The Spheres of Action of the Inquisition in the Counter-Reformation

In this paper, we will endeavor to set down the special spheres of action of this institution in regard to the quenching of various heresies which arose within the church. As we refer to the term heretics at various times, let it be understood that we are viewing people as heretics as those who deviated from the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. This will be done only for the sake of clarity, not to prove that they were either wrong or right in their beliefs

Hydrodynamic and water quality modeling of the Whippany river

The Whippany River is located in northern New Jersey and is a major tributary to the Passaic River System. This waterway accepts a wide variety of wastes from the diverse communities within its watershed. These wastes contribute to a rather complex network of biological, chemical and physical interactions. The purpose of this study is to develop a water quality model using QUAL2E. This model will be used as a tool to simulate the complex interactions that take place within the river system. The river must he considered from physical, biological and chemical perspectives. A successful model can determine current water quality conditions or predict a future waste load\u27s impact on water quality. The major systems that have an effect on DO and will be considered here include aquatic plants, biochemical oxygen demand, the nitrogen cycle, sediment oxygen demand, and atmospheric reaeration on the dissolved oxygen levels in the water

Generation and Characterization of iPS Cells Derived from APECED Patients for Gene Correction

APECED (Autoimmune-Polyendocrinopathy-Candidiasis-Ectodermal-Dystrophy) is a severe and incurable multiorgan autoimmune disease caused by mutations in the AIRE (autoimmune regulator) gene. Without functional AIRE, the development of central and peripheral immune tolerance is severely impaired allowing the accumulation of autoreactive immune cells in the periphery. This leads to multiple endocrine and non-endocrine autoimmune disorders and mucocutaneous candidiasis in APECED patients. Recent studies have suggested that AIRE also has novel functions in stem cells and contributes to the regulatory network of pluripotency. In preparation of therapeutic gene correction, we generated and assessed patient blood cell-derived iPSCs, potentially suitable for cell therapy in APECED. Here, we describe APECED-patient derived iPSCs's properties, expression of AIRE as well as classical stem cell markers by qPCR and immunocytochemistry. We further generated self-aggregated EBs of the iPSCs. We show that APECED patient-derived iPSCs and EBs do not have any major proliferative or apoptotic defects and that they express all the classical pluripotency markers similarly to healthy person iPSCs. The results suggest that the common AIRE R257X truncation mutation does not affect stem cell properties and that APECED iPSCs can be propagated in vitro and used for subsequent gene-correction. This first study on APECED patient-derived iPSCs validates their pluripotency and confirms their ability for differentiation and potential therapeutic use.Peer reviewe

Quantum electrodynamics of relativistic bound states with cutoffs

We consider an Hamiltonian with ultraviolet and infrared cutoffs, describing the interaction of relativistic electrons and positrons in the Coulomb potential with photons in Coulomb gauge. The interaction includes both interaction of the current density with transversal photons and the Coulomb interaction of charge density with itself. We prove that the Hamiltonian is self-adjoint and has a ground state for sufficiently small coupling constants.Comment: To appear in "Journal of Hyperbolic Differential Equation

Rhythm in the speech of a person with right hemisphere damage: Applying the pairwise variability index

Although several aspects of prosody have been studied in speakers with right hemisphere damage (RHD), rhythm remains largely uninvestigated. This study compares the rhythm of an Australian English speaker with right hemisphere damage (due to a stroke, but with no concomitant dysarthria) to that of a neurologically unimpaired individual. The speakers' rhythm is compared using the pairwise variability index (PVI) which allows for an acoustic characterization of rhythm by comparing the duration of successive vocalic and intervocalic intervals. A sample of speech from a structured interview between a speech and language therapist and each participant was analysed. Previous research has shown that speakers with RHD may have difficulties with intonation production, and therefore it was hypothesized that there may also be rhythmic disturbance. Results show that the neurologically normal control uses a similar rhythm to that reported for British English (there are no previous studies available for Australian English), whilst the speaker with RHD produces speech with a less strongly stress-timed rhythm. This finding was statistically significant for the intervocalic intervals measured (t(8) = 4.7, p < .01), and suggests that some aspects of prosody may be right lateralized for this speaker. The findings are discussed in relation to previous findings of dysprosody in RHD populations, and in relation to syllable-timed speech of people with other neurological conditions

Who should we hire?: Examining coaching succession in NCAA Division I women’s basketball

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of newly hired coaches in relation to their predecessors, and utilize the analysis to provide guidance to decision makers in college athletic departments. This study examined 185 coaching changes in Division I women’s basketball in 16 conferences between 2000 and 2009. Data were collected from online sources including institutional websites, media guides, and media articles. Latent class analysis was employed to reduce the data to one item per factor. Factors included demographics, coaching ability, coaching experience, past team performance, hiring factors (coaching level change, inside/outside hire, interim, conference affiliation), and institutional factors (public/private, demographic market area, enrollment, budget, and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics standings). Mixed models analysis was performed to identify which categories have a relationship with changes in the number of wins following a coaching change. Results suggest that past team performance was the strongest indicator of future performance after a coaching change

A Post-Succession Analysis of Factors Influencing Coaching Success in NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball – Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Based on the reciprocal determinism component of social learning theory, a total of 736 men’s NCAA Division I basketball coaching changes between 1999 and 2014 were examined to establish which factors were related to conference success following a coaching change. Results from an exploratory latent class analysis indicated that many demographic, environmental, and experiential variables assumed to be important in hiring a new coach are insignificant. However, a program’s previous success, individual coaching ability, and previous coach vacancy circumstance are all significantly related to conference winning differential after a coaching change. Results also indicated a regression to the mean occurs after most coaching changes except for the most elite programs. Pragmatically, however, findings show relatively small increments in winning or losing following a coaching change, suggesting that the impact of a coach is often overstated. Stakeholders can use this information to evaluate coaches, programs, and hiring practices in men’s Division I basketball

Feasibility study for a numerical aerodynamic simulation facility. Volume 1

A Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Facility (NASF) was designed for the simulation of fluid flow around three-dimensional bodies, both in wind tunnel environments and in free space. The application of numerical simulation to this field of endeavor promised to yield economies in aerodynamic and aircraft body designs. A model for a NASF/FMP (Flow Model Processor) ensemble using a possible approach to meeting NASF goals is presented. The computer hardware and software are presented, along with the entire design and performance analysis and evaluation

Hypertonicity-affected genes are differentially expressed in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and correlate with cancer-specific survival

The heterogeneity of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtypes reflects the cell type of origin in the nephron, with consequences for therapy and prognosis. The transcriptional cues that determine segment-specific gene expression patterns are poorly understood. We recently showed that hypertonicity in the renal medulla regulates nephron-specific gene expression. Here, we analyzed a set of 223 genes, which were identified in the present study by RNA-Seq to be differentially expressed by hypertonicity, for the prediction of cancer-specific survival (CSS). Cluster analyses of these genes showed discrimination between tumor and non-tumor samples of clear cell RCC (ccRCC). Refinement of this gene signature to a four-gene score (OSM score) through statistical analyses enabled prediction of CSS in ccRCC patients of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) (n = 436) in univariate (HR = 4.1; 95% CI: 2.78-6.07; p = 4.39 × 10(-13)), and multivariate analyses including primary tumor (T); regional lymph node (N); distant metastasis (M); grading (G)(p = 2.3 × 10(-5)). The OSM score could be validated in an independent ccRCC study (n = 52) in univariate (HR = 1.29; 95% CI = 1.05-1.59; p = 0.011) and multivariate analyses (p = 0.016). Cell culture experiments using RCC cell lines demonstrated that the expression of the tumor suppressor ELF5 could be restored by hypertonicity. The innovation of our novel gene signature is that these genes are physiologically regulated only by hypertonicity, thereby providing the possibility to be targeted for therapy