Evaluation of Mobility Modes on Lunar Exploration Traverses - Marius Hills, Copernicus Peaks, and Hadley Apennines Missions

Energy and time costs of lunar walking or riding traverses, and scientific tasks on J-type missions, and capabilities of A7L suits and life support system

Understanding fans' responses to the sponsor of a rival team

Research Question What factors determine fans’ responses to the sponsor of a rival team? To what extent does higher in-group fan identification, more positive prior attitudes to the sponsor, and a more congruent fit between the sponsor and club, cause denigration or mitigate negative outcomes for the sponsor? Research Methods 300 questionnaires were collected from fans of English Premier League (EPL) football teams Newcastle United and Sunderland allowed us to test our model of sponsorship responses. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to evaluate each hypothesis. Results and Findings Brands will gain greater benefits from sponsorships deemed to be congruent with the rival team and where a higher pre-sponsorship attitude exists. More highly identified fans tend to pay greater attention to the sponsor of their rival team. We find that schadenfreude is a better predictor of affective and behavioural responses than fan identification, despite its popularity in recent research involving rival fans. Implications Brand managers concerned about the size and scope of out-groups can employ our findings to more effectively configure sponsorship activities

A family of E. coli expression vectors for laboratory scale and high throughput soluble protein production

BACKGROUND: In the past few years, both automated and manual high-throughput protein expression and purification has become an accessible means to rapidly screen and produce soluble proteins for structural and functional studies. However, many of the commercial vectors encoding different solubility tags require different cloning and purification steps for each vector, considerably slowing down expression screening. We have developed a set of E. coli expression vectors with different solubility tags that allow for parallel cloning from a single PCR product and can be purified using the same protocol. RESULTS: The set of E. coli expression vectors, encode for either a hexa-histidine tag or the three most commonly used solubility tags (GST, MBP, NusA) and all with an N-terminal hexa-histidine sequence. The result is two-fold: the His-tag facilitates purification by immobilised metal affinity chromatography, whilst the fusion domains act primarily as solubility aids during expression, in addition to providing an optional purification step. We have also incorporated a TEV recognition sequence following the solubility tag domain, which allows for highly specific cleavage (using TEV protease) of the fusion protein to yield native protein. These vectors are also designed for ligation-independent cloning and they possess a high-level expressing T7 promoter, which is suitable for auto-induction. To validate our vector system, we have cloned four different genes and also one gene into all four vectors and used small-scale expression and purification techniques. We demonstrate that the vectors are capable of high levels of expression and that efficient screening of new proteins can be readily achieved at the laboratory level. CONCLUSION: The result is a set of four rationally designed vectors, which can be used for streamlined cloning, expression and purification of target proteins in the laboratory and have the potential for being adaptable to a high-throughput screening

Don't Distract Me When I'm Media Multitasking: Toward a Theory for Raising Advertising Recall and Recognition

Media multitasking, such as using handheld devices like smartphones and tablets while watching TV, has become prevalent but its effect on the recall and recognition of advertising subject to limited academic research. We contend that the context in which multitasking takes place affects consumer memory for advertising delivered via the primary activity (e.g., watching television). Specifically, we identify the importance of the degree of (a) congruence between the primary and second screen activity and (b) social accountability of second screen activities. We test our typology empirically by examining the determinants of next day recall and recognition for billboard advertisers (perimeter board advertisements) of a televised football (soccer) match. In line with our theory, in most cases media multitasking leads to worse recall and recognition, however, in situations where there is congruence between primary and second screen activities and secondary activities have a higher level of social accountability attached to them, then advertising recall and recognition improves

Intra- and interobserver reproducibility of pelvic ultrasound for the detection and measurement of endometriotic lesions

STUDY QUESTION: What is the interobserver and intraobserver reproducibility of pelvic ultrasound for the detection of endometriotic lesions? SUMMARY ANSWER: Pelvic ultrasound is highly reproducible for the detection of pelvic endometriotic lesions. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) has been widely adopted as the first-line assessment for the diagnosis and assessment of pelvic endometriosis. Severity of endometriosis as assessed by ultrasound has been shown to have good concordance with laparoscopy (kappa 0.79). The reproducibility of TVS for assessment of ovarian mobility and pouch of Douglas obliteration using the 'sliding sign' has already been described in the literature. However, there is no available data in the literature to demonstrate the intraobserver repeatability of measurements for endometriotic cysts and nodules. STUDY DESIGN SIZE DURATION: This was a prospective observational cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 12 months. We included 50 consecutive women who were all examined by two operators (A and B) during their clinic attendance. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS SETTING METHODS: The study was carried out in a specialist endometriosis centre. We included all consecutive women who had ultrasound scans performed independently by two experienced operators during the same visit to the clinic. The outcomes of interest were the inter- and intraobserver reproducibility for the detection of endometriotic lesions. We also assessed repeatability of the measurements of lesion size. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: There was a good level of agreement between operator A and operator B in detecting the presence of pelvic endometriotic lesions (k = 0.72). There was a very good level of agreement between operators in identifying endometriotic cysts (k = 0.88) and a good level of agreement in identifying endometriotic nodules (k = 0.61). The inter- and intraobserver repeatability of measuring endometriotic cysts was excellent (intra-class correlation (ICC) ≥ 0.98). There was good interobserver measurement repeatability for bowel nodules (ICC 0.88), but the results for nodules in the posterior compartment were poor (ICC 0.41). The intraobserver repeatability for nodule size measurements was good for both operators (ICC ≥0.86). LIMITATIONS REASONS FOR CAUTION: Within this cohort, there was insufficient data to perform a separate analysis for nodule size in the anterior compartment. All examinations were performed within a specialised unit with a high prevalence of deep endometriosis. Our findings may not apply to operators without intensive ultrasound training in the diagnosis of pelvic endometriosis. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: These findings are important because ultrasound has been widely accepted as the first-line investigation for the diagnosis of pelvic endometriosis, which often determines the need for future investigations and treatment. The detection and measurement of bowel nodules is essential for anticipation of surgical risk and planning surgical excision. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS: The authors have no conflict of interest. No funding was obtained for this work

Identification of novel immunogens in Pasteurella multocida

P. multocida is a Gram-negative pathogen responsible for causing diseases in animals of economic significance to livestock industries throughout the world. Current vaccines include bacterins, which provide only limited protection against homologous serotypes. Therefore there is a need for more effective vaccines to control diseases caused by P. multocida. As a step towards developing vaccines against fowl cholera, a genomics based approach was applied for the identification of novel immunogens. RESULTS: Bioinformatics analysis of the P. multocida genome predicted 129 proteins as secreted, located in the outer membrane, or lipoproteins. 105 of the genes encoding these proteins were cloned and recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli. Polyclonal serum from P. multocida-infected chickens reacted with a subset of these proteins. CONCLUSION: These data show the range of bacterial immunogens recognized by the chicken immune system, including 6 novel immunoreactive proteins

Correction: Life and bladder cancer: protocol for a longitudinal and cross-sectional patient-reported outcomes study of Yorkshire (UK) patients

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. This article was previously published with an error in figures. The correct figures are below: Figure 1: Study data flow for the longitudinal study (workstream 2). NCRAS, National Cancer Registration and Analysis. (Figure Presented). Figure 2: Study data flow for the cross-sectional study (workstream 3). CRFs, case report forms; PHE, Public Health England; PIS, patient information sheet. (Figure Presented)