Fleet management of rural timber bridges

Joining with the Federal Highway Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture-Forest Products Laboratory, the Center for Transportation and Research Education at Iowa State University conducted a research study which investigated the implementation of a fleet management concept for rural timber bridges. A literature search was conducted to determine the practices of fleet management as seen in the trucking, airline, or busing industries, as well as to find past bridge research projects where fleet management was investigated. The study consisted of identification of a fleet of bridges, information requests, visual inspection, static live load testing, and finite element modeling. Each task was an integral part of forming a four-level performance parameter that described the level of performance for a specific bridge. Performance trends were identified and discussed. Conclusions and recommendations address the implementation of a fleet management concept for rural timber bridges and considerations for possible further research studies

Extensiones del marco traslocal en protestas en red: el caso del hashtag #idlenomore

The aim of the present study was to examine how locally situated social movements can use social media to deploy translocally networked forms of protests. The study looks at the Canadian Idle No More movement, an indigenous and environmental grassroots initiative that emerged around the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 as a reaction to previous neglect of indigenous groups and to the omnibus bill proposal C-45 (which threatened both the partial sovereignty of indigenous territories and the Canadian environment). Focusing on the -decentralized and heterogeneous- movement’s Twitter use in general, and the employment of the hashtag #idlenomore in particular, the study examines to which extent and how Twitter may be a means for establishing bonds between geographically dispersed social movements.El objetivo del presente estudio es examinar cómo movimientos sociales locales pueden usar formulas de protesta traslocal en red. El estudio trata sobre el movimiento canadiense “Idle No More”, una iniciativa medioambiental indígena de base que emerge a finales del 2012 y principios de 2013 como reacción a la marginación de los grupos indígenas y a la propuesta de ley “omnibus” C-45 (que amenazaba tanto la soberanía de los territorios indígenas como el medioambiente canadiense). En relación con el habitualmente descentralizado y heterogéneo uso de Twitter , y en particular, con la forma de emplear el hashtag #idlenomore, el estudio examina en qué medida y cómo Twiter puede ser una forma de establecer lazos entre movimientos sociales dispersos geográficamente

Biology and Ecology of the Atlantic Stingray, Dasyatis sabina (Pisces: Dasyatidae) in North Carolina and Georgia

The seasonality, distribution, ecology, movements, catch per unit effort, breeding season, and length-weight relationships for the Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina, trawled in North Carolina (1973 through 1976) and Georgia (1967 through 1969) are compared and discussed. Occurrences in relation to water temperature, salinity, and oxygen content are also reported and compared with previous literature. Dispelling popular belief, D. sabina throughout its range is a minor numerical component of the fish faunas studied

Size Scaling of Plastic Deformation in Simple Shear: Fractional Strain-Gradient Plasticity and Boundary Effects in Conventional Strain-Gradient Plasticity

A recently developed model based on fractional derivatives of plastic strain is compared with conventional strain-gradient plasticity (SGP) models. Specifically, the experimental data and observed model discrepancies in the study by Mu et al. (2016, “Dependence of Confined Plastic Flow of Polycrystalline Cu Thin Films on Microstructure,” MRS Com. Res. Let. 20, pp. 1–6) are considered by solving the constrained simple shear problem. Solutions are presented both for a conventional SGP model and a model extension introducing an energetic interface. The interface allows us to relax the Dirichlet boundary condition usually assumed to prevail when solving this problem with the SGP model. We show that the particular form of a relaxed boundary condition does not change the underlying size scaling of the yield stress and consequently does not resolve the scaling issue. Furthermore, we show that the fractional strain-gradient plasticity model predicts a yield stress with a scaling exponent that is equal to the fractional order of differentiation

Functional assessment for clinical use of serum-free adapted NK-92 cells

Natural killer (NK) cells stand out as promising candidates for cellular immunotherapy due to their capacity to kill malignant cells. However, the therapeutic use of NK cells is often dependent on cell expansion and activation with considerable amounts of serum and exogenous cytokines. We aimed to develop an expansion protocol for NK-92 cells in an effort to generate a cost-efficient, xeno-free, clinical grade manufactured master cell line for therapeutic applications. By making functional assays with NK-92 cells cultured under serum-free conditions (NK-92(SF)) and comparing to serum-supplemented NK-92 cells (NK-92(S)) we did not observe significant alterations in the viability, proliferation, receptor expression levels, or in perforin and granzyme levels. Interestingly, even though NK-92(SF) cells displayed decreased degranulation and cytotoxicity against tumor cells in vitro, the degranulation capacity was recovered after overnight incubation with 20% serum in the medium. Moreover, lentiviral vector-based genetic modification efficiency of NK-92(SF) cells was comparable with NK-92(S) cells. The application of similar strategies can be useful in reducing the costs of manufacturing cells for clinical use and can help us understand and implement strategies towards chemically defined expansion and genetic modification protocols

Inhaled corticosteroid use is associated with increased circulating tregulatory cells in children with asthma

BACKGROUND: T regulatory (Treg) cells are important in balancing immune responses and dysregulation of Treg cells has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple disease states including asthma. In this study, our primary aim was to determine Treg cell frequency in the peripheral blood of children with and without asthma. The secondary aim was to explore the association between Treg cell frequency with allergen sensitization, disease severity and medication use. METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy control subjects (N = 93) and asthmatic children of varying disease severity (N = 66) were characterized by multi-parameter flow cytometry. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrate that children with asthma had a significantly increased frequency of Treg cells compared to children without asthma. Using a multivariate model, increased Treg cell frequency in children with asthma was most directly associated with inhaled corticosteroid use, and not asthma severity, allergic sensitization, or atopic status of the asthma. CONCLUSION: We conclude that low dose, local airway administration of corticosteroids is sufficient to impact the frequency of Treg cells in the peripheral blood. These data highlight the importance of considering medication exposure when studying Treg cells and suggest inhaled corticosteroid use in asthmatics may improve disease control through increased Treg cell frequency

The intramembrane protease Sppl2a is required for B cell and DC development and survival via cleavage of the invariant chain

The protease Sppl2a cleaves the N-terminal fragment of invariant chain (CD74) and is required for efficient B cell development and function.B cell development requires tight regulation to allow for the generation of a diverse repertoire while preventing the development of autoreactive cells. We report, using N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)–induced mutagenesis, the identification of a mutant mouse (chompB) with a block in early B cell development. The blockade occurs after the transitional 1 (T1) stage and leads to a decrease in mature B cell subsets and deficits in T cell–dependent antibody responses. Additionally, chompB mice have decreases in myeloid dendritic cells (DCs). The mutation was mapped to the intramembrane protease signal peptide peptidase-like 2a (Sppl2a), a gene not previously implicated in immune cell development. Proteomic analysis identified the invariant chain (CD74) as a key substrate of Sppl2a and suggests that regulated intramembrane proteolysis of CD74 by Sppl2a contributes to B cell and DC survival. Moreover, these data suggest that modulation of Sppl2a may be a useful therapeutic strategy for treatment of B cell dependent autoimmune disorders