services for the Internet of Things
Mobile RFID services for Internet of Things can be created by using RFID as an enabling technology on mobile devices. Humans, devices and things are the content providers and users of these services. Mobile RFID services can be provided either on mobile devices as stand-alone services or combining with end- to-end systems. When different service solutions are considered, there are
Martin Peter Michael; Mohsen Darianian
IOT Gateway: BridgingWireless Sensor Networks into Internet of Things
With the development of sensor, wireless mobile communication, embedded system and cloud computing, the technologies of Internet of Things have been widely used in logistics, Smart Meter, public security, intelligent building and so on. Because of its huge market prospects, Internet of Things has been paid close attention by several governments all over the world, which is regarded as the
Qian Zhu; Ruicong Wang; Qi Chen; Yan Liu; Weijun Qin
Correlates of protection induced by live Aro- Salmonella typhimurium vaccines in the murine typhoid model.
Live attenuated salmonella vaccines generally confer better protection than killed vaccines. The immune responses in BALB/c mice elicited by immunization with a live attenuated Aro Salmonella typhimurium vaccine given orally, intravenously or subcutaneously were compared with those elicited by killed whole-cell vaccines (acetone or heat-treated) given subcutaneously. Live vaccines given by all routes elicited higher interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) responses in spleen cells against an alkali-treated whole-cell salmonella lysate than did killed vaccines. Live and killed vaccines elicited high total antibody levels to smooth lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), but all live vaccine regimes elicited higher IgG2a, suggesting a Th1 response. Oral and intravenous vaccination with live organisms elicited IgA against smooth LPS which subcutaneous vaccination with live or killed salmonellae failed to evoke. Western blots using rough whole-cell lysates showed that all vaccines elicited a varied anti-protein response; however, all groups immunized with live organisms recognized three unidentified bands of MW 52,000, 46,000 and 18,000 which were consistently absent in groups immunized with killed organisms. The results indicate that immunization with live aroA salmonellae elicited a Th1 type of response, including bystander T-cell help to LPS, and a response to proteins not seen in mice that received killed vaccines. Images Figure 6
Harrison, J A; Villarreal-Ramos, B; Mastroeni, P; Demarco de Hormaeche, R; Hormaeche, C E
Future internet: The Internet of Things
Nowadays, the main communication form on the Internet is human-human. But it is foreseeable that in a near soon that any object will have a unique way of identification and can be addressed so that every object can be connected. The Internet will become to the Internet of Things. The communicate forms will expand from human-human to human-human, human-thing and
Lu Tan; Neng Wang
Identities in the Future Internet of Things
There are two problem areas of the current Internet to be solved in Future Internet scenarios�security and putting the user\\u000a back in control despite the move to the Internet of things. With this in mind, we address problems associated with the diversifying\\u000a of the Internet towards an Internet of things, and with increased ways to be reachable, whether the user
Amardeo C. Sarma; Jo�o Gir�o
Nucleoplasmic viscosity of living cells investigated by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is a new kind of real-time, high-speed and single-molecule technique. It is used to detect the kinetic characteristics of fluorescent dye such as diffusion coefficient in the aqueous solution. Combined with confocal microscope optics, it has been now widely applied in cell biological research. Through a time correlation analysis of spontaneous intensity fluctuations, this technique with
Lifang Liang; Da Xing; Tongshen Chen; Yihui Pei
Anti-influenza virus effects of both live and non-live Lactobacillus acidophilus L-92 accompanied by the activation of innate immunity.
The antiviral effects of both a live and non-live Lactobacillus acidophilus strain L-92 (L-92) were investigated by oral administration (10 mg/mouse per d) daily for 21 d in a mouse model infected intranasally with influenza virus (H1N1). Virus titres in the lung of mice administered either live or non-live L-92 cells daily for 15 d were repressed 6 d after virus infection compared with the control group. Natural killer (NK) activity in the orally administered non-live L-92 group was higher compared with that of the control group before virus infection and on day 6. In contrast, NK activity in the live L-92 group compared with the control group was not significantly changed on both days, but was significantly higher on day 1. In contrast, live L-92 showed a greater repression of virus proliferation compared with non-live L-92, 6 d after the infection. Live L-92 decreased the number of neutrophils in the lung and suppressed lung weight, leading to the consequent deterioration of consolidation scores of the lung. These results indicated that pretreatment of live or non-live L-92 cells had protective effects against influenza virus infection. Among the measured cytokines and chemokines, eotaxin, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, IL-1b, RANTES (regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted) and interferon-a were significantly increased in the lung: IL-17 was significantly increased in Peyer�s patch of the live L-92 group compared with the control group. A mechanistic study suggested that the enhancement of NK activity in the lung caused by stimulating various antiviral cytokines and chemokines after the oral administration of L-92 cells might be important in protecting against virus infection. PMID:23594927
Goto, Hiroaki; Sagitani, Atsuhiro; Ashida, Nobuhisa; Kato, Shinji; Hirota, Tatsuhiko; Shinoda, Tadashi; Yamamoto, Naoyuki
75 FR 74623 - Cost of Living Adjustment for Performance of Musical Compositions by Colleges and Universities
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
...2010-9 CRB] Cost of Living Adjustment for Performance of Musical...Judges announce a cost of living adjustment (``COLA'') of 1.2...the change in the Consumer Price Index from October 2009 to...determined by the Consumer Price Index (all urban...
76 FR 74703 - Cost of Living Adjustment for Performance of Musical Compositions by Colleges and Universities
...NCEB COLA] Cost of Living Adjustment for Performance of Musical...Judges announce a cost of living adjustment (``COLA'') of 3.5...the change in the Consumer Price Index from October 2010 to...determined by the Consumer Price Index (all urban...
Detection of Long-Lived Excited States of Molecules by Penning Ionization.
A method for the detection of excited neutral long-lived particles by ionization of properly chosen molecules with different ionization potential was developed and applied to the study of long-lived excited states of H2, N2, CO, and O2. Results in H2 and ...
V. Cermak
High-Resolution Nonlinear Optical Imaging of Live Cells by Second Harmonic Generation
By adapting a laser scanning microscope with a titanium sapphire femtosecond pulsed laser and transmission optics, we are able to produce live cell images based on the nonlinear optical phenomenon of second harmonic generation (SHG). Second harmonic imaging (SHIM) is an ideal method for probing membranes of living cells because it offers the high resolution of nonlinear optical microscopy with
Paul J. Campagnola; Mei-de Wei; Aaron Lewis; Leslie M. Loew
Characteristics of plasma generated by hypervelocity impact
The characteristics of plasma generated by hypervelocity impact were studied through both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Based on thermodynamics and statistical physics, a thermal ionization model was proposed to explore the relationships of ionization degree and plasma conductivity to temperature with consideration of the velocity distribution law in the thermodynamic equilibrium state. In order to derive the temperature, internal energy, and density of the plasma generated by the impact for the above relationships, a 3-D model for the impact of an aluminum spherical projectile on an aluminum target was established and five cases with different impact angles were numerically simulated. Then, the temperature calculated from the internal energy and the Thomas Fermi (TF) model, the internal energy and the density of the plasma were put into the function of the ionization degree to study the characteristics of plasma. Finally, based on the experimental data, a good agreement was obtained between the theoretical predictions and the experimental results, and the feasibility of this theoretical model was verified.
Song, Weidong; Li, Jianqiao; Ning, Jianguo [State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (China)] [State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (China)
Diagnosis of Infections Caused by Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae
Naegleria fowleri, Acanthamoeba spp., Balamuthia mandrillaris, and Sappinia sp. are pathogenic free-living amoebae. N. fowleri causes Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis, a rapidly fatal disease of the central nervous system, while Acanthamoeba spp. and B. mandrillaris cause chronic granulomatous encephalitis. Acanthamoeba spp. also can cause cutaneous lesions and Amoebic Keratitis, a sight-threatening infection of the cornea that is associated with contact lens use or corneal trauma. Sappinia pedata has been identified as the cause of a nonlethal case of amoebic encephalitis. In view of the potential health consequences due to infection with these amoebae, rapid diagnosis is critical for early treatment. Microscopic examination and culture of biopsy specimens, cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), and corneal scrapings have been used in the clinical laboratory. For amoebic keratitis, confocal microscopy has been used to successfully identify amoebae in corneal tissue. More recently, conventional and real-time PCR assays have been developed that are sensitive and specific for the amoebae. In addition, multiplex PCR assays are available for the rapid identification of these pathogens in biopsy tissue, CSF, and corneal specimens.
da Rocha-Azevedo, Bruno; Tanowitz, Herbert B.; Marciano-Cabral, Francine
Distinct in vivo dendritic cell activation by live versus killed Listeria monocytogenes.
Immunization of mice with live or heat-killed Listeria monocytogenes (HKLM) efficiently primes pathogen-specific CD8(+) T cells. T lymphocytes primed by HKLM, however, undergo attenuated proliferation and do not fully differentiate. Thus, only infection with live bacteria induces long-term, CD8(+) T cell-mediated protective immunity. In this study we demonstrate that live and heat-killed bacteria, while both associating with Mac-3(+)CD11b(hi) cells, localize to distinct splenic areas following intravenous inoculation. While HKLM localize to the marginal zone and the splenic red pulp, live L. monocytogenes are carried to the T cell zone of splenic white pulp. Despite these differences, in vivo depletion of CD11c-expressing cells prevents priming of naive T cells by either HKLM or live L. monocytogenes. Analysis of CD11c(hi) dendritic cells (DC) reveals that infection with live L. monocytogenes induces higher levels of CD40, CD80 and CD86 expression than immunization with HKLM. Our results suggest that CD8(+) T cell priming following HKLM immunization or live infection is mediated by DC and that the disparate outcomes of priming can be attributed to suboptimal conditioning of DC in the absence of live, cytosol-invasive bacteria. PMID:15816001
Muraille, Eric; Giannino, Rielle; Guirnalda, Patrick; Leiner, Ingrid; Jung, Steffen; Pamer, Eric G; Lauvau, Gregoire
'All those things together made me retire': qualitative study on early retirement among Dutch employees
Background Due to the aging of the population and subsequent higher pressure on public finances, there is a need for employees in many European countries to extend their working lives. One way in which this can be achieved is by employees refraining from retiring early. Factors predicting early retirement have been identified in quantitative research, but little is known on why and how these factors influence early retirement. The present qualitative study investigated which non-health related factors influence early retirement, and why and how these factors influence early retirement. Methods A qualitative study among 30 Dutch employees (60�64�years) who retired early, i.e. before the age of 65, was performed by means of face-to-face interviews. Participants were selected from the cohort Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (STREAM). Results For most employees, a combination of factors played a role in the transition from work to early retirement, and the specific factors involved differed between individuals. Participants reported various factors that pushed towards early retirement (�push factors�), including organizational changes at work, conflicts at work, high work pressure, high physical job demands, and insufficient use of their skills and knowledge by others in the organization. Employees who reported such push factors towards early retirement often felt unable to find another job. Factors attracting towards early retirement (�pull factors�) included the wish to do other things outside of work, enjoy life, have more flexibility, spend more time with a spouse or grandchildren, and care for others. In addition, the financial opportunity to retire early played an important role. Factors influenced early retirement via changes in the motivation, ability and opportunity to continue working or retire early. Conclusion To support the prolongation of working life, it seems important to improve the fit between the physical and psychosocial job characteristics on the one hand, and the abilities and wishes of the employee on the other hand. Alongside improvements in the work environment that enable and motivate employees to prolong their careers, a continuous dialogue between the employer and employee on the (future) person-job fit and tailored interventions might be helpful.
The Characteristics of a Model Technology Education Teacher
The things that make the quality of a teacher stand out can cover a wide range of characteristics, actions, words, and experiences. The mark left on a student by a teacher, for good or bad, is written in an ink that will last a lifetime. This article describes a study that identifies the characteristics of exceptional technology education�
Kaufman, Andrew R.; Warner, Scott A.; Buechele, Jessica R.
Fiber optic light-scattering measurement system for evaluation of embryo viability: light-scattering characteristics from live mouse embryo
We measured angular distribution of the light scattering from live mouse embryo with 632.8nm in wavelength to evaluate the embryo viability. We aim to measure the mitochondrial density in human embryo which have relation to the embryo viability. We have constructed the light scattering measurement system to detect the mitochondrial density non-invasively. We have employed two optical fibers for the illumination and sensing to change the angle between these fibers. There were two dips on the scattering angular distribution from the embryo. These dips existed on 30 and 85 deg. We calculated the scattering angular pattern by Mie theory to fit the measured scattering estimated scattering size and density. The best fitting was obtained when the particle size and density were 0.9 micrometers and 1010 particles per ml, respectively. These values coincided with the approximated values of mitochondrial in the embryo. The measured light scattering may mainly originated from mitochondria in spite of the existence of the various scattering particles in the embryo. Since our simple scattering measurement may offer the mitochondrial density in the embryo, it might become the practical method of human embryo on in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.
Itoh, Harumi; Arai, Tsunenori; Kikuchi, Makoto
Stable Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Characteristics of Live Benthic Foraminifera from the Okhotsk Sea: Effects of Oceanography, Food Supply, and Microhabitat Patterns
Paleoceanographic studies use benthic foraminiferal stable isotopes as proxies for interpretations of numerous parameters such as past oceanic circulation patterns, food supply, primary productivity, etc. However, only few studies have used live (rose Bengal-stained) populations to reliably calibrate stable isotope characteristics to bottom water and sediment chemistry of the surrounding environment. We report results from a study in the Okhotsk Sea, a region characterized by extreme climatic and oceanographic settings. Not only does this marginal basin of the NW-Pacific experience the southermost extent of seasonal ice cover in the entire Northern Hemisphere, it also shows extremely high primary productivity. These boundary conditions lead many to consider the Okhotsk Sea both as a modern analog for ecological and oceanographic conditions in ocean basins during past and a sensitive recorder of potential future climate change in high latitudes. We compare results of stable oxygen and carbon isotopes from the most abundant taxa to oxygen isotopic compositions of bottom water and carbon isotopes of bottom water DIC, nutrient inventories from the water column and productivity proxy-data from sediment surface profiles (chlorines, TOC, biogenic opal). Multicorer samples from the upper 10 cm at 15 sites were taken from a variety of settings with water depths ranging from less than 100 m to more than 3200 m. Results obtained show a wide range of interspecific carbon isotope values exceeding 2 per mil variability within neighbouring samples. Minimum values occur in deep endobenthic groups like Globobulima spp., whereas species living in a relatively wide depth range like V. sadonica or U. peregrina exhibit intermediate values between -0.7 and -1 per mil. Most measurements conducted to address intraspecific variability remain within a narrow range of less than 0.4 per mil. However, we do observe vertical trends with both increasing and decreasing carbon isotope gradients within the sediment column. Obtained carbon isotope values from both living and dead specimen of widely used the Cibicides spp. group stay within the range of bottom water DIC, with no systematic negative phytodetritus- effect occuring throughout the sample set despite etremely pronounced seasonality in organic matter supply on most sites. Combined with a proxy-dataset about primary productivity, we give an evaluation of benthic-pelagic coupling and the impact on benthic species adaption to the pronounced subarctic seasonal cycle and the strongly pulsed food fluxes to the ocean floor.
Lembke-Jene, L.; Tiedemann, R.; Bubenshchikova, N.; Erlenkeuser, H.; Dullo, W.
Stable Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Characteristics of Live Benthic Foraminifera from the Okhotsk Sea: Effects of Oceanography, Food Supply and Microhabitat Patterns
Paleoceanographic studies use benthic foraminiferal stable isotopes as proxies for interpretations of numerous parameters such as past oceanic circulation patterns, food supply, primary productivity, etc. However, only few studies have used live (rose Bengal-stained) populations to reliably calibrate stable isotope characteristics to bottom water and sediment chemistry of the surrounding environment. We report data from a study in the Okhotsk Sea, a region characterized by extreme climatic and oceanographic settings. Not only does this marginal basin of the NW-Pacific experience the southermost extent of seasonal ice cover in the entire Northern Hemisphere, it also shows extremely high primary productivity. These boundary conditions lead many to consider the Okhotsk Sea both as a modern analog for ecological and oceanographic conditions in ocean basins during past and a sensitive recorder of potential future climate change in high latitudes. We compare results of stable oxygen and carbon isotopes from the most abundant taxa to oxygen isotopic compositions of bottom water and carbon isotopes of bottom water DIC, nutrient inventories from the water column and productivity proxy-data from sediment surface profiles (chlorines, TOC, biogenic opal). Multicorer samples from the upper 10 cm at 15 sites were taken from a variety of settings with water depths ranging from less than 100 m to more than 3200 m. Results obtained show a wide range of interspecific carbon isotope values exceeding 2 per mil variability within neighbouring samples. Minimum values occur in deep endobenthic groups like Globobulima spp., whereas species living in a relatively wide depth range like V. sadonica or U. peregrina exhibit intermediate values between -0.7 and -1 per mil. Most measurements conducted to address intraspecific variability remain within a narrow range of less than 0.4 per mil. However, we do observe vertical trends with both increasing and decreasing carbon isotope gradients within the sediment column. Obtained carbon isotope values from both living and dead specimen of widely used the Cibicides spp. group stay within the range of bottom water DIC, with no systematic negative phytodetritus-effect occuring throughout the sample set despite etremely pronounced seasonality in organic matter supply on most sites. Combined with a proxy-dataset about primary productivity, we give an evaluation of benthic-pelagic coupling and the impact on benthic species adaption to the pronounced subarctic seasonal cycle and the strongly pulsed food fluxes to the ocean floor.
Lembke-Jene, L.; Tiedemann, R.; Bubenshchikova, N.; Erlenkeuser, H.
Characteristic flow patterns generated by macrozoobenthic structures
A laboratory flume channel, equipped with an acoustic Doppler flow sensor and a bottom scanning laser, was used for detailed, non-intrusive flow measurements (at 2 cm s - 1 and 10 cm s - 1 ) around solitary biogenic structures, combined with high-resolution mapping of the structure shape and position. The structures were replicates of typical macrozoobenthic species commonly found in the Mecklenburg Bight and with a presumed influence on both, the near-bed current regime and sediment transport dynamics: a worm tube, a snail shell, a mussel, a sand mound, a pit, and a cross-stream track furrow. The flow was considerably altered locally by the different protruding structures (worm tube, snail, mussel and mound). They reduced the horizontal approach velocity by 72% to 79% in the wake zone at about 1-2 cm height, and the flow was deflected around the structures with vertical and lateral velocities of up to 10% and 20% of the free-stream velocity respectively in a region adjacent to the structures. The resulting flow separation (at flow Reynolds number of about 4000 and 20,000 respectively) divided an outer deflection region from an inner region with characteristic vortices and the wake region. All protruding structures showed this general pattern, but also produced individual characteristics. Conversely, the depressions (track and pit) only had a weak influence on the local boundary layer flow, combined with a considerable flow reduction within their cavities (between 29% and 53% of the free-stream velocity). A longitudinal vortex formed, below which a stagnant space was found. The average height affected by the structure-related mass flow rate deficit for the two velocities was 1.6 cm and 1.3 cm respectively (80% of height and 64%) for the protruding structures and 0.6 cm and 0.9 cm (90% and 127% of depth) for the depressions. Marine benthic soft-bottom macrozoobenthos species are expected to benefit from the flow modifications they induce, particularly in terms of food particle capture due to altered particle pathways and residence times, but also for the exchange of gases, solutes and spawn. The present results confirm previous studies on flow interaction effects of various biogenic structures, and they add a deeper level of detail for a better understanding of the fine-scale effects.
Friedrichs, M.; Graf, G.
78 FR 71501 - Cost of Living Adjustment for Performance of Musical Compositions by Colleges and Universities
...of Living Adjustment for Performance of Musical Compositions by Colleges and Universities...pay for the use of published nondramatic musical compositions in the SESAC repertory for...license for the use of published nondramatic musical works and published pictorial,...
From Past Issues: The More Things Change...
Though computers were still housed in large, air-conditioned rooms and were often programmed via decks of punched cards, a number of chemists were making effective use of them in teaching as well as research. Eight papers in this issue reported on computer programs. Castleberry, Culp, and Lagowski described an educational experiment in which the effectiveness of computer-based instruction was evaluated in a general chemistry course. Breneman reported on minicomputer-aided instruction, and others described programs that normalized grades, calculated heats of combustion, analyzed results of physical chemistry experiments, solved secular equations, calculated mass spectra, and calculated rate constants. Output devices were usually character based and graphics were rudimentary, as exemplified by the teletype plots of hydrogenic orbitals shown above. The editorial, "On Abandoning Grading and Reconsidering Standards" advocated neither and presented four arguments for maintaining traditional standards and realistic grades. This immediately followed half a decade when poor grades might result in being drafted and serving in Vietnam and student protests were based on government policy rather than whether or not to enforce rules against student drinking. Editor Lippincott pointed out that after several years few students return to thank a professor for making things easy, but many express appreciation for challenges that proved they could do more than they thought they could.
Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives
Sometimes a single word changes everything. In his groundbreaking book "Choice Words", Peter Johnston demonstrated how the things teachers say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for the literate lives of students. Now, in "Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives", Peter shows how the words teachers choose affect the worlds students�
Johnston, Peter H.
Living polymerization of phenylacetylenes catalyzed by cationic rhodium complexes bearing tetrafluorobenzobarrelene
Binary catalysts composed of cationic rhodium complexes, [(tfb)Rh(L)2]X (tfb: tetrafluorobenzobarrelene, L: phosphine ligand, X: counter anion), and iPrNH2 induced living polymerization of phenylacetylene and its ring-substituted derivatives. For instance, [(tfb)Rh(PPh3)2]BPh4 in conjunction with iPrNH2 polymerized phenylacetylene in a living manner to yield poly(phenylacetylene) with narrow molecular weight distribution (Mw\\/Mn 1.09) quantitatively. The living nature was confirmed by kinetic plots of
Masashi Shiotsuki; Naoya Onishi; Fumio Sanda; Toshio Masuda
Attachment Security among Mothers and Their Young Children Living in Poverty: Associations with Maternal, Child, and Contextual Characteristics.
Studied variability in mother-child attachment security among high-risk families living in poverty. Maternal sensitivity and the presence of appropriate play materials were assessed. Findings indicated that maternal, child, and contextual variables were significantly associated with attachment security. Furthermore, greater cumulative assets were�
Diener, Marissa L.; Nievar, M. Angela; Wright, Cheryl
Family Living and Personal Living
Find links for various projects for Family Living and Personal Living classes. FAMILY LIVING Wayne County Clerk - Marriage License The Knot Martha Stewart Weddings *Travel Planning Sites* Northwest Airlines Amtrak Travelocity Spirit Air Orbitz PERSONAL LIVING (and Parenting): *Alcohol Research* Alcohol and Public Health - CDC MedlinePlus: Alcoholism NIAAA National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism *Birth Control* Health and Wellness Resource Center - - start at this site by typing Birth Control in the search bar on the right of the screen and select "full text articles" and consumer heatlh. It will list a range of birth ...
Schultz, Ms.
Live Astrocytes Visualized by Green Fluorescent Protein in Transgenic Mice
Green fluorescent protein (hGFP-S65T) was expressed in transgenic mice under the control of the astrocyte-specific glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter. Tissues from two independent transgenic lines were characterized by Northern blot analysis and by confocal microscopy. The expression pattern in these two lines was identical in all tissues examined, and similar to that found previously with alacZtransgene driven by
Lang Zhuo; Biao Sun; Chuan-Li Zhang; Alan Fine; Shing-Yan Chiu; Albee Messing
Benefit by contrast: an experiment with live aposematic prey
Aposematic prey often have a coloration that contrasts with the background. One beneficial effect of such conspicuous coloration is that it produces faster and more durable avoidance by predators. Another suggested benefit is that prey that contrast with the background are more quickly discerned and recognized as unpalatable by experienced predators. To further investigate the effects of prey contrast on
Gabriella Gamberale-Stille
Production of Ethanol by Immobilized Living Yeast Cells.
Ethanol production is receiving attention for liquid fuel purposes. Conventional production technology by fermentation is reviewed. Continuous processes using immobilized cells provides opportunities for more efficient alcohol production. This paper exami...
G. Di Giorgio M. Gamboni P. Palazzolo A. R. Sprocati P. Valenti
Research on Key Technology and Applications for Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IOT) has been paid more and more attention by the academe, industry, and government all over the world. The concept of IOT and the architecture of IOT are discussed. The key technologies of IOT, including Radio Frequency Identification technology, Electronic Product Code technology, and ZigBee technology are analyzed. The framework of digital agriculture application based on IOT is proposed.
Chen, Xian-Yi; Jin, Zhi-Gang
Liveness Verification of Discrete Event Systems Modeled by n Safe Ordinary Petri Nets
This paper discusses liveness verification of discrete-event systems modeled by n-safe ordinary Petri nets. A Petri net is live, if it is possible to fire any transition from any reachable marking. The verification method we propose is based on a partial\\u000a order method called network unfolding. Network unfolding maps the original Petri net to an acyclic occurrence net. A finite
Kevin X. He; Michael D. Lemmon
Possibility of high performance quantum computation by superluminal evanescent photons in living systems.
Penrose and Hameroff have suggested that microtubules in living systems function as quantum computers by utilizing evanescent photons. On the basis of the theorem that the evanescent photon is a superluminal particle, the possibility of high performance computation in living systems has been studied. From the theoretical analysis, it is shown that the biological brain can achieve large quantum bits computation compared with the conventional processors at room temperature. PMID:19758549
Musha, Takaaki
Single-Molecule Studies of Integrins by AFM-Based Force Spectroscopy on Living Cells
Single-Molecule Studies of Integrins by AFM-Based Force Spectroscopy on Living Cells Robert H. Eibl M.D. Abstract The characterization of cell adhesion between two living cells at the single-molecule level, i.e., between one adhesion receptor and its counter-receptor, appears to be an experimental challenge. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be used in its force spectroscopy mode to determine unbinding forces of
Bhushan Bharat
Micromechanical Mapping of Live Cells by Multiple-Particle-Tracking Microrheology
This paper introduces the method of live-cell multiple-particle-tracking microrheology (MPTM), which quantifies the local mechanical properties of living cells by monitoring the Brownian motion of individual microinjected fluorescent particles. Particle tracking of carboxylated microspheres imbedded in the cytoplasm produce spatial distributions of cytoplasmic compliances and frequency-dependent viscoelastic moduli. Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts are found to behave like a stiff elastic material
Yiider Tseng; Thomas P. Kole; Denis Wirtz
Digital Enterprise is the free flow of real-time information to be exchanged between suppliers and consumers. RFID transforms the energy into data, and it is suggested as an enabling technology of the Internet of Things. Industries, Hospitals, Homes use the fieldbus systems to exchange data. Powerline communication extends the space enabling the wider interoperability and the remote management of energy-consuming
Mikhail Simonov; Riccardo Zich; Flavia Mazzitelli
The Internet of nano-things
Nanotechnology promises new solutions for many applications in the biomedical, industrial and military fields as well as in consumer and industrial goods. The interconnection of nanoscale devices with existing communication networks and ultimately the Internet defines a new networking paradigm that is further referred to as the Internet of Nano-Things. Within this context, this paper discusses the state of the
I. F. Akyildiz; J. M. Jornet
Semantic middleware for the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to extending the Internet to devices such as home appliances, consumer electronics, and sensor networks. As multiple heterogeneous devices attempt to create area networks, one of the major challenges is the interoperability and composability of their services. The traditional way to address interoperability is to define standards; however, there are many standards and specifications
Zhexuan Song; Alvaro A. C�rdenas; Ryusuke Masuoka
Phybots: A Toolkit for Making Robotic Things
There are many toolkits for physical UIs, but most physical UI applications are not locomotive. When the programmer wants to make things move around in the environment, he faces difficulty related to robotics. Toolkits for robot programming, unfortunately, are usually not as accessible as those for building physical UIs. To address this interdisciplinary issue, we propose Phybots, a toolkit that
Jun Kato; Daisuke Sakamoto; Takeo Igarashi
Swing that thing: moving to move
Swing That Thing... is a practice-based doctoral research project that examines how technology in on and around the body might be used to poeticise experience. Outcomes include a range of body-worn devices that encourage people to explore and move in playful ways. The works have evolved from a common design intent: 'to move the body through real and virtual extension'.
Danielle Wilde
Science 101: What causes things to rust?
The simple answer is that things rust when you leave them out in the rain. But maybe you want a more thorough answer. Rust is a form of corrosion, which is broadly defined as the wearing away of materials due to chemical reactions. So corrosion applies to
Separated by their WorkFamilies with Fathers Living Apart
In studying work and family life as overlapping domains, of interest is the impact of father absence created by work requirements. Commonly, father absence because of marital discord or death has been found to have detrimental effects on the social and cognitive development of children. In contrast, much less is known about the impact of transitory work-related father absence. Yet
Chok C. Hiew
Metaphors second language teachers live by: A conceptual metaphor analysis
This study seeks to discover the conceptual metaphors which govern the way second language pedagogy scholars perceive error and error correction. By means of a conceptual metaphor analysis of the linguistic metaphors for error, correctness, error correction, language, learning, and teaching, the present study was conducted on six representative texts for each of three major second language (L2) teaching approaches.
Maureen Marie Morrissey
Embedded Interaction: Interacting with the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things assumes that objects have digital functionality\\u000d\\u000a\\u0009and can be identified and tracked automatically. The main goal of\\u000d\\u000a\\u0009embedded interaction is to look at new opportunities that arise for\\u000d\\u000a\\u0009interactive systems and the immediate value users gain. The authors\\u000d\\u000a\\u0009developed various prototypes to explore novel ways for human-computer\\u000d\\u000a\\u0009interaction (HCI), enabled by the Internet of Things and
Matthias Kranz; Albrecht Schmidt
How Things Work, an Enrichment Class for Middle School Students
Middle School students are curious about their surroundings. They are always asking questions about how things work. So this semester two middle school science teachers and a physicist combined their strengths and taught HOW THINGS WORK, THE PHYSICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE (a book by Louis A. Bloomfield). The students studied the physics behind everyday objects to see how they worked. They read, discussed the physics, and completed laboratory exercises using lasers, cameras, and other objects. Each student then picked an inventor that interested him/her and used the INTERNET to research the inventor and made a class presentation. For the final project, each students use the physics they learned and became an inventor and made an invention.
Goller, Tamara; Watson, Nancy; Watson, James
Formation of long-lived reactive species of blood serum proteins by the action of heat.
It has been previously established that heat induces the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in aqueous solutions. In biological systems, ROS cause oxidative damage predominantly to proteins due to their abundance and sensitivity to oxidation. Proteins oxidized by the action of X-rays represent long-lived reactive species, which trigger the secondary generation of ROS (Bruskov et al. (2012) [25]). Here we studied the possibility of formation of long-lived species of the blood serum proteins bovine serum albumin and bovine gamma-globulin in air-saturated solutions under the action of heat. It is shown that heat induces the generation of long-lived protein species, which in turn generate ROS ((1)?2, (�)O2(-), (�)O?, and H2O2). The formation of the long-lived reactive species of BSA and BGG with a half-life of about 4h induced by moderate hyperthermia was revealed using the chemiluminescence of protein solutions. It was found that long-lived reactive species of BSA and BGG cause prolonged generation of H2O2. The results obtained suggest that H2O2 produced by proteins after heating represents a messenger in signaling pathways and produces therapeutic effects in living organisms. PMID:24361896
Bruskov, Vadim I; Popova, Nelly R; Ivanov, Vladimir E; Karp, Olga E; Chernikov, Anatoly V; Gudkov, Sergey V
A phenomenological exploration of reflections on lived space by child sexual abusers.
Child sexual abusers may be better understood by phenomenological exploration of reflections on childhood lived space. Child sexual abusers often suffer from child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect in their childhood lived space. These experiences may be considered a limitation or deformation of the child's lived space, resulting in a distorted self view that contributes to adult behavior. Child sexual abuse is not a new phenomenon; it is a problem that has existed throughout history but has rarely enjoyed the publicity and concern of recent times. Child sexual abusers' reflections on their lived space during childhood were explored by interviewing eight incarcerated child sexual abusers in a US correctional center. Van Manen's descriptive-interpretive theoretical process was used to guide abusers' existential reflections on their childhood lived space. van Manen's phenomenological method is dynamic and was used to organize and analyze data into essential categorical themes, one of which is "failure to root." While the viewpoint is retrospective, participants in this study provided unique perspectives on childhood reflections on lived space. These experiences, as reported by the participants, could be used to assist child victims to cope and to guide nursing practice, education, and future research related to Healthy People 2010's Goal 15 (Healthy People 2010, n.d.). PMID:21142595
Garrett, Linda H
Thermoresponsive Polyphosphazene-Based Molecular Brushes by Living Cationic Polymerization
Summary A series of polyphosphazenes with molecular brush type structures have been prepared with controlled molecular weights and narrow polydispersities. The polymers show lower critical solution temperatures (LCST) between 18 and 90 �C, which can be easily tailored by choice of side-substituent to suit the required application. A temperature triggered self-assembly is observed to give stable colloidal aggregates with dimensions in the region of 100�300 nm.
Wilfert, Sandra; Iturmendi, Aitziber; Henke, Helena; Bruggemann, Oliver; Teasdale, Ian
Mapping Biological Behaviors by Application of Longer-Lived Positron Emitting Radionuclides
With the technological development of positron emission tomography (PET) and the advent of novel antibody-directed drug delivery systems, longer-lived positron-emitting radionuclides are moving to the forefront to take important roles in tracking the distribution of biotherapeutics such as antibodies, and for monitoring biological processes and responses. Longer half-life radionuclides possess advantages of convenient on-site preparation procedures for both clinical and non-clinical applications. The suitability of the long half-life radionuclides for imaging intact monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and their respective fragments, which have inherently long biological half-lives, has attracted increased interest in recent years. In this review, we provide a survey of the recent literature as it applies to the development of nine-selected longer-lived positron emitters with half-lives of 9�140 hours (e.g., 124I, 64Cu, 86Y and 89Zr), and describe the biological behaviors of radionuclide-labeled mAbs with respect to distribution and targeting characteristics, potential toxicities, biological applications, and clinical translation potentials.
Zhou, Yang; Baidoo, Kwamena E.; Brechbiel, Martin W.
Mapping biological behaviors by application of longer-lived positron emitting radionuclides.
With the technological development of positron emission tomography (PET) and the advent of novel antibody-directed drug delivery systems, longer-lived positron-emitting radionuclides are moving to the forefront to take important roles in tracking the distribution of biotherapeutics such as antibodies, and for monitoring biological processes and responses. Longer half-life radionuclides possess advantages of convenient on-site preparation procedures for both clinical and non-clinical applications. The suitability of the long half-life radionuclides for imaging intact monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and their respective fragments, which have inherently long biological half-lives, has attracted increased interest in recent years. In this review, we provide a survey of the recent literature as it applies to the development of nine-selected longer-lived positron emitters with half-lives of 9-140h (e.g., (124)I, (64)Cu, (86)Y and (89)Zr), and describe the biological behaviors of radionuclide-labeled mAbs with respect to distribution and targeting characteristics, potential toxicities, biological applications, and clinical translation potentials. PMID:23123291
Zhou, Yang; Baidoo, Kwamena E; Brechbiel, Martin W
Basic structural and functional characteristics of the epidermal barrier in wild mammals living in different habitats and climates
Based on the combination of standard light and transmission electron microscopy, cryo-SEM, immunohistochemistry and a new\\u000a sensitive glycolipid histochemical technique (5-hexadecanoylaminofluorescein staining, laser scanning microscopy), including\\u000a densitometrical evaluation, our approach gives for the first time an overview of the specific biology of the epidermal permeability\\u000a barrier in wild mammals (20 species from five orders), living under varying (aquatic or moist
Wilfried Meyer; Judith Schmidt; Johannes Kacza; Roger Busche; Hassan Y. Naim; Ralf Jacob
The important health impact of where a child lives: neighborhood characteristics and the burden of lead poisoning.
Toxins and other health threats can cause health problems, whether they are present in the child's own home, other neighborhood homes where the child spends time, or common areas such as playgrounds. We assess the impact of where a child lives on the burden of lead poisoning. Statewide lead screening data was obtained from the Rhode Island Department of Health. Block group level indicators of old housing and poverty were obtained from the US Census. Of the 204,746 study children, 35,416 (17.3%) had a blood lead level?10 ?g/dL. The proportion of study children who were lead poisoned in each block group ranged from 0.0 to 48.6%. The proportion of study children with an elevated blood lead level increased from 8% among children living in block groups in the lowest quintile of poverty to 31% for those in the highest quintile for poverty. Old housing also had an important impact on the risk of lead poisoning. The proportion of children with an elevated blood lead level increased from 7% among children living in block groups in the lowest quintile for pre-1950 housing to 27% for those in the highest quintile for pre-1950 housing. The adjusted odds ratio was 1.64 for the highest quintile of poverty and 1.77 for the highest quintile of pre-1950 housing. The findings of this large, statewide study demonstrate the powerful impact of where children live on the risk of lead poisoning. The findings have important implications for understanding the problem of lead poisoning and for planning primary prevention programs. PMID:20972613
Vivier, Patrick M; Hauptman, Marissa; Weitzen, Sherry H; Bell, Scott; Quilliam, Daniela N; Logan, John R
A swimming robot actuated by living muscle tissue
Biomechatronics is the integration of biological components with artificial devices, in which the biological component confers a significant functional capability to the system, and the artificial component provides specific cellular and tissue interfaces that promote the maintenance and functional adaptation of the biological component. Based upon functional performance, muscle is potentially an excellent mechanical actuator, but the larger challenge of developing muscle-actuated, biomechatronic devices poses many scientific and engineering challenges. As a demonstratory proof of concept, we designed, built, and characterized a swimming robot actuated by two explanted frog semitendinosus muscles and controlled by an embedded microcontroller. Using open loop stimulation protocols, the robot performed basic swimming maneuvers such as starting, stopping, turning (turning radius ~400 mm) and straight-line swimming (max speed >1/3 body lengths/second). A broad spectrum antibiotic/antimycotic ringer solution surrounded the muscle actuators for long term maintenance, ex vivo. The robot swam for a total of 4 hours over a 42 hour lifespan (10% duty cycle) before its velocity degraded below 75% of its maximum. The development of functional biomechatronic prototypes with integrated musculoskeletal tissues is the first critical step toward the long term objective of controllable, adaptive and robust biomechatronic robots and prostheses.
Herr, Hugh; Dennis, Robert G
From Cork to Budapest by Skype: living and dying.
Effective communication is a prerequisite to the delivery of good palliative care. The increasing use of web-based technologies and social media challenges us to reassess traditional communication styles and to define appropriate applications of evolving technologies. The use of Skype, blogging and webcams by patients in our hospitals and hospices is increasing. As illustrated in this case, the availability of such technology enables patients and families to communicate across wide geographical boundaries. This has particular advantages in situations where family members cannot routinely attend at the hospital because of other commitments or distance. The authors report on the varying use of Skype video-telephony over the course of a cancer patient's illness from the initial treatment phase through to the final days and hours of life. The benefits and challenges of using such technologies in a hospital setting and particularly in end-of-life circumstances are discussed. PMID:24654060
Battley, Jodie E; Balding, Lucy; Gilligan, Oonagh; O'Connell, Catherine; O'Brien, Tony
Parkinson's Disease: To Live or Die by Autophagy
The identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal survival continues to be the subject of intensive research efforts as the incidence of age-related neurodegenerative diseases rises. Amid a complex mélange of environmental and genetic factors that contribute to disease manifestation, much effort has been dedicated to understanding the underlying signaling mechanisms that regulate neuronal survival. A recent study by Yang et al. sheds new light on an intracellular quality-control system that regulates the constitutive abundance of a neuronal survival factor through chaperone-mediated autophagy and links the deregulation of this pathway to Parkinson's disease. Although the primary function of autophagy in most cell types has commonly been thought to be an adaptive response to starvation, it has been proposed that proper functioning of this system is essential for neuronal survival and that its deregulation leads to neurodegeneration.
Isabella Irrcher (University of Ottawa;Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine REV); David S. Park (University of Ottawa;Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine REV)
Making Difficult Things Easy and Easy Things Difficult.
Suggestions are offered to illustrate concepts and processes by using simple materials such as paper, paper clip, rubber band (bonding, entropy, endothermic processes). Also suggests using basic terminology: elementary ratios, percent, reaction chemistry for entropy function; equilibrium constants for Gibbs energies; and chemical mechanics for�
Campbell, J. Arthur; Bent, Henry A.
Influence of feeding level on live body weight and semen characteristics of Sardinian rams reared under intensive conditions.
The aim of the present study was to assess the effects feeding level on body weight changes and semen parameters in adult Sardinian rams reared under intensive conditions in a semi-arid area of southern Italy. During an experimental period of 90 days, 24 healthy Sardinian rams were divided into three equal groups that differed in their feeding level, in terms of concentrate amount. The control-concentrate (CC; n = 8) group received 1.0 times their maintenance requirements, the medium-concentrate (MC; n = 8) group received a diet that supplied 1.2 times their maintenance requirements, and high-concentrate (HC, n = 8) group received a diet that supplied 1.5 times their maintenance requirements. Mixed vetch-oat hay was offered ad libitum to ram groups and water and mineral licks were freely available. Body weight and feed intake was recorded weekly, and semen characteristics were determined every 2 weeks. Dietary treatment affected final body weight (P < 0.01) as feeding level increased. Total dry matter and protein intake changed significantly (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively) among experimental groups. Semen volume and concentration were positively influenced by feeding level for HC group, whereas no differences were observed in sperm viability and scrotal circumference of rams. It was concluded that dietary level with higher concentrate supplementation resulted in improved body weight gain, feed intake, sperm production, and semen quality in Sardinian rams. PMID:20859682
Tufarelli, V; Lacalandra, G M; Aiudi, G; Binetti, F; Laudadio, V
16 CFR 1025.33 - Production of documents and things.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
... Production of documents and things. (a) Scope. Any party...test, or sample any tangible things which constitute or contain...party submitting the request may move for an order under § 1025...production of documents and...
RIG-I detects infection with live Listeria by sensing secreted bacterial nucleic acids
Immunity against infection with Listeria monocytogenes is not achieved from innate immune stimulation by contact with killed but requires viable Listeria gaining access to the cytosol of infected cells. It has remained ill-defined how such immune sensing of live Listeria occurs. Here, we report that efficient cytosolic immune sensing requires access of nucleic acids derived from live Listeria to the cytoplasm of infected cells. We found that Listeria released nucleic acids and that such secreted bacterial RNA/DNA was recognized by the cytosolic sensors RIG-I, MDA5 and STING thereby triggering interferon ? production. Secreted Listeria nucleic acids also caused RIG-I-dependent IL-1?-production and inflammasome activation. The signalling molecule CARD9 contributed to IL-1? production in response to secreted nucleic acids. In conclusion, cytosolic recognition of secreted bacterial nucleic acids by RIG-I provides a mechanistic explanation for efficient induction of immunity by live bacteria.
Abdullah, Zeinab; Schlee, Martin; Roth, Susanne; Mraheil, Mobarak Abu; Barchet, Winfried; Bottcher, Jan; Hain, Torsten; Geiger, Sergej; Hayakawa, Yoshihiro; Fritz, Jorg H; Civril, Filiz; Hopfner, Karl-Peter; Kurts, Christian; Ruland, Jurgen; Hartmann, Gunther; Chakraborty, Trinad; Knolle, Percy A
Novel macromolecular architectures by living cationic polymerization: Synthetic approach toward heteroarm star-block copolymers
The living coupling reaction of living polyisobutylene (PIB), prepared by the 2-chloro-2,4,4-trimethylpentane/TiCl4/2,6-di-tert -butylpyridine/hexane:CH3Cl (60:40, v:v)/--80�C system, has been studied using 1,3-bis(1-phenylethenyl)benzene (MDDPE), 2,2-bis[4-(1-phenylethenyl)phenyl]propane (BDPEP), and 2,2-bis[4-(1-tolylethenyl)phenyl] propane (BDTEP) as coupling agents. The reaction of living PIB with MDDPE yielded the monoadduct due to the decreased reactivity of the second double bond upon monoaddition. Using BDPEP and BDTEP, which have two 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE) units separated by an electron-donating spacer group, rapid and quantitative coupling was achieved. Kinetic studies by 1H NMR spectroscopy indicated the coupling reaction of living PIB by BDPEP is a consecutive reaction where the second addition is faster than the first one. By kinetic treatment of the experimental results, it was found that the second addition is about 5 times faster than the first one. On the basis of this living coupling reaction, amphiphilic A2B2 star-block copolymers (A = PIB and B = poly(methyl vinyl ether)) have been prepared. The living coupling reaction of living PIB was carried out using BDTEP as a living coupling agent, and this was followed by the chain-ramification polymerization of methyl vinyl ether (MeVE) at the junction of the living coupled PIB. By fractionation of the crude A2 B2 star-block copolymer, the purity of the crude A2 B2 star-block copolymer was calculated to be �94%. Two Tgs (-60 and -20�C) were observed for the star-block copolymer by DSC indicating the presence of the microphase separation. An A2B2 star-block copolymer with 80 wt% PMeVE composition ((IB45)2-s-(MeVE170) 2) exhibited a critical micelle concentration (cmc) of 4.25 x 10-4 M in water, which is an order of magnitude higher than cmcs obtained with linear-diblock copolymers with same total Mn and composition (IB90-b-MeVE 340) or with same segmental lengths (IB45-b-MeVE 170). This suggests that block copolymers with star architectures exhibit less tendency to micellization than their corresponding linear diblock copolymers. Average particle sizes in aqueous solution above the cmcs were measured to be from 41 to 177 nm, depending on the architecture and/or the molecular weight. Taking advantage of the monoaddition reaction of living PIB to double-DPEs, such as MDDPE or 1,4-bis(1-phenylethenyl)benzene (PDDPE), PIB macromonomers with terminal-DPE functionality have been prepared. The addition reaction of living PIB to 2 equiv of MDDPE resulted in the predominant formation of the monoadduct with negligible but detectable amounts (�3%) of the diadduct. When 4 equiv of MDDPE was used, the diadduct was virtually absent and the product exhibited �100% DPE functionality. The addition reaction of living PIB to 2 equiv of PDDPE resulted in a rapid and quantitative formation of PIB-DPE macromonomer without the formation of the coupled product. Kinetic studies using fiber-optic visible spectroscopy indicated that PDDPE is �2.5 times more reactive than MDDPE towards living PIB.
Bae, Young Cheol
First Things First: Writing Strategies
For those who have embraced the discussion of social justice issues at recent academic conferences, the book, "Writing to Change the World," by Mary Pipher offers the perspective of an author who has written extensively and successfully about social justice issues. The author's "take aways" from the book, however, were in the chapters that offered�
Grady, Marilyn L.
All things to all people.
Myc is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Attempts to identify Myc target genes, particularly in cancer, have been fraught with dead ends and context-specific functions. Lin et al. and Nie et al. address this conundrum by showing that Myc acts to amplify the output of existing transcriptionally active genes. PMID:23021211
Littlewood, Trevor D; Kreuzaler, Peter; Evan, Gerard I
Where the Wild Things Are
Few people realize that coyotes prowl the country's major urban areas. By tracking them on their turf, one Boston-area high school teacher and his students are helping scientists to learn more about the oft-misunderstood animals. Here, the author features David Eatough, a science teacher at Revere High School just north of Boston, and his�
Capone, Lisa
Healthy Living
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Kinetics: The Pace of Things
This site is a chapter of a geochemistry book by Dr. W. M. White used in a geochemistry course at Cornell University. The 55-page PDF document discusses reaction kinetics, the path an earth system takes in achieving equilibrium, as a function of temperature. The relationship between thermodynamics and kinetics is discussed, as well as dissolution, leaching, diffusion, adsorption, catalysis, interface processes, and diagenesis. Problems and figures accompany the text.
White, William M.; Association, International M.
Use of Hoechst 33342 stain to evaluate live fresh and frozen bull sperm by computer-assisted analysis.
The objective of this research was to investigate possible procedures for evaluating living bull sperm stained with Hoechst 33342 while in a simple medium and in commonly used complex egg yolk-glycerol-Tris (EYGT) and whole milk-glycerol (WMG) extenders. The two semen extenders provide good cryoprotection, but the latter one virtually obscures the sperm. To evaluate sperm motion characteristics when static nonsperm particles are present, a new Hamilton Thorne epifluorescent optical system (UV) with a strobe light was developed for potential use with DNA-stained sperm. This system permitted examination for the first time of sperm motion characteristics in milk. In Experiment 1 (four bull semen replicates with five dye concentrations and three incubation times), 2.5 microg/ml of Hoechst 33342 stained live and dead sperm sufficiently in a modified Tyrode's solution to measure all sperm characteristics without depressing motility, which was validated by using phase-contrast to analyze stained and unstained controls. In Experiments 2a and 2b, each using semen from four bulls with a 5 x 5 factorial arrangement, it was determined that 40 to 60 microg/ml of dye in EYGT or WMG, with UV illumination for 20 minutes, was optimal. There was no detrimental effect on sperm motility. In Experiment 3, analyses of two ejaculates, from each of eight bulls, confirmed that motion characteristics of sperm in EYGT and WMG were not depressed when the sperm were stained with Hoechst 33342. These experiments demonstrate that the dye concentrations and exposure times developed for use with the new epifluorescent optics facilitate evaluating bull sperm frozen in particle-filled whole milk and should be useful for sperm evaluation of a variety of species when nonsperm particulate matter may otherwise interfere. PMID:9570744
Tardif, A L; Farrell, P B; Trouern-Trend, V; Simkin, M E; Foote, R H
The hottest thing in remediation.
Scientists and engineers are exploring a new way to decontaminate toxic waste sites by literally turning up the heat on pollutants. The method heats the ground using electricity or steam, which mobilizes the contaminants so they can either be extracted from the ground and destroyed or actually destroyed in place. Among the targets for this method are pollutants such as creosote, solvents, and gasoline. These in situ thermal technologies also offer the benefit of reaching contaminants not previously amenable to cleanup, such as those found beneath structures and below the water table. PMID:11882491
Black, Harvey
Layered Structure and Management in Internet of Things
The development for Internet of Things and RFID technology is described in this paper. A feasible scheme and layered structure is proposed for Internet of Things. Its management is presented according to the demand for Internet of Things in China. The general system contains two parts: computer information subsystem and RFID terminal subsystem, the latter of which is the main
Huansheng Ning; Na Ning; Shenfeng Qu; Yan Zhang; Huiping Yang
HIP-tags architecture implementation for the Internet of things
This paper describes a possible implementation for the innovative and highly secure networking architecture dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT). We propose an infrastructure that works with a new type of tags, supporting the upcoming standard Host Identity Protocol (HIP). Our main concern is to ensure RFID tags privacy, while enabling things to things communications.
Pascal Urien; Simon Elrharbi; Dorice Nyamy; Herv� Chabanne; Thomas Icart; Fran�ois Lecocq; Cyrille P�pin; Khalifa Toumi; Mathieu Bouet; Guy Pujolle; Patrice Krzanik; Jean-Ferdinand Susini
Spicing thing up: Synthetic cannabinoids
Rationale Recently, products containing synthetic cannabinoids, collectively referred to as Spice, are increasingly being used recreationally. Objectives The availability, acute subjective effects�including self-reports posted on Erowid�laboratory detection, addictive potential, and regulatory challenges of the Spice phenomenon are reviewed. Results Spice is sold under the guise of potpourri or incense. Unlike THC, the synthetic cannabinoids present in Spice are high-potency, high-efficacy, cannabinoid-receptor full agonists. Since standard urine toxicology does not test for the synthetic cannabinoids in Spice, it is often used by those who want to avoid detection of drug use. These compounds have not yet been subjected to rigorous testing in humans. Acute psychoactive effects include changes in mood, anxiety, perception, thinking, memory, and attention. Adverse effects include anxiety, agitation, panic, dysphoria, psychosis, and bizarre behavior. Psychosis outcomes associated with Spice provide additional data linking cannabinoids and psychosis. Adverse events necessitating intervention by Poison Control Centers, law enforcement, emergency responders, and hospitals are increasing. Despite statutes prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, and sale of Spice products, manufacturers are replacing banned compounds with newer synthetic cannabinoids that are not banned. Conclusions There is an urgent need for better research on the effects of synthetic cannabinoids to help clinicians manage adverse events and to better understand cannabinoid pharmacology in humans. The reported psychosis outcomes associated with synthetic cannabinoids contribute to the ongoing debate on the association between cannabinoids and psychosis. Finally, drug-detection tests for synthetic cannabinoids need to become clinically available.
Spaderna, Max; Addy, Peter H; D'Souza, Deepak Cyril
Young Adults Living in Their Parents' Home.
This paper provides a look at the characteristics of young adults age 25 to 34, by whether they are living as a child of the householder. The first section presents descriptive statistics about young adults by living arrangement. The second section shows ...
R. M. Kreider
25 CFR 243.9 - Who may inherit live Alaskan reindeer and by what means?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
...Privately-owned live Alaskan reindeer may pass to the deceased owner's Native heirs by descent or devise. (b) In the event of the death of an owner of Alaskan reindeer, any direct or indirect interest by descent or devise shall be determined by the...
How NAO Does Its Thing
This essay explains the mechanics of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The NAO can be defined most simply as the relationship between the center of low atmospheric pressure over Iceland and the center of high pressure above the Azores. It is the interaction between these systems that directs the flow of air and causes persistent weather patterns. The writer states that a common goal of the recent work on the NAO is to analyze past events to determine if our current positive trend is being goaded by an outside influence namely, global warming. The site features an interactive graph that relates the oscillation to historical events. It also has links to other essays, a video, an interactive map, and outside sources for more information about NAO.
Characteristics of draft tube gas-liquid-solid fluidized-bed bioreactor with immobilized living cells for phenol degradation
Biological phenol degradation in a draft tube gas-liquid-solid fluidized bed (DTFB) bioreactor containing a mixed culture immobilized on spherical activated carbon particles was investigated. The characteristics of biofilms including the biofilm dry density and thickness, the volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient, and the phenol removal rates under different operating conditions in the DTFB were evaluated. A phenol degradation rate as
Liang-Shih Fan; Koichi Fujie; Teng-Rui Long; W.-T. Tang; D. I. C. Wang
Dietary intakes of energy and macronutrients by lactating women of different ethnic groups living in Yakutia
Background There should be a substantial increase in the intake of dietary energy, protein and other nutrients by lactating women, though these special increments can be different in different ethnic groups. Objective To evaluate the influence of maternal ethnicity and diet on the quality of breast milk and its potential effect on early childhood development. Design A total of 185 mothers (150 Native and 35 Russian) living in settlements and small towns of rural Yakutia and 54 mothers (26 Native and 28 Russian) living in Yakutsk were surveyed and average food intake was recorded during 3 successive days before the survey was analyzed. Results The amount of protein varied from 18 to 168.3 g/day, fat � from 12 to 176.1 g/day, energy � from 900 to 3680.4 kcal/day. Protein intake was at the level of current recommended dietary allowances (RDA) in Russians and was higher than in Natives living in rural settlements and small towns (p=0.02) and in Yakutsk (p=0.03). Carbohydrate intake was higher, though not significantly, in both ethnic groups compared with the current recommendations. Protein, fat, carbohydrates and, therefore, energy intake were lower (p<0.03) in Native women living in Yakutsk compared with the intake of Native women living in rural settlements and small towns. Conclusions The dietary intakes of energy and macronutrients depended on the place where a woman lived rather than on her ethnicity. Overall, energy intake was considered to be at the lower limit (basal energy expenditure 2002/2005) for lactating women, with the exception of Native women living in Yakutsk whose energy intake was below the lower limit.
Burtseva, Tatiana; Solodkova, Irina; Savvina, Maya; Dranaeva, Galina; Shadrin, Victor; Avrusin, Sergei; Sinelnikova, Elena; Chasnyk, Vyacheslav
Privacy Preservation Technologies in Internet of Things
Since the beginning of the Internet thirty years ago, we have witnessed a\\u000anumber of changes in the application of communication technologies. Today, the\\u000aInternet can be described to a large extent as a ubiquitous infrastructure that\\u000ais always accessible. After the era of connecting places and connecting people,\\u000athe Internet of the future will also connect things. The idea
Jaydip Sen
Intersecting the Architecture of the Internet of Things with the Future Retail Industry
This paper discusses the approach of SAP Research in Switzerland to investigate, develop and evaluate future Internet of Things architectures and prototypes with their unique combination of three scientific pillars: SAP Research combines an environment of co-located academic education at leading universities ("Campus-Based Engineering Centers") with the concept of living laboratories in which real-world prototypes and systems are rigorously tested. SAP Research Switzerland hosts the "Future Retail Center" (FRC) in order to validate innovations in the retail industry. As an orthogonal element, we also structure our research activities in technological dimensions as opposed to the industry-specific living labs. The "Smart Items Research Program" bundles and focuses all research topics that are related to Ambient Intelligence (AmI), Internet of Things, and Pervasive Computing. With the researchers from the engineering centers, the industry focus in the living labs, and the different research projects and research programs, a holistic research perspective is created that ensures a highly effective and focused execution of research, unifying technical Internet of Things architectures with the corresponding business needs and forming a unique landscape of innovation.
Magerkurth, Carsten; Haller, Stephan; Hagedorn, Pascal
"One More Thing to Think about..." Cognitive Burden Experienced by Intensive Care Unit Nurses When Implementing a Tight Glucose Control Protocol
Critically ill patients require intensive nursing care. Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses, who care for these physiologically unstable patients, are continuously occupied with the integration of assessments, monitoring, and interventions that are responsive to a patient's evolving state. Since 2005, numerous evidenced-based clinical protocols have been implemented in the critical care unit. Individually, each may not appear to be burdensome but, collectively, these clinical protocols add to the cognitive work of ICU nurses. While nurses are central to the successful implementation of these protocols, little is written about the cognitive burden imposed on them by the addition of these clinical protocols. This article explores the impact of clinical protocols on the cognitive burden of ICU nurses, using a tight glucose control (TGC) protocol as an exemplar case. Research from management, ergonomics, systems engineering, and nursing is used to build the concept of cognitive burden. Future research can build upon this understanding to facilitate successful implementation of clinical protocols.
Ng, Lit Soo; Curley, Martha A.Q
Single-molecule imaging on living bacterial cell surface by high-speed AFM.
Advances in microscopy have contributed to many biologic discoveries. Electron microscopic techniques such as cryo-electron tomography are remarkable tools for imaging the interiors of bacterial cells in the near-native state, whereas optical microscopic techniques such as fluorescence imaging are useful for following the dynamics of specific single molecules in living cells. Neither technique, however, can be used to visualize the structural dynamics of a single molecule at high resolution in living cells. In the present study, we used high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) to image the molecular dynamics of living bacterial cell surfaces. HS-AFM visualizes the dynamic molecular processes of isolated proteins at sub-molecular resolution without the need for complicated sample preparation. In the present study, magnetotactic bacterial cells were anchored in liquid medium on substrate modified by poly-L-lysine and glutaraldehyde. High-resolution HS-AFM images of live cell surfaces showed that the bacterial outer membrane was covered with a net-like structure comprising holes and the hole rims framing them. Furthermore, HS-AFM captured the dynamic movement of the surface ultrastructure, showing that the holes in the net-like structure slowly diffused in the cell surface. Nano-dissection revealed that porin trimers constitute the net-like structure. Here, we report for the first time the direct observation of dynamic molecular architectures on a live cell surface using HS-AFM. PMID:22613761
Yamashita, Hayato; Taoka, Azuma; Uchihashi, Takayuki; Asano, Tomoya; Ando, Toshio; Fukumori, Yoshihiro
Synthesis and properties of amphiphilic vinyl acetate triblock copolymers prepared by copper mediated living radical polymerisation
Polymerisation of vinyl acetate by conventional free radical polymerisation using a diazo initiator followed by copper mediated living radical polymerisation with a range of monomers was studied. This method led to the synthesis of triblock copolymers. We have thus successfully prepared several new ABA triblock copolymers where B is poly(vinyl acetate) and A is (dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA), (polyethylene glycol) methyl
Delphine Batt-Coutrot; David M. Haddleton; Adam P. Jarvis; Ray L. Kelly
The seasonality of live birth is strongly influenced by socio- demographic factors
The number of births varies markedly by season, but the causes of this variation are not well understood. The proposed explanations include temperature or photoperiod (affecting hormonal concentrations, sperm quality or sexual activity), seasonal variation in pregnancy loss, or cultural factors. In this paper we examined whether birth seasonality is influenced by socio-demographic factors. We used data on all live
Martin Bobak; Arjan Gjonca
New Generation Live Vaccines against Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Designed by Reverse Genetics
Development of a live pediatric vaccine against human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is complicated by the need to immunize young infants and the difficulty in balancing attenuation and immuno- genicity. The ability to introduce desired mutations into infectious virus by reverse genetics provides a method for identifying and designinghighlydefinedattenuatingmutations.Thesecanbeintro- duced in combinations as desired to achieve gradations of attenua- tion.
Peter L. Collins; Brian R. Murphy
Remembering Camp Dreamcatcher: Art Therapy with Children Whose Lives Have Been Touched by HIV/AIDS
Society calls upon art therapists to meet the needs of troubled community members. This article describes one art therapist?s experience of "giving back" to the community by volunteering to provide art therapy at a therapeutic camp for children whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS. Some of the medical, social, and psychological issues�
Hrenko, Kathy D.
Reconstructions of human history by mapping dental markers in living Eurasian populations
Using advances in gene geography and anthropophenetics, the phenogeographical method for anthropological research was initiated and developed using dental data. Statistical and cartographical analyses are provided for 498 living Eurasian populations. Mapping principal components supplied evidence for the phene pool structure in Eurasian populations, and for reconstructions of Homo sapiens history on the continent. Longitudinal variability seems to be the most important regularity revealed by principal components analysis (PCA) and mapping, indicating the division of the whole area into western and eastern main provinces. So, the most ancient scenario in the history of Eurasian populations developed from two perspective different groups: a western group related to ancient populations of West Asia and an eastern one rooted in ancestry in South and/or East Asia. In spite of the enormous territory and the revealed divergence, the populations of the continent have undergone wide scale and intensive timeespace interaction. Many details in the revealed landscapes are background to different historical events. Migrations and assimilation are two essential phenomena in Eurasian history: the widespread of the western combination through the whole continent to the Pacific coastline and the movement of the paradoxical combinations of eastern and western markers from South or Central Asia to the east and west. Taking into account that no additional eastern combinations in the total variation in Asian groups have been found, but that mixed or western markers' sets and that eastern dental characteristics are traced in Asia since Homo erectus, the assumption is made in favour of the hetero-level assimilation in the eastern province and of net-like evolution of H. sapiens.
Kashibadze, Vera F.; Nasonova, Olga G.; Nasonov, Dmitry S.
Teaching-Learning Process by Synchronic Communication Tools: The Elluminate Live Case
When integrating a new online tool in university educational system, it is necessary to know its features, applications and functions in depth, advantages and disadvantages, and the results obtained when it has been used by other educational institutions. Synchronous communication tool, "Elluminate Live" can be integrated into a virtual platform�
Santovena-Casal, Sonia Ma
Ultrafast dynamics in a live cell irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses
An ultrafast video microscope (UVM), the frame rate of which reaches one million per second has been developed. Our UVM system provides pictures with high-contrast and high-resolution for differential interference contrast (DIC), phase contrast, or dark field imaging. It allows us to observe fast events that occur in live cells when irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses. Femtosecond laser pulses can
Hiroyuki Kawano; Chikako Hara; Takeharu G. Etoh; Atsushi Miyawaki
The influence of demographic characteristics, living conditions, and trauma exposure on the overall health of a conflict-affected population in Southern Sudan
Background There remains limited evidence on how armed conflict affects overall physical and mental well-being rather than specific physical or mental health conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of demographic characteristics, living conditions, and violent and traumatic events on general physical and mental health in Southern Sudan which is emerging from 20 years of armed conflict. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 1228 adults was conducted in November 2007 in the town of Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to investigate the associations and relative influence of variables in three models of demographic characteristics, living conditions, and trauma exposure, on general physical and mental health status. These models were run separately and also as a combined model. Data quality and the internal consistency of the health status instrument (SF-8) were assessed. Results The variables in the multivariate analysis (combined model) with negative coefficients of association with general physical health and mental health (i.e. worse health), respectively, were being female (coef. -2.47; -2.63), higher age (coef.-0.16; -0.17), absence of soap in the household (physical health coef. -2.24), and experiencing within the past 12 months a lack of food and/or water (coef. -1.46; -2.27) and lack of medical care (coef.-3.51; -3.17). A number of trauma variables and cumulative exposure to trauma showed an association with physical and mental health (see main text for data). There was limited variance in results when each of the three models were run separately and when they were combined, suggesting the pervasive influence of these variables. The SF-8 showed good data quality and internal consistency. Conclusions This study provides evidence on the pervasive influence of demographic characteristics, living conditions, and violent and traumatic events on the general physical and mental health of a conflict-affected population in Southern Sudan, and highlights the importance of addressing all these influences on overall health.
Autofocusing of Through-the-Wall Radar Imagery Under Unknown Wall Characteristics
The quality and reliability of through-the-wall radar imagery is governed, among other things, by the knowledge of the wall characteristics. Ambiguities in wall characteristics smear and blur the image, and also shift the imaged target positions. An autofocusing technique, based on higher order statistics, is presented which corrects for errors under unknown walls. Simulation results show that the proposed technique
Fauzia Ahmad; Moeness G. Amin; Govindaraju Mandapati
Association between Maternal Characteristics and Neonatal Birth Weight in a Korean Population Living in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, Korea: A Birth Cohort Study (COCOA)
Previous studies suggest that maternal characteristics may be associated with neonatal outcomes. However, the influence of maternal characteristics on birth weight (BW) has not been adequately determined in Korean populations. We investigated associations between maternal characteristics and BW in a sample of 813 Korean women living in the Seoul metropolitan area, Korea recruited using data from the prospective hospital-based COhort for Childhood Origin of Asthma and allergic diseases (COCOA) between 2007 and 2011. The mean maternal age at delivery was 32.3 � 3.5 yr and prepregnancy maternal body mass index (BMI) was 20.7 � 2.5 kg/m2. The mean BW of infant was 3,196 � 406 g. The overall prevalence of a maternal history of allergic disease was 32.9% and the overall prevalence of allergic symptoms was 65.1%. In multivariate regression models, prepregnancy maternal BMI and gestational age at delivery were positively and a maternal history of allergic disease and nulliparity were negatively associated with BW (all P < 0.05). Presence of allergic symptoms in the mother was not associated with BW. In conclusion, prepregnancy maternal BMI, gestational age at delivery, a maternal history of allergic disease, and nulliparity may be associated with BW, respectively.
Shin, Youn Ho; Choi, Suk-Joo; Kim, Kyung Won; Yu, Jinho; Ahn, Kang Mo; Kim, Hyung Young; Seo, Ju-Hee; Kwon, Ji-Won; Kim, Byoung-Ju; Kim, Hyo-Bin; Shim, Jung Yeon; Kim, Woo Kyung; Song, Dae Jin; Lee, So-Yeon; Lee, Soo Young; Jang, Gwang Cheon; Kwon, Ja-Young; Lee, Kyung-Ju; Park, Hee Jin; Lee, Pil Ryang; Won, Hye-Sung
Sustained secretion of immunoglobulin by long-lived human tonsil plasma cells.
Immunoglobulin-secreting cells comprise both short-lived proliferating plasmablasts and long-lived nonproliferating plasma cells. To determine the phenotype and functional activity of Ig-secreting cells in human lymphoid tissue, we used a tonsillar organ culture model. A significant proportion of IgA and IgG secretion was shown to be mediated by long-lived, nonproliferating plasma cells that coexpressed high levels of CD27 and CD38. The presence of such cells was further corroborated by the finding of enhanced expression in the CD19(+) B-cell population of XBP-1, IRF-4, and particularly Blimp-1 genes involved in the differentiation of plasma cells. Intact tissue seemed to be necessary for optimal functional activity of plasma cells. A strong correlation was found between concentrations of interleukin-6 and IgA or IgG, but not IgM, in culture supernatants suggesting a role for interleukin-6 in the survival of long-lived plasma cells. Taken together, the present study demonstrates that human lymphoid tissue harbors a population of nonproliferating plasma cells that are dependent on an intact microenvironment for ongoing Ig secretion. PMID:17690187
van Laar, Jacob M; Melchers, Marc; Teng, Y K Onno; van der Zouwen, Boris; Mohammadi, Rozbeh; Fischer, Randy; Margolis, Leonid; Fitzgerald, Wendy; Grivel, Jean-Charles; Breedveld, Ferdinand C; Lipsky, Peter E; Grammer, Amrie C
Sustained Secretion of Immunoglobulin by Long-Lived Human Tonsil Plasma Cells
Immunoglobulin-secreting cells comprise both short-lived proliferating plasmablasts and long-lived nonproliferating plasma cells. To determine the phenotype and functional activity of Ig-secreting cells in human lymphoid tissue, we used a tonsillar organ culture model. A significant proportion of IgA and IgG secretion was shown to be mediated by long-lived, nonproliferating plasma cells that coexpressed high levels of CD27 and CD38. The presence of such cells was further corroborated by the finding of enhanced expression in the CD19+ B-cell population of XBP-1, IRF-4, and particularly Blimp-1 genes involved in the differentiation of plasma cells. Intact tissue seemed to be necessary for optimal functional activity of plasma cells. A strong correlation was found between concentrations of interleukin-6 and IgA or IgG, but not IgM, in culture supernatants suggesting a role for interleukin-6 in the survival of long-lived plasma cells. Taken together, the present study demonstrates that human lymphoid tissue harbors a population of nonproliferating plasma cells that are dependent on an intact microenvironment for ongoing Ig secretion.
van Laar, Jacob M.; Melchers, Marc; Teng, Y. K. Onno; van der Zouwen, Boris; Mohammadi, Rozbeh; Fischer, Randy; Margolis, Leonid; Fitzgerald, Wendy; Grivel, Jean-Charles; Breedveld, Ferdinand C.; Lipsky, Peter E.; Grammer, Amrie C.
13 Things That Saved Apollo 13
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Perhaps, the most exciting rescue, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial, is the successful return of the Apollo 13 crew to Earth in April of 1970. The mission s warning system engineer, Jerry Woodfill, who remains a NASA employee after 47 years of government service has examined facets of the rescue for the past 42 years. He will present "13 Things That Saved Apollo 13" from the perspective of his real time experience as well as two score years of study. Many are recent discoveries never before published in mission reports, popular books or documentary and Hollywood movies depicting the rescue.
Woodfill, Jared
The Next Big Thing - Eric Haseltine
Eric Haseltine, Haseltine Partners president and former chief of Walt Disney Imagineering, presented "The Next Big Thing," on Sept. 11, at the ORNL. He described the four "early warning signs" that a scientific breakthrough is imminent, and then suggested practical ways to turn these insights into breakthrough innovations. Haseltine is former director of research at the National Security Agency and associate director for science and technology for the director of National Intelligence, former executive vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering and director of engineering for Hughes Aircraft. He has 15 patents in optics, special effects and electronic media, and more than 100 publications in science and technical journals, the web and Discover Magazine.
Eric Haseltine
Group living enhances individual resources discrimination: the use of public information by cockroaches to assess shelter quality.
In group-living organisms, consensual decision of site selection results from the interplay between individual responses to site characteristics and to group-members. Individuals independently gather personal information by exploring their environment. Through social interaction, the presence of others provides public information that could be used by individuals and modulates the individual probability of joining/leaving a site. The way that individual's information processing and the network of interactions influence the dynamics of public information (depending on population size) that in turn affect discrimination in site quality is a central question. Using binary choice between sheltering sites of different quality, we demonstrate that cockroaches in group dramatically outperform the problem-solving ability of single individual. Such use of public information allows animals to discriminate between alternatives whereas isolated individuals are ineffective (i.e. the personal discrimination efficiency is weak). Our theoretical results, obtained from a mathematical model based on behavioral rules derived from experiments, highlight that the collective discrimination emerges from competing amplification processes relying on the modulation of the individual sheltering time without shelters comparison and communication modulation. Finally, we well demonstrated here the adaptive value of such decision algorithm. Without any behavioral change, the system is able to shift to a more effective strategy when alternatives are present: the modification of the spatio-temporal distributions of individuals leading to the collective selection of the best resource. This collective discrimination implying such parsimonious and widespread mechanism must be shared by many group living-species. PMID:21701692
Canonge, St�phane; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis; Sempo, Gr�gory
Rock avalanches caused by earthquakes: Source characteristics
USGS Publications Warehouse
Study of a worldwide sample of historical earthquakes showed that slopes most susceptible to catastrophic rock avalanches were higher than 150 meters and steeper than 25 degrees. The slopes were undercut by fluvial or glacial erosion, were composed ofintensely fractured rock, and exhibited at least one other indicator of low strength or potential instability.
Keefer, D. K.
Rock avalanches caused by earthquakes: source characteristics.
Study of a worldwide sample of historical earthquakes showed that slopes most susceptible to catastrophic rock avalanches were higher than 150 meters and steeper than 25 degrees. The slopes were undercut by fluvial or glacial erosion, were composed of intensely fractured rock, and exhibited at least one other indicator of low strength or potential instability. PMID:17759365
Keefer, D K
Characteristics of UGC galaxies detected by IRAS
Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) detection rates at 60 microns were determined for the Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies (Nilson 1973; the UCG). Late-type spirals, characterized by a normal IR/B ratio of approximately 0.6, are detected to a velocity of approximately 6000 km/s for L sub B = L sub *. Contrary to the situation for IRAS-selected galaxy samples, little evidence was found for a correlation between IR/B and 60/100 microns in this large optically-selected sample. Thus a significant fraction of the IRAS-measured far-infrared flux from normal spirals must originate in the diffuse interstellar medium, heated by the interstellar radiation field. Support was not found for Burstein and Lebofsky's (1986) conclusion that spiral disks are optically thick in the far-infrared.
Persson, Carol J. Lonsdale; Rice, W.; Bothun, G. D.
Viscoelastic properties of soft tissues in a living body measured by MR elastography
MRE (Magnetic resonance elastography) is a new diagnostic modality to measure the stiffness of soft tissues in a living body. It measures the displacements of waves propagating in the tissues and then this measured data is linked to the stiffness via a proper model for wave propagation in the tissues and by solving some inverse problem under this model. We will show why we can only see transverse waves inside soft tissues even if we inject longitudinal vibrations into the tissues from their surfaces by modeling the soft tissues of a living body as a nearly incompressible isotropic viscoelastic medium. We interpret the nearly incompressibility by an asymptotic analysis. As a consequence, we show that the so-called modified Stokes system is a proper model. Further, by a modified numerical integral method for solving the inverse problem under this PDE model, we can recover the viscoelasticity of soft tissues.
Jiang, Yu; Nakamura, Gen
Characteristics of nanoscale composites by terahertz spectroscopy
We have conducted visible pump-THz probe experiments on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on quartz substrates. Our results suggest an upper limit to the carrier-lifetime, which is on the order 1.5ps, limited only by the THz pulse duration. These experiments were repeated for ion-implanted, 3-4nm Si nanoclusters in quartz for which the carrier lifetime was also assessed at 1.5ps. THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) of SWCNTs revealed that the THz pulse peak transmission changed under optical illumination.
Altan, Hakan; Huang, Feng; Federici, John F.; Lan, Aidong; Grebel, Haim
Characteristics of gravity waves resolved by ECMWF
Global model data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are analyzed for resolved gravity waves (GWs). Based on fitted 3-D wave vectors of individual waves and using the ECMWF global scale background fields, backward ray-tracing from 25 km altitude is performed. Different sources such as orography, convection and winter storms are identified. It is found that due to oblique propagation waves spread widely from narrow source regions. Gravity waves which originate from regions of strong convection are frequently excited around the tropopause and have in the ECMWF model low phase and group velocities as well as very long horizontal wavelengths compared to other models and to measurements. While the total amount of momentum flux for convective GWs changes little over season, GWs generated by storms and mountain waves show large day-to-day variability, which has a strong influence also on total hemispheric fluxes: from one day to the next the total hemispheric flux may increase by a factor of 3. Implications of these results for using the ECMWF model in predicting, analyzing and interpreting global GW distributions as well as implications for seamless climate prediction are discussed.
Preusse, P.; Ern, M.; Bechtold, P.; Eckermann, S. D.; Kalisch, S.; Trinh, Q. T.; Riese, M.
Simultaneous detection of multiple green fluorescent proteins in live cells by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy
The green fluorescent protein (GFP) has proven to be an excellent fluorescent marker for protein expression and localisation in living cells [1�5]. Several mutant GFPs with distinct fluorescence excitation and emission spectra have been engineered for intended use in multi-labelling experiments [6�9]. Discrimination of these co-expressed GFP variants by wavelength is hampered, however, by a high degree of spectral overlap,
Rainer Pepperkok; Anthony Squire; Stephan Geley; Philippe I. H. Bastiaens
Cancer-cell killing by engineered Salmonella imaged by multiphoton tomography in live mice.
Our laboratory has previously developed a bacterial cancer therapy strategy by targeting tumors using engineered Salmonella typhimurium auxotrophs (S. typhimurium A1-R) that were generated to grow in viable as well as necrotic areas of tumors but not in normal tissue. The mechanism by which A1-R kills cancer cells is unknown. In the present report, high-resolution multiphoton tomography was used to investigate the cellular basis of bacteria killing of cancer cells in live mice. Lewis lung cancer cells (LLC) were genetically labeled with red fluorescent protein (RFP) and injected subcutaneously in nude mice. After tumor growth was observed, the mice were treated with A1-R bacteria expressing GFP, via tail-vein injection. Mice without A1-R treatment served as untreated controls. The imaging system was 3D scan head mounted on a flexible mechano-optical articulated arm. A tunable 80 MHz titanium:sapphire femtosecond laser (710-920 nm) was used for the multiphoton tomography. We applied this high-resolution imaging tool to visualize A1-R bacteria targeting the Lewis lung cancer cells growing subcutaneously in nude mice. The tomographic images revealed that bacterially-infected cancer cells greatly expanded and burst and thereby lost viability. Similar results were seen in vitro using confocal microscopy. The bacteria targeted the tumor within minutes of tail-vein injection. Using mice in which the nestin-promoter drives GFP and in which blood vessels are labeled with GFP, the bacteria could be imaged in and out of the blood vessels. Collagen scaffolds within the tumor were imaged by second harmonic generation (SHG). The multiphoton tomographic system described here allows imaging of cancer cell killing by bacteria and can therefore be used to further understand its mechanism and optimization for clinical application. PMID:23060555
Uchugonova, Aisada; Zhao, Ming; Zhang, Yong; Weinigel, Martin; K�nig, Karsten; Hoffman, Robert M
Innovative Lives
The Innovative Lives Web Site is offered by the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and the Smithsonian Institution. "Innovative Lives counters commonly held stereotypes about inventors by featuring speakers with diverse backgrounds," such as Dr. Patricia Bath, an African-American woman who invented the Laserphaco Probe for the treatment of cataracts and founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Over thirty inventors are featured on the site, which gives excellent information about each, telling of their lives and what they have accomplished. Although it is intended for kids, the site will be of interest to anyone looking to learn about many of the most important and unknown contributors to the scientific world.
Positive Lives
The Positive Lives project is "a unique international project that photographs and documents the social and emotional impact of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, illuminating positive human responses to this world crisis." Sponsored by the Levi Strauss Foundation and the Terrence Higgins Trust, the project has sponsored photographers from across the world to photograph various persons living with HIV/AIDS in a host of very different settings. While the project has sponsored a number of various photographic exhibits, this online collection represents a small portion of the work thus far. Using an interactive map of the world, users can click on different geographic areas to view photographic exhibits documenting the lived experience of this condition. In South Africa, visitors can learn about the work and the residents of Nazareth House, which is a children's home in Cape Town taking care of abandoned children with HIV or AIDS. In Edinburgh, visitors are taken through the lives of young drug abusers at the Muirhouse Estate who are also living with either HIV or AIDS. In the words of photographer John Sturrock, "In Muirhouse I witnessed the emotional struggle of people enduring a tragedy..." However, hope is present in these photographic essays as well, as they represent a broad range of emotions.
Stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV by healthcare providers, Southwest Ethiopia
Background Stigma and discrimination against people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are obstacles in the way of effective responses to HIV. Understanding the extent of stigma / discrimination and the underlying causes is necessary for developing strategies to reduce them. This study was conducted to explore stigma and discrimination against PLHIV amongst healthcare providers in Jimma zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study, employing quantitative and qualitative methods, was conducted in 18 healthcare institutions of Jimma zone, during March 14 to April 14, 2011. A total of 255 healthcare providers responded to questionnaires asking about sociodemographic characteristics, HIV knowledge, perceived institutional support and HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Factor analysis was employed to create measurement scales for stigma and factor scores were used in one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-tests, Pearson�s correlation and multiple linear regression analyses. Qualitative data collected using key-informant interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were employed to triangulate with the findings from the quantitative survey. Results Mean stigma scores (as the percentages of maximum scale scores) were: 66.4 for the extra precaution scale, 52.3 for the fear of work-related HIV transmission, 49.4 for the lack of feelings of safety, 39.0 for the value-driven stigma, 37.4 for unethical treatment of PLHIV, 34.4 for discomfort around PLHIV and 31.1 for unofficial disclosure. Testing and disclosing test results without consent, designating HIV clients and unnecessary referral to other healthcare institutions and refusal to treat clients were identified. Having in-depth HIV knowledge, the perception of institutional support, attending training on stigma and discrimination, educational level of degree or higher, high HIV case loads, the presence of ART service in the healthcare facility and claiming to be non-religious were negative predictors of stigma and discrimination as measured by the seven latent factors. Conclusions Higher levels of stigma and discrimination against PLHIV were associated with lack of in-depth knowledge on HIV and orientation about policies against stigma and discrimination. Hence, we recommend health managers to ensure institutional support through availing of clear policies and guidelines and the provision of appropriate training on the management of HIV/AIDS.
Efficient adsorption of waterborne short-lived radon decay products by glass fiber filters.
Glass fiber filters of a certain brand were found to be very efficient (retention > 95%) for adsorption of short-lived radon decay products during filtration of water. Carrier-free samples are obtained in a convenient geometry for efficient gross beta counting. Adsorption of "hot atoms" is not disturbed by the presence of "cold" lead ions. Approximate radioactive equilibrium between radon and its short-lived decay products may or may not exist in water at the source, but does exist after 3 h in PET bottles. These bottles are shown to be gas-tight for radon. Calibration of activity concentration in Bq L(-1) (radon gas concentration approximately equilibrium equivalent radon concentration) was performed by several standard procedures. Limit of detection is 2 Bq L(-1) within 10 min (total time) or 10 Bq L(-1) within 5 min for a net signal of 5 times standard deviation. PMID:9003713
von Philipsborn, H
Relationships between dimensions of disability experienced by adults living with HIV: a structural equation model analysis.
As individuals age with HIV it is increasingly important to consider the health-related consequences of HIV and multiple morbidities, known as disability. We assessed relationships between four dimensions of disability among adults living with HIV. We conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using data from 913 participants in the Ontario HIV Treatment Network Cohort Study to determine relationships between four latent variables of disability in the Episodic Disability Framework: physical symptoms and impairments, mental health symptoms and impairments, difficulties with day-to-day activities, and challenges to social inclusion. Results indicated that physical symptoms and impairments, mental health symptoms and impairments and difficulties with day-to-day activities directly or indirectly predicted challenges to social inclusion for adults living with HIV. Challenges to social inclusion were directly predicted by mental health symptoms and indirectly by physical health symptoms via (mediated by) having difficulties carrying out day-to-day activities and mental health symptoms and impairments. These findings provide a basis for conceptualizing disability experienced by people living with HIV. PMID:23132208
O'Brien, Kelly K; Davis, Aileen M; Gardner, Sandra; Bayoumi, Ahmed M; Rueda, Sergio; Hart, Trevor A; Cooper, Curtis; Solomon, Patricia; Rourke, Sean B; Hanna, Steven
Enhanced Fluorescence Imaging of Live Cells by Effective Cytosolic Delivery of Probes
Background Microscopic techniques enable real-space imaging of complex biological events and processes. They have become an essential tool to confirm and complement hypotheses made by biomedical scientists and also allow the re-examination of existing models, hence influencing future investigations. Particularly imaging live cells is crucial for an improved understanding of dynamic biological processes, however hitherto live cell imaging has been limited by the necessity to introduce probes within a cell without altering its physiological and structural integrity. We demonstrate herein that this hurdle can be overcome by effective cytosolic delivery. Principal Findings We show the delivery within several types of mammalian cells using nanometre-sized biomimetic polymer vesicles (a.k.a. polymersomes) that offer both highly efficient cellular uptake and endolysomal escape capability without any effect on the cellular metabolic activity. Such biocompatible polymersomes can encapsulate various types of probes including cell membrane probes and nucleic acid probes as well as labelled nucleic acids, antibodies and quantum dots. Significance We show the delivery of sufficient quantities of probes to the cytosol, allowing sustained functional imaging of live cells over time periods of days to weeks. Finally the combination of such effective staining with three-dimensional imaging by confocal laser scanning microscopy allows cell imaging in complex three-dimensional environments under both mono-culture and co-culture conditions. Thus cell migration and proliferation can be studied in models that are much closer to the in vivo situation.
Massignani, Marzia; Canton, Irene; Sun, Tao; Hearnden, Vanessa; MacNeil, Sheila; Blanazs, Adam; Armes, Steven P.; Lewis, Andrew; Battaglia, Giuseppe
Cadmium, Copper and Zinc Biosorption Study by NonLiving Egeria densa Biomass
In this work, the potential removal of Cd, Cu, and Zn ions by non-living macrophytes Egeria densa has been studied. The adsorption kinetic and equilibrium experiments of these three metals on E. densa were performed in batch systems with controlled temperature and constant shaking. It was observed that all metal adsorption\\u000a rates have increased when the pH was increasing. A
Juliana M. T. de A. Pietrobelli; Aparecido N. M�denes; M�rcia R. Fagundes-Klen; Fernando R. Espinoza-Qui�ones
Metastatic patterns of lung cancer visualized live and in process by green fluorescence protein expression
We demonstrate here the visualization of human lung cancer metastasis live and in process in nude mice by green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression. The human lung adenocarcinoma cell line Anip 973 stably transfected with the humanized GFP-S65T cDNA was selected for very bright green fluorescence. GFP-transfected lung cancer cells were initially inoculated subcutaneously in nude mice. Five weeks after transplantation,
Takashi Chishima; Yohei Miyagi; Xiaoen Wang; Eugene Baranov; Yuying Tan; Hiroshi Shimada; A. R. Moossa; Robert M. Hoffman
Molecular engineering of side-chain liquid crystalline polymers by living polymerizations
�Living� anionic, cationic, metalloporphyrin and ring-opening metathesis polymerizations have been used to prepare well-defined side-chain liquid crystalline homopolymers, block and graft copolymers and statistical copolymers. This paper analyzes their successes and failures by reviewing the mechanistic aspects and experimental conditions of each type of polymerization, and identifies other classes of mesogenic monomers that could be polymerized in a controlled manner
Coleen Pugh; Alan L. Kiste
Cadmium removal by living cells of the marine microalga Tetraselmis suecica
Cadmium removal by living cells of the marine microalga Tetraselmis suecica was tested in cultures exposed to different cadmium concentrations (0.6, 3, 6, 15, 30 and 45 mg\\/l). The EC50 for growth was 7.9 mg Cd\\/l after six days of exposure. The cadmium removed was proportional to the concentration of this metal in the medium and it was dependent on
M�nica P�rez-Rama; Julio Abalde Alonso; Enrique Torres Vaamonde
Quantitative Analysis of D2 Dopamine Receptor Binding in the Living Human Brain by PET
D2 dopamine receptors in the putamen of living human subjects were characterized by using the selective, high-affinity D2 dopamine receptor antagonist carbon-11-labeled raclopride and positron emission tomography. Experiments in four healthy men demonstrated saturability of [11C]raclopride binding to an apparently homogeneous population of sites with Hill coefficients close to unity. In the normal putamen, maximum binding ranged from 12 to
Lars Farde; Hakan Hall; Erling Ehrin; Goran Sedvall
Self?recognition in live videos by young children: does video training help?
The overall aim of the experiment reported here was to establish whether self?recognition in live video can be facilitated when live video training is provided to children aged 2�2.5 years. While the majority of children failed the test of live self?recognition prior to video training, more than half exhibited live self?recognition post video training. Children who failed the live video
Defne Demir; Helen Skouteris
Cytokines and chemokines production by mononuclear cells from parturient women after stimulation with live Toxoplasma gondii.
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that can cause variable clinical symptoms or can even be asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals. More severe symptoms are observed in immunocompromised patients and congenital transmission of the parasite has been reported. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in parturient and non-pregnant women exposed to live tachyzoites of T. gondii strain RH or ME49. PBMC were isolated from parturient and non-pregnant women with negative or positive serology for toxoplasmosis and cultured with live tachyzoites of the two T. gondii strains for 24 h. Next, the cell culture supernatants were collected and levels of CCL2, CCL5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, and TNF-? produced by PBMC after tachyzoite exposure were measured. Live tachyzoite forms of T. gondii significantly inhibited the synthesis of CCL2 in seropositive parturient women, whereas a stimulatory effect on CCL5 was observed in seronegative parturient women. Cells from T. gondii-seronegative non-pregnant women produced significantly higher levels of TNF-? and IL-12, demonstrating the proinflammatory profile induced by the presence of the parasite in culture. The results suggest that the immunomodulation seen during pregnancy contributes to the development of an environment that facilitates escape of the parasite from the immune response. PMID:22742727
Rezende-Oliveira, K; Silva, N M; Mineo, J R; Rodrigues Junior, V
Micromechanical mapping of live cells by multiple-particle-tracking microrheology.
This paper introduces the method of live-cell multiple-particle-tracking microrheology (MPTM), which quantifies the local mechanical properties of living cells by monitoring the Brownian motion of individual microinjected fluorescent particles. Particle tracking of carboxylated microspheres imbedded in the cytoplasm produce spatial distributions of cytoplasmic compliances and frequency-dependent viscoelastic moduli. Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts are found to behave like a stiff elastic material when subjected to high rates of deformations and like a soft liquid at low rates of deformations. By analyzing the relative contributions of the subcellular compliances to the mean compliance, we find that the cytoplasm is much more mechanically heterogeneous than reconstituted actin filament networks. Carboxylated microspheres embedded in cytoplasm through endocytosis and amine-modified polystyrene microspheres, which are microinjected or endocytosed, often show directed motion and strong nonspecific interactions with cytoplasmic proteins, which prevents computation of local moduli from the microsphere displacements. Using MPTM, we investigate the mechanical function of alpha-actinin in non-muscle cells: alpha-actinin-microinjected cells are stiffer and yet mechanically more heterogeneous than control cells, in agreement with models of reconstituted cross-linked actin filament networks. MPTM is a new type of functional microscopy that can test the local, rate-dependent mechanical and ultrastructural properties of living cells.
Tseng, Yiider; Kole, Thomas P; Wirtz, Denis
Determination of Mercury and Selenium in Hair Samples of Brazilian Indian Populations Living in the Amazonic Region by NAA
Biomonitoring of mercury contamination of Brazilian Indian population groups living in the Xingu Park, a reservation situated in the Amazonic region, has revealed very high levels of mercury in hair samples as compared to controls. Total mercury was determined by INAA in most of the tribes living in the Park and methylmercury was determined by CVAAS in samples with total
M. B. A. Vasconcellos; P. Bode; G. Paletti; M. G. M. Catharino; A. K. Ammerlaan; M. Saiki; D. I. T. F�varo; A. R. Byrne; R. Baruzzi; D. A. Rodrigues
Qualitative and Quantitative Aspects of a Model for Processes Inspired by the Functioning of the Living Cell.
Reaction systems are a formal model for processes inspired by the functioning of the living cell. The underlying idea of this model is that the functioning of the living cell is determined by the interactions of biochemical reactions, and these interactio...
A. Ehrenfeucht G. Rozenberg J. Kleijn M. Koutny
Vibrational imaging of newly synthesized proteins in live cells by stimulated Raman scattering microscopy.
Synthesis of new proteins, a key step in the central dogma of molecular biology, has been a major biological process by which cells respond rapidly to environmental cues in both physiological and pathological conditions. However, the selective visualization of a newly synthesized proteome in living systems with subcellular resolution has proven to be rather challenging, despite the extensive efforts along the lines of fluorescence staining, autoradiography, and mass spectrometry. Herein, we report an imaging technique to visualize nascent proteins by harnessing the emerging stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy coupled with metabolic incorporation of deuterium-labeled amino acids. As a first demonstration, we imaged newly synthesized proteins in live mammalian cells with high spatial-temporal resolution without fixation or staining. Subcellular compartments with fast protein turnover in HeLa and HEK293T cells, and newly grown neurites in differentiating neuron-like N2A cells, are clearly identified via this imaging technique. Technically, incorporation of deuterium-labeled amino acids is minimally perturbative to live cells, whereas SRS imaging of exogenous carbon-deuterium bonds (C-D) in the cell-silent Raman region is highly sensitive, specific, and compatible with living systems. Moreover, coupled with label-free SRS imaging of the total proteome, our method can readily generate spatial maps of the quantitative ratio between new and total proteomes. Thus, this technique of nonlinear vibrational imaging of stable isotope incorporation will be a valuable tool to advance our understanding of the complex spatial and temporal dynamics of newly synthesized proteome in vivo. PMID:23798434
Wei, Lu; Yu, Yong; Shen, Yihui; Wang, Meng C; Min, Wei
Vibrational imaging of newly synthesized proteins in live cells by stimulated Raman scattering microscopy
Synthesis of new proteins, a key step in the central dogma of molecular biology, has been a major biological process by which cells respond rapidly to environmental cues in both physiological and pathological conditions. However, the selective visualization of a newly synthesized proteome in living systems with subcellular resolution has proven to be rather challenging, despite the extensive efforts along the lines of fluorescence staining, autoradiography, and mass spectrometry. Herein, we report an imaging technique to visualize nascent proteins by harnessing the emerging stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy coupled with metabolic incorporation of deuterium-labeled amino acids. As a first demonstration, we imaged newly synthesized proteins in live mammalian cells with high spatial�temporal resolution without fixation or staining. Subcellular compartments with fast protein turnover in HeLa and HEK293T cells, and newly grown neurites in differentiating neuron-like N2A cells, are clearly identified via this imaging technique. Technically, incorporation of deuterium-labeled amino acids is minimally perturbative to live cells, whereas SRS imaging of exogenous carbon�deuterium bonds (C�D) in the cell-silent Raman region is highly sensitive, specific, and compatible with living systems. Moreover, coupled with label-free SRS imaging of the total proteome, our method can readily generate spatial maps of the quantitative ratio between new and total proteomes. Thus, this technique of nonlinear vibrational imaging of stable isotope incorporation will be a valuable tool to advance our understanding of the complex spatial and temporal dynamics of newly synthesized proteome in vivo.
Wei, Lu; Yu, Yong; Shen, Yihui; Wang, Meng C.; Min, Wei
Physical characteristics and solubility of long-lived airborne particulates in uranium producing and manufacturing facilities Phase IV - Part II.
The rates of dissolution in simulated lung fluid of uranium dusts associated with three yellowcake processing areas at the Blind River Mill in Ontario and from uranium dioxide powder produced by a fluid bed process at Port Hope, Ontario were determined. B...
D. C. Stuart R. Robertson
Financial characteristics of hospitals purchased by investor-owned chains.
This article focuses on the preacquisition financial condition of not-for-profit hospitals acquired by investor-owned hospital chains. Financial ratios are used to determine if not-for-profit hospitals acquired by investor-owned hospital systems have common financial characteristics which make them a likely target for a takeover. The results indicate that during the time period studied, investor-owned hospital systems did tend to purchase hospitals with common financial characteristics and that these characteristics provide a reasonable description of a financially distressed hospital. This finding has important consequences for our health care delivery system.
McCue, M J; Furst, R W
Improving Service Management in the Internet of Things
In the Internet of Things (IoT) research arena, many efforts are devoted to adapt the existing IP standards to emerging IoT nodes. This is the direction followed by three Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Working Groups, which paved the way for research on IP-based constrained networks. Through a simplification of the whole TCP/IP stack, resource constrained nodes become direct interlocutors of application level entities in every point of the network. In this paper we analyze some side effects of this solution, when in the presence of large amounts of data to transmit. In particular, we conduct a performance analysis of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), a widely accepted web transfer protocol for the Internet of Things, and propose a service management enhancement that improves the exploitation of the network and node resources. This is specifically thought for constrained nodes in the abovementioned conditions and proves to be able to significantly improve the node energetic performance when in the presence of large resource representations (hence, large data transmissions).
Sammarco, Chiara; Iera, Antonio
Advances on Sensor Web for Internet of Things
'In much the same way that HTML and HTTP enabled WWW, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE), envisioned in 2001 [1] will allow sensor webs to become a reality.'. Due to the large number of sensor manufacturers and differing accompanying protocols, integrating diverse sensors into observation systems is not a simple task. A coherent infrastructure is needed to treat sensors in an interoperable, platform-independent and uniform way. SWE standardizes web service interfaces, sensor descriptions and data encodings as building blocks for a Sensor Web. SWE standards are now mature specifications (version 2.0) with approved OGC compliance test suites and tens of independent implementations. Many earth and space science organizations and government agencies are using the SWE standards to publish and share their sensors and observations. While SWE has been demonstrated very effective for scientific sensors, its complexity and the computational overhead may not be suitable for resource-constrained tiny sensors. In June 2012, a new OGC Standards Working Group (SWG) was formed called the Sensor Web Interface for Internet of Things (SWE-IoT) SWG. This SWG focuses on developing one or more OGC standards for resource-constrained sensors and actuators (e.g., Internet of Things devices) while leveraging the existing OGC SWE standards. In the near future, billions to trillions of small sensors and actuators will be embedded in real- world objects and connected to the Internet facilitating a concept called the Internet of Things (IoT). By populating our environment with real-world sensor-based devices, the IoT is opening the door to exciting possibilities for a variety of application domains, such as environmental monitoring, transportation and logistics, urban informatics, smart cities, as well as personal and social applications. The current SWE-IoT development aims on modeling the IoT components and defining a standard web service that makes the observations captured by IoT devices easily accessible and allows users to task the actuators on the IoT devices. The SWE IoT model links things with sensors and reuses the OGC Observation and Model (O&M) to link sensors with features of interest and observed properties Unlike most SWE standards, the SWE-IoT defines a RESTful web interface for users to perform CRUD (i.e., create, read, update, and delete) functions on resources, including Things, Sensors, Actuators, Observations, Tasks, etc. Inspired by the OASIS Open Data Protocol (OData), the SWE-IoT web service provides the multi-faceted query, which means that users can query from different entity collections and link from one entity to other related entities. This presentation will introduce the latest development of the OGC SWE-IoT standards. Potential applications and implications in Earth and Space science will also be discussed. [1] Mike Botts, Sensor Web Enablement White Paper, Open GIS Consortium, Inc. 2002
Liang, S.; Bermudez, L. E.; Huang, C.; Jazayeri, M.; Khalafbeigi, T.
Discrimination of live and early apoptotic mononuclear cells by the fluorescent SYTO 16 vital dye.
Accurate detection of apoptotic cells is important for the determination of cell viability. The aim of this study was to compare the sensitivity of the cell permeant SYTO 16 fluorescent dye for detecting early apoptotic mononuclear cells (MNCs) in normal donor blood with other apoptosis assays [i.e. Annexin-V, light scatter/7-amino-actinomycin-D (7-AAD) and chloromethyl-X-rosamine (CMXRos)] and to identify critical parameters for optimal SYTO 16 staining. Apoptosis was induced in normal human leukocytes from adult peripheral blood or cord blood, or the Jurkat T-lymphocytic cell line and assessed by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. Dual labelling showed that SYTO 16 detected more apoptotic MNCs compared to Annexin-V. SYTO 16 staining intensity was consistent with the light scatter profiles expected of live, apoptotic and necrotic MNCs and was more objective than light scatter/7-AAD. CMXRos staining required considerable care and may not be a robust marker of apoptotic primary MNCs. For SYTO 16 flow cytometric analysis, the optimal conditions for staining 1x10(6) leukocytes were 4 nM SYTO 16 in the presence of 30 muM verapamil for 25-45 min at 37 degrees C in media containing calcium/magnesium supplemented with protein. A P-glycoprotein inhibitor, such as verapamil, and calcium/magnesium are essential for optimal loading of SYTO 16 into live MNCs and discrimination of apoptotic MNCs in normal blood samples. SYTO 16 is a sensitive, simple, inexpensive 'live cell' method for the discrimination of live, apoptotic and necrotic normal blood MNCs and is more sensitive for detecting apoptosis in these cells than Annexin-V or light scatter/7-AAD. PMID:16165150
Sparrow, Rosemary L; Tippett, Emma
Everyday Living with Diabetes Described by Family Members of Adult People with Type 1 Diabetes
The aim of this study was to explore family members' experiences of everyday life in families with adult people living with type 1 diabetes. The grounded theory method was used to gather and analyse data from the interviews of nineteen family members. Six concepts describing the family members' views on everyday living with diabetes were generated on the basis of the data. Everyday life with diabetes is described as being intertwined with hypoglycemia. Becoming acquainted with diabetes takes place little by little. Being involved in the management and watching self-management from the sidelines are concepts describing family members' participation in the daily management of diabetes. The family members are also integrating diabetes into everyday life. Living on an emotional roller-coaster tells about the thoughts and feelings that family members experience. Family members of adult people with diabetes are involved in the management of the diabetes in many ways and experience many concerns. The family members' point of view is important to take into consideration when developing education for adults with diabetes.
Paavilainen, Eija; Astedt-Kurki, Paivi
Coexisting Domains in the Plasma Membranes of Live Cells Characterized by Spin-Label ESR Spectroscopy
The importance of membrane-based compartmentalization in eukaryotic cell function has become broadly appreciated, and a number of studies indicate that these eukaryotic cell membranes contain coexisting liquid-ordered (Lo) and liquid-disordered (Ld) lipid domains. However, the current evidence for such phase separation is indirect, and so far there has been no direct demonstration of differences in the ordering and dynamics for the lipids in these two types of regions or their relative amounts in the plasma membranes of live cells. In this study, we provide direct evidence for the presence of two different types of lipid populations in the plasma membranes of live cells from four different cell lines by electron spin resonance. Analysis of the electron spin resonance spectra recorded over a range of temperatures, from 5 to 37�C, shows that the spin-labeled phospholipids incorporated experience two types of environments, Lo and Ld, with distinct order parameters and rotational diffusion coefficients but with some differences among the four cell lines. These results suggest that coexistence of lipid domains that differ significantly in their dynamic order in the plasma membrane is a general phenomenon. The Lo region is found to be a major component in contrast to a model in which small liquid-ordered lipid rafts exist in a �sea� of disordered lipids. The results on ordering and dynamics for the live cells are also compared with those from model membranes exhibiting coexisting Lo and Ld phases.
Swamy, Musti J.; Ciani, Laura; Ge, Mingtao; Smith, Andrew K.; Holowka, David; Baird, Barbara; Freed, Jack H.
The characterization of cell adhesion between two living cells at the single-molecule level, i.e., between one adhesion receptor and its counter-receptor, appears to be an experimental challenge. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be used in its force spectroscopy mode to determine unbinding forces of a single pair of adhesion receptors, even with a living cell as a probe. This chapter provides an overview of AFM force measurements of the integrin family of cell adhesion receptors and their ligands. A focus is given to major integrins expressed on leukocytes, such as lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) and very late antigen 4 (VLA-4). These receptors are crucial for leukocyte trafficking in health and disease. LFA-1 and VLA-1 can be activated within the bloodstream from a low-affinity to a high-affinity receptor by chemokines in order to adhere strongly to the vessel wall before the receptor-bearing leukocytes extravasate. The experimental considerations needed to provide near-physiological conditions for a living cell and to be able to measure adequate forces at the single-molecule level are discussed in detail. AFM technology has been developed into a modern and extremely sensitive tool in biomedical research. It appears now that AFM force spectroscopy could enter, within a few years, medical applications in diagnosis and therapy of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Eibl, Robert H.
Live production and carcass characteristics of broilers fed a blend of poultry fat and corn oil derived from distillers dried grains with solubles.
Corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are now being further processed to remove corn oil, which may be used as a dietary energy source for poultry. The objectives of this study were to compare the effects of a poultry fat (PF) and a new DDGS-derived corn oil blend (CO) on live performance and carcass characteristics of 49-d-old broilers. Four corn-soybean meal based diets were formulated with differing blends of PF and CO. All diets contained the same percentage of total fat, but differed in the fat source. One diet had the sole source of fat as PF (100:0% PF:CO) and was then replaced with 25% CO, 75% CO, and a 100% replacement of CO. Each of the diets was fed in a 3-phase feeding program to 6 replicate pens. At day of hatch, Ross � Ross 708 broilers were randomly allocated to 24 pens composed of 42 birds of equal sex. On d 49, 10 birds from each pen were processed, and carcass, abdominal fat pad, and breast muscle components were determined. There were no significant differences in live performance for the starter phase (0-18 d). For the grower phase (19-35 d), birds fed 75:25% PF:CO significantly (P ? 0.05) increased BW, BW gain, and decreased feed conversion compared with the control (100:0% PF:CO). Birds fed 0:100% PF:CO also observed similar improvements in BW, BW gain, and feed conversion during the grower phase. There were no significant differences for the finisher phase (36-48 d). On d 49, live weights for birds fed the 0:100% PF:CO diets were significantly lower compared with other treatments. A trend for lower carcass and breast weights and increased abdominal fat was also observed for birds fed the 0:100% PF:CO. The addition of CO led to significant improvements in pellet durability for grower and finisher pellets. The results of this study indicate that DDGS-derived CO can be used to partially replace PF in broiler diets without any detrimental effects. PMID:24046421
Kim, E J; Purswell, J L; Davis, J D; Loar, R E; Karges, K
Estimating live fuel status by drought indices: an approach for assessing local impact of climate change on fire danger
Mediterranean shrubs are an important component of both Mediterranean vegetation communities and understorey vegetation. They also constitute the surface fuels primarily responsible for the ignition and the spread of wildland fires in Mediterranean forests. Although fire spread and behaviour are dependent on several factors, the water content of live fuel plays an important role in determining fire occurrence and spread, especially in the Mediterranean shrubland, where live fuel is often the main component of the available fuel which catches fire. According to projections on future climate, an increase in risk of summer droughts is likely to take place in Southern Europe. More prolonged drought seasons induced by climatic changes are likely to influence general flammability characteristics of fuel, affecting load distribution in vegetation strata, floristic composition, and live and dead fuel ratio. In addition, variations in precipitation and mean temperature could directly affect fuel water status, and consequently flammability, and length of critical periods of high ignition danger for Mediterranean ecosystems. The main aim of this work was to propose a methodology for evaluating possible impacts of future climate change on moisture dynamic and length of fire danger period at local scale. Specific objectives were: i) evaluating performances of meteorological drought indices in describing seasonal pattern of live fuel moisture content (LFMC), and ii) simulating the potential impacts of future climate changes on the duration of fire danger period. Measurements of LFMC seasonal pattern of three Mediterranean shrub species were performed in North Western Sardinia (Italy) for 8 years. Seasonal patterns of LFMC were compared with the Drought Code of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index and the Keetch-Byram Drought Index. Analysis of frequency distribution and cumulative distribution curves were carried out in order to evaluate performance of codes and to identify threshold values of indices useful to determine the end of the potential fire season due to fuel status. A weather generator linked to climate change scenarios derived from 17 available General Circulation Models (GCMs) was used to produce synthetic weather series, representing present and future climates, for four selected sites located in North Sardinia, Italy. Finally, impacts of future climate change on fire season length at local scale were simulated. Results confirmed that the projected climate scenarios over the Mediterranean area will determine an overall increase of the fire season length.
Pellizzaro, Grazia; Dubrovsky, Martin; Bortolu, Sara; Ventura, Andrea; Arca, Bachisio; Masia, Pierpaolo; Duce, Pierpaolo
Living Heritage
Living Heritage is a website that celebrates New Zealand heritage through the help of the schools and students of New Zealand. The "About Living Heritage" link states that the website is "an online bilingual initiative that enables New Zealand schools to develop and publish an online resource, based on a heritage treasure in their community." Visitors can also read about the five or so groups these stories "Benefit", including New Zealand and the World, in the About Living Heritage link. The "Schools' Stories" link takes visitors to 26 schools' websites produced since 2008, and an archive of 79 schools' websites produced before 2008. By browsing through the stories, visitors can learn about Paddy, the much-loved wandering Airedale who lived on Island Bay in Wellington in the 1930s. The story of Mitiaro High School in the Cook Islands describes how they learned how to build a canoe called a paiere. Finally, a group of Year 1 and 2 students at Russley School write about their discovery that a tree near their school is protected by the city council.
Direct light-up of cAMP derivatives in living cells by click reactions.
8-Azidoadenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (8-azido cAMP) was directly detected in living cells, by applying Cu-free azide-alkyne cycloaddition to probe cAMP derivatives by fluorescence light-up. Fluorescence emission was generated by two non-fluorescent molecules, 8-azido cAMP as a model target and difluorinated cyclooctyne (DIFO) reagent as a probe. The azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction between 8-azido cAMP and DIFO induces fluorescence in 8-azido cAMP. The fluorescence emission serves as a way to probe 8-azido cAMP in cells. PMID:24141242
Ito, Kenichiro; Liu, Hongshan; Komiyama, Makoto; Hayashi, Tetsuya; Xu, Yan
A day to be lived. Elderly peoples' possessions for everyday life in assisted living.
This study is a qualitative interview study about the household possessions that elderly women and men brought with them when moving into assisted living. The move implied a substantial reduction of their possessions since, in all cases, they had left a larger dwelling than the one they moved to. The study gives a glimpse into the everyday life of the oldest old in assisted living. The things the elderly participants brought were of three types; cherished objects, representations of who they were, and mundane objects. The most important objects indicated by the elderly often belonged to the third type, and were preferred for the significance they had for the everyday life of the individual. These objects revealed a circumscribed but dignified life in their private bed-sitting room, often in solitude, where the elderly individuals pursued various interests and small-scale activities. However, this life was organized and preferred by the individuals themselves, in accordance with the principles of resident autonomy and individual choice that are promoted in assisted living. The author suggests that these self-engaged pursuits can contribute to bridging the gap between disengagement and activity theories. The study results also contribute to making visible the private life of the oldest old in assisted living. PMID:23561278
Nord, Catharina
Characteristics of auroral particles observed by EXOS-C
The low-energy particle experiment (ESP) aboard the EXOS-C satellite has given new information on characteristics of low-energy electrons and ions. The observations of auroral electrons and ions are mostly consistent with the observational results obtained by others. However, some interesting characteristics of ions precipitating into the auroral region have been found. Three types of energy dispersions of ions in the
N. Kaya; H. Matsumoto; T. Mukai; T. Itoh
Security and Privacy Challenges in the Internet of Things
The future Internet of Things as an intelligent collaboration of minia- turized sensors poses new challenges to security and end-user privacy. The ITU has identified that the protection of data and privacy of users is one of the key chal- lenges in the Internet of Things (Int05): lack of confidence about privacy will result in decreased adoption among users and
Christoph P. Mayer
Research on the architecture of Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is a technological revolution that represents the future of computing and communications. It is not the simple extension of the Internet or the Telecommunications Network. It has the features of both the Internet and the Telecommunications Network, and also has its own distinguishing feature. Through analysing the current accepted three-layer structure of the Internet of things,
Miao Wu; Ting-Jie Lu; Fei-Yang Ling; Jing Sun; Hui-Ying Du
How do things go from bad to worse?
Humans are constantly making evaluations about the direction of movement in time of systems perceived as relevant, in terms of whether things are moving to the better or to the worse. The relevant system may be very small or as large as the whole planet earth; evaluations seldom go beyond the solar system. We evaluate things like health, wealth, security,
Kenneth E. Boulding
The research of positioning methods based on Internet of Things
With the advent of Internet of Things time, more and more applications require location-based services. This article describes the concept and basic principles of several of Internet of things positioning technology such as GPS positioning, Base Station positioning, ZigBee positioning. And then the advantages and disadvantages of these types of positioning technologies are compared.
Zou, Dongyao; Liu, Jia; Sun, Hui; Li, Nana; Han, Xueqin
Label-free detection of anticancer drug paclitaxel in living cells by confocal Raman microscopy
Confocal Raman microscopy, a non-invasive, label-free, and high spatial resolution imaging technique is employed to trace the anticancer drug paclitaxel in living Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) cells. The Raman images were treated by K-mean cluster analysis to detect the drug in cells. Distribution of paclitaxel in cells is verified by calculating the correlation coefficient between the reference spectrum of the drug and the whole Raman image spectra. A time dependent gradual diffusion of paclitaxel all over the cell is observed suggesting a complementary picture of the pharmaceutical action of this drug based on rapid binding of free tubulin to crystallized paclitaxel.
Salehi, H.; Derely, L.; Vegh, A.-G.; Durand, J.-C.; Gergely, C.; Larroque, C.; Fauroux, M.-A.; Cuisinier, F. J. G.
Towards a dynamic social-network-based approach for service composition in the Internet of Things
The User-Generated Service (UGS) concept allows end-users to create their own services as well as to share and manage the lifecycles of these services. The current development of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) has brought new challenges to the UGS area. Creating smart services in the IoT environment requires a dynamic social network that considers the relationship between people and things. In this paper, we consider the know-how required to best organize exchanges between users and things to enhance service composition. By surveying relevant aspects including service composition technology, social networks and a recommendation system, we present the first concept of our framework to provide recommendations for a dynamic social network-based means to organize UGSs in the IoT.
Xu, Wen; Hu, Zheng; Gong, Tao; Zhao, Zhengzheng
[Chrome sirens, herostratic machines. "Desiderata: psychology of things" (G. Anders): for reorientation of psychology].
Taking up G�nther Anders' hypothesis of the "antiquated nature of the human", L�tkehaus expounds a "psychology of things" suitable as a replacement for all form of human psychology, including psychoanalysis. The basic assumption of the psychology of things is that as the human individual as a subject is totally ruled by technologies and machines-cars, computers, the media etc. -all talk of the subject and subjectivity has become completely obsolescent. In the psychology of things psychic productions are seen as frozen masks of the spiritual in which the human individual cultivates and indulges the illusion of a non-existent subjectivity. With references to the dropping of the atom bomb on Nagasaki and the annihalation machinery of the Nazis the author attempts to concretize this new paradigm. PMID:7708952
L�tkehaus, L
In situ, real-time monitoring of the 3' to 5' exonucleases secreted by living cells.
Enzymes containing 3'-5' exonuclease activities play vital roles in maintaining genome stability. Though a wide variety of methods have been developed for detection of these enzymes, few of them can be directly applied for in situ and real-time monitoring of the secretion of these active substances by living cells. Taking advantages of the free 3'-end of stacked guanine-quenched photoinduced electron transfer fluorescent probes, here we demonstrate a novel assay capable of in situ and real-time monitoring of the 3'-5' exonucleases secreted by living cells. The detection limit of the new method achieved as low as 0.04 U/mL, allowing direct monitoring of the target enzymes in an extracellular environment without preconcentration steps. False positive signals caused by other nonspecific enzymes were easily ruled out by the use of a control probe with the 3'-end modified with exonuclease-resistant phosphorothioate guanines. Using Alexa Fluor 488 as the fluorophore, the probe is adaptable to a wide range of pH conditions. The approach was successfully applied for in situ, real-time monitoring of the 3'-5' exonucleases secreted by suspension cells of Arabidopsis thaliana. It also holds great potential for in situ and real-time detection of many other DNA end-processing enzymes produced by other types of cells. PMID:22559334
Su, Xin; Zhu, Xiaocui; Zhang, Chen; Xiao, Xianjin; Zhao, Meiping
Baseline Socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported diet and physical activity shifts among recent immigrants participating in the randomized controlled lifestyle intervention: "Live Well".
The goal of this paper is to describe the baseline characteristics of Live Well (intervention to prevent weight gain in recent immigrant mother-child dyads from Brazil, Haiti, and Latin America) participants, and to explore self-reported changes in diet and physical activity post-immigration. Baseline data from 383 mothers were used for this study. Dyads attended a measurement day where they completed self-administered surveys collecting information about socio-demographics, diet, physical activity, other psychosocial variables, and height and weight. Haitian mothers' socio-demographic profile differed significantly from that of Brazilians' and Latinas': they have been in the US for a shorter period of time, have higher rates of unemployment, are less likely to be married, more likely to have ?3 children, more likely to be obese, and have immigrated for family or other reasons. In multivariate models, self-reported changes in diet and physical activity since migrating to the US were significantly associated with BMI with non-linear relationships identified. Future research is needed to understand how diet and physical activity change while acculturating to the US and explore the adoption of both healthy and unhealthy dietary changes. PMID:23334749
Tovar, Alison; Boulos, Rebecca; Sliwa, Sarah; Must, Aviva; Gute, David M; Metayer, Nesly; Hyatt, Raymond R; Chui, Kenneth; Pirie, Alex; Luongo, Christina Kamis; Economos, Christina
The phenomena of auditory hallucination as described by Indonesian people living with schizophrenia.
This study was a phenomenological inquiry of the experience of auditory hallucinations as described by 13 Indonesian people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The interviewees included 6 men and 7 women and they were aged between 19 and 56 years. Four themes emerged from this study: feeling more like a robot than a human being; voices of contradiction--a point of confusion; tattered relationships and family disarray; and normalizing the presence of voices as part of everyday life. The findings of this study have the potential to contribute to new understandings of how people live with and manage auditory hallucinations and so enhance client-centered nursing care. PMID:24238012
Suryani, Suryani; Welch, Anthony; Cox, Leonie
Targeting endogenous nuclear antigens by electrotransfer of monoclonal antibodies in living cells
Antibodies are valuable tools for functional studies in vitro, but their use in living cells remains challenging because they do not naturally cross the cell membrane. Here, we present a simple and highly efficient method for the intracytoplasmic delivery of any antibody into cultured cells. By following the fate of monoclonal antibodies that bind to nuclear antigens, it was possible to image endogenous targets and to show that inhibitory antibodies are able to induce cell growth suppression or cell death. Our electrotransfer system allowed the cancer cells we studied to be transduced without loss of viability and may have applications for a variety of intracellular immuno-interventions.
Freund, Guillaume; Sibler, Annie-Paule; Desplancq, Dominique; Oulad-Abdelghani, Mustapha; Vigneron, Marc; Gannon, Julian; Van Regenmortel, Marc H.; Weiss, Etienne
Varicella-like illness caused by live varicella vaccine in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia.
A varicella-like illness occurred in five of 52 children with acute lymphocytic leukemia following the administration of live varicella vaccine. Only one of the children required treatment with acyclovir. Virus isolated from two of the children was "vaccine-like" but differed slightly from the original vaccine strain when tested by restriction enzyme analysis. There did not appear to be a reversion to virulence because two of the household contacts who seroconverted had mild or subclinical infections. Vaccinees in whom this reaction developed tended to have a poor cellular immune response to varicella-zoster virus. PMID:3035478
Brunell, P A; Geiser, C F; Novelli, V; Lipton, S; Narkewicz, S
It Takes Many Things to Be a Father: It Takes Many More Things to Be a Daddy
For fathers to become daddies, many things need to happen. Many things conspire against this--work, play, what kind of father you had, what kind of mother you had, peers, fear, the mystery of children through a male's eyes, lack of role models--yet, in spite of this, changes need to happen. This author contends that the same is true in the�
Parr, Jerry
Photoporation of Biomolecules into Single Cells in Living Vertebrate Embryos Induced by a Femtosecond Laser Amplifier
Introduction of biomolecules into cells in living animals is one of the most important techniques in molecular and developmental biology research, and has potentially broad biomedical implications. Here we report that biomolecules can be introduced into single cells in living vertebrate embryos by photoporation using a femtosecond laser amplifier with a high pulse energy and a low repetition rate. First, we confirmed the efficiency of this photoporation technique by introducing dextran, morpholino oligonucleotides, or DNA plasmids into targeted single cells of zebrafish, chick, shark, and mouse embryos. Second, we demonstrated that femtosecond laser irradiation efficiently delivered DNA plasmids into single neurons of chick embryos. Finally, we successfully manipulated the fate of single neurons in zebrafish embryos by delivering mRNA. Our observations suggest that photoporation using a femtosecond laser with a high pulse energy and low repetition rate offers a novel way to manipulate the function(s) of individual cells in a wide range of vertebrate embryos by introduction of selected biomolecules.
Ochi, Haruki; Iino, Takanori; Hiraoka, Akihiro
Live dissection of Drosophila embryos: streamlined methods for screening mutant collections by antibody staining.
Drosophila embryos between stages 14 and 17 of embryonic development can be readily dissected to generate "fillet" preparations. In these preparations, the central nervous system runs down the middle, and is flanked by the body walls. Many different phenotypes have been examined using such preparations. In most cases, the fillets were generated by dissection of antibody-stained fixed whole-mount embryos. These "fixed dissections" have some disadvantages, however. They are time-consuming to execute, and it is difficult to sort mutant (GFP-negative) embryos from stocks in which mutations are maintained over GFP balancer chromosomes. Since 2002, our group has been conducting deficiency and ectopic expression screens to identify ligands for orphan receptors. In order to do this, we developed streamlined protocols for live embryo dissection and antibody staining of collections containing hundreds of balanced lines. We have concluded that it is considerably more efficient to examine phenotypes in large collections of stocks by live dissection than by fixed dissection. Using the protocol described here, a single trained individual can screen up to 10 lines per day for phenotypes, examining 4-7 mutant embryos from each line under a compound microscope. This allows the identification of mutations conferring subtle, low-penetrance phenotypes, since up to 70 hemisegments per line are scored at high magnification with a 40X water-immersion lens. PMID:20040910
Lee, Hyung-Kook Peter; Wright, Ashley P; Zinn, Kai
How Things Work: Teaching Physics in the Context of Everyday Life
How Things Work is a course for non-science students that introduces them to physics in the context of everyday objects. It is, in effect, "Case Study Physics." By building on students' common experiences and giving them knowledge and tools that they can use in real life, not just in the classroom, it brings physics into meaningful focus in their world. This talk will look at the motivations for and techniques of teaching How Things Work, along with giving some practical illustrations of what makes the course so fun to teach and so interesting to take.
Live-Cell Superresolution Imaging by Pulsed STED Two-Photon Excitation Microscopy
Two-photon laser scanning microscopy (2PLSM) allows fluorescence imaging in thick biological samples where absorption and scattering typically degrade resolution and signal collection of one-photon imaging approaches. The spatial resolution of conventional 2PLSM is limited by diffraction, and the near-infrared wavelengths used for excitation in 2PLSM preclude the accurate imaging of many small subcellular compartments of neurons. Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is�a superresolution imaging modality that overcomes the resolution limit imposed by diffraction and allows fluorescence imaging of nanoscale features. Here, we describe the design and operation of a superresolution two-photon microscope using pulsed excitation and STED lasers. We examine the depth dependence of STED imaging in acute tissue slices and find enhancement of 2P resolution ranging from approximately fivefold at 20 ?m to approximately twofold at 90-?m deep. The depth dependence of resolution is found to be consistent with the depth dependence of depletion efficiency, suggesting resolution is limited by STED laser propagation through turbid tissue. Finally, we achieve live imaging of dendritic spines with 60-nm resolution and demonstrate that our technique allows accurate quantification of neuronal morphology up to 30-?m deep in living brain tissue.
Takasaki, Kevin T.; Ding, Jun B.; Sabatini, Bernardo L.
Engineering Multifunctional Living Paints: Thin, Convectively-Assembled Biocomposite Coatings of Live Cells and Colloidal Latex Particles Deposited by Continuous Convective-Sedimentation Assembly
Advanced composite materials could be revolutionized by the development of methods to incorporate living cells into functional materials and devices. This could be accomplished by continuously and rapidly depositing thin ordered arrays of adhesive colloidal latex particles and live cells that maintain stability and preserve microbial reactivity. Convective assembly is one method of rapidly assembling colloidal particles into thin (<10 microm thick), ordered films with engineered compositions, thicknesses, and particle packing that offer several advantages over thicker randomly ordered composites, including enhanced cell stability and increased reactivity through minimized diffusion resistance to nutrients and reduced light scattering. This method can be used to precisely deposit live bacteria, cyanobacteria, yeast, and algae into biocomposite coatings, forming reactive biosensors, photoabsorbers, or advanced biocatalysts. This dissertation developed new continuous deposition and coating characterization methods for fabricating and characterizing <10 microm thick colloid coatings---monodispersed latex particle or cell suspensions, bimodal blends of latex particles or live cells and microspheres, and trimodal formulations of biomodal latex and live cells on substrates such as aluminum foil, glass, porous Kraft paper, polyester, and polypropylene. Continuous convective-sedimentation assembly (CSA) is introduced to enable fabrication of larger surface area and long coatings by constantly feeding coating suspension to the meniscus, thus expanding the utility of convective assembly to deposit monolayer or very thin films or multi-layer coatings composed of thin layers on a large scale. Results show thin, tunable coatings can be fabricated from diverse coating suspensions and critical coating parameters that control thickness and structure. Particle size ratio and charge influence deposition, convective mixing or demixing and relative particle locations. Substrate wettability and suspension composition influence coating microstructure by controlling suspension delivery and spreading across the substrate. Microbes behave like colloidal particles during CSA, allowing for deposition of very thin stable biocomposite coatings of latex-live cell blends. CSA of particle-cell blends result in open-packed structures (15-45% mean void space), instead of tightly packed coatings attainable with single component systems, confirming the existence of significant polymer particle-cell interactions and formation of particle aggregates that disrupt coating microstructure during deposition. Tunable process parameters, such as particle concentration, fluid sonication, and fluid density, influence coating homogeneity when the meniscus is continuously supplied. Fluid density modification and fluid sonication affect particle sedimentation and distribution in the coating growth front whereas the suspended particle concentration strongly affects coating thickness, but has almost no effect on void space. Changing the suspension delivery mode (topside versus underside CCSA) yields disparate meniscus volumes and uneven particle delivery to the drying front, which enables control of the coating microstructure by varying the total number of particles available for deposition. The judicious combination of all these parameters will enable deposition of uniform, thin, latex-cell monolayers over areas on the order of tens of square centimeters or larger. To demonstrate the utility of biocomposite coatings, this dissertation investigated photoreactive coatings (artificial leaves) from suspensions of latex particles and nitrogen-limited Rps. palustris CGA009 or sulfur-limited C. reinhardtii CC-124. These coatings demonstrated stable, sustained (>90 hours) photohydrogen production under anoxygenic conditions. Nutrient reduction slows cell division, minimizing coating outgrowth, and promotes photohydrogen generation, improving coating reactivity. Scanning electron microscopy of microstructure revealed how coating reactivity can be controlled by the size
Jenkins, Jessica Shawn
We use time-series ultraviolet full sun images to construct limb-synoptic maps of the Sun. On these maps, large-scale, long-lived coronal streamers appear as repetitive sinusoid-like arcs projected over the polar regions. They are caused by high altitude plasma produced from sunspot-rich regions at latitudes generally far from the poles. The non-uniform longitudinal distribution of these streamers reveals four longitudinal zones at the surface of the Sun from which sunspots erupt preferentially over the 5 year observing interval (2006 January to 2011 April). Spots in these zones (or clusters) have individual lifetimes short compared to the lifetimes of the coronal features which they sustain, and they erupt at different times. The four sunspot clusters contain >75% of all numbered sunspots in this period. They occupy two distinct longitudinal zones separated by {approx}180{sup 0} and each spanning {approx}100{sup 0} in longitude. The rotation rates of the spot clusters are {approx}5% faster than the rates at both the surface and the bottom of the convection zone. While no convincing theoretical framework exists to interpret the sunspot clusters in the longitude-time space, their persistent and nonuniform distribution indicates long-lived, azimuthal structures beneath the surface, and are compatible with the existence of previously reported active longitudes on the Sun.
Li Jing, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com [Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 (United States)
Fungicidal mechanisms of cathelicidins LL-37 and CATH-2 revealed by live-cell imaging.
Antifungal mechanisms of action of two cathelicidins, chicken CATH-2 and human LL-37, were studied and compared with the mode of action of the salivary peptide histatin 5 (Hst5). Candida albicans was used as a model organism for fungal pathogens. Analysis by live-cell imaging showed that the peptides kill C. albicans rapidly. CATH-2 is the most active peptide and kills C. albicans within 5 min. Both cathelicidins induce cell membrane permeabilization and simultaneous vacuolar expansion. Minimal fungicidal concentrations (MFC) are in the same order of magnitude for all three peptides, but the mechanisms of antifungal activity are very different. The activity of cathelicidins is independent of the energy status of the fungal cell, unlike Hst5 activity. Live-cell imaging using fluorescently labeled peptides showed that both CATH-2 and LL-37 quickly localize to the C. albicans cell membrane, while Hst5 was mainly directed to the fungal vacuole. Small amounts of cathelicidins internalize at sub-MFCs, suggesting that intracellular activities of the peptide could contribute to the antifungal activity. Analysis by flow cytometry indicated that CATH-2 significantly decreases C. albicans cell size. Finally, electron microscopy showed that CATH-2 affects the integrity of the cell membrane and nuclear envelope. It is concluded that the general mechanisms of action of both cathelicidins are partially similar (but very different from that of Hst5). CATH-2 has unique features and possesses antifungal potential superior to that of LL-37. PMID:24492359
Ordonez, Soledad R; Amarullah, Ilham H; Wubbolts, Richard W; Veldhuizen, Edwin J A; Haagsman, Henk P
Recall of a live and personally experienced eyewitness event by adults with autism spectrum disorder.
The aim of the present study was to (a) extend previous eyewitness research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a live and personally experienced event; (b) examine whether witnesses with ASD demonstrate a facilitative effect in memory for self- over other-performed actions; (c) explore source monitoring abilities by witnesses with ASD in discriminating who performed which actions within the event. Eighteen high-functioning adults with ASD and 18 age- and IQ-matched typical counterparts participated in a live first aid scenario in which they and the experimenter each performed a number of actions. Participants were subsequently interviewed for their memory of the event using a standard interview procedure with free recall followed by questioning. The ASD group recalled just as many correct details as the comparison group from the event overall, however they made more errors. This was the case across both free recall and questioning phases. Both groups showed a self-enactment effect across both interview phases, recalling more actions that they had performed themselves than actions that the experimenter had performed. However, the ASD group were more likely than their typical comparisons to confuse the source of self-performed actions in free recall, but not in questioning, which may indicate executive functioning difficulties with unsupported test procedures. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications. PMID:23229454
Maras, Katie L; Memon, Amina; Lambrechts, Anna; Bowler, Dermot M
Phase imaging by atomic force microscopy: analysis of living homoiothermic vertebrate cells.
Atomic force microscope-based phase imaging in air is capable of elucidating variations in material properties such as adhesion, friction, and viscoelasticity. However, the interpretation of phase images of specimens in a fluid environment requires clarification. In this report, we systematically analyzed atomic force microscope-derived phase images of mica, glass, and collagen under the same conditions as used for living cells at various tapping forces; the resulting data provide critical information for the interpretation of phase images of living cells. The peripheral regions of COS-1 cells consistently show a more negative phase shift than the glass substrate in phase images at set-point amplitude: free amplitude (Asp/A0) = 0.6-0.8. In addition, at all Asp/A0 values suitable for phase imaging, tapping frequency appears to be high enough to ensure that phase shifts are governed primarily by stiffness. Consequently, phase imaging is capable of high resolution studies of the cellular surface by detecting localized variations in stiffness. We demonstrate that phase imaging of a bifurcating fiber in COS-1 cell cytoplasm is readily capable of a lateral resolution of approximately 30 nm. PMID:10354454
Nagao, E; Dvorak, J A
Detection of Live Escherichia coli O157:H7 Cells by PMA-qPCR
A unique open reading frame (ORF) Z3276 was identified as a specific genetic marker for E. coli O157:H7. A qPCR assay was developed for detection of E. coli O157:H7 by targeting ORF Z3276. With this assay, we can detect as low as a few copies of the genome of DNA of E. coli O157:H7. The sensitivity and specificity of the assay were confirmed by intensive validation tests with a large number of E. coli O157:H7 strains (n = 369) and non-O157 strains (n = 112). Furthermore, we have combined propidium monoazide (PMA) procedure with the newly developed qPCR protocol for selective detection of live cells from dead cells. Amplification of DNA from PMA-treated dead cells was almost completely inhibited in contrast to virtually unaffected amplification of DNA from PMA-treated live cells. Additionally, the protocol has been modified and adapted to a 96-well plate format for an easy and consistent handling of a large number of samples. This method is expected to have an impact on accurate microbiological and epidemiological monitoring of food safety and environmental source.
Li, Baoguang; Hu, Zonglin; Elkins, Christopher A.
Science K-12, Interdependency of Living Things and Living Things With Their Environment. Utica City School District Articulated Curriculum: Project SEARCH, 1975.
Two-column objectives are listed for an integrated science curriculum (grades K-12), often subheaded according to science area (biology, physical science), and grade level. Choices of environmental topics such as weather, conservation of natural resources, and the interdependence of organisms and environment dominate objectives written for grades�
A new method using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) to determine grazing rate on live bacterial cells by protists
A new method was developed for estimating the grazing rate of live bacteria by protists. Bacterial cells (Escherichia coli bearing plasmid pEGFP) expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) were used as a live bacterial tracer. Ciliates\\u000a (Tetrahymena thermophila) were fed with EGFP-tagged bacterial cells, and the individual cells taken up by the ciliates were detected by epifluorescence\\u000a microscopy. The EGFP
Nobuyoshi Ishii; Hiroshi Takeda; Masahiro Doi; Shoichi Fuma; Kiriko Miyamoto; Kei Yanagisawa; Z. Kawabata
In both cases of packages for either low-level and intermediate-level short-lived (LL-IL/SL) or high-level and intermediate-level long-lived (HL-IL/LL) radioactive waste, Andra has defined a quality reference system, manages it, follows up its appropriate implementation in production plants and verifies its effectiveness in production. The purpose of such a reference system is to ensure, in the first case, that waste packages comply with the Centre de l'Aube's acceptance criteria and, in the second case, that the characteristics submitted by the waste generators to Andra as input data for the deep geological repository project reflect the actual production conditions. In that context, the three management steps of the quality reference system include differences due to the fact that HL-IL/SL packages have not been submitted yet to any technical acceptance criterion. Compliance with any such criterion should be the subject of a characterization report during the qualification phase and of a examination during the verification phase. The management of the quality reference system also involves similarities that facilitate the joint work carried out by Andra with the waste generators, especially in the facilities where both package types are produced.
Trentesaux, C.; Cairon, P.; Dumont, J.-N.; Felix, B.; Losada, F.
Living ring-opening homo- and copolymerisation of ?-caprolactone and L-lactide by cyclic ?-ketiminato aluminium complexes.
A series of novel aluminium complexes containing cyclic ?-ketiminato ligands of type Me2Al{O-[(ArN=CHC4H4(C6H4))]} (3a, Ar = 2,6-(i)Pr2C6H3; 3b, Ar = C6H5; 3c, Ar = C6F5) have been prepared in high yields. These complexes were identified by (1)H, (13)C NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. X-ray structural analyses for 3a-c revealed that these complexes have a distorted tetrahedral geometry around Al, and both bond distances and bond angles were considerably influenced by the ligand structure. These complexes were tested as catalyst precursors for ring-opening polymerisation of ?-caprolactone (?-CL) and L-lactide (L-LA) in the presence of 2-propanol as an initiator. Complex 3a could polymerize ?-CL in a controlled manner with high efficiency. Based on the living characteristics, the preparation of well-defined block copolymers PCL-b-PLLA via sequential addition of monomers was performed by 3a. Note that complex 3c exhibited rather high catalytic activity for the ROP of L-LA with narrow molecular weight distribution. The monomer conversion reached completion only in 4 h when the L-LA/Al molar ratio was 100 at 80 �C. PLLA-b-PCL copolymers were thus easily produced by 3c. PMID:24296527
Liu, Yan; Dong, Wei-Shi; Liu, Jing-Yu; Li, Yue-Sheng
ScienceNetLinks: When Things Start Heating Up
In this investigation for upper elementary, children explore how and why heat is produced from things that give off light, from machines, and from friction. At these grade levels, students are not expected to develop formal concepts of energy, but they can investigate how heat spreads from one place to another and what can be done to contain heat or shield objects from it. This lesson was crafted to lay a foundation for understanding energy transfer. It is completely turn-key, with printable worksheets, data table, warm-up and reflection questions, and background information. This item is part of a larger collection of lessons compiled and edited by the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science).
Multicolor Fluorescence Nanoscopy in Fixed and Living Cells by Exciting Conventional Fluorophores with a Single Wavelength
Current far-field fluorescence nanoscopes provide subdiffraction resolution by exploiting a mechanism of fluorescence inhibition. This mechanism is implemented such that features closer than the diffraction limit emit separately when simultaneously exposed to excitation light. A basic mechanism for such transient fluorescence inhibition is the depletion of the fluorophore ground state by transferring it (via a triplet) in a dark state, a mechanism which is workable in most standard dyes. Here we show that microscopy based on ground state depletion followed by individual molecule return (GSDIM) can effectively provide multicolor diffraction-unlimited resolution imaging of immunolabeled fixed and SNAP-tag labeled living cells. Implemented with standard labeling techniques, GSDIM is demonstrated to separate up to four different conventional fluorophores using just two detection channels and a single laser line. The method can be expanded to even more colors by choosing optimized dichroic mirrors and selecting marker molecules with negligible inhomogeneous emission broadening.
Testa, Ilaria; Wurm, Christian A.; Medda, Rebecca; Rothermel, Ellen; von Middendorf, Claas; Folling, Jonas; Jakobs, Stefan; Schonle, Andreas; Hell, Stefan W.; Eggeling, Christian
Signal Discrimination Between Fluorescent Proteins in Live Cells by Long-wavelength Optical Modulation
Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have revolutionized molecular and cellular biology; yet, discrimination over cellular autofluorescence, spectral deconvolution, or detection at low concentrations remain challenging problems in many biological applications. By optically depopulating a photoinduced dark state with orange secondary laser co-excitation, the higher-energy green AcGFP fluorescence is dynamically increased. Modulating this secondary laser then modulates the higher-energy, collected fluorescence; enabling its selective detection by removing heterogeneous background from other FPs. Order-of-magnitude reduction in obscuring fluorophore background emission has been achieved in both fixed and live cells. This longwavelength modulation expands the dimensionality to discriminate FP emitters based on dark state lifetimes and enables signal of interest to be recovered by removing heterogeneous background emitter signals. Thus, AcGFP is not only useful for extracting weak signals from systems plagued by high background, but it is a springboard for further FP optimization and utilization for improving sensitivity and selectivity in biological fluorescence imaging.
Jablonski, Amy E.; Hsiang, Jung-Cheng; Bagchi, Pritha; Hull, Nathan; Richards, Chris I.; Fahrni, Christoph J.; Dickson, Robert M.
What's so Great about the Real Thing?
Tradition has it that the best way to familiarize oneself with a musical work is to attend a live performance. Teachers urge promising students to frequent concert halls, clubs, or stadia. Musicologists typically adopt the perspective of an ideal concert-goer when arbitrating matters of interpretation or evaluation. In this article, the author�
Mckeown-Green, Jonathan
Can't Curb the Urge to Move? Living with Restless Legs Syndrome
... t Curb the Urge to Move? Living With Restless Legs Syndrome Staying active is usually a good thing. But ... move goes to unwelcome extremes for people with restless legs syndrome. The condition can cause throbbing, pulling or creeping ...
An ultrafast video microscope (UVM), the frame rate of which reaches one million per second has been developed. Our UVM system provides pictures with high-contrast and high-resolution for differential interference contrast (DIC), phase contrast, or dark field imaging. It allows us to observe fast events that occur in live cells when irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses. Femtosecond laser pulses can be used to manipulate, stimulate, and destroy specific cells and organelles under the microscope. The irradiation of such an intense laser immediately results in some physical events, such as microbubble generation, plasma formation, and photoporation. We investigate biophysical mechanisms underlying the ultrafast processes. Our data will contribute to development of new bio-imaging modalities, which implement laser cell transfection. We also present a new method to observe side views of live cells on a substrate. We used a polymer material CYTOP as the substrate for HeLa cells. CYTOP has a refractive index of 1.34, which is close to 1.33 of water. We investigate generation of microbubbles beneath the plasma membranes with a time resolution of one microsecond for the purpose of improving the efficiency of photoporation.
Kawano, Hiroyuki; Hara, Chikako; Etoh, Takeharu G.; Miyawaki, Atsushi
Kidney Function in Living Donors Undergoing Nephrectomy by Sevoflurane or Desflurane Anesthesia
Purpose Although there is no clinical evidence of nephrotoxicity with the volatile anesthetics currently used in general anesthesia, a better agent should be needed in terms of preserving postoperative renal function in living kidney donors who have only single remaining kidney. The purpose of the current retrospective, single-center study was to evaluate and compare renal function of living kidney donors after nephrectomy under either sevoflurane or desflurane anesthesia. Materials and Methods From January 2006 through December 2011, a total of 228 donors undergoing video assisted minilaparotomy surgery nephrectomy for kidney donation were retrospectively enrolled in the current study. The donors were categorized into a sevoflurane group or desflurane group based on the type of volatile anesthetic used. We collected laboratory data from the patients preoperatively, immediately after the operation, on the first postoperative day and on the third postoperative day. We also compared renal function of the kidney donors after donor nephrectomy by comparing creatinine level and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Results The decrease in renal function after surgery in both groups was the most prominent on the first postoperative day. There were no significant differences between the two groups in postoperative changes of creatinine or eGFR. Conclusion Sevoflurane and desflurane can be used safely as volatile anesthetics in donors undergoing nephrectomy.
Kim, Min-Soo; Lee, Jeong-Rim; Kim, Myoung-Soo; Ham, Sung-Yeon
Protection from SARS coronavirus conferred by live measles vaccine expressing the spike glycoprotein.
The recent identification of a novel human coronavirus responsible of a SARS-like illness in the Middle-East a decade after the SARS pandemic, demonstrates that reemergence of a SARS-like coronavirus from an animal reservoir remains a credible threat. Because SARS is contracted by aerosolized contamination of the respiratory tract, a vaccine inducing mucosal long-term protection would be an asset to control new epidemics. To this aim, we generated live attenuated recombinant measles vaccine (MV) candidates expressing either the membrane-anchored SARS-CoV spike (S) protein or its secreted soluble ectodomain (Ssol). In mice susceptible to measles virus, recombinant MV expressing the anchored full-length S induced the highest titers of neutralizing antibodies and fully protected immunized animals from intranasal infectious challenge with SARS-CoV. As compared to immunization with adjuvanted recombinant Ssol protein, recombinant MV induced stronger and Th1-biased responses, a hallmark of live attenuated viruses and a highly desirable feature for an antiviral vaccine. PMID:24606680
Escriou, Nicolas; Callendret, Beno�t; Lorin, Val�rie; Combredet, Chantal; Marianneau, Philippe; F�vrier, Mich�le; Tangy, Fr�d�ric
Hydrogen Evolution from Alfalfa and Clover Nodules and Hydrogen Uptake by Free-Living Rhizobium meliloti�
A series of Rhizobium meliloti and Rhizobium trifolii strains were used as inocula for alfalfa and clover, respectively, grown under bacteriologically controlled conditions. Replicate samples of nodules formed by each strain were assayed for rates of H2 evolution in air, rates of H2 evolution under Ar and O2, and rates of C2H2 reduction. Nodules formed by all strains of R. meliloti and R. trifolii on their respective hosts lost at least 17% of the electron flow through nitrogenase as evolved H2. The mean loss from alfalfa nodules formed by 19 R. meliloti strains was 25%, and the mean loss from clover nodules formed by seven R. trifolii strains was 35%. R. meliloti and R. trifolii strains also were cultured under conditions that were previously established for derepression of hydrogenase synthesis. Only strains 102F65 and 102F51 of R. meliloti showed measurable activity under free-living conditions. Bacteroids from nodules formed by the two strains showing hydrogenase activity under free-living conditions also oxidized H2 at low rates. The specific activity of hydrogenase in bacteroids formed by either strain 102F65 or strain 102F51 of R. meliloti was less than 0.1% of the specific activity of the hydrogenase system in bacteroids formed by H2 uptake-positive Rhizobium japonicum USDA 110, which has been investigated previously. R. meliloti and R. trifolii strains tested possessed insufficient hydrogenase to recycle a substantial proportion of the H2 evolved from the nitrogenase reaction in nodules of their hosts. Additional research is needed, therefore, to develop strains of R. meliloti and R. trifolii that possess an adequate H2-recycling system.
Ruiz-Argueso, Tomas; Maier, Robert J.; Evans, Harold J.
Real-time analysis of endosomal lipid transport by live cell scintillation proximity assay
A scintillation proximity assay has been developed to study the endosomal trafficking of radiolabeled cholesterol in living cells. Mouse macrophages were cultured in the presence of tritiated cholesterol and scintillant microspheres. Microspheres were taken up by phagocytosis and stored in phagolysosomes. Absorption of tritium ? particles by the scintillant produces light signals that can be measured in standard scintillation counters. Because of the short range of tritium ? particles and for geometric reasons, scintillant microspheres detect only that fraction of tritiated cholesterol localized inside phagolysosomes or within a distance of ~600 nm. By incubating cultures in a temperature-controlled microplate reader, the kinetics of phagocytosis and cholesterol transport could be analyzed in near-real time. Scintillation signals were significantly increased in response to inhibitors of lysosomal cholesterol export. This method should prove a useful new tool for the study of endosomal trafficking of lipids and other molecules.
Stockinger, Walter; Castoreno, Adam B.; Wang, Yan; Pagnon, Joanne C.; Nohturfft, Axel
Hierarchical Self-Assembled Structures from POSS-Containing Block Copolymers Synthesized by Living Anionic Polymerization
Two kinds of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-containing block copolymers (BCPs), namely PS-b-PMAPOSS and PMMA-b-PMAPOSS, were synthesized by living anionic polymerization. A wide range of molecular weights were obtained with a very narrow polydispersity index of less than 1.09. The bulk samples prepared by slow evaporation from a polymer solution in chloroform exhibit well-defined microphase-separated structures with long-range order. Thermal annealing induced hierarchical structures consisting of a smaller length scale ordered crystalline POSS domains within the larger microphase-separated structures. We report detailed structural characterization of these hierarchical structures in bulk and thin films by transmission electron microscopy and grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS). On the basis of this structural analysis, we propose a model for the formation of an orthorhombic lattice structure through the aggregation of POSS segments which formed a helix-like structure.
Hirai, Tomoyasu; Leolukman, Melvina; Jin, Sangwoo; Goseki, Raita; Ishida, Yoshihito; Kakimoto, Masa-aki; Hayakawa, Teruaki; Ree, Moonhor; Gopalan, Padma; (Tokyo Inst. Tech.); (UW); (POSTECH)
Freezing of living cells
It can be calculated that a living cell will survive more than 5000 years at -196/sup 0/C. This ability to essentially stop biological time has important implications in medicine and agriculture, and in biological research. In medicine the chief implications are in the banking of transplantable tissues and organs and in in vitro fertilization. In agriculture the applications stem in part from the role of frozen embryos in amplifying the number of calves produced by high quanlity cows. The problem is how can cells survive both the cooling to such very low temperatures and the return to normal temperatures. The answers involve fundamental characteristics of cells such as the permeability of their surface membranes to water and solutes. These characteristics determine whether or not cells undergo lethal internal ice formation and other response during freezing and thawing. 27 refs., 12 figs.
Mazur, P.
Short-lived Isotopes from a Close-by AGB Star Triggering the Protosolar Nebula
The presence of short-lived isotopes in the early solar system, in particular 26Al, 41Ca, 60Fe, and 107Pd, point to a close-by and fresh nucleosynthesis source, possibly triggering the collapse of the protosolar nebula. We present the results of nucleosynthesis calculations based on an AGB polluting hypothesis. A general concordance of the predicted yields of the above radioactivities relative to 26Al can be obtained in the case of an intermediate mass AGB star with hot bottom burning in the envelope (thus producing 26Al), and mixing through a series of third dredge-up episodes a fraction of the C-rich and s-processed material from the He intershell with the extended envelope. Polution of the protosolar nebula with freshly synthesized material may derive from the efficient winds of the AGB star. In AGB stars, the s-process nucleosynthesis occurs both during the maximum phase of every thermal runaway, driven by the partial activation of the 22Ne(alpha,n)25Mg reaction, and in the interpulse phase, where the 13C nuclei are fully consumed in radiative conditions by the activation of the 13C(alpha,n)16O reaction. We have used different prescriptions for the amount of the 13C nuclei present in the intershell. A minimum amount of 13C is naturally expected in the ashes of H-shell burning. Possible formation of an extra "13C-pocket" derives from the injection of a small amount of protons from the envelope into the 12C-rich intershell during any third dredge-up episode, when the H-shell is inactivated. Prediction for other short-lived, 36Cl, 135Cs, and 205Pb, are given. General consequences for the pollution of the protosolar nebula with newly synthesized stable isotopes from the AGB winds are outlined. The origin of other detected short-lived nuclei, in particular 53Mn, 129I, and 182Hf, which cannot come from an AGB source, is analysed. The alternative trigger hypothesis by a close-by Supernova is discussed.
Gallino, R.; Busso, M.; Wasserburg, G. J.; Straniero, O.
Comparison of nucleic acid content in populations of free-living and symbiotic Rhizobium meliloti by flow microfluorometry.
Populations of symbiotic Rhizobium meliloti extracted from alfalfa nodules were shown by flow microfluorometry to contain a significant number of bacteroids with higher nucleic acid content than the free-living rhizobia. Bacteroids with lower nucleic acid content than the free-living bacteria were not detected in significant quantities in these populations. These results indicate that the incapability of bacteroids to reestablish growth in nutrient media may not be caused by a decrease in nucleic acid content of the symbiotic rhizobia.
Paau, A S; Lee, D; Cowles, J R
Comparison of Characteristics between Patients with H7N9 Living in Rural and Urban Areas of Zhejiang Province, China: A Preliminary Report.
A total of 134 cases of H7N9 influenza infection were identified in 12 provinces of China between March 25 and September 31, 2013. Of these, 46 cases occurred in Zhejiang Province. We carried out a preliminary comparison of characteristics between rural and urban H7N9 cases from Zhejiang Province, China. Field investigations were conducted for each confirmed H7N9 case. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect information about demographics, exposure history, clinical signs and symptoms, timelines of medical visits and care after onset of illness. Of the 46 H7N9 cases in Zhejiang Province identified between March 25 and September 31, 2013, there were 16 rural cases and 30 urban cases. Compared to urban cases, there was a higher proportion of females among the rural cases [11/16 (69%) vs. 6/30 (20%), P?=?0.001]. Among the rural cases, 14/15 (93%) with available data had a history of recent poultry exposure, which was significantly higher than that among urban cases (64%, P?=?0.038). More patients from the rural group had a history of breeding poultry compared with those from the urban group [38% (6/16) vs. 10% (3/30), respectively; P?=?0.025]. Interestingly, the median number of medical visits of patients from rural areas was higher than that of patients from urban areas (P?=?0.046). There was no difference between the two groups in terms of age distribution, fatality rate, incubation period, symptoms, and underlying medical conditions. In conclusion, compared to patients from urban areas, more patients from rural areas were female, had an exposure history, had a history of breeding poultry, and had a higher number of medical visits. These findings indicate that there are different exposure patterns between patients living in rural and urban areas and that more rural cases were infected through backyard poultry breeding. PMID:24710171
Sun, Jimin; Gong, Zhenyu; Lv, Huakun; Chen, Zhiping; Chai, Chengliang; Liu, Shelan; Ling, Feng; Lu, Ye; Cai, Jian; Yu, Zhao; Miao, Ziping; Ren, Jiangping; Chen, Enfu
Comparison of Characteristics between Patients with H7N9 Living in Rural and Urban Areas of Zhejiang Province, China: A Preliminary Report
A total of 134 cases of H7N9 influenza infection were identified in 12 provinces of China between March 25 and September 31, 2013. Of these, 46 cases occurred in Zhejiang Province. We carried out a preliminary comparison of characteristics between rural and urban H7N9 cases from Zhejiang Province, China. Field investigations were conducted for each confirmed H7N9 case. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect information about demographics, exposure history, clinical signs and symptoms, timelines of medical visits and care after onset of illness. Of the 46 H7N9 cases in Zhejiang Province identified between March 25 and September 31, 2013, there were 16 rural cases and 30 urban cases. Compared to urban cases, there was a higher proportion of females among the rural cases [11/16 (69%) vs. 6/30 (20%), P?=?0.001]. Among the rural cases, 14/15 (93%) with available data had a history of recent poultry exposure, which was significantly higher than that among urban cases (64%, P?=?0.038). More patients from the rural group had a history of breeding poultry compared with those from the urban group [38% (6/16) vs. 10% (3/30), respectively; P?=?0.025]. Interestingly, the median number of medical visits of patients from rural areas was higher than that of patients from urban areas (P?=?0.046). There was no difference between the two groups in terms of age distribution, fatality rate, incubation period, symptoms, and underlying medical conditions. In conclusion, compared to patients from urban areas, more patients from rural areas were female, had an exposure history, had a history of breeding poultry, and had a higher number of medical visits. These findings indicate that there are different exposure patterns between patients living in rural and urban areas and that more rural cases were infected through backyard poultry breeding.
Chen, Zhiping; Chai, Chengliang; Liu, Shelan; Ling, Feng; Lu, Ye; Cai, Jian; Yu, Zhao; Miao, Ziping; Ren, Jiangping; Chen, Enfu
Measurement of physical characteristics of materials by ultrasonic methods
A method is described for determining and evaluating physical characteristics of a material. In particular, the present invention provides for determining and evaluating the anisotropic characteristics of materials, especially those resulting from such manufacturing processes as rolling, forming, extruding, drawing, forging, etc. In operation, a complex ultrasonic wave is created in the material of interest by any method. The wave form may be any combination of wave types and modes and is not limited to fundamental plate modes. The velocity of propagation of selected components which make up the complex ultrasonic wave are measured and evaluated to determine the physical characteristics of the material including, texture, strain/stress, grain size, crystal structure, etc.
Lu, Wei-yang (Pleasanton, CA); Min, Shermann (Livermore, CA)
A method is described for determining and evaluating physical characteristics of a material. In particular, the present invention provides for determining and evaluating the anisotropic characteristics of materials, especially those resulting from such manufacturing processes as rolling, forming, extruding, drawing, forging, etc. In operation, a complex ultrasonic wave is created in the material of interest by any method. The wave form may be any combination of wave types and modes and is not limited to fundamental plate modes. The velocity of propagation of selected components which make up the complex ultrasonic wave are measured and evaluated to determine the physical characteristics of the material including, texture, strain/stress, grain size, crystal structure, etc. 14 figs.
Lu, W.Y.; Min, S.
Starting Characteristics of Direct Current Motors Powered by Solar Cells.
Direct current motors are used in photovoltaic systems. Important characteristics of electric motors are the starting to rated current and torque ratios. These ratios are dictated by the size of the solar cell array and are different for the various dc mo...
S. Singer J. Appelbaum
Study of fatigue crack characteristics by acoustic emission
Acoustic emission (AE) technique was used to investigate fatigue crack characteristics such as initiation closure and propagation on smooth specimens of Incoloy 901 at room temperature, over the range of stress ratios ?1.0 ? R ? 0.2. AE technique was applied to determine when and where a microcrack initiated on the specimens. The threshold stress intensity ranges were determined by
Avraham Berkovits; Daining Fang
Introduction of Foreign Genes into Tissues of Living Mice by DNA-Coated Microprojectiles
Foreign genes were expressed in liver and skin cells of live mice by using a new apparatus to accelerate DNA-coated microprojectiles into tissues. After introduction of a plasmid in which the firefly luciferase gene was controlled by the human ?-actin promoter, luciferase activity was detectable for up to 14 days in mouse tissues (skin and liver). In situ hybridization histochemistry revealed that microprojectiles penetrated through multiple cell layers without evidence of tissue injury and that 10-20% of the cells in the bombarded area expressed the foreign gene. An advantage of the new design is that internal organs, such as liver, can be transfected without subjecting the tissue to a vacuum. This procedure potentially is applicable to a wide variety of tissues and cell types for studies of transcriptional control elements and for expression of foreign proteins in intact animals.
Sanders Williams, R.; Johnston, Stephen A.; Riedy, Mark; Devit, Michael J.; McElligott, Sandra G.; Sanford, John C.
Visualizing the endocytosis of phenylephrine in living cells by quantum dot-based tracking.
To study the intracellular receptor-drug transportation, a fluorescent probe consisting of phenylephrine-polyethylene glycol-quantum dots conjugate was employed to track endocytosis process of phenylephrine in living cells. This type of movement was studied by continuously filming fluorescent images in the same cell. We also calculated the movement parameters, and divided the endocytosis process into 6 stages. Furthermore, the movement parameters of this probe in different organelles were determined by co-localization of the probe fluorescent images and different cellular organelles. After comparing the parameters in cellular organelles with these in 6 stages, the whole endocytosis pathway was demonstrated. These results verified that this probe successfully tracked the whole intracellular dynamic endocytosis process of phenylephrine. Our method realized the visual tracking the whole receptor-mediated endocytosis, which is a new approach on investigating the molecular mechanisms and kinetic properties of intracellular receptor-drug transportation. PMID:24855959
Ma, Jing; Wu, Lina; Hou, Zhun; Song, Yao; Wang, Lei; Jiang, Wei
Live imaging reveals active infiltration of mitotic zone by its stem cell niche
Stem cells niches are increasingly recognized as dynamic environments that play a key role in transducing signals that allow an organism to exert control on its stem cells. Live imaging of stem cell niches in their in vivo setting is thus of high interest to dissect stem cell controls. Here we report a new microfluidic design that is highly amenable to dissemination in biology laboratories that have no microfluidics expertise. This design has allowed us to perform the first time lapse imaging of the C. elegans germline stem cell niche. Our results show that this niche is strikingly dynamic, and that morphological changes that take place during development are the result of a highly active process. These results lay the foundation for future studies to dissect molecular mechanisms by which stem cell niche morphology is modulated, and by which niche morphology controls stem cell behavior.
Wong, Brandon G.; Paz, Adrian; Corrado, Michael A.; Ramos, Brian R.; Cinquin, Amanda
Characterization of Curli A Production on Living Bacterial Surfaces by Scanning Probe Microscopy
Curli are adhesive surface fibers produced by many Enterobacteriaceae, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica. They are implicated in bacterial attachment and invasion to epithelial cells. In this study, atomic force microscopy was used to determine the effects of curli on topology and mechanical properties of live E.�coli cells. Young's moduli of both curli-deficient and curli-overproducing mutants were significantly lower than that of their wild-type (WT) strain, while decay lengths of the former strains were higher than that of the latter strain. Surprisingly, topological images showed that, unlike the WT and curli-overproducing mutant, the curli-deficient mutant produced a large number of flagella-like fibers, which may explain why the strain had a lower Young's modulus than the WT. These results suggest that the mechanical properties of bacterial surfaces are greatly affected by the presence of filamentous structures such as curli and flagella.
Oh, Yoo Jin; Cui, Yidan; Kim, Hyunseok; Li, Yinhua; Hinterdorfer, Peter; Park, Sungsu
Living specimen tomography by digital holographic microscopy: morphometry of testate amoeba
This paper presents an optical diffraction tomography technique based on digital holographic microscopy. Quantitative 2-dimensional phase images are acquired for regularly-spaced angular positions of the specimen covering a total angle of ?, allowing to built 3-dimensional quantitative refractive index distributions by an inverse Radon transform. A 20x magnification allows a resolution better than 3 ?m in all three dimensions, with accuracy better than 0.01 for the refractive index measurements. This technique is for the first time to our knowledge applied to living specimen (testate amoeba, Protista). Morphometric measurements are extracted from the tomographic reconstructions, showing that the commonly used method for testate amoeba biovolume evaluation leads to systematic under evaluations by about 50%.
Charri�re, Florian; Pavillon, Nicolas; Colomb, Tristan; Depeursinge, Christian; Heger, Thierry J.; Mitchell, Edward A. D.; Marquet, Pierre; Rappaz, Benjamin
Living specimen tomography by digital holographic microscopy: morphometry of testate amoeba.
This paper presents an optical diffraction tomography technique based on digital holographic microscopy. Quantitative 2-dimensional phase images are acquired for regularly-spaced angular positions of the specimen covering a total angle of pi, allowing to built 3-dimensional quantitative refractive index distributions by an inverse Radon transform. A 20x magnification allows a resolution better than 3 microm in all three dimensions, with accuracy better than 0.01 for the refractive index measurements. This technique is for the first time to our knowledge applied to living specimen (testate amoeba, Protista). Morphometric measurements are extracted from the tomographic reconstructions, showing that the commonly used method for testate amoeba biovolume evaluation leads to systematic under evaluations by about 50%. PMID:19529071
Charri�re, Florian; Pavillon, Nicolas; Colomb, Tristan; Depeursinge, Christian; Heger, Thierry J; Mitchell, Edward A D; Marquet, Pierre; Rappaz, Benjamin
Integral refractive index determination of living suspension cells by multifocus digital holographic phase contrast microscopy.
A method for the determination of the integral refractive index of living cells in suspension by digital holographic microscopy is described. Digital holographic phase contrast images of spherical cells in suspension are recorded, and the radius as well as the integral refractive index are determined by fitting the relation between cell thickness and phase distribution to the measured phase data. The algorithm only requires information about the refractive index of the suspension medium and the image scale of the microscope system. The specific digital holographic microscopy advantage of subsequent focus correction allows a simultaneous investigation of cells in different focus planes. Results obtained from human pancreas and liver tumor cells show that the integral cellular refractive index decreases with increasing cell radius. PMID:17994897
Kemper, Bj�rn; Kosmeier, Sebastian; Langehanenberg, Patrik; von Bally, Gert; Bredebusch, Ilona; Domschke, Wolfram; Schnekenburger, J�rgen
Evaluation of immune responses by live infectious bursal disease vaccines to avoid vaccination failures.
Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is a viral, contagious immunosuppressive disease posing an important threat to the commercial poultry industry. Evolution of highly virulent strains of IBD virus warranted the need for detailed characterization of the immune responses offered by the currently available vaccines. Two extensively used live vaccines of varied attenuation levels - intermediate and intermediate plus - strains were analyzed for the induction of immune responses. Both the vaccines induced protective antibody titers with the onset, quicker and higher with the intermediate plus vaccine. The intermediate plus strain vaccinate was observed to induce higher levels of IFN-? in the birds. These results were supported by immunophenotype analyses with an increase in CD8+ and simultaneous decrease in CD4+ cell population. Both vaccine strains conferred protective immunity against virulent challenge. The study warrants the use of intermediate plus vaccines in disease endemic regions and intermediate vaccines in non-endemic regions to prevent IBD infection. PMID:24883198
Jakka, P; Reddy, Y K; Kirubaharan, J J; Chandran, N D J
Evaluation of immune responses by live infectious bursal disease vaccines to avoid vaccination failures
Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is a viral, contagious immunosuppressive disease posing an important threat to the commercial poultry industry. Evolution of highly virulent strains of IBD virus warranted the need for detailed characterization of the immune responses offered by the currently available vaccines. Two extensively used live vaccines of varied attenuation levels � intermediate and intermediate plus � strains were analyzed for the induction of immune responses. Both the vaccines induced protective antibody titers with the onset, quicker and higher with the intermediate plus vaccine. The intermediate plus strain vaccinate was observed to induce higher levels of IFN-? in the birds. These results were supported by immunophenotype analyses with an increase in CD8+ and simultaneous decrease in CD4+ cell population. Both vaccine strains conferred protective immunity against virulent challenge. The study warrants the use of intermediate plus vaccines in disease endemic regions and intermediate vaccines in non-endemic regions to prevent IBD infection.
Reddy, Y. K.; Kirubaharan, J. J.; Chandran, N. D. J.
Intracellular Confinement of Magnetic Nanoparticles by Living Cells: Impact for Imaging and Therapeutic Applications
Superparamagnetic properties of iron-oxide nanoparticles paved the way for various biomedical applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic targeting of drug vectors or magnetically-induced therapeutic hyperthermia. Living cells interact with nanoparticles by internalizing them within intracellular compartments, called lysosomes. In the course of cellular uptake, the spatial distribution of magnetic nanoparticles changes from dilute isolated nanoparticles to a highly concentrated assembly of nanoparticles confined in micrometric lysosomes. This local organization of nanoparticles, which is induced by the intracellular environment, may have important consequences for their superparamagnetic behaviour. In particular, it may deeply affect their magnetic properties used for biomedical purposes and therefore must be considered when optimizing the properties of nanoparticles for a peculiar application. In this paper, we review the role of intracellular confinement of nanoparticles for their three main biomedical uses: MR cellular imaging, magnetic targeting of cells and magnetically induced hyperthermia.
Gazeau, Florence; L�vy, Michael; Wilhelm, Claire
Deposition of Coatings from Live Yeast Cells and Large Particles by "Convective-Sedimentation" Assembly
Convective assembly at high volume fraction was used for the rapid deposition of uniform, close-packed coatings of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells onto glass slides. A computational model was developed to calculate the thickness profiles of such coatings for different set of conditions. Both the experiments and the numerical simulations demonstrated that the deposition process is strongly affected by the presence of sedimentation. The deposition device was inclined to increase the uniformity of the coatings by causing the cells to sediment toward the three-phase contact line. In accordance with the simulation, the experiments showed that both increasing the angle of the device and decreasing the angle between the slides increased the uniformity of the deposited coatings. Finally, the �convective-sedimentation� assembly method was used to deposit mixed layers of live cells and large latex particles as an example of immobilized biologically active composite coatings.
Jerrim, Lindsey B.; Velev, Orlin D.
All things work together for good'? Theodicy and post-traumatic spirituality
The idea that evil things may have a positive outcome is a classic way of making sense of negative events. It is even at the heart of conversion narratives. Its expression in Romans 8.28 is paralleled by many formal and informal statements about the teleological meaning of human suffering. In the catalogue of theodicy- models, such views can be labeled
R. Ruard Ganzevoort
Things That Help Us Perform: Commentary on Ideas from Donald A. Norman.
Reviews and summarizes "Things That Make Us Smart," a book by Donald Norman that defends human attributes in the age of electronic systems. Topics include human performance; kinds of cognition; kinds of learning; design principles for electronic performance support systems; and examples. (LRW)
Dickelman, Gary J.
Wing characteristics as affected by protuberances of short span
The drag and interference caused by short-span protuberances from the surface of an airfoil have been investigated in the NACA variable-density wind tunnel at a Reynolds number of approximately 3,100,000, based on the chord length of the airfoil. The effects of variations of protuberance span length, span position, and shape were measured by determining how the wing characteristics were affected by the addition of the various protuberances.
Jacobs, Eastman N; Sherman, Albert
Dynamic auxin transport patterns preceding vein formation revealed by live-imaging of Arabidopsis leaf primordia
Self-regulatory patterning mechanisms capable of generating biologically meaningful, yet unpredictable cellular patterns offer unique opportunities for obtaining mathematical descriptions of underlying patterning systems properties. The networks of higher-order veins in leaf primordia constitute such a self-regulatory system. During the formation of higher-order veins, vascular precursors are selected from a homogenous field of subepidermal cells in unpredictable positions to eventually connect in complex cellular networks. Auxin transport routes have been implicated in this selection process, but understanding of their role in vascular patterning has been limited by our inability to monitor early auxin transport dynamics in vivo. Here we describe a live-imaging system in emerging Arabidopsis thaliana leaves that uses a PIN1:GFP reporter to visualize auxin transport routes and an Athb8:YFP reporter as a marker for vascular commitment. Live-imaging revealed common features initiating the formation of all higher-order veins. The formation of broad PIN1 expression domains is followed by their restriction, leading to sustained, elevated PIN1 expression in incipient procambial cells files, which then express Athb8. Higher-order PIN1 expression domains (hPEDs) are initiated as freely ending domains that extend toward each other and sometimes fuse with them, creating connected domains. During the restriction and specification phase, cells in wider hPEDs are partitioned into vascular and non-vascular fates: Central cells acquire a coordinated cell axis and express elevated PIN1 levels as well as the pre-procambial marker Athb8, while edge cells downregulate PIN1 and remain isodiametric. The dynamic nature of the early selection process is underscored by the instability of early hPEDs, which can result in dramatic changes in vascular network architecture prior to Athb8 expression, which is correlated with the promotion onto vascular cell fate.
Marcos, Danielle; Berleth, Thomas
Cell death associated with abnormal mitosis observed by confocal imaging in live cancer cells.
Phenanthrene derivatives acting as potent PARP1 inhibitors prevented the bi-focal clustering of supernumerary centrosomes in multi-centrosomal human cancer cells in mitosis. The phenanthridine PJ-34 was the most potent molecule. Declustering of extra-centrosomes causes mitotic failure and cell death in multi-centrosomal cells. Most solid human cancers have high occurrence of extra-centrosomes. The activity of PJ-34 was documented in real-time by confocal imaging of live human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells transfected with vectors encoding for fluorescent ?-tubulin, which is highly abundant in the centrosomes and for fluorescent histone H2b present in the chromosomes. Aberrant chromosomes arrangements and de-clustered ?-tubulin foci representing declustered centrosomes were detected in the transfected MDA-MB-231 cells after treatment with PJ-34. Un-clustered extra-centrosomes in the two spindle poles preceded their cell death. These results linked for the first time the recently detected exclusive cytotoxic activity of PJ-34 in human cancer cells with extra-centrosomes de-clustering in mitosis, and mitotic failure leading to cell death. According to previous findings observed by confocal imaging of fixed cells, PJ-34 exclusively eradicated cancer cells with multi-centrosomes without impairing normal cells undergoing mitosis with two centrosomes and bi-focal spindles. This cytotoxic activity of PJ-34 was not shared by other potent PARP1 inhibitors, and was observed in PARP1 deficient MEF harboring extracentrosomes, suggesting its independency of PARP1 inhibition. Live confocal imaging offered a useful tool for identifying new molecules eradicating cells during mitosis. PMID:23995751
Castiel, Asher; Visochek, Leonid; Mittelman, Leonid; Zilberstein, Yael; Dantzer, Francoise; Izraeli, Shai; Cohen-Armon, Malka
Influence of Mismatch of Env Sequences on Vaccine Protection by Live Attenuated Simian Immunodeficiency Virus
Vaccine/challenge experiments that utilize live attenuated strains of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in monkeys may be useful for elucidating what is needed from a vaccine in order to achieve protective immunity. Derivatives of SIVmac239 and SIVmac239?nef were constructed in which env sequences were replaced with those of the heterologous strain E543; these were then used in vaccine/challenge experiments. When challenge occurred at 22 weeks, 10 of 12 monkeys exhibited apparent sterilizing immunity despite a mismatch of Env sequences, compared to 12 of 12 monkeys with apparent sterilizing immunity when challenge virus was matched in its Env sequence. However, when challenge occurred at 6 weeks, 6 of 6 SIV239?nef-immunized monkeys became superinfected by challenge virus mismatched in its Env sequence (SIV239/EnvE543). These results contrast markedly not only with the results of the week 22 challenge but also with the sterilizing immunity observed in 5 of 5 SIV239?nef-immunized rhesus monkeys challenged at 5 weeks with SIV239, i.e., with no mismatch of Env sequences. We conclude from these studies that a mismatch of Env sequences in the challenge virus can have a dramatic effect on the extent of apparent sterilizing immunity when challenge occurs relatively early, 5 to 6 weeks after the nef-deleted SIV administration. However, by 22 weeks, mismatch of Env sequences has little or no influence on the degree of protection against challenge virus. Our findings suggest that anti-Env immune responses are a key component of the protective immunity elicited by live attenuated, nef-deleted SIV.
Manrique, Julieta; Piatak, Michael; Lauer, William; Johnson, Welkin; Mansfield, Keith; Lifson, Jeffrey
Assisted Living
... but they don't need full-time nursing care. Some assisted living facilities are part of retirement ... change. Assisted living costs less than nursing home care. It is still fairly expensive. Older people or ...
Living Clocks
In this activity about daily rhythms (on page 17 of the PDF), learners will explore circadian patterns in humans, animals and plants. They will observe that some behaviors and functions of living organisms vary predictably every 24 hours and many regular functions are governed by internal "clocks," which run independently but are cued or reset by the environment. Groups of learners can conduct one of four (or more) body clock investigations: body temperature, animal behavior, bean leaf, and alertness/heart rate. Materials required for each group will vary, depending on the investigation(s) being conducted. This lesson guide includes background information, setup and management tips, extensions and a handout.
Moreno, Nancy P.; Tharp, Barbara Z.; Vogt, Greg L.
Liver Regeneration in Donors Evaluated by Tc99m-GSA Scintigraphy after Living Donor Liver Transplantation
The impact of hepatic steatosis on regeneration of the remnant liver after living donor liver transplantation is unclear.\\u000a We evaluated the impact of steatosis on regeneration and function of the remnant liver by using technetium-99m-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic\\u000a acid-galactosyl human serum albumin scintigraphy. Twelve living donors were classified into groups with or without mild hepatic\\u000a steatosis according to the liver-to-spleen attenuation ratio on
Masaki Kaibori; Sang Kil Ha-Kawa; Yoichiro Uchida; Morihiko Ishizaki; Takamichi Saito; Kosuke Matsui; Junko Hirohara; Koichi Tanaka; Yasuo Kamiyama
Half a Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.
Teachers cannot afford to ignore the research findings on right and left brain functions. Basically, three things have been discovered: (1) each hemisphere of the brain processes information differently; (2) in some people, the hemispheres work well toget...
J. E. Conner
Time to Talk: 5 Things You Should Know about Yoga
Time to Talk Tips 5 Things You Should Know About Yoga Yoga typically combines physical postures, breathing ... About Complementary Health Approaches for Quitting Smoking More Time To Talk Tip Sheets Home Home Page Contact ...
Behavioural and Structural Composition Rules Preserving Liveness by Synchronization for Colored FIFO Nets
. This paper deals with the compositionality of livenesswhen synchronizing two coloured FIFO nets. The composition operatorallows to merge transitions as well as some adjacent places or queues.A behavioural sufficient condition for liveness compositionality relieson a mutual non constraining relation between component nets. A structuralsufficient condition for synchronization preserving liveness is thengiven in the case of a state machine at
Mohamed-lyes Benalycherif; Claude Girault
Nuclear dynamics of influenza A virus ribonucleoproteins revealed by live-cell imaging studies
The negative sense RNA genome of influenza A virus is transcribed and replicated in the nuclei of infected cells by the viral RNA polymerase. Only four viral polypeptides are required but multiple cellular components are potentially involved. We used fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) to characterise the dynamics of GFP-tagged viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) components in living cells. The nucleoprotein (NP) displayed very slow mobility that significantly increased on formation of transcriptionally active RNPs. Conversely, single or dimeric polymerase subunits showed fast nuclear dynamics that decreased upon formation of heterotrimers, suggesting increased interaction of the full polymerase complex with a relatively immobile cellular component(s). Treatment with inhibitors of cellular transcription indicated that in part, this reflected an interaction with cellular RNA polymerase II. Analysis of mutated influenza virus polymerase complexes further suggested that this was through an interaction between PB2 and RNA Pol II separate from PB2 cap-binding activity.
Loucaides, Eva M. [Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP (United Kingdom); Kirchbach, Johann C. von [Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA (United Kingdom); Foeglein, Agnes [Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP (United Kingdom); Sharps, Jane; Fodor, Ervin [Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford, OX1 3RE (United Kingdom); Digard, Paul, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com [Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP (United Kingdom)
Removal of long-lived {sup 222}Rn daughters by electropolishing thin layers of stainless steel
Long-lived alpha and beta emitters in the {sup 222}Rn decay chain on detector surfaces may be the limiting background in many experiments attempting to detect dark matter or neutrinoless double beta decay. Removal of tens of microns of material via electropolishing has been shown to be effective at removing radon daughters implanted into material surfaces. Some applications, however, require the removal of uniform and significantly smaller thicknesses. Here, we demonstrate that electropolishing < 1 ?m from stainless-steel plates reduces the contamination efficiently, by a factor > 100. Examination of electropolished wires with a scanning electron microscope confirms that the thickness removed is reproducible and reasonably uniform. Together, these tests demonstrate the effectiveness of removal of radon daughters for a proposed low-radiation, multi-wire proportional chamber (the BetaCage), without compromising the screener�s energy resolution. More generally, electropolishing thin layers of stainless steel may effectively remove radon daughters without compromising precision-machined parts.
Schnee, R. W.; Bowles, M. A.; Bunker, R.; McCabe, K.; White, J. [Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244 (United States)] [Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244 (United States); Cushman, P.; Pepin, M. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)] [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States); Guiseppe, V. E. [University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota 57069 (United States)] [University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota 57069 (United States)
Automated three-dimensional tracking of living cells by digital holographic microscopy.
Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) enables a quantitative multifocus phase contrast imaging that has been found suitable for technical inspection and quantitative live cell imaging. The combination of DHM with fast and robust autofocus algorithms enables subsequent automated focus realignment by numerical propagation of the digital holographically reconstructed object wave. In combination with a calibrated optical imaging system, the obtained propagation data quantify axial displacements of the investigated sample. The evaluation of quantitative DHM phase contrast images also enables an effective determination of lateral cell displacements. Thus, 3-D displacement data are provided. Results from investigations on sedimenting red blood cells and HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cells in a collagen tissue model demonstrate that DHM enables marker-free automated quantitative dynamic 3-D cell tracking without mechanical focus adjustment. PMID:19256706
Langehanenberg, Patrik; Ivanova, Lyubomira; Bernhardt, Ingolf; Ketelhut, Steffi; Vollmer, Angelika; Dirksen, Dieter; Georgiev, Georgi; von Bally, Gert; Kemper, Bj�rn
Prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infection in living raccoon dogs assessed by hematological examination.
The prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis in free-ranging raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus) was examined in the southeast region of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, using a rapid immunomigration (RIM) test kit. Between April 2007 and March 2010, we examined 108 raccoon dogs rescued and housed by the Kanazawa Zoological Garden. D. immitis infection was found in 8 (7.4%) raccoon dogs. This is the first report to reveal the prevalence of D. immitis infection in living raccoon dogs. The prevalence of the infection was lower than previously reported values obtained on postmortem examination. One reason might be that the present study included young raccoon dogs infected with immature worms. Significant high-risk areas of D. immitis infection in the raccoon dogs were not observed. PMID:21293077
Kido, Nobuhide; Wada, Yuko; Takahashi, Maya; Kamegaya, Chihiro; Omiya, Tomoko; Yamamoto, Yasuhiko
D2 dopamine receptors in the putamen of living human subjects were characterized by using the selective, high-affinity D2 dopamine receptor antagonist carbon-11-labeled raclopride and positron emission tomography. Experiments in four healthy men demonstrated saturability of [11C]raclopride binding to an apparently homogeneous population of sites with Hill coefficients close to unity. In the normal putamen, maximum binding ranged from 12 to 17 picomoles per cubic centimeter and dissociation constants from 3.4 to 4.7 nanomolar. Maximum binding for human putamen at autopsy was 15 picomoles per cubic centimeter. Studies of [11C]raclopride binding indicate that clinically effective doses of chemically distinct neuroleptic drugs result in 85 to 90 percent occupancy of D2 dopamine receptors in the putamen of schizophrenic patients.
Farde, Lars; Hall, Hakan; Ehrin, Erling; Sedvall, Goran
Removal of long-lived 222Rn daughters by electropolishing thin layers of stainless steel
Long-lived alpha and beta emitters in the 222Rn decay chain on detector surfaces may be the limiting background in many experiments attempting to detect dark matter or neutrinoless double beta decay. Removal of tens of microns of material via electropolishing has been shown to be effective at removing radon daughters implanted into material surfaces. Some applications, however, require the removal of uniform and significantly smaller thicknesses. Here, we demonstrate that electropolishing < 1 ?m from stainless-steel plates reduces the contamination efficiently, by a factor > 100. Examination of electropolished wires with a scanning electron microscope confirms that the thickness removed is reproducible and reasonably uniform. Together, these tests demonstrate the effectiveness of removal of radon daughters for a proposed low-radiation, multi-wire proportional chamber (the BetaCage), without compromising the screener's energy resolution. More generally, electropolishing thin layers of stainless steel may effectively remove radon daughters without compromising precision-machined parts.
Schnee, R. W.; Bowles, M. A.; Bunker, R.; McCabe, K.; White, J.; Cushman, P.; Pepin, M.; Guiseppe, V. E.
Subcellular control of Rac-GTPase signalling by magnetogenetic manipulation inside living cells
Many cell functions rely on the coordinated activity of signalling pathways at a subcellular scale. However, there are few tools capable of probing and perturbing signalling networks with a spatial resolution matching the intracellular dimensions of their activity patterns. Here we present a generic magnetogenetic approach based on the self-assembly of signalling complexes on the surface of functionalized magnetic nanoparticles inside living cells. The nanoparticles act as nanoscopic hot spots that can be displaced by magnetic forces and trigger signal transduction pathways that bring about a cell response. We applied this strategy to Rho-GTPases, a set of molecular switches known to regulate cell morphology via complex spatiotemporal patterns of activity. We demonstrate that the nanoparticle-mediated activation of signalling pathways leads to local remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton and to morphological changes.
Etoc, F.; Lisse, D.; Bellaiche, Y.; Piehler, J.; Coppey, M.; Dahan, M.
Measuring Rotational Diffusion of MHC Class I on Live Cells by Polarized FPR3
Clustering of membrane proteins is a dynamic process which can regulate cellular function and signaling. The size of receptor and other membrane protein clusters can in principle be measured in terms of their rotational diffusion. However, in practice, measuring rotation of membrane proteins of live cells has been difficult, largely because of the difficulty of rigidly attaching reporter groups to the molecules of interest. Here we show that polarized photobleaching recovery can detect rotation of membrane proteins genetically tagged with yellow fluorescent protein, YFP. MHC class I molecules were engineered with a rigid, in-sequence, YFP tag followed at the C-terminus by a pair of crosslinkable domains. When crosslinker was added we could detect changes in rotational anisotropy decay consistent with clustering of the MHC molecules. This result points the way to use of engineered fluorescent fusion proteins to measure rotational diffusion in native cell membranes.
Fooksman, David R.; Edidin, Michael; George Barisas, B.
High-content super-resolution imaging of live cell by uPAINT.
In this chapter, we present the uPAINT method (Universal Point Accumulation Imaging in Nanoscale Topography), a simple single-molecule super-resolution method which can be implemented on any wide field fluorescence microscope operating in oblique illumination. The key feature of uPAINT lies in recording high numbers of single molecules at the surface of a cell by constantly labeling while imaging. In addition to generating super-resolved images, uPAINT can provide dynamical information on a single live cell with large statistics revealing localization-specific diffusion properties of membrane biomolecules. Interestingly, any membrane biomolecule that can be labeled with a fluorescent ligand can be studied, making uPAINT an extremely versatile method. PMID:23086872
Giannone, Gr�gory; Hosy, Eric; Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste; Choquet, Daniel; Cognet, Laurent
Recognizing Safety and Liveness
This paper substantiates that experience by formalizing safety and liveness in a way that permits the relationship between safety and invariance and between liveness and wellfoundedness to be demonstrated for a large class of properties. In so doing, we give new characterizations of safety and liveness and prove that they satisfy the formal definitions in [Alpera & Schneider 85a
Bowen Alpern
Medication use in the context of everyday living as understood by seniors
Recognizing that older adults are among the biggest consumers of medication, and the demographic group most likely to suffer an adverse drug reaction (ADR), this paper details the findings from a recent study on how older adults come to understand medication and its related use. Using a qualitative content analysis method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 individuals from British Columbia, Canada. Study participants ranged in age from 65 to 89 years (male=9, female=11). Using NVIVO� 7 software, data were subjected to comparative thematic content analysis in an effort to capture the role of medication use in the context of everyday living as understood by older adults. While there was variability in how older adults come to understand their medication use, an overarching theme was revealed whereby most participants identified their prescription medications as being life-sustaining and prolonging. Deeper thematic content analysis of participant narratives drew attention to three key areas: (A) medications are viewed as a necessary, often unquestioned, aspect of day-to-day life (B) a relationship is perceived to exist between the amount of medications taken and ones current state of health (C) the overall medication experience is positively or negatively influenced by the doctor patient relationship and the assumption that it is the physicians role to communicate medication information that will support everyday living. The article concludes that medical authority and the complexities surrounding medication use need to undergo significant revision if community dwelling older adults are to experience greater success in safely managing their health and medication-related needs.
Vegsund, Britt; Stephenson, Peter H.; Beuthin, Rosanne E.
Live celloidosome structures based on the assembly of individual cells by colloid interactions.
A new class of colloid structures, celloidosomes, has been developed which represent hollow microcapsules whose membranes consist of a single monolayer of living cells. Two routes for producing these structures were designed based on templating of: (i) air bubbles and (ii) anisotropic microcrystals of calcium carbonate with living cells, which allowed us to fabricate celloidosomes of spherical, rhombohedral and needle-like morphologies. Air microbubbles were templated by yeast cells coated with poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), then coated with carboxymethylcellulose and rehydrated resulting in the formation of spherical multicellular structures. Similarly, calcium carbonate microcrystals of anisotropic shapes were coated with several consecutive layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes to obtain a positive surface charge which was used to immobilise yeast cells coated with anionic polyelectrolyte of their surfaces. After dissolving of sacrificial cores, hollow multicellular structures were obtained. The viability of the cells in the produced structures was confirmed by using fluorescein diacetate. In order to optimize the separation of celloidosomes from free cells magnetic nanoparticles were immobilised onto the surface of templates prior to the cells deposition, which greatly facilitated the separation using a permanent magnet. Two alternative approaches were developed to form celloidosome structures using magnetically functionalised core-shell microparticles which resulted in the formation of celloidosomes with needle-like and cubic-like geometries which follows the original morphology of the calcium carbonate microcrystals. Our methods for fabrication of celloidosomes may found applications in the development of novel symbiotic bio-structures, artificial multicellular organisms and in tissue engineering. The unusual structure of celloidosomes resembles the primitive forms of multicellular species, like Volvox, and other algae and could be regarded as one possible mechanism of the evolutionary development of multicellularity. PMID:20737085
Fakhrullin, Rawil F; Brandy, Marie-Laure; Cayre, Olivier J; Velev, Orlin D; Paunov, Vesselin N
Characteristics of Sexual Homicides Committed by Psychopathic and Nonpsychopathic Offenders
In this study, the relationship between psychopathy and the perpetration of sexual homicide was investigated. The official file descriptions of sexual homicides committed by 18 psychopathic and 20 nonpsychopathic Canadian offenders were coded (by coders unaware of Psychopathy Checklist�Revised [PCL�R] scores) for characteristics of the victim, victim\\/perpetrator relationship, and evidence of gratuitous and sadistic violent behavior. Results indicated that most
Stephen Porter; Michael Woodworth; Jeff Earle; Jeff Drugge; Douglas Boer
Diet and Eating Pattern Modifications Used by Community Living Adults to Manage Their Fecal Incontinence
Purpose The study aimed to describe modifications in diet and eating patterns made by community-living people to manage fecal incontinence (FI) and to compare these differences according to sex, age, and FI severity. Subjects and Setting Subjects were 188 community-living adults (77% female, 92% white, 34% ? 65 years of age) in the upper Midwest who participated in a study about managing FI with dietary fiber. Methods Subjects were interviewed about diet and eating pattern changes that they made to manage FI and self reported demographic data. FI severity was recorded daily. Results Fifty-five percent of participants perceived that some foods worsen their FI (e.g., fatty or spicy foods and dairy products). More women than men (40 vs 18%, p=.008) reported avoiding foods in order to manage FI. A greater percentage of younger than older people believed that fatty/greasy foods (15% vs. 4%,) and alcohol (14% vs. 3%,) worsened their FI. Subjects with a higher FI severity score appeared to wait until FI was more severe before restricting caffeine than those with lower severity scores (22.2 � 9.8 vs 11.69 � 8.3, p = .034). One-third of subjects consumed foods rich in dietary fiber to prevent FI. Subjects also reported altered eating or cooking patterns; skipping meals, or eating at consistent times to manage FI. Conclusions Diet modification for managing FI incorporates involves restriction of some foods, along with adding others foods to the diet. Nursing assessments of self-care practices for FI should include diet and eating pattern changes when developing a plan of care.
Croswell, Emily; Bliss, Donna Z.; Savik, Kay
Role of observation of live cases done by Japanese experts in the acquisition of ESD skills by a western endoscopist
AIM: To evaluate the role of observation of experts performing endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) in the acquisition of ESD skills. METHODS: This prospective study is documenting the learning curve of one Western endoscopist. The study consisted of three periods. In the first period (pre-observation), the trainee performed ESDs in animal models in his home institution in the United States. The second period (observation) consisted of visit to Japan and observation of live ESD cases done by experts. The observation of cases occurred over a 5-wk period. During the third period (post-observation), the trainee performed ESD in animal models in a similar fashion as in the first period. Three animal models were used: live 40-50 kg Yorkshire pig, explanted pig stomach model, and explanted pig rectum model. The outcomes from the ESDs done in the animal models before and after observation of live human cases (main study intervention) were compared. Statistical analysis of the data included: Fisher�s exact test to compare distributions of a categorical variable, Wilcoxon rank sum test to compare distributions of a continuous variable between the two groups (pre-observation and post-observation), and Kruskal-Wallis test to evaluate the impact of lesion location and type of model (ex-vivo vs live pig) on lesion removal time. RESULTS: The trainee performed 38 ESDs in animal model (29 pre-observation/9 post-observation). The removal times post-observation were significantly shorter than those pre-observation (32.7 � 15.0 min vs 63.5 � 9.8 min, P < 0.001). To minimize the impact of improving physician skill, the 9 lesions post-observation were compared to the last 9 lesions pre-observation and the removal times remained significantly shorter (32.7 � 15.0 min vs 61.0 � 7.4 min, P = 0.0011). Regression analysis showed that ESD observation significantly reduced removal time when controlling for the sequence of lesion removal (P = 0.025). Furthermore, it was also noted a trend towards decrease in failure to remove lesions and decrease in complications after the period of observation. This study did not find a significant difference in the time needed to remove lesions in different animal models. This finding could have important implications in designing training programs due to the substantial difference in cost between live animal and explanted organ models. The main limitation of this study is that it reflects the experience of a single endoscopist. CONCLUSION: Observation of experts performing ESD over short period of time can significantly contribute to the acquisition of ESD skills.
Draganov, Peter V; Chang, Myron; Coman, Roxana M; Wagh, Mihir S; An, Qi; Gotoda, Takuji
Polymer/bacteria composite nanofiber non-wovens by electrospinning of living bacteria protected by hydrogel microparticles.
Physically crosslinked PVA-hydrogel microparticles are utilized for encapsulation of E. coli and M. luteus. The bacteria survive dry storage or treatment with bacteria-hostile organic solvents significantly better than unprotected bacteria as proven by culture-test experiments. The bacteria-protecting PVA microparticles are available for standard polymer-solution-processing techniques, as exemplarily shown by co-electrospinning of living bacteria encapsulated in dry PVA-hydrogel microparticles together with PVB-, PLLA-, and PCL-form organic solvents. PMID:21243634
Gensheimer, Marco; Brandis-Heep, Astrid; Agarwal, Seema; Thauer, Rudolf K; Greiner, Andreas
Starting characteristics of direct current motors powered by solar cells
Direct current motors are used in photovoltaic systems. Important characteristics of electric motors are the starting to rated current and the torque ratios. These ratios are dictated by the size of the solar cell array and are different for the various dc motor types. The paper deals with the calculation of the starting to rated current ratio and starting to rated torque ratio of the permanent magnet, separately, series and shunt excited motors when powered by solar cells for the two cases: where (1) the system includes a maximum-power-point-tracker (MPPT) and (2) without an MPPT. Comparing these two cases, one gets a torque magnification of about 3 for the permanent magnet motor and about 7 for other motor types at rated design insolation. The calculation of the torques may assist the PV system designer to determine the advantage of including an MPPT in the system as far as the starting characteristics of the dc motors are concerned.
Singer, S. (Univ. of Colorado, Colorado Springs (United States)); Appelbaum, J. (Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH (United States))
Melting and breaking characteristics of OPGW strands by lightning
Some strands were melted and broken in a 140 mm2 OPGW (composite fiber-optic ground wire) in a 187 kV transmission line. It was assumed that this was caused by a lightning strike. DC arc tests simulating lightning strikes were carried out, and the melting and breaking characteristics of OPGW strands were obtained. The electric charge of the lightning strike that
Yutaka Goda; Shigeru Yokoyama; Shunsuke Watanabe; Tadashi Kawano; Shinichi Kanda
Methods of discriminating cloud systems by their radar characteristics
The connection of the radar characteristics of cloud systems with the genetics of their formation, the microphysical structure, and the spatial extent of the clouds is examined. The relation of the probability of detecting clouds at various distances by their microphysical structure and the capabilities of the equipment are also considered. A method of discriminating cloud systems is proposed on the basis of obtained relations.
Divinskaya, B. S.
Uncommon Lives
The Uncommon Lives series on the National Archives of Australia website takes an approach to Australian history that not only encompasses the well-known history-makers, but also lesser known people's role in shaping Australian history. One of the stated goals of the Uncommon Lives series is to show how amateur historians and researchers alike can use the archives to find biographical resources. There are five stories the visitor can discover by simply clicking on the image of the person or people next to the brief description of their story including, "Muslim Journeys", "Charles and Ruth Lane Poole", "Jessie Street", "Wolf Klaphake", and "Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda". By clicking on any choice, visitors will find each story divided into subsections. Explanatory text accompanies the thumbnails of each image and these can be expanded into a high quality image by clicking on them. Each of these stories provides a unique and compelling look into Australian history. For instance in Wolf Klaphake's story you can listen to or read the transcript of segments of the ABC radio play "A Doubtful Character" which is about Klaphake's life and in Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda's story, you can view the actual court records of his case, which was the first for an Aboriginal Australian in the High Court.
"We always live in fear": antidepressant prescriptions by unlicensed doctors in India.
In India, psychopharmaceuticals have seeped deep into both formal and informal pharmaceutical markets, and unlicensed "quack" doctors have become ready prescribers of psychotropics. These ethnographic insights trouble policies that aim at closing the treatment gap for psychiatric medications by "task shifting" to low-skilled health workers as if medications were exclusively available by prescription from public sector psychiatrists. This article describes what these doctors, known as rural medical practitioners (RMPs), know about psychotropics and how they use them in everyday practice. Unlicensed doctors learn about psychopharmaceuticals through exchanges with licensed doctors, through visits by drug companies' sales representatives, and through prescriptions brought by patients. Although the RMPs exist outside the margins of legitimacy, they are constrained by a web of relations with patients, licensed doctors, pharmacists, drug wholesalers, and government agents. The RMPs do not only prescribe but also dispense, which leads to conflicts with licensed medicine sellers. They "always live in fear" both because they are illegal prescribers and because they are illegal sellers of medications. The article shows that any form of strategic ignorance among policy makers about the local importance of informal practitioners in India can only lead to lopsided interventions. PMID:24705978
Ecks, Stefan; Basu, Soumita
An Unusual Long-lived Intensive Relativistic Electron Enhancement Excited By Sequential CMEs
An unusual long-lived relativistic electron enhancement in July to August,2004 is firstly examined utilizing data from Fengyun-1, POES, GOES, ACE and geomagnetic indexes. Three CMEs stimulate complex fluctuations of interplanetary and magnetospheric environment from 22 to 28 July. The solar wind speed exceeds 500 km/s for 92 percent of the duration from 23 to 28 July and, furthermore, the maximum speed is more than 1000 km/s. Simultaneously, there are 16 positive impulses of solar wind dynamic pressure of which the amplitudes are more than 2nPa, and the amplitude of the largest one is 10nPa. This kind of disturbed solar wind tends to excite magnetospheric ULF waves by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and the impulse of solar wind dynamic pressure impinging to magnetosphere. Sequential CMEs characterized by continuing north interplanetary magnetic field induce durable tremendous geomagnetic substorms. Data from POES reveals that so numerous energetic electrons are injected into outer zone of radiation belt that the energetic electron flux in this region enhances observably. Data from Fengyun-1 indicates that the relativistic electron flux begins to enhance on 25 July and increases by 4 orders of magnitude in following 5 days. Comparing energetic electron flux, the flux of relativistic electron enhances about 3 days later. It would be reasonable that radial diffusion excited by strong ULF waves injects energetic electrons as 'seeds' into deep magnetosphere, and accelerates them to relativistic energy, then eventually the relativistic electron flux of outer zone enhances intensively. After coming to a head, the relativistic electron populations at L<4 lose slowly, especially at the location of flux peak(L~3.3), the relativistic electron loss is so slow that the living-time is up to 22 days. According to model calculation, the plasmapause is contracted inward into L<3 in the period of three CMEs. Subsequently, the location of plasmapause recovers to the condition before CMEs, and stands at L>3.6 on almost whole August. This means that the flux peak of relativistic electrons is left in the plasmasphere for a long time. In the plasmaphere, relativistic electron populations lose by resonating with hiss. The rate of this kind of loss mechanism is slow, and would eventually result in the unusual long-lived characterizer of this enhancement event. In 30 august, a strong interplanetary disturbance contracts the plasmapause inward to L<3 again, then the relativistic electron populations of outer zone deduce promptly. Fengyun-1 is a polar orbit satellite at low altitude, so that it is impossible to obtain the variation of outer zone in the magnetopheric equatorial plane. Despite of this, the enhancement and loss properties of this event imply that it is similar to the 'Relativistic Electron Storage Ring' detected by Van Allen Probes in September, 2012.
Yang, X.; Zhu, G.; Sun, Y.; Wang, C.; Zhang, X.
Noninvasive detection of neural progenitor cells in living brains by MRI
The presence of pericytes in brain regions undergoing repair is evident of the recruitment of bone marrow-derived multipotent regenerative cells to the neurovascular unit during angiogenesis. At present, post mortem sampling is the only way to identify them. Therefore, such cell typing is inadequate for preserving neural progenitor cells for any meaningful stem cell therapy. We aimed to target cerebral pericytes in vivo using dual gene transcript-targeted MRI (GT-tMRI) in male C57black6 mice after a 60-min bilateral carotid artery occlusion (BCAO). We attached superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) to phosphorothioate-modified micro-DNA that targets actin or nestin mRNA. Because BCAO compromises the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and induces expression of ?-smooth muscle (?SM)-actin and nestin antigens by pericytes in new vessels, we delivered pericyte-specific magnetic resonance contrast agents (SPION-actin or SPION-nestin at 4 mg Fe/kg) by i.p. injection to C57black6 mice that had experienced BCAO. We demonstrated that the surge in cerebral iron content by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry matched the increase in the frequency of relaxivity. We also found that SPION-nestin was colocalized in ?SM- actin- and nestin-expressing pericytes in BCAO-treated C57black6 or transgenic mice [B6.Cg-Tg(CAG-mRFP1) 1F1Hadj/J, expressing red fluorescent protein by actin promoter]. We identified pericytes in the repair patch in living brains after BCAO with a voxel size of 0.03 mm3. The presence of electron-dense nanoparticles in vascular pericytes in the region of BBB injury led us to draw the conclusion that GT-tMRI can noninvasively reveal neural progenitor cells during vascularization.�Liu, C. H., Ren, J. Q., You, Z., Yang, J., Liu, C.-M., Uppal, R., Liu, P. K. Noninvasive detection of neural progenitor cells in living brains by MRI.
Liu, Christina H.; Ren, Jia Q.; You, Zerong; Yang, Jinsheng; Liu, Charng-Ming; Uppal, Ritika; Liu, Philip K.
Viral interference induced by live attenuated virus vaccine (OPV) can prevent otitis media
BackgroundThe goal of this study was to evaluate whether a live attenuated poliovirus vaccine (OPV) has clinically relevant interfering effect with non-polio infections causing otitis media in young children.
Elina Sepp�l�; Hanna Viskari; Sanna Hoppu; Hanna Honkanen; Heini Huhtala; Olli Simell; Jorma Ilonen; Mikael Knip; Heikki Hy�ty
Pore characteristics of chitosan scaffolds studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.
In this study, a novel approach, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), was used to examine the pore characteristics of chitosan scaffolds under aqueous conditions. The EIS was run with a constant current of 0.1 mA with the frequency sweep of 10(6) to 10(-4) Hz. The resulting complex impedance measurement was then used to calculate porosity, which was determined to be 71%. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), two commonly used methods for scaffold characterization, were used to independently evaluate the pore characteristics and compare with that of EIS. The SEM and MIP were performed and analyzed under standard conditions. The pore diameter values found by SEM and MIP are 107 mum and 82 mum, respectively, indicating that both the image-based (SEM) and pressure-based (MIP) analyses provide similar results. The porosity of 73% calculated by MIP is comparable to that of EIS. From these results, it can be suggested that EIS, a relatively nondestructive test, is able to obtain comparable data on pore characteristics, as compared to SEM and MIP. The advantage of the EIS as an nondestructive test is that it can be performed under physiologically relevant conditions, whereas SEM and MIP require dry samples and vacuum conditions for measurement. These benefits make EIS a viable option for the characterization and long-term observation of tissue-engineered scaffolds. PMID:19580421
Tully-Dartez, Stephanie; Cardenas, Henry E; Sit, Ping-Fai Sidney
Evaluation of YadC protein delivered by live attenuated Salmonella as a vaccine against plague.
Yersinia pestis YadB and YadC are two new outer membrane proteins related to its pathogenicity. Here, codon-optimized yadC, yadC810 (aa 32-551), or yadBC antigen genes delivered by live attenuated Salmonella strains are evaluated in mice for induction of protective immune responses against Y.�pestis CO92 through subcutaneous or intranasal challenge. Our findings indicate that mice immunized with Salmonella synthesizing YadC, YadC810, or YadBC develop significant serum IgG responses to purified recombinant YadC protein. For subcutaneous challenge (approximately 230�LD50 of Y.�pestis CO92), mice immunized with Salmonella synthesizing YadC or YadC810 are afforded 50% protection, but no protection by immunization with the Salmonella strain synthesizing YadBC. None of these antigens provided protection against intranasal challenge (approximately 31�LD50 of Y.�pestis CO92). In addition, subcutaneous immunization with purified YadC810 protein emulsified with alum adjuvant does not elicit a protective response against Y.�pestis administered by either challenge route. PMID:23913628
Sun, Wei; Olinzock, Joseph; Wang, Shifeng; Sanapala, Shilpa; Curtiss, Roy
Stepwise Movements in Vesicle Transport of HER2 by Motor Proteins in Living Cells
The stepwise movements generated by myosin, dynein, and kinesin were observed in living cells in an attempt to understand the molecular mechanisms of movement within cells. First, the sequential process of the transport of vesicles, including human epidermal factor 2 receptor, after endocytosis was observed for long periods in three dimensions using quantum dots (QDs) and a three-dimensional confocal microscope. QD vesicles, after being endocytosed into the cells, moved along the membrane by transferring actin filaments and were then rapidly transported toward the nucleus along microtubules. Second, the position of vesicles was detected with a precision up to 1.9 nm and 330 ?s using a new two-dimensional tracking method. The movement of the QDs transported by myosin VI lying just beneath the cell membrane consisted of 29- and 15-nm steps with a transition phase between these two steps. QD vesicles were then transported toward the nucleus or away from the nucleus toward the cell membrane with successive 8-nm steps. The stepwise movements of these motor proteins in cells were observed using new imaging methods that allowed the molecular mechanisms underlying traffic to and from the membrane to be determined.
Watanabe, Tomonobu M.; Higuchi, Hideo
Primary graft dysfunction after living donor liver transplantation is characterized by delayed functional hyperbilirubinemia.
The purpose of this study is to propose a new concept of primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), characterized by delayed functional hyperbilirubinemia (DFH) and a high early graft mortality rate. A total of 210 adult-to-adult LDLT grafts without anatomical, immunological or hepatitis-related issues were included. All of the grafts with early mortality (n = 13) caused by PGD in LDLT had maximum total bilirubin levels >20 mg/dL after postoperative day 7 (p < 0.001). No other factors, including prothrombin time, ammonia level or ascites output after surgery were associated with early mortality. Thus, DFH of >20 mg/dL for >seven consecutive days occurring after postoperative day 7 (DFH-20) was used to characterize PGD. DFH-20 showed high sensitivity (100%) and specificity (95.4%) for PGD with early mortality. Among the grafts with DFH-20 (n = 22), those with early mortality (n = 13) showed coagulopathy (PT-INR > 2), compared with those without mortality (p = 0.002). Pathological findings in the grafts with DFH-20 included hepatocyte ballooning and cholestasis, which were particularly prominent in the centrilobular zone. PGD after LDLT is associated with DFH-20 caused by graft, recipient and surgical factors, and increases the risk of early graft mortality. PMID:22494784
Ikegami, T; Shirabe, K; Yoshizumi, T; Aishima, S; Taketomi, Y A; Soejima, Y; Uchiyama, H; Kayashima, H; Toshima, T; Maehara, Y
High resolution tumor targeting in living mice by means of multispectral optoacoustic tomography
Background Tumor targeting is of high clinical and biological relevance, and major efforts have been made to develop molecular imaging technologies for visualization of the disease markers in tissue. Of particular interest is apoptosis which has a profound role within tumor development and has significant effect on cancer malignancy. Methods Herein, we report on targeting of phosphatidylserine-exposing cells within live tumor allograft models using a synthetic near infrared zinc(II)-dipicolylamine probe. Visualization of the probe biodistribution is performed with whole body multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) system and subsequently compared to results attained by planar and tomographic fluorescence imaging systems. Results Compared to whole body optical visualization methods, MSOT attains remarkably better imaging capacity by delivering high-resolution scans of both disease morphology and molecular function in real time. Enhanced resolution of MSOT clearly showed that the probe mainly localizes in the vessels surrounding the tumor, suggesting that its tumor selectivity is gained by targeting the phosphatidylserine exposed on the surface of tumor vessels. Conclusions The current study demonstrates the high potential of MSOT to broadly impact the fields of tumor diagnostics and preclinical drug development.
An exploratory survey measuring stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa: the People Living with HIV Stigma Index
Background The continued presence of stigma and its persistence even in areas where HIV prevalence is high makes it an extraordinarily important, yet difficult, issue to eradicate. The study aimed to assess current and emerging HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination trends in South Africa as experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Methods The PLHIV Stigma Index, a questionnaire that measures and detects changing trends in relation to stigma and discrimination experienced by PLHIV, was used as the survey tool. The study was conducted in 10 clinics in four provinces supported by the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD), with an interview total of 486 PLHIV. A cross-sectional design was implemented in the study, and both descriptive and inferential analysis was conducted on the data. Results Findings suggest that PLHIV in this population experience significant levels of stigma and discrimination that negatively impact on their health, working and family life, as well as their access to health services. Internalised stigma was prominent, with many participants blaming themselves for their status. Conclusion The findings can be used to develop and inform programmes and interventions to reduce stigma experienced by PLHIV. The current measures for dealing with stigma should be expanded to incorporate the issues related to health, education and discrimination experienced in the workplace, that were highlighted by the study.
Heterogeneity of AMPA receptor trafficking and molecular interactions revealed by superresolution analysis of live cell imaging.
Simultaneous tracking of many thousands of individual particles in live cells is possible now with the advent of high-density superresolution imaging methods. We present an approach to extract local biophysical properties of cell-particle interaction from such newly acquired large collection of data. Because classical methods do not keep the spatial localization of individual trajectories, it is not possible to access localized biophysical parameters. In contrast, by combining the high-density superresolution imaging data with the present analysis, we determine the local properties of protein dynamics. We specifically focus on AMPA receptor (AMPAR) trafficking and estimate the strength of their molecular interaction at the subdiffraction level in hippocampal dendrites. These interactions correspond to attracting potential wells of large size, showing that the high density of AMPARs is generated by physical interactions with an ensemble of cooperative membrane surface binding sites, rather than molecular crowding or aggregation, which is the case for the membrane viral glycoprotein VSVG. We further show that AMPARs can either be pushed in or out of dendritic spines. Finally, we characterize the recurrent step of influenza trajectories. To conclude, the present analysis allows the identification of the molecular organization responsible for the heterogeneities of random trajectories in cells. PMID:23035245
Hoze, Nathanael; Nair, Deepak; Hosy, Eric; Sieben, Christian; Manley, Suliana; Herrmann, Andreas; Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste; Choquet, Daniel; Holcman, David
Heterogeneity of AMPA receptor trafficking and molecular interactions revealed by superresolution analysis of live cell imaging
Simultaneous tracking of many thousands of individual particles in live cells is possible now with the advent of high-density superresolution imaging methods. We present an approach to extract local biophysical properties of cell-particle interaction from such newly acquired large collection of data. Because classical methods do not keep the spatial localization of individual trajectories, it is not possible to access localized biophysical parameters. In contrast, by combining the high-density superresolution imaging data with the present analysis, we determine the local properties of protein dynamics. We specifically focus on AMPA receptor (AMPAR) trafficking and estimate the strength of their molecular interaction at the subdiffraction level in hippocampal dendrites. These interactions correspond to attracting potential wells of large size, showing that the high density of AMPARs is generated by physical interactions with an ensemble of cooperative membrane surface binding sites, rather than molecular crowding or aggregation, which is the case for the membrane viral glycoprotein VSVG. We further show that AMPARs can either be pushed in or out of dendritic spines. Finally, we characterize the recurrent step of influenza trajectories. To conclude, the present analysis allows the identification of the molecular organization responsible for the heterogeneities of random trajectories in cells.
Securing decent work and living conditions in low-income urban settlements by linking social protection and local development: A review of case studies
A majority of people now live in cities. Countries need to accommodate such a rapidly growing urban population, which is often living and working informally, and which is lacking access to decent working and living conditions. By integrating economic promotion policies with social protection instruments public policies not only mitigate the effects of social risks on poverty, particularly in low-income
Luis Frota
Plasma retinol and association with socio-demographic and dietary characteristics of free-living older persons: the Bordeaux sample of the three-city study.
The objective was to describe retinol plasma concentration and its association with socio-demographic characteristics and dietary habits in French older persons. The study population consisted of 1664 subjects aged 65 + from Bordeaux (France), included in the Three-City cohort. Retinol plasma concentration was determined in fasting blood samples. Dietary assessment was performed by a food frequency questionnaire allowing estimation of weekly intake of dietary sources of vitamin A or provitamin A. The weekly number of glasses of alcohol was also recorded. Age, sex, marital status, educational and income levels, body-mass index (BMI), and smoking were registered. Cross-sectional analysis of the association between plasma retinol and socio-demographic characteristics and dietary habits was performed by multilinear regression. Mean plasma retinol was close to the homeostatically regulated concentration of 2.0 micromol/L but ranged from 0.35 to 6.77 micromol/L. It was higher in women and divorced or separated individuals, and increased with income but not with age or educational level. Plasma retinol was positively and independently associated with the frequency of offal consumption and to the number of glasses of alcohol consumed per week. These results allow targeting older individuals who are at risk of either excessive or deficient vitamin A status and who should benefit from dietary counseling. PMID:20533243
F�art, Catherine; Siewe, Aisha; Samieri, C�cilia; Peuchant, Evelyne; Helmer, Catherine; Alfos, Serge; Pallet, V�ronique; Barberger-Gateau, Pascale
Stigmatization and discrimination towards people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS by the general public in Malaysia.
Globally, HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discriminatory attitudes deter the effectiveness of HIV prevention and care programs. This study investigated the general public's perceptions about HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination towards people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in order to understand the root of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discriminatory attitudes. Study was carried out using qualitative focus group discussions (FGD). An interview guide with semi-structured questions was used. Participants were members of the public in Malaysia. Purposive sampling was adopted for recruitment of participants. A total 14 focus group discussions (n = 74) was carried out between March and July 2008. HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) was profound. Key factors affecting discriminatory attitudes included high-risk taking behavior, individuals related to stigmatized identities, sources of HIV infection, stage of the disease, and relationship with an infected person. Other factors that influence attitudes toward PLWHA include ethnicity and urban-rural locality. Malay participants were less likely than other ethnic groups to perceive no stigmatization if their spouses were HIV positive. HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination were stronger among participants in rural settings. The differences indicate attitudes toward PLWHA are influenced by cultural differences. PMID:22299438
Wong, L P; Syuhada, A R Nur
Radiative Forcing by Long-Lived Greenhouse Gases: Calculations with the AER Radiative Transfer Models
A primary component of the observed, recent climate change is the radiative forcing from increased concentrations of long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs). Effective simulation of anthropogenic climate change by general circulation models (GCMs) is strongly dependent on the accurate representation of radiative processes associated with water vapor, ozone and LLGHGs. In the context of the increasing application of the Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. (AER) radiation models within the GCM community, their capability to calculate longwave and shortwave radiative forcing for clear sky scenarios previously examined by the radiative transfer model intercomparison project (RTMIP) is presented. Forcing calculations with the AER line-by-line (LBL) models are very consistent with the RTMIP line-by-line results in the longwave and shortwave. The AER broadband models, in all but one case, calculate longwave forcings within a range of -0.20 to 0.23 W m{sup -2} of LBL calculations and shortwave forcings within a range of -0.16 to 0.38 W m{sup -2} of LBL results. These models also perform well at the surface, which RTMIP identified as a level at which GCM radiation models have particular difficulty reproducing LBL fluxes. Heating profile perturbations calculated by the broadband models generally reproduce high-resolution calculations within a few hundredths K d{sup -1} in the troposphere and within 0.15 K d{sup -1} in the peak stratospheric heating near 1 hPa. In most cases, the AER broadband models provide radiative forcing results that are in closer agreement with high 20 resolution calculations than the GCM radiation codes examined by RTMIP, which supports the application of the AER models to climate change research.
Collins, William; Iacono, Michael J.; Delamere, Jennifer S.; Mlawer, Eli J.; Shephard, Mark W.; Clough, Shepard A.; Collins, William D.
Cell-mediated and humoral immunity induced by a live Francisella tularensis vaccine.
Live attenuated Francisella tularensis vaccine induced long-lasting humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in all 13 subjects studied. Lymphocyte blast transformation reactivity to F. tularensis appeared 2 weeks after vaccination in most subjects and remained unchanged for up to 1.5 years. Similarly, in most recipients, antibodies against F. tularensis were detectable by both the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the agglutination method from 2 weeks after vaccination, although diagnostically significant agglutination titers (greater than or equal to 80) were not detectable until 4 weeks after vaccination. Maximal agglutination titers of 80 to 2,560 appeared at 4 to 8 weeks, and in spite of decreasing tendency, titers as high as 320 were still present 1.5 years after vaccination. ELISA showed the simultaneous, but not parallel, appearance of different immunoglobulin classes, immunoglobulin M (IgM) reaching individual maximal values 1.8 months after vaccination on average, at the same time as agglutinating antibodies, 1 week earlier than IgA, and about 1 month earlier than IgG. All of these immunoglobulin classes persisted in significant amounts up to 1.5 years, with IgG generally dominant. Long-lasting IgA and IgM responses after vaccination, as also after infection, suggested that the serodiagnosis of tularemia generally requires two consecutive serum samples with a significant increase in the titer.
Koskela, P; Herva, E
Free-living spirochetes from Cape Cod microbial mats detected by electron microscopy
Spirochetes from microbial mats and anaerobic mud samples collected in salt marshes were studied by light microscopy, whole mount and thin section transmission electron microscopy. Enriched in cellobiose-rifampin medium, selective for Spirochaeta bajacaliforniensis, seven distinguishable spirochete morphotypes were observed. Their diameters ranged from 0.17 micron to > 0.45 micron. Six of these morphotypes came from southwest Cape Cod, Massachusetts: five from Microcoleus-dominated mat samples collected at Sippewissett salt marsh and one from anoxic mud collected at School Street salt marsh (on the east side of Eel Pond). The seventh morphotype was enriched from anoxic mud sampled from the north central Cape Cod, at the Sandy Neck salt marsh. Five of these morphotypes are similar or identical to previously described spirochetes (Leptospira, Spirochaeta halophila, Spirochaeta bajacaliforniensis, Spirosymplokos deltaeiberi and Treponema), whereas the other two have unique features that suggest they have not been previously described. One of the morphotypes resembles Spirosymplokos deltaeiberi (the largest free-living spirochete described), in its large variable diameter (0.4-3.0 microns), cytoplasmic granules, and spherical (round) bodies with composite structure. This resemblance permits its tentative identification as a Sippewissett strain of Spirosymplokos deltaeiberi. Microbial mats samples collected in sterile Petri dishes and stored dry for more than four years yielded many organisms upon rewetting, including small unidentified spirochetes in at least 4 out of 100 enrichments.
Teal, T. H.; Chapman, M.; Guillemette, T.; Margulis, L.
Human behavior understanding for assisted living by means of hierarchical context free grammars
Human behavior understanding has attracted the attention of researchers in various fields over the last years. Recognizing behaviors with sufficient accuracy from sensors analysis is still an unsolved problem, because of many reasons, including the low accuracy of the data, differences in the human behaviors as well as the gap between low-level sensors data and high-level scene semantics. In this context, an application that is attracting the interest of both public and industrial entities is the possibility to allow elderly or physically impaired people conducting a normal life at home. Ambient intelligence (AmI) technologies, intended as the possibility of automatically detecting and reacting to the status of the environment and of the persons, is probably the major enabling factor for the achievement of such an ambitious objective. AmI technologies require suitable networks of sensors and actuators, as well as adequate processing and communication technologies. In this paper we propose a solution based on context free grammars for human behavior understanding with an application to assisted living. First, the grammars of the different actions performed by a person in his/her daily life are discovered. Then, a longterm analysis of the behavior is used to generate a control grammar, taking care of the context when an action is performed, and adding semantics. The proposed framework is tested on a dataset acquired in a real environment and compared with state of the art methods already available for the problem considered.
Rosani, A.; Conci, N.; De Natale, F. G. B.
Tagging of functional ribosomes in living cells by HaloTag� technology.
Ribosomal proteins and ribosomal associated proteins are complicated subjects to target and study because of their high conservation through evolution which led to highly structured and regulated proteins. Tagging of ribosomal proteins may allow following of protein synthesis in vivo and isolating translated mRNAs. HaloTag� is a new technology which allows detection in living cells, biochemical purification, and localization studies. In the present work, we tested HaloTag�-based ribosomal tagging. We focused on eIF6 (eukaryotic Initiation Factor 6 free 60S ribosomal marker), RACK1 (Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1; 40S and polysomes, not nuclear), and rpS9 (40S ribosomes, both in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm). Experiments performed on HEK293 cells included ribosomal profiles and Western blot on the fractions, purification of HaloTag� proteins, and fluorescence with time-lapse microscopy. We show that tagged proteins can be incorporated on ribosomes and followed by time-lapse microscopy. eIF6 properly accumulates in the nucleolus, and it is redistributed upon actinomycin D treatment. RACK1 shows a specific cytoplasmic localization, whereas rpS9 is both nucleolar and cytoplasmic. However, efficiency of purification varies due to steric hindrances. In addition, the level of overexpression and degradation may vary upon different constructs. In summary, HaloTag� technology is highly suitable to ribosome tagging, but requires prior characterization for each construct. PMID:21082278
Gallo, Simone; Beugnet, Anne; Biffo, Stefano
WWF's Living Planet Report 2004
The 2004 Living Planet Report is the fifth in a series of global ecological updates from the WWF. The Report assesses the state of ecosystems around the world using two primary measures: The Living Planet Index, which is based on population trends for hundreds of forest, freshwater, and marine species, and the Ecological Footprint, which is based on human demands on renewable natural resources. The 44-page report shows, among other things, that as human consumption has continued to rise beyond sustainable levels, global animal populations have been declining at a rapid pace. English and Portuguese versions of the 2004 Report are available in portable document format, as well as Reports from 2002, 2000, and 1999. In addition, the site offers a world map animation representing the growth of our ecological footprint during the past few decades.
Simplified setup for imaging with digital holographic microscopy and enhanced quantitative phase contrast by osmotic stimulation of living cells
Many interferometry-based quantitative phase contrast imaging techniques require the generation of a coherent reference wave, which results in a phase stability decrease and the demand for a precise adjustment of the intensity ratio between object and reference wave. Thus, investigations on a simplified digital holographic microscopy approach that avoids a separate reference wave were performed. Results from live cell investigations demonstrate the capability of the method for quantitative phase contrast imaging. In further experiments the modification of the intracellular refractive index distribution by osmotic stimulation was analyzed. Data from human pancreas tumor cells show that by choice of suitable buffer solutions live cell imaging with enhanced quantitative phase contrast is achieved.
Kemper, Bj�rn; Przibilla, Sabine; Rommel, Christina E.; Vollmer, Angelika; Ketelhut, Steffi; Schnekenburger, J�rgen; von Bally, Gert
Plasma characteristics determined by the Freja electric field instrument.
A new approach to the study of ionospheric plasma characteristics is presented using data from the Freja double probe electric field instrument. Plasma characteristics are derived from continuous measurements of the satellite potential and from intermitte...
P. A. Lindqvist G. T. Marklund L. G. Blomberg
Characterization of immune responses induced by inactivated, live attenuated and DNA vaccines against Japanese encephalitis virus in mice.
Vaccination is the most effective countermeasure for protecting individuals from Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection. There are two types of JEV vaccines currently used in China: the Vero cell-derived inactivated vaccine and the live attenuated vaccine. In this study, we characterized the immune response and protective efficacy induced in mice by the inactivated vaccine, live attenuated vaccine and the DNA vaccine candidate pCAG-JME, which expresses JEV prM-E proteins. We found that the live attenuated vaccine conferred 100% protection and resulted in the generation of high levels of specific anti-JEV antibodies and cytokines. The pCAG-JME vaccine induced protective immunity as well as the live attenuated vaccine. Unexpectedly, immunization with the inactivated vaccine only induced a limited immune response and partial protection, which may be due to the decreased activity of dendritic cells and the expansion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells observed in these mice. Altogether, our results suggest that the live attenuated vaccine is more effective in providing protection against JEV infection than the inactivated vaccine and that pCAG-JME will be a potential JEV vaccine candidate. PMID:23845821
Li, Jieqiong; Chen, Hui; Wu, Na; Fan, Dongying; Liang, Guodong; Gao, Na; An, Jing
Public by Day, Private by Night: Examining the Private Lives of Kenya's Public Universities
This article examines the emergence of the public university in Kenya as a key provider of private higher education, characterised mainly by the phenomenon of the "private public university student." It probes the broader socio-economic reforms circumscribing the privatisation of Kenya's public universities and the local and global forces�
Wangenge-Ouma, Gerald
Quantitative Characteristics of Gene Regulation by Small RNA
An increasing number of small RNAs (sRNAs) have been shown to regulate critical pathways in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In bacteria, regulation by trans-encoded sRNAs is predominantly found in the coordination of intricate stress responses. The mechanisms by which sRNAs modulate expression of its targets are diverse. In common to most is the possibility that interference with the translation of mRNA targets may also alter the abundance of functional sRNAs. Aiming to understand the unique role played by sRNAs in gene regulation, we studied examples from two distinct classes of bacterial sRNAs in Escherichia coli using a quantitative approach combining experiment and theory. Our results demonstrate that sRNA provides a novel mode of gene regulation, with characteristics distinct from those of protein-mediated gene regulation. These include a threshold-linear response with a tunable threshold, a robust noise resistance characteristic, and a built-in capability for hierarchical cross-talk. Knowledge of these special features of sRNA-mediated regulation may be crucial toward understanding the subtle functions that sRNAs can play in coordinating various stress-relief pathways. Our results may also help guide the design of synthetic genetic circuits that have properties difficult to attain with protein regulators alone.
Levine, Erel; Zhang, Zhongge; Kuhlman, Thomas; Hwa, Terence
The mechanism of cadmium removal from aqueous solution by nonmetabolizing free and immobilized live biomass of Rhizopus oligosporus
A preliminary study on the removal of cadmium by nonmetabolizing live biomass of Rhizopus oligosporus from aqueous solution is presented. The equilibrium of the process was in all cases well described by the Langmuir sorption isotherm, suggesting that the process was a chemical, equilibrated and saturable mechanism which reflected the predominantly site-specific mechanism on the cell surface. A curve of
R. Aloysius; M. I. A. Karim; A. B. Ariff
Nuclear Moments and Differences in Mean Square Charge Radii of Short-Lived Neon Isotopes by Collinear Laser Spectroscopy
The nuclear moments and charge radii of short-lived neon isotopes were measured by the use of collinear laser spectroscopy at the on-line mass separator ISOLDE at CERN. After a general introduction the semiclassical theory of atomic spectra is given and the rele