Domination Across Borders: An Introduction

This chapter explores the different dimensions of domination, including whether it has a structural approach, its relation to race and imperialism, and how non-domination can be institutionalized and achieved at a global level

Proof-of-concept: neonatal intravenous injection of adeno-associated virus vectors results in successful transduction of myenteric and submucosal neurons in the mouse small and large intestine

BACKGROUND: Despite the success of viral vector technology in the transduction of the central nervous system in both preclinical research and gene therapy, its potential in neurogastroenterological research remains largely unexploited. This study asked whether and to what extent myenteric and submucosal neurons in the ileum and distal colon of the mouse were transduced after neonatal systemic delivery of recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs). METHODS: Mice were intravenously injected at postnatal day one with AAV pseudotypes AAV8 or AAV9 carrying a cassette encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) as a reporter under the control of a cytomegalovirus promoter. At postnatal day 35, transduction of the myenteric and submucosal plexuses of the ileum and distal colon was evaluated in whole-mount preparations, using immunohistochemistry to neurochemically identify transduced enteric neurons. KEY RESULTS: The pseudotypes AAV8 and AAV9 showed equal potential in transducing the enteric nervous system (ENS), with 25-30% of the neurons expressing eGFP. However, the percentage of eGFP-expressing colonic submucosal neurons was significantly lower. Neurochemical analysis showed that all enteric neuron subtypes, but not glia, expressed the reporter protein. Intrinsic sensory neurons were most efficiently transduced as nearly 80% of calcitonin gene-related peptide-positive neurons expressed the transgene. CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: The pseudotypes AAV8 and AAV9 can be employed for gene delivery to both the myenteric and the submucosal plexus, although the transduction efficiency in the latter is region-dependent. These findings open perspectives for novel preclinical applications aimed at manipulating and imaging the ENS in the short term, and in gene therapy in the longer term

Developed and quasi-developed macro-scale flow in micro- and mini-channels with arrays of offset strip fins

We investigate to what degree the steady laminar flow in typical micro- and mini-channels with offset strip fin arrays can be described as developed on a macro-scale level, in the presence of channel entrance and side-wall effects. Hereto, the extent of the developed and quasi-developed flow regions in such channels is determined through large-scale numerical flow simulations. It is observed that the onset point of developed flow increases linearly with the Reynolds number and channel width, but remains small relative to the total channel length. Further, we find that the local macro-scale pressure gradient and closure force for the (double) volume-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are adequately modeled by a developed friction factor correlation, as typical discrepancies are below 15% in both the developed and developing flow region. We show that these findings can be attributed to the eigenvalues and mode amplitudes which characterize the quasi-developed flow in the entrance region of the channel. Finally, we discuss the influence of the channel side walls on the flow periodicity, the mass flow rate, as well as the macro-scale velocity profile, which we capture by a displacement factor and slip length coefficient. Our findings are supported by extensive numerical data for fin height-to-length ratios up to 1, fin pitch-to-length ratios up to 0.5, and channel aspect ratios between 1/5 and 1/17, covering Reynolds numbers from 28 to 1224.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figure

Sarcopenia in Menopausal Women: Current Perspectives.

peer reviewedMenopause is associated with hormonal changes, which could accelerate or lead to sarcopenia. Functional impairment and physical disability are the major consequences of sarcopenia. In order to hamper these negative health outcomes, it appears necessary to prevent and even treat sarcopenia, through healthy lifestyle changes including diet and regular physical activity or through hormonal replacement therapy when appropriate. Therefore, the purpose of this narrative review will be 1) to present the prevalence of sarcopenia in postmenopausal women; 2) to address the risk factors related to sarcopenia in this specific population; and 3) to discuss how to manage sarcopenia among postmenopausal women

Effects of Citrulline alone or combined with exercise on muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance among older adults: a systematic review.

[en] PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To Establish the potential of Citrulline supplementation (CIT) combined or not with exercise on muscle function and physical performance via a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in human aged 50 years and older. RECENT FINDINGS: Based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis guideline, 103 references have been identified. Among this number, only six RCTs (250 participants) matched the inclusion criteria and were included in the present systematic review. Among the included studies, five of six reported beneficial effects of CIT on muscle mass. Then, four of six studies reported CIT effects on muscle strength but also that CIT when combined to exercise results in further improvements in upper muscle strength. Finally, three of six studies reported beneficial CIT effect on physical performance and suggested that CIT with exercise displayed greater improvements in walking speed than exercise alone. SUMMARY: CIT supplementation seems to be able to improve muscular and physical factors in frail elderly people (malnourished, hypertensive, obese, dynapenic-obese) compared to placebo. More importantly, CIT combined to exercise is more efficient than exercise or CIT alone. However, because of the small number (six) and heterogeneity (dose, duration, population) of the studies realized in older adults, further studies are needed to confirm its promising potential

Predicting replacement of smartphones with mobile app usage

© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. To identify right customers who intend to replace the smart phone can help to perform precision marketing and thus bring significant financial gains to cell phone retailers. In this paper,we provide a study of exploiting mobile app usage for predicting users who will change the phone in the future. We first analyze the characteristics of mobile log data and develop the temporal bag-of-apps model,which can transform the raw data to the app usage vectors. We then formularize the prediction problem,present the hazard based prediction model,and derive the inference procedure. Finally,we evaluate both data model and prediction model on real-world data. The experimental results show that the temporal usage data model can effectively capture the unique characteristics of mobile log data,and the hazard based prediction model is thus much more effective than traditional classification methods. Furthermore,the hazard model is explainable,that is,it can easily show how the replacement of smart phones relate to mobile app usage over time