The Mark 3 Haploscope

A computer-operated binocular vision testing device was developed as one part of a system designed for NASA to evaluate the visual function of astronauts during spaceflight. This particular device, called the Mark 3 Haploscope, employs semi-automated psychophysical test procedures to measure visual acuity, stereopsis, phoria, fixation disparity, refractive state and accommodation/convergence relationships. Test procedures are self-administered and can be used repeatedly without subject memorization. The Haploscope was designed as one module of the complete NASA Vision Testing System. However, it is capable of stand-alone operation. Moreover, the compactness and portability of the Haploscope make possible its use in a broad variety of testing environments

Endothelial Progenitors Exist within the Kidney and Lung Mesenchyme

The renal endothelium has been debated as arising from resident hemangioblast precursors that transdifferentiate from the nephrogenic mesenchyme (vasculogenesis) and/or from invading vessels (angiogenesis). While the Foxd1-positive renal cortical stroma has been shown to differentiate into cells that support the vasculature in the kidney (including vascular smooth muscle and pericytes) it has not been considered as a source of endothelial cell progenitors. In addition, it is unclear if Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells in other organs such as the lung have the potential to form endothelium. This study examines the potential for Foxd1-positive cells of the kidney and lung to give rise to endothelial progenitors. We utilized immunofluorescence (IF) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to co-label Foxd1-expressing cells (including permanently lineage-tagged cells) with endothelial markers in embryonic and postnatal mice. We also cultured FACsorted Foxd1-positive cells, performed in vitro endothelial cell tubulogenesis assays and examined for endocytosis of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Ac-LDL), a functional assay for endothelial cells. Immunofluorescence and FACS revealed that a subset of Foxd1-positive cells from kidney and lung co-expressed endothelial cell markers throughout embryogenesis. In vitro, cultured embryonic Foxd1-positive cells were able to differentiate into tubular networks that expressed endothelial cell markers and were able to endocytose Ac-LDL. IF and FACS in both the kidney and lung revealed that lineage-tagged Foxd1-positive cells gave rise to a significant portion of the endothelium in postnatal mice. In the kidney, the stromal-derived cells gave rise to a portion of the peritubular capillary endothelium, but not of the glomerular or large vessel endothelium. These findings reveal the heterogeneity of endothelial cell lineages; moreover, Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells of the developing kidney and lung are a source of endothelial progenitors that are likely critical to patterning the vasculature. © 2013 Sims-Lucas et al

Nekaj misli o boljšem izobraževanju studentov stomatologije

The article mentions ways of inducing students of dentistry to tako an active part in the teaching process. In the direct activation process the teacher establishes contacts with his students during the practical part of their training and thus gets to know them individually. In the indirect activation process the subject must be presented to the students in the best possible and most interesting way. In both cases each subject that is taught must be a sequel to the previous one, so to say a superstructure although it is not necessary to lecture on every chapter foressen in the plan. However, these chapters which have been chosen in agreement with the students must be treated systematically. Lectures in the form of a seminar particularly tend to stimulate students to take a more active part in the teaching process, especially if the students are asked to lecture themselves and if the lecturer is selected shortly before the lecture is to start. After the lecture a discussion usually develops. The discussion is started by the students themselves while the teacher acts as adviser, guiding and complementing the discussion. The negative side of the seminar method of teaching is that it requires more time than the classical method of teaching. The author thinks that such a form of tuition will become possible at a later stage when the study of stomatology will extend to a period of approximately 6 years. The audio-visual method of teaching has also been mentioned as one of the methods to activate the students more without taking up too much of their time. The teacher has then more spare time for scientific and research work. This method is, however, expensive. Although we cannot altogether introduce the most modern ways and methods of teaching, great improvements might be possible if we adopt some of these educational measures.Das Aktivieren der Studenten im Laufe der Ausbildung kann auf direkte oder indirekte Weise erfolgen. Die direkte Aktivierung besteht im unmittelbaren Kontakt des Hochschullehrers mit den Studenten während der Übungen. Bei der mittelbaren Aktivierung muss der Gegenstand für den Studenten besonders anziehend dargestellt werden. Besonders anregend wirken Seminare, falls sie von den Studenten selbst ausgeübt werden und der Vortragende erst vor Beginn der Vorlesung gewählt wird. Nach beendeter Vorlesung entwickelt sich eine Diskussion, welche von den Studenten begonnen wird, der Hochschullehrer soll sie nur leiten und ergänzen. Die Schattenseite des Seminar-Unterrichts ist der grössere Zeitverlust im Verhältniss zum klassischen Unterricht. Der Autor ist der Meinung, dass für diese Art von Ausbildung ein Studium von sechs Jahren notwendig ist. Es wird auch der audiovisuelle Typus des Unterrichts erwähnt, welcher zeitsparend ist, doch sind seine Kosten grösser. Die angeführten pädagogischen Massnahmen tragen viel zu einer besseren Ausbildung bei.U članku se govori o boljem aktiviranju studenata stomatologije u pedagoškom procesu. U direktnom aktiviranju nastavnik dolazi u kontakt sa studentima za vrijeme vježbi i tako individualno kontaktira s njima. U indirektnom aktiviranju predmet mora biti što interesantniji za studenta. U oba slučaja svaki predmet mora biti nadogradnja prethodnog, iako se sva poglavlja ne moraju predavati. Ona, koja se dogovorno sa studentima odaberu trebaju biti sistematska. Predavanja u seminarskom obliku posebno aktiviraju studente ako ih sami studenti izvode a predavač se odredi neposredno prije početka predavanja. Po završenom predavanju razvija se diskusija, koju započinju studenti a nastavnik je usmjeruje i nadopunjava. Nepovoljna strana seminarskog načina nastave je u tome što iziskuje mnogo više vremena od klasične nastave. Autor smatra da će takva nastava biti moguća kad će stomatološki studij trajati 6 godina. Spominje se i audiovizuelni način nastave koji studenta više aktivira a vremenski ga ne preopterećuje pa nastavnik ima više vremena za naučno istraživački rad. Taj je način nastave međutim skup. lako ne možemo u potpunosti uvesti najsavremeniji način nastave ipak ćemo mnogo poboljšati nastavu, pridržavajući se spomenutih pedagoških mjera

Expression of Cellulosome Components and Type IV Pili within the Extracellular Proteome of Ruminococcus flavefaciens 007

Funding: The Rowett Institute receives funding from SG-RESAS (Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analysis Service). Visit of M.V. was supported by research grants from FEMS and Slovene human resources development and scholarship funds. Parts of this work were funded by grants from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel – BSF Energy Research grant to E.A.B. and B.A.W. and Regular BSF Research grants to R.L. and B.A.W. – and by the Israel Science Foundation (grant nos 966/09 and 159/07 291/08). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Four-color flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood donor cell chimerism

Passenger leukocytes have been demonstrated to play significant roles in initiating and also regulating immune reactions after organ transplantation. Reliable techniques to detect donor leukocytes in recipients after organ transplantation are essential to analyze the role, function, and behavior of these leukocytes. In this report we describe a simple, reliable method to detect donor cells with low frequencies using peripheral blood samples. Detection of small numbers of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) mismatched cells was first studied using four-color flow cytometry in artificially created cell mixtures. By selecting the CD45+ population and simultaneous staining with several leukocyte lineage markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD56, and CD19), MHC-mismatched leukocytes were consistently detected in cell suspensions prepared from directly stained whole blood samples with a threshold sensitivity as low as 0.1%-0.2%. When the fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated by conventional Ficoll gradient purification, similar, but slightly lower levels of donor cells were detected. Blood samples obtained 1-5 months after liver, kidney, and intestine transplants revealed that the kind of organ allograft influenced levels and lineage pattern of the circulating donor cells. This procedure provided a simple and reliable method in determining early chimerism in transplant recipients. However, the detection of MHC-mismatched leukocytes of all lineages was much lower when frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells were used. © American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 2003. Published by Elsevier Inc

Transforming U.S. Energy Innovation

The United States and the world need a revolution in energy technology—a revolution that would improve the performance of our energy systems to face the challenges ahead. A dramatic increase in the pace of energy innovation is crucial to meet the challenges of: • Energy and national security, to address the dangers of undue reliance on dwindling supplies of oil increasingly concentrated in some of the most volatile regions of the world, and to limit the connection between nuclear energy and the spread of nuclear weapons; • Environmental sustainability, to reduce the wide range of environmental damages due to energy production and use, from fine particulate emissions at coal plants, to oil spills, to global climate disruption; and • Economic competitiveness, to seize a significant share of the multi-trillion-dollar clean energy technology market and improve the balance of payments by increasing exports, while reducing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent every year on importing oil. In an intensely competitive and interdependent global landscape, and in the face of large climate risks from ongoing U.S. reliance on a fossil-fuel based energy system, it is important to maintain and expand long-term investments in the energy future of the U.S. even at a time of budget stringency. It is equally necessary to think about how to improve the efficiency of those investments, through strengthening U.S. energy innovation institutions, providing expanded incentives for private-sector innovation, and seizing opportunities where international cooperation can accelerate innovation. The private sector role is key: in the United States the vast majority of the energy system is owned by private enterprises, whose innovation and technology deployment decisions drive much of the country’s overall energy systems. Efficiently utilizing government investments in energy innovation requires understanding the market incentives that drive private firms to invest in advanced energy technologies, including policy stability and predictability. The U.S. government has already launched new efforts to accelerate energy innovation. In particular, the U.S. Department of Energy is undertaking a Quadrennial Technology Review to identify the most promising opportunities and provide increased coherence and stability. Our report offers analysis and recommendations designed to accelerate the pace at which better energy technologies are discovered, developed, and deployed, and is focused in four key areas: • Designing an expanded portfolio of federal investments in energy research, development, demonstration (ERD&D), and complementary policies to catalyze the deployment of novel energy technologies; • Increasing incentives for private-sector innovation and strengthening federal-private energy innovation partnerships; • Improving the management of energy innovation institutions to maximize the results of federal investments; and • Expanding and coordinating international energy innovation cooperation to bring ideas and resources together across the globe to address these global challenges

PulseSatellite: A tool using human-AI feedback loops for satellite image analysis in humanitarian contexts

Humanitarian response to natural disasters and conflicts can be assisted by satellite image analysis. In a humanitarian context, very specific satellite image analysis tasks must be done accurately and in a timely manner to provide operational support. We present PulseSatellite, a collaborative satellite image analysis tool which leverages neural network models that can be retrained on-the fly and adapted to specific humanitarian contexts and geographies. We present two case studies, in mapping shelters and floods respectively, that illustrate the capabilities of PulseSatellite.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figure

Modifikacija strukture smektita sumpornom kiselinom i karakteristike modifikovanih smektita

Bentonite samples from Petrovac and Aleksinac were treated with sulfuric acid of different molarities. Differences in structure and texture of the initial and modified bentonite were determined by chemical analysis and Xraypowder diffraction (XRPD), infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and physisorption nitrogen at -196°C. Sulfuric acid caused an exchange of Al3+, Fe3+ and Mg2+ with H+ ions which led to a modification of the smectite crystalline structure. The Mg and Fe substitution in the octahedral sheet promoted the dispersion of those layers and forming of amorphous silicon. The sequence according to which the cations left the octahedral sheets was as follows: Mg2+>Fe3+>Al3+. The sulfuric acid activated bentonites exhibiting a lower cation exchange capacity (CEC) and a change of specific surface area (SBET) from 6 to 387 for bentonite from Petrovac and from 44 to 1784 m2 g-1 for bentonite from Aleksinac, positioning them as an excellent absorber in wine technology and in the protection of soil and environment.Uzorci bentonita iz Petrovca i Aleksinca tretirani su različitim molaritetima sumporne kiseline. Promene u strukturi i teksturi polaznih i modifikovanih bentonita utvrđene su hemijskom i analizom rendgenske difrakcije praha X-zraka (XRPD), infra crvenom spektroskopijom (FTIR), skening elektronskom mikroskopijom (SEM) i fizisorpcijom azota na -196°C. Dejstvo H2SO4 kiseline izazvalo je zamenu Al3+, Fe3+ i Mg2+ sa H+ jonima što je dovelo do modifikacije kristalne strukture smektita. Supstitucija Mg i Fe u oktaedarskom listu smektita promovisala je raspuštanje tih slojeva i formiranje silikatne faze. Redosled kojim su ovi katjoni napuštali oktaedarske listove bio je sledeći: Mg2+>Fe3+>Al3+. Sumpornom kiselinom aktivirani bentoniti pokazali su niži kapacitet katjonske izmene (CEC) i promenu specifične površine (SBET), od 6 na 387 kod bentonita Petrovca i od 44 na 1784 m2 g-1 kod bentonita Aleksinca, što ih svrstava u odlične absorbente u tehnologiji vina, zaštiti zemljišta i životne sredine

XYLANOLYTIC ENZYME SYSTEM OF RUMEN BACTERIUM Prevotella bryantii B14

Prevotella spp. are recognised as one of the most numerous strictly anaerobic bacteria inhabiting the rumen. Potentially significant activities include the degradation of plant cell wall polysaccharides, starch, proteins and peptides. P. bryantii B14 is not cellulolytic but actively degrades hemicellulose xylan and carries multiple xylanase genes. Four regions encoding xylanase activity have been isolated, one of which encodes a previously isolated CMC-ase. Of the remaining regions, one encodes activities against p-nitrophenyl-b -xyloside and p-nitrophenyl-a -L-arabinofuranoside (genes xyn A and xynB). The gene xynC encodes another endoxylanase. SDS PAGE xylanograms revealed four endoxylanolytic bands at 29 kDa, 45 kDa, 66 kDa and 88 kDa. The majority of endoxylanase and CMC-ase activity was found in periplasmic cell fraction while most of the a -L-arabinofuranosidase and b -xylosidase activities were found in the crude membrane fraction. HPLC separation of periplasmic proteins by CIM DEAE 8 tubes resulted in partial isolation of CMC-ase and 66-kDa endoxylanase