703 research outputs found

    It doesn't end with closure:Optimizing health care throughout life after esophageal atresia repair

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    It doesn't end with closure:Optimizing health care throughout life after esophageal atresia repair

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    Comparing the Performance of Initial Coin Offerings to Crowdfunded Equity Ventures

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    Uncertainty in markets increases the likelihood of market failure due to volatility and suboptimal functioning. While initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crowdfunded equity (CFE) offerings may improve functioning in growing markets, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding pertaining to the relative efficiency and behavior of ICO markets compared to CFE markets, potentially perpetuating and thwarting the various communities they are intended to serve. The purpose of this correlational study was to compare a group of ICOs with a group of CFE offerings to identify predictive factors of funding outcomes related to both capital offering types. Efficient market hypothesis was the studyā€™s theoretical foundation, and analysis of variance was used to answer the research question, which examined whether capital offering type predicted the amount of funds raised while controlling for access to the offering companiesā€™ secondary control factors: historical financial data, pro forma financial projections, detailed product descriptions, video of product demonstrations, company website, company history, company leadership, and company investors. Relying on a random sample of 115 campaigns (84 ICOs and 31 CFE) from websites ICOdrops.com, localstake.com, fundable.com, and mainvest.com, results showed differences in mean funds raised between CFEs and ICOs (346,075comparedto346,075 compared to 4,756,464, respectively). ANOVA results showed no single secondary control factors and only one two-factor interaction (company leadership and company investors) influenced mean funds raised. This study may contribute to positive social change by informing best practices among market participants including entrepreneurs, regulators, scholars, and investors

    Comparing the Performance of Initial Coin Offerings to Crowdfunded Equity Ventures

    Get PDF
    Uncertainty in markets increases the likelihood of market failure due to volatility and suboptimal functioning. While initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crowdfunded equity (CFE) offerings may improve functioning in growing markets, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding pertaining to the relative efficiency and behavior of ICO markets compared to CFE markets, potentially perpetuating and thwarting the various communities they are intended to serve. The purpose of this correlational study was to compare a group of ICOs with a group of CFE offerings to identify predictive factors of funding outcomes related to both capital offering types. Efficient market hypothesis was the studyā€™s theoretical foundation, and analysis of variance was used to answer the research question, which examined whether capital offering type predicted the amount of funds raised while controlling for access to the offering companiesā€™ secondary control factors: historical financial data, pro forma financial projections, detailed product descriptions, video of product demonstrations, company website, company history, company leadership, and company investors. Relying on a random sample of 115 campaigns (84 ICOs and 31 CFE) from websites ICOdrops.com, localstake.com, fundable.com, and mainvest.com, results showed differences in mean funds raised between CFEs and ICOs (346,075comparedto346,075 compared to 4,756,464, respectively). ANOVA results showed no single secondary control factors and only one two-factor interaction (company leadership and company investors) influenced mean funds raised. This study may contribute to positive social change by informing best practices among market participants including entrepreneurs, regulators, scholars, and investors

    Protein Kinase C zeta Regulates the Development of Cord Blood T Cells from the Immature Th2 to the Mature Th1 Cytokine Phenotype and its Implication in Development of Allergic Sensitization

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    More than 30% of the Australian population is affected by allergies, posing a significant burden to the health system, affected individuals and their families, highlighting the urgent need to identify pathways that lead to sensitization and disease. There is a view that the foundation for allergy development is laid early in postnatal life. Due to immune immaturity, early diagnosis is difficult. T cells play a critical role in the development of allergic diseases. Cord blood T cells (CBTC) have been used as a proxy for neonatal T cells in studies to investigate the functional development of neonatal T cells. These are predominantly naive and produce interleukin-4 (IL-4) and very little Th1 cytokines such as interferon-gamma (IFN-Ī³), implicating a Th2 bias at birth. We have been interested in trying to understand the basis for persistence of this Th2 bias during T cell maturation and previously reported that a deficiency in Protein Kinase C (PKC) signalling, caused by reduced levels of PKC, is the likely cause. Low PKCĪ¶ expression in CBTC was associated with a n increased risk of allergic sensitization in infants, which could be attenuated by supplementing pregnant women with omega-3 fatty acids, associated with increased PKCĪ¶ expression in T cells at birth. Study aims (i) examine the role of PKCĪ¶ in the regulation of the transition of the Th2 phenotype to the mature Th1 cytokine propensity. (ii) attempt to identify the transient deficiency of PKCĪ¶ in the perinatal period. (iii) examine the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on PKCĪ¶ levels, during the transient period. (iv) examine the mechanisms of the transition from Th2 to Th1 cell bias. I validated a flow cytometry assay for the quantification of ten PKC isozymes by examining commercially available anti-PKC antibodies in western blotting. Antibodies with the required specificity were then used to determine PKC isozymes expression in T cells. Using this new technique, I characterized the expression of PKC isozymes in cultured CBTC over a 7-day period. Deficient levels normalized over 24h. A number of CBTC maturation systems using anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies, PHA, PHA/PMA, and PMA/Ionomycin in absence or presence of IL-2 were set up. When CBTC with low expression of PKCĪ¶ were matured using anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies and IL-2, they retained their Th2 bias. In contrast, high PKCĪ¶ expressing cells produced high levels of IFN-Ī³ and minimal IL-4, and displayed PKCĪ¶ activation. In contrast, using PHA/PMA gave no PKCĪ¶ activation and the cells did not transit to a Th1 cytokine phenotype, but transfection of a constitutively active PKCĪ¶ mutant was sufficient to cause this transit, suggesting that PKCĪ¶ activation is important for the transit. We found that the low expression of PKCĪ¶ in CBTC is transient, identifying a ā€˜window of opportunityā€™ for modulating the levels and preventing development towards a Th2 cytokine bias and allergic sensitization, evidenced by showing that omega-3 fatty acids increase the PKCĪ¶ levels and promote T cell maturation towards a Th1 phenotype. The findings support PKCĪ¶ as a perinatal biomarker to predict babies at risk of allergy and target for nutritional intervention.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Adelaide Medical School, 202

    Pediatric and Adolescent Nephrology Facing the Future: Diagnostic Advances and Prognostic Biomarkers in Everyday Practice

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    The Special Issue entitled ā€œPediatric and adolescent nephrology facing the future: diagnostic advances and prognostic biomarkers in everyday practiceā€ contains articles written in the era when COVID-19 had not yet been a major clinical problem in children. Now that we know its multifaceted clinical course, complications concerning the kidneys, and childhood-specific post-COVID pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS), the value of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in the pediatric area should be appreciated, and their importance ought to increase

    Brain Computations and Connectivity [2nd edition]

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    This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Brain Computations and Connectivity is about how the brain works. In order to understand this, it is essential to know what is computed by different brain systems; and how the computations are performed. The aim of this book is to elucidate what is computed in different brain systems; and to describe current biologically plausible computational approaches and models of how each of these brain systems computes. Understanding the brain in this way has enormous potential for understanding ourselves better in health and in disease. Potential applications of this understanding are to the treatment of the brain in disease; and to artificial intelligence which will benefit from knowledge of how the brain performs many of its extraordinarily impressive functions. This book is pioneering in taking this approach to brain function: to consider what is computed by many of our brain systems; and how it is computed, and updates by much new evidence including the connectivity of the human brain the earlier book: Rolls (2021) Brain Computations: What and How, Oxford University Press. Brain Computations and Connectivity will be of interest to all scientists interested in brain function and how the brain works, whether they are from neuroscience, or from medical sciences including neurology and psychiatry, or from the area of computational science including machine learning and artificial intelligence, or from areas such as theoretical physics
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