Adaptive hospitality: identifying design strategies in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings as boutique hotels

Downtown revitalization has been at the forefront of many cities’ goals in the United States. Adaptive reuse of existing buildings is a crucial factor in this process by highlighting the uniqueness and identity of a place, maintaining the local sense of community, and differentiating it from the rest of the city. More and more historic structures are being adapted to boutique hotels in downtowns and becoming part of the main attraction of a city. The hospitality industry has recognized that there are a significant number of people that are looking for a different experience than traditional hotels can offer. Hotel chains and independent owners have turned to historic preservation and adaptive reuse to cover the needs of this market. Often the opportunities that adaptive reuse provides to a city are overlooked in favor of new structures, or if used there is no regard for the historic fabric of the building. The growing market of the boutique hotel industry and, the efforts to revitalize downtowns across the country, makes it necessary for a study that highlights the different possibilities in the creation of this type of hotel in a historic setting. This research focuses on identifying the different types of design strategies applied in the adaptive reuse of historic properties into boutique hotels. It also looks at how they provide the user experience associated with a historic-design boutique hotel and, how they incorporated the character-defining features into this design. The study examines the adaptive reuse of five historic-design boutique hotels in the state of North Carolina as case studies. Four successfully qualified for preservation tax credits. A database of historic-design boutique hotels in the state of North Carolina was created for this study, which had to comply with specific criteria to be eligible as samples. Archival research was then conducted using the Historic Preservation Tax Credit Applications to understand better what were the retained features and what changed. Site visits and a visual analysis were the final steps to understand the main reasons for change, the patterns found, and how they incorporated the boutique element

Pierwotny Mięsak Naczyniowy Osierdzia. Opis Przypadku i Przegląd Piśmiennictwa

Primary cardiac tumours are rare entities and angiosarcoma is the most frequent primary cardiac malignant tumour. Mean survival is six months and the tumour responds poorly to chemotherapy. We present the case of a 50 year-old patient with localised pericardial angiosarcoma who survived 23 months after diagnosis with a combined approach of chemotherapy and surgery

Checkpoints are blind to replication restart and recombination intermediates that result in gross chromosomal rearrangements

Replication fork inactivation can be overcome by homologous recombination, but this can cause gross chromosomal rearrangements that subsequently missegregate at mitosis, driving further chromosome instability. It is unclear when the chromosome rearrangements are generated and whether individual replication problems or the resulting recombination intermediates delay the cell cycle. Here we have investigated checkpoint activation during HR-dependent replication restart using a site-specific replication fork-arrest system. Analysis during a single cell cycle shows that HR-dependent replication intermediates arise in S phase, shortly after replication arrest, and are resolved into acentric and dicentric chromosomes in G2. Despite this, cells progress into mitosis without delay. Neither the DNA damage nor the intra-S phase checkpoints are activated in the first cell cycle, demonstrating that these checkpoints are blind to replication and recombination intermediates as well as to rearranged chromosomes. The dicentrics form anaphase bridges that subsequently break, inducing checkpoint activation in the second cell cycle

The Influence of Resistance Exercise Training on the Levels of Anxiety in Ischemic Stroke

The aim of this pilot study was to analyze the effect of a strength training program on indicators of trait and state anxiety in patients with ischemic stroke. The subjects were divided into two groups: experimental group (EG) consisting of 11 subjects aged years and a control group (CG) with 13 subjects aged years. EG underwent 12 weeks of strength training, with a frequency of three times a week. For data collection, a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used. Significant differences were found between pre- and posttest in EG for trait anxiety ( pretest posttest) and state anxiety ( pretest posttest) with no differences in CG for trait anxiety ( pretest posttest) and state anxiety ( pretest posttest). In the evaluation between the groups, significant differences were found for all indicators of trait anxiety ( EG; CG) and state anxiety ( EG; CG). This pilot study indicates that strength training may provide an improvement in trait and state anxiety more than one year after stroke

The influence of the level of physical activity and human development in the quality of life in survivors of stroke

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The association between physical activity and quality of life in stroke survivors has not been analyzed within a framework related to the human development index. This study aimed to identify differences in physical activity level and in the quality of life of stroke survivors in two cities differing in economic aspects of the human development index.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two groups of subjects who had suffered a stroke at least a year prior to testing and showed hemiplegia or hemiparesis were studied: a group from Belo Horizonte (BH) with 48 people (51.5 ± 8.7 years) and one from Montes Claros (MC) with 29 subjects (55.4 ± 8.1 years). Subsequently, regardless of location, the groups were divided into Active and Insufficiently Active so their difference in terms of quality of life could be analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no significant differences between BH and MCG when it came to four dimensions of physical health that were evaluated (physical functioning, physical aspect, pain and health status) or in the following four dimensions of mental health status (vitality, social aspect, emotional aspect and mental health). However, significantly higher mean values were found in Active when compared with Insufficiently Active individuals in various measures of physical health (physical functioning 56.2 ± 4.4 vs. 47.4 ± 6.9; physical aspect 66.5 ± 6.5 vs. 59.1 ± 6.7; pain 55.9 ± 6.2 vs. 47.7 ± 6.0; health status 67.2 ± 4.2 vs. 56.6 ± 7.8) (arbitrary units), and mental health (vitality 60.9 ± 6.8 vs. 54.1 ± 7.2; social aspect 60.4 ± 7.1 vs. 54.2 ± 7.4; emotional aspect 64.0 ± 5.5 vs. 58.1 ± 6.9; mental health status 66.2 ± 5.5 vs. 58.4 ± 7.5) (arbitrary units).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Despite the difference between the cities concerning HDI values, no significant differences in quality of life were found between BH and MCG. However, the Active group showed significantly better results, confirming the importance of active lifestyle to enhance quality of life in stroke survivors.</p

PD-1 Blockade Modulates Functional Activities of Exhausted-Like T Cell in Patients With Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Patients infected by Leishmania braziliensis develop debilitating skin lesions. The role of inhibitory checkpoint receptors (ICRs) that induce T cell exhaustion during this disease is not known. Transcriptional profiling identified increased expression of ICRs including PD-1, PDL-1, PDL-2, TIM-3, and CTLA-4 in skin lesions of patients that was confirmed by immunohistology where there was increased expression of PD-1, TIM-3, and CTLA-4 in both CD4^{+} and CD8^{+} T cell subsets. Moreover, PDL-1/PDL-2 ligands were increased on skin macrophages compared to healthy controls. The proportions PD1^{+}, but not TIM-3 or CTLA-4 expressing T cells in the circulation were positively correlated with those in the lesions of the same patients, suggesting that PD-1 may regulate T cell function equally in both compartments. Blocking PD-1 signaling in circulating T cells enhanced their proliferative capacity and IFN-γ production, but not TNF-α secretion in response to L. braziliensis recall antigen challenge in vitro. While we previously showed a significant correlation between the accumulation of senescent CD8^{+}CD45RA^{+}CD27^{-} T cells in the circulation and skin lesion size in the patients, there was no such correlation between the extent of PD-1 expression by circulating on T cells and the magnitude of skin lesions suggesting that exhausted-like T cells may not contribute to the cutaneous immunopathology. Nevertheless, we identified exhausted-like T cells in both skin lesions and in the blood. Targeting this population by PD-1 blockade may improve T cell function and thus accelerate parasite clearance that would reduce the cutaneous pathology in cutaneous leishmaniasis

Bifidobacterium Infantis 35624 Protects Against Salmonella-Induced Reductions in Digestive Enzyme Activity in Mice by Attenuation of the Host Inflammatory Response

OBJECTIVES: Salmonella-induced damage to the small intestine may decrease the villi-associated enzyme activity, causing malabsorption of nutrients and diarrhea, and thus contribute to the symptoms of infection. The objective of this study was to determine the mechanism by which different doses and durations of Salmonella infection and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) affect brush border enzyme activity in the mouse, and to determine if the probiotic Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis 35624 could attenuate the intestinal damage. METHODS: BALB/c mice were challenged with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium UK1 at various doses (10(2)-10(8) colony-forming unit (CFU)) and durations (10(6) CFU for 1-6 days). Mice were also treated with B. longum subsp. infantis 35624 for 2 weeks before and during a 6-day S. Typhimurium challenge (10(6) CFU), or before injection of LPS. The small intestine was assessed for morphological changes, mRNA expression of cytokines, and activity of the brush border enzymes sucrase-isomaltase, maltase, and alkaline phosphatase. RESULTS: S. Typhimurium infection significantly reduced the activity of all brush border enzymes in a dose- and time-dependent manner (P<0.05). This also occurred following injection of LPS. Pre-treatment with B. longum subsp. infantis 35624 prevented weight loss, protected brush border enzyme activity, reduced the small intestinal damage, and inhibited the increase in interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-8 expression due to Salmonella challenge. CONCLUSIONS: Salmonella infection reduces the small intestinal brush border enzyme activity in mice, with the level of reduction and associated weight loss increasing with dose and duration of infection. B. longum subsp. infantis 35624 treatment attenuated the effect of Salmonella infection on brush border enzyme activity and weight loss, which may be due to modulation of the host immune response

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO