The development and application of an instrument to indicate the fire resistance characteristics of fabrics in air currents of varying velocities

The most critical issue in the textile industry at the present time is the flammability of textile fabrics. Since man's discovery and utilization of fire, combustible materials have been a great concern, especially when the materials occur in a fine state of division. This is particularly true of textile fibers which are easily ignited and readily combustible. For centuries flammable textile fabrics have been a serious problem to the consumers of the United States and also to the consumers of many other countries, yet the textile fibers used most extensively are highly combustible. Only asbestos fibers, glass fibers, and mineral wools are considered fire resistant. Among the man-made fibers, nylon, polyesters, and vinylchloride copolymers tend to resist flaming but do melt and cause serious burns

A Doctor Facing Turbulent Times: Antoni Tomasz Jurasz, Citizen of the World

The eponymous of the Jurasz procedure is Antoni Tomasz Jurasz (1882–1961). The procedure is a standard approach to treating mature pancreatic pseudocysts that are in contact with the stomach, although recent advances in instrumentation have empowered surgeons to perform pseudocystogastrostomy laparoscopically for this problem. Dr. Jurasz was born in Germany but felt himself as Polish as his ancestors. He graduated from Heidelberg with a degree in medicine. Over the following years, he developed a German surgery school, especially helping with the achievements of Erich Lexer and Erwin Payr. During the period between World Wars I and II, Jurasz chaired and led the Surgery Clinic of Poznan University in Poland; and he gave lectures and performed public operations abroad. These activities, together with articles published in German-, French-, and English-language medical journals, made him a world-renowned figure in the field of abdominal and thyroid surgery. During World War II, he revealed exceptional traits, taking part in the September Campaign in Poland as a surgeon. He then organized the Polish School of Medicine and the Paderewski Hospital in Edinburgh. Despite his outstanding mind, generosity, and merits, A. T. Jurasz became persona non grata in Communist Poland, which ultimately persuaded him to emigrate to the United States

Early pneumothorax as a feature of response to crizotinib therapy in a patient with ALK rearranged lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: Single arm phase 1 and 2 studies on Crizotinib in ALK-positive patients so far have shown rapid and durable responses. Spontaneous pneumothoraces as a result of response to anti-cancer therapy are rare in oncology but have been documented in a number of tumour types including lung cancer. This includes cytotoxic chemotherapy as well as molecular targeted agents such as gefitinib and Bevacizumab. These often require chest drain insertion or surgical intervention with associated morbidity and mortality. They have also been associated with response to treatment. This is the first report we are aware of documenting pneumothorax as response to crizotinib therapy.Case presentation: A 48-year-old Caucasian male presented with a Stage IV, TTF1 positive, EGFR wild-type adenocarcinoma of the lung. He received first line chemotherapy with three cycles of cisplatin-pemetrexed chemotherapy with a differential response, and then second-line erlotinib for two months before further radiological evidence of disease progression. Further analysis of his diagnostic specimen identified an ALK rearrangement by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). He was commenced on crizotinib therapy 250 mg orally twice daily. At his 4-week assessment he had a chest radiograph that identified a large left-sided pneumothorax with disease response evident on the right. Chest CT confirmed a 50% left-sided pneumothorax on a background of overall disease response. A chest tube was inserted with complete resolution of the pneumothorax that did not recur following its removal.Conclusion: Our case demonstrates this potential complication of crizotinib therapy and we therefore recommend that pneumothorax be considered in patients on crizotinib presenting with high lung metastatic burden and with worsening dyspnoea. © 2013 Gennatas et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Grand challenges in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research in the era of science-policy platforms require explicit consideration of feedbacks

Feedbacks are an essential feature of resilient socio-economic systems, yet the feedbacks between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human wellbeing are not fully accounted for in global policy efforts that consider future scenarios for human activities and their consequences for nature. Failure to integrate feedbacks in our knowledge frameworks exacerbates uncertainty in future projections and potentially prevents us from realizing the full benefits of actions we can take to enhance sustainability. We identify six scientific research challenges that, if addressed, could allow future policy, conservation and monitoring efforts to quantitatively account for ecosystem and societal consequences of biodiversity change. Placing feedbacks prominently in our frameworks would lead to (i) coordinated observation of biodiversity change, ecosystem functions and human actions, (ii) joint experiment and observation programmes, (iii) more effective use of emerging technologies in biodiversity science and policy, and (iv) a more inclusive and integrated global community of biodiversity observers. To meet these challenges, we outline a five-point action plan for collaboration and connection among scientists and policymakers that emphasizes diversity, inclusion and open access. Efforts to protect biodiversity require the best possible scientific understanding of human activities, biodiversity trends, ecosystem functions and—critically—the feedbacks among them

Role of Occult and Post-acute Phase Replication in Protective Immunity Induced with a Novel Live Attenuated SIV Vaccine

In order to evaluate the role of persisting virus replication during occult phase immunisation in the live attenuated SIV vaccine model, a novel SIVmac239Δnef variant (SIVrtTA) genetically engineered to replicate in the presence of doxycycline was evaluated for its ability to protect against wild-type SIVmac239. Indian rhesus macaques were vaccinated either with SIVrtTA or with SIVmac239Δnef. Doxycycline was withdrawn from 4 of 8 SIVrtTA vaccinates before challenge with wild-type virus. Unvaccinated challenge controls exhibited ~107 peak plasma viral RNA copies/ml persisting beyond the acute phase. Six vaccinates, four SIVmac239Δnef and two SIVrtTA vaccinates exhibited complete protection, defined by lack of wild-type viraemia post-challenge and virus-specific PCR analysis of tissues recovered post-mortem, whereas six SIVrtTA vaccinates were protected from high levels of viraemia. Critically, the complete protection in two SIVrtTA vaccinates was associated with enhanced SIVrtTA replication in the immediate post-acute vaccination period but was independent of doxycycline status at the time of challenge. Mutations were identified in the LTR promoter region and rtTA gene that do not affect doxycycline-control but were associated with enhanced post-acute phase replication in protected vaccinates. High frequencies of total circulating CD8+T effector memory cells and a higher total frequency of SIV-specific CD8+ mono and polyfunctional T cells on the day of wild-type challenge were associated with complete protection but these parameters were not predictive of outcome when assessed 130 days after challenge. Moreover, challenge virus-specific Nef CD8+ polyfunctional T cell responses and antigen were detected in tissues post mortem in completely-protected macaques indicating post-challenge control of infection. Within the parameters of the study design, on-going occult-phase replication may not be absolutely required for protective immunity

Chromogenic detection of yam mosaic virus by closed-tube reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (CT-RT-LAMP)

A closed-tube reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (CT-RT-LAMP) assay was developed for the detection of yam mosaic virus (YMV, genus Potyvirus) infecting yam (Dioscorea spp.). The assay uses a set of six oligonucleotide primers targeting the YMV coat protein region, and the amplification products in YMV-positive samples are visualized by chromogenic detection with SYBR Green I dye. The CT-RT-LAMP assay detected YMV in leaf and tuber tissues of infected plants. The assay is 100 times more sensitive in detecting YMV than standard RT-PCR, while maintaining the same specificity

Modelling Cell Polarization Driven by Synthetic Spatially Graded Rac Activation

The small GTPase Rac is known to be an important regulator of cell polarization, cytoskeletal reorganization, and motility of mammalian cells. In recent microfluidic experiments, HeLa cells endowed with appropriate constructs were subjected to gradients of the small molecule rapamycin leading to synthetic membrane recruitment of a Rac activator and direct graded activation of membrane-associated Rac. Rac activation could thus be triggered independent of upstream signaling mechanisms otherwise responsible for transducing activating gradient signals. The response of the cells to such stimulation depended on exceeding a threshold of activated Rac. Here we develop a minimal reaction-diffusion model for the GTPase network alone and for GTPase-phosphoinositide crosstalk that is consistent with experimental observations for the polarization of the cells. The modeling suggests that mutual inhibition is a more likely mode of cell polarization than positive feedback of Rac onto its own activation. We use a new analytical tool, Local Perturbation Analysis, to approximate the partial differential equations by ordinary differential equations for local and global variables. This method helps to analyze the parameter space and behaviour of the proposed models. The models and experiments suggest that (1) spatially uniform stimulation serves to sensitize a cell to applied gradients. (2) Feedback between phosphoinositides and Rho GTPases sensitizes a cell. (3) Cell lengthening/flattening accompanying polarization can increase the sensitivity of a cell and stabilize an otherwise unstable polarization

A Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment Using J-PARC Neutrino Beam and Hyper-Kamiokande

Document submitted to 18th J-PARC PAC meeting in May 2014. 50 pages, 41 figuresDocument submitted to 18th J-PARC PAC meeting in May 2014. 50 pages, 41 figuresDocument submitted to 18th J-PARC PAC meeting in May 2014. 50 pages, 41 figuresHyper-Kamiokande will be a next generation underground water Cherenkov detector with a total (fiducial) mass of 0.99 (0.56) million metric tons, approximately 20 (25) times larger than that of Super-Kamiokande. One of the main goals of Hyper-Kamiokande is the study of $CP$ asymmetry in the lepton sector using accelerator neutrino and anti-neutrino beams. In this document, the physics potential of a long baseline neutrino experiment using the Hyper-Kamiokande detector and a neutrino beam from the J-PARC proton synchrotron is presented. The analysis has been updated from the previous Letter of Intent [K. Abe et al., arXiv:1109.3262 [hep-ex]], based on the experience gained from the ongoing T2K experiment. With a total exposure of 7.5 MW $\times$ 10$^7$ sec integrated proton beam power (corresponding to $1.56\times10^{22}$ protons on target with a 30 GeV proton beam) to a $2.5$-degree off-axis neutrino beam produced by the J-PARC proton synchrotron, it is expected that the $CP$ phase $\delta_{CP}$ can be determined to better than 19 degrees for all possible values of $\delta_{CP}$, and $CP$ violation can be established with a statistical significance of more than $3\,\sigma$ ($5\,\sigma$) for $76$ ($58$) of the $\delta_{CP}$ parameter space

Search for astronomical neutrinos from blazar TXS 0506+056 in super-kamiokande

We report a search for astronomical neutrinos in the energy region from several GeV to TeV in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 using the Super-Kamiokande detector following the detection of a 100 TeV neutrinos from the same location by the IceCube collaboration. Using Super-Kamiokande neutrino data across several data samples observed from 1996 April to 2018 February we have searched for both a total excess above known backgrounds across the entire period as well as localized excesses on smaller timescales in that interval. No significant excess nor significant variation in the observed event rate are found in the blazar direction. Upper limits are placed on the electron- and muon-neutrino fluxes at the 90% confidence level as 6.0 × 10−7 and 4.5 × 10−7–9.3 × 10−10 [erg cm−2 s−1], respectively