After the Split: An Analysis of Sino-Soviet Military Poster Propaganda

My research argues that commonalities in Soviet and Chinese military posters show that these communist superpowers shared deeply embedded cultural connections that persisted even after the Sino-Soviet Split, an acrimonious diplomatic breakdown between these states that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. I argue against other historians\u27 interpretations of the Sino-Soviet Split period by comparing Soviet and Chinese Communist military poster propaganda within a historical context that explains their complicated and unexpected political and cultural interrelationship. I argue that the Soviet Union and Communist China, on a cultural level, continued their close interaction under the divisive rhetorical surface of the Sino-Soviet Split and even during the xenophobia of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

CP rank of completely positive matrices of order 5

[[abstract]]J.H. Drew et al. [Linear and Multilinear Algebra 37 (1994) 304] conjectured that for n⩾4, the completely positive (CP) rank of every n×n completely positive matrix is at most [n2/4]. In this paper we prove that the CP rank of a 5×5 completely positive matrix which has at least one zero entry is at most 6, thus providing new supporting evidence for the conjecture.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SC

Lives Saved Tool supplement detection and treatment of syphilis in pregnancy to reduce syphilis related stillbirths and neonatal mortality

BACKGROUND: Globally syphilis is an important yet preventable cause of stillbirth, neonatal mortality and morbidity. OBJECTIVES: This review sought to estimate the effect of detection and treatment of active syphilis in pregnancy with at least 2.4 MU benzathine penicillin (or equivalent) on syphilis-related stillbirths and neonatal mortality. METHODS: We conducted a systematic literature review of multiple databases to identify relevant studies. Data were abstracted into standardised tables and the quality of evidence was assessed using adapted GRADE criteria. Where appropriate, meta-analyses were undertaken. RESULTS: Moderate quality evidence (3 studies) supports a reduction in the incidence of clinical congenital syphilis of 97% (95% c.i 93 - 98%) with detection and treatment of women with active syphilis in pregnancy with at least 2.4 MU penicillin. The results of meta-analyses suggest that treatment with penicillin is associated with an 82% reduction in stillbirth (95% c.i. 67 - 90%) (8 studies), a 64% reduction in preterm delivery (95% c.i. 53 - 73%) (7 studies) and an 80% reduction in neonatal deaths (95% c.i. 68 - 87%) (5 studies). Although these effect estimates were large and remarkably consistent across studies, few of the studies adjusted for potential confounding factors and thus the overall quality of the evidence was considered low. However, given these large observed effects and a clear biological mechanism for effectiveness the GRADE recommendation is strong. CONCLUSION: Detection and appropriate, timely penicillin treatment is a highly effective intervention to reduce adverse syphilis-related pregnancy outcomes. More research is required to identify the most cost-effective strategies for achieving maximum coverage of screening for all pregnant women, and access to treatment if required

Robotic 3D Tetris

The Comau 3D Bin Packer is an integrated software and hardware system that automates placing items into a container with a robot using computer vision, modern segmentation techniques, and a team-designed bin packing algorithm. The system detects incoming objects with a point cloud camera, measures their dimensions, computes their optimal placement, and communicates this placement to both a robot for physical placement and the graphical user interface for visualization. The physical system consists of two depth cameras connected to a Raspberry Pi, which handles segmentation, and a computer with a display that handles the bin packing algorithm and the user interface.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167245/1/Gurlik-Travis_Honors-Capstone-Report-Travis_Gurlik.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167245/2/Gurlik-Travis_Honors-Capstone-Presentation-Travis_Gurlik.pd

Comau Robotic 3-D Tetris

The goal of our project is to build a device (hardware and software) to allow a robotic system to pack a series of unknown objects into a container. The final deliverable uses the camera’s depth stream to generate a point cloud, while segmentation parses this data to create a dimensioned bounding box of the object. The bin packing algorithm uses these dimensions to calculate the object’s ideal placement within the bin, while the graphical user interface displays the placement of each object for system monitoring.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167250/1/Honors_Capstone-Joseph_Berman.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167250/2/Capstone_Final_Report-Joseph_Berman.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167250/3/CapstonePresentation-Joseph_Berman.mp

Removing or truncating connexin 43 in murine osteocytes alters cortical geometry, nanoscale morphology, and tissue mechanics in the tibia

Gap junctions are formed from ubiquitously expressed proteins called connexins that allow the transfer of small signaling molecules between adjacent cells. Gap junctions are especially important for signaling between osteocytes and other bone cell types. The most abundant type of connexin in bone is connexin 43 (Cx43). The C-terminal domain of Cx43 is thought to be an important modulator of gap junction function but the role that this domain plays in regulating tissue-level mechanics is largely unknown. We hypothesized that the lack of the C-terminal domain of Cx43 would cause morphological and compositional changes as well as differences in how bone responds to reference point indentation (RPI) and fracture toughness testing. The effects of the C-terminal domain of Cx43 in osteocytes and other cell types were assessed in a murine model (C57BL/6 background). Mice with endogenous Cx43 in their osteocytes removed via a Cre-loxP system were crossed with knock-in mice which expressed Cx43 that lacked the C-terminal domain in all cell types due to the insertion of a truncated allele to produce the four groups used in the study. The main effect of removing the C-terminal domain from osteocytic Cx43 increased cortical mineral crystallinity (p=0.036) and decreased fracture toughness (p=0.017). The main effect of the presence of the C-terminal domain in other cell types increased trabecular thickness (p<0.001), cortical thickness (p=0.008), and average RPI unloading slope (p=0.004). Collagen morphology was altered when either osteocytes lacked Cx43 (p=0.008) or some truncated Cx43 was expressed in all cell types (p<0.001) compared to controls but not when only the truncated form of Cx43 was expressed in osteocytes (p=0.641). In conclusion, the presence of the C-terminal domain of Cx43 in osteocytes and other cell types is important to maintain normal structure and mechanical integrity of bone

How innovative are UK firms? Evidence from the Fourth UK Community Innovation Survey on synergies between technological and organizational innovations

Using data from the Fourth UK Community Innovation Survey this paper explores the diffusion of a range of innovative activities (encompassing process, product, machinery, marketing, organization, management and strategic innovations) across 16,383 British companies in 2004. Building upon a simple theoretical model it is shown that the use of each innovation is correlated with the use of all other innovations. It is shown that the range of innovations can be summarized by two multi-innovation factors, labelled here `organizational' and `technological', that are complements but not substitutes for each other. Three clusters of firms are identified where intensity of use of the two sets of innovations is below average (56.9% of the sample); intermediate but above average (23.7%); and highly above average (19.4%). Distinctive characteristics are found to be common to the companies in each cluster. Finally, it is shown that innovativeness tends to persist over time

Benchmarking and Analysis of Protein Docking Performance in Rosetta v3.2

RosettaDock has been increasingly used in protein docking and design strategies in order to predict the structure of protein-protein interfaces. Here we test capabilities of RosettaDock 3.2, part of the newly developed Rosetta v3.2 modeling suite, against Docking Benchmark 3.0, and compare it with RosettaDock v2.3, the latest version of the previous Rosetta software package. The benchmark contains a diverse set of 116 docking targets including 22 antibody-antigen complexes, 33 enzyme-inhibitor complexes, and 60 ‘other’ complexes. These targets were further classified by expected docking difficulty into 84 rigid-body targets, 17 medium targets, and 14 difficult targets. We carried out local docking perturbations for each target, using the unbound structures when available, in both RosettaDock v2.3 and v3.2. Overall the performances of RosettaDock v2.3 and v3.2 were similar. RosettaDock v3.2 achieved 56 docking funnels, compared to 49 in v2.3. A breakdown of docking performance by protein complex type shows that RosettaDock v3.2 achieved docking funnels for 63% of antibody-antigen targets, 62% of enzyme-inhibitor targets, and 35% of ‘other’ targets. In terms of docking difficulty, RosettaDock v3.2 achieved funnels for 58% of rigid-body targets, 30% of medium targets, and 14% of difficult targets. For targets that failed, we carry out additional analyses to identify the cause of failure, which showed that binding-induced backbone conformation changes account for a majority of failures. We also present a bootstrap statistical analysis that quantifies the reliability of the stochastic docking results. Finally, we demonstrate the additional functionality available in RosettaDock v3.2 by incorporating small-molecules and non-protein co-factors in docking of a smaller target set. This study marks the most extensive benchmarking of the RosettaDock module to date and establishes a baseline for future research in protein interface modeling and structure prediction

Molecular epidemiology of pneumococci obtained from Gambian children aged 2–29 months with invasive pneumococcal disease during a trial of a 9-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine

BACKGROUND: The study describes the molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae causing invasive disease in Gambian children METHODS: One hundred and thirty-two S. pneumoniae isolates were recovered from children aged 2-29 months during the course of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine trial conducted in The Gambia of which 131 were characterized by serotyping, antibiotic susceptibility, BOX-PCR and MLST. RESULTS: Twenty-nine different serotypes were identified; serotypes 14, 19A, 12F, 5, 23F, and 1 were common and accounted for 58.3% of all serotypes overall. MLST analysis showed 72 sequence types (STs) of which 46 are novel. eBURST analysis using the stringent 6/7 identical loci definition, grouped the isolates into 17 clonal complexes and 32 singletons. The population structure of the 8 serotype 1 isolates obtained from 4 vaccinated and 2 unvaccinated children were the same (ST 618) except that one (ST3336) of the isolates from an unvaccinated child had a novel ST which is a single locus variant of ST 618. CONCLUSION: We provide the first background data on the genetic structure of S. pneumoniae causing IPD prior to PC7V use in The Gambia. This data will be important for assessing the impact of PC7V in post-vaccine surveillance from The Gambia

Isospin Breaking in Kℓ4K_{\ell 4} Decays of the Neutral Kaon

In the presence of photons, the neutral $K_{\ell 4}$ decay, $K^0\to\pi^0\pi^-\ell^+\nu_\ell$, can be parameterized in terms of three vectorial, one anomalous, and one tensorial form factors. We present here analytic expressions of two vectorial form factors, $f$ and $g$, calculated at one-loop level in the framework of chiral perturbation theory based on the effective Lagrangian including mesons, photons, and leptons. These expressions may then be used to disentangle the Isospin breaking part from the measured form factors and hence improve the accuracy in the determination of $\pi\pi$ scattering parameters from $K_{\ell 4}$ experiments.Comment: 62 pages, LaTeX, 5 postscript figures, 1 tabl