Effects of Foster Care on the Family System

Despite volumes of studies and research on foster care as an intervention, there has been very limited research conducted on the effects foster care has on the family system as perceived by the foster parents. This study attempted to find some preliminary information about how the foster family is affected by foster children living in their home. Surveys were sent to 50 foster families in a rural county in Minnesota. The survey looked for correlations and frequencies in variables that had both positive and negative impact on the family system. As identified by the learning theorists, children learn from the environment surrounding them. This study may influence how social work implements foster care because foster parenting inevitably changes the family unit. Social workers employed in this area need to be educated not only on how to work with foster children, but also to anticipate the impact foster care has on the family system. Foster children need to be matched to appropriate foster families, and foster families need to be appropriately matched with foster children

Mammalian Cell Line Development Platform for Recombinant Protein Production: Expanding the Protein Expression Toolbox for Research and Drug Discovery Applications

Recombinant proteins have revolutionized the biomedical industry, providing therapeutics for life-threatening diseases and protein reagents for research applications. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. develops recombinant protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases including lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs), a group of about 50 individually rare disorders together affecting 1 in 8,000 live births. With an increase in the number of novel therapeutics in our drug discovery pipeline, there is a high demand to produce a variety of recombinant proteins for early-stage drug development projects. In order to equip our protein production process with the tools and capability for diverse protein expression, it is valuable to expand our expression toolbox with high-expressing platforms. The goal of this project is to expand to our current expression platforms by developing a murine myeloma based expression system with SP2/0 cells as a host. Since the SP2/0 cell line is amongst the most commonly used cell lines for therapeutic and reagent protein production, developing a SP2/0 expression system may offer additional benefits to our recombinant protein production needs including: expression of difficultto-express proteins, improving titers, and extending recombinant cell line stability. A lysosomal enzyme therapeutic candidate is expressed in the SP2/0 cells as a proof-of-concept for developing this protein expression platform. To this end, we have shown that SP2/0 cells can be grown to a high density in commercially available serum-free media with a doubling time of less than twenty four hours. A clone isolation strategy was used to pick the top clone expressing high levels of recombinant protein. Using the highest expressing clone, we developed a high yielding bioprocess at a two liter scale to demonstrate the utility of this system for generating recombinant proteins at large scale. Furthermore, the therapeutic properties of the recombinant protein expressed in SP2/0 cells are similar to the recombinant protein expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines, demonstrating similar uptake into diseased cells (Kuptake values) and binding affinity to the receptor responsible for drug mediated cellular uptake. Thus, the SP2/0 expression system proves to be a valuable addition to our expression toolbox for the production of research-grade protein therapeutics for cell-based assays

Kim Tal-su and Early "Zainichi" Literature

The purpose of this study is to analyze the literary contributions of a founding member of the Korean expatriate literary community in Japan, Kim Tal-su, and by providing several short translations of his works, allow the reader to interact, as directly as possible, with early Zainichi literature. The study further places Kim among his contemporaries and postulates his influence on later generations of Zainichi writers. As I examine the development of Korean minority literature I will consider what characterizes the Zainichi experience and how Kim narrates these experiences compared to later generations of authors. Finally, an in depth analysis of the translated works considers the connection of Kim's own life with his literature, as well as the problems faced by resident Koreans in the areas of education and political organization

Reinforcement design and control of rock slopes above tunnel portals in Northern Italy

The stability features of slopes located above the portals of tunnels along important roads are here presented, together with two examples for reinforcement and protection works. The investigation phase and the reinforcement works have considered also the purpose of avoiding the interruption of the traffic when this would cause unacceptable consequences. The first case refers about the construction of a portal along a narrow and steep valley in a volcanick rock formation. The control of the vibration of the blasting action has been carried out for the period of the excavation in order to foresee the occurrence of potential dangerous situations. The second is the case of the portal of the East access to the Highway n.10. Even though the adits are protected by two portals, the occurrence of rock and debris falls from the upper part of the mountain could create a dangerous situation. Above the portals the morphology of the slope is characterized by two subvertical rock slopes, which are separated by an intermediate zone of debris material

Scanning and data extraction from crop collecting mission documents

Poster presented at TDWG 2009, Montpellier (France). 9 - 13 Nov 2009

"Overburden stability of rock slopes in quarries"

Many ornamental and industrila stone quarries are located along steep slopes or within particular geostructural domains in the Italian Alpine range. The stability of the overburden formations, such as detritic or cohesionless materials, blocky and altered elements or morainic formations, can be compromised by exploitation activities. In other cases there is a natural evolution of the slope, due to singular but diffused phenomena such as block falls, or due to global movements caused by gravity and water interaction. All these facts involve safety aspects not only for the quarrying activities but also because of the possible interference with other nearby structures such as roads, electric power lines and railroads. On the basis of examples some suggestions are given in order to obtain an operative scheme taht is easily adaptable to monitoring and protection of civil excavations of slope

Covid-19 acute responses and possible long term consequences: what nanotoxicology can teach us

Non peer reviewe

Denoising gravity and geomagnetic signals from Etna volcano (Italy) using multivariate methods

Abstract. Multivariate methods were applied to denoise the gravity and geomagnetic signals continuously recorded by the permanent monitoring networks on the Etna volcano. Gravity and geomagnetic signals observed in volcanic areas are severely influenced by meteorological variables (i.e. pressure, temperature and humidity), whose disturbances can make the detection of volcanic source effects more difficult. For volcano monitoring it is necessary, therefore, to reduce the effects of these perturbations. To date filtering noise is a very complex problem since the spectrum of each noise component has wide intervals of superposition and, some times, traditional filtering techniques provide unsatisfactory results. We propose the application of two different approaches, the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to remove noise effects from gravity and geomagnetic time series. Results suggest a good efficiency of the two proposed approaches since they are capable of finding and effectively representing the underlying factors or sources, and allow local features of the signal to be detected

The Suppression of Korean Political Organizations and Publications in Postwar Japan

In 1949, with the aim of keeping Japan politically stable and securely allied with the US as a bulwark against communism, Occupation authorities instructed Japanese police to crack down on expatriate Koreans, who both perceived as a disruptive and threatening force. The result was a September raid disbanding and confiscating the assets of the "League of Koreans in Japan." For the Koreans still living in Japan in the postwar period, the events of September 1949 comprised a return to the oppressive practices of Japanese colonialism and signaled the revival of the imperial Japanese menace. This paper analyzes the events surrounding the dissolution of the League and considers the rebuttal written by the organization's advocates to the government memorandum produced to justify the action. With the aim of better understanding protest movements worldwide, and the tactics deployed to delegitimize them, this study explores the parallels between Korean activism in postwar Japan and recent protests in the United States

Denoising gravity and geomagnetic signals from Etna volcano (Italy)

Multivariate methods were applied to denoise the gravity and geomagnetic signals continuously recorded by the permanent monitoring networks on the Etna volcano. Gravity and geomagnetic signals observed in volcanic areas are severely influenced by meteorological variables (i.e. pressure, temperature and humidity), whose disturbances can make the detection of volcanic source effects more difficult. For volcano monitoring it is necessary, therefore, to reduce the effects of these perturbations. To date filtering noise is a very complex problem since the spectrum of each noise component has wide intervals of superposition and, some times, traditional filtering techniques provide unsatisfactory results. We propose the application of two different approaches, the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to remove noise effects from gravity and geomagnetic time series. Results suggest a good efficiency of the two proposed approaches since they are capable of finding and effectively representing the underlying factors or sources, and allow local features of the signal to be detected