The Importance of Culture-Fit for Remembering Church Sermons

This experiment tested the degree to which culture-fit influences memory for the content of a sermon. We hypothesized that people who read a sermon emphasizing the infallibility of Christian scriptures will remember it more accurately if they have collectivistic rather than individualistic values. In contrast, we hypothesized that people who read a sermon emphasizing the subjectivity of Christian scriptures will remember it more accurately if they have individualistic rather than collectivistic values. Participants (n = 270) were randomly assigned to read either an orthodox- or quest-oriented sermon regarding Peter 1:20-21. They then completed a true-false memory test as to whether or not statements were in the sermon they read. Later, they completed an online survey of their cultural values and beliefs. Results indicated that highly collectivistic individuals’ memories were negatively affected in the Quest Condition, but not in the Orthodox Condition. Implications for the culture-fit of religious information are discussed

Transition Metal Carbohydrazide Nitrates: Burn-rate Modifiers for Propellants

This paper discusses the synthesis and characterisation of cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni) andcopper (Cu) carbohydrazide nitrates. In differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the complexesexhibited exothermic decomposition indicating their energetic nature. The commencement ofdecomposition was observed at 220 °C for Ni complex, and at 160 °C for Co complex whereasthat of Cu complex occurred at 75 °C. In view of the better thermal stability, Ni and Co complexeswere selected for further study. The activation energy of decomposition of Ni and Co complexeswere found to be 47 kcal/mol and 60 kcal/mol respectively. Impact and friction sensitivity testresults revealed relatively lower vulnerability of carbohydrazide cobalt nitrate. Its incorporationin an ammonium perchlorate (AP)-based composite propellant led to 9-19 per cent enhancementwhereas that of carbohydrazide nickel nitrate resulted in 28-74 per cent enhancement in burningrates in the pressure range 1.9 MPa to 8.8 MPa. Exothermic decomposition of the coordinationcomplexes on propellant surface and involvement of metal at molecular level formed ondecomposition of the complexes in combustion environment of composite propellant may beattributed to the catalytic effect of this class of compounds on the lines of reported literature

PRODOC: a resource for the comparison of tethered protein domain architectures with in-built information on remotely related domain families

PROtein Domain Organization and Comparison (PRODOC) comprises several programs that enable convenient comparison of proteins as a sequence of domains. The in-built dataset currently consists of ∼698 000 proteins from 192 organisms with complete genomic data, and all the SWISSPROT proteins obtained from the Pfam database. All the entries in PRODOC are represented as a sequence of functional domains, assigned using hidden Markov models, instead of as a sequence of amino acids. On average 69% of the proteins in the proteomes and 49% of the residues are covered by functional domain assignments. Software tools allow the user to query the dataset with a sequence of domains and identify proteins with the same or a jumbled or circularly permuted arrangement of domains. As it is proposed that proteins with jumbled or the same domain sequences have similar functions, this search tool is useful in assigning the overall function of a multi-domain protein. Unique features of PRODOC include the generation of alignments between multi-domain proteins on the basis of the sequence of domains and in-built information on distantly related domain families forming superfamilies. It is also possible using PRODOC to identify domain sharing and gene fusion events across organisms. An exhaustive genome–genome comparison tool in PRODOC also enables the detection of successive domain sharing and domain fusion events across two organisms. The tool permits the identification of gene clusters involved in similar biological processes in two closely related organisms. The URL for PRODOC is

Influence of Various Process Parameters on Mechanical Properties and Ballistics of Nitramine-Based Advanced CMDB Propellants

This paper reports the influence of important process parameters, namely mixing time and batch size; on the mechanical properties and ballistics of nitramine-based advanced CMDB propellants. Considerable improvement to the tune of 67 per cent in tensile strength was observed at a mixing time increase of 60-135 min. Scaling up of batch size from 8 to 25 kg resulted in 30 per cent higher tensile strength. Recorded enhancement of burning rate was of the order of 8 per cent in both the sets of experiments. Ballistically modified composition revealed 11-12 per cent increase in burning rate at all the pressure ranges, on combined increase in mixing time (55 to 85 min) and batch size(5-17kg). These findings are in line with those reported for composite and ballistically modified double-base propellants

Controlling Light Through Optical Disordered Media : Transmission Matrix Approach

We experimentally measure the monochromatic transmission matrix (TM) of an optical multiple scattering medium using a spatial light modulator together with a phase-shifting interferometry measurement method. The TM contains all information needed to shape the scattered output field at will or to detect an image through the medium. We confront theory and experiment for these applications and we study the effect of noise on the reconstruction method. We also extracted from the TM informations about the statistical properties of the medium and the light transport whitin it. In particular, we are able to isolate the contributions of the Memory Effect (ME) and measure its attenuation length

An immunotherapy survivor population: health-related quality of life and toxicity in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Purpose The immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have resulted in subgroups of patients with metastatic melanoma achievinghigh-quality durable responses. Metastatic melanoma survivors are a new population in the era of cancer survivorship. The aimofthis study was to evaluate metastatic melanoma survivors in terms of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), immune-relatedadverse events (irAEs) and exposure to immunosuppressive agents in a large single centre in the UK.Methods We defined the survivor population as patients with a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma who achieved a durableresponse to an ICI and had been followed-up for a minimum of 12 months from initiation of ICI without disease progression.HRQoL was assessed using SF-36. Electronic health records were accessed to collect data on demographics, treatments, irAEsand survival. HRQoL data was compared with two norm-based datasets.Results Eighty-four metastatic melanoma survivors were eligible and 87% (N = 73) completed the SF-36. ICI-related toxicity ofany grade occurred in 92%of patients and 43%had experienced a grade 3 or 4 toxicity. Almost half (49%) of the patients requiredsteroids for the treatment of ICI-related toxicity, whilst 14% required treatment with an immunosuppressive agent beyondsteroids.Melanoma survivors had statistically significant lower HRQoL scores with regard to physical, social and physical rolefunctioning and general health compared with the normative population. There was a trend towards inferior scores in patientswith previous exposure to ipilimumab compared with those never exposed to ipilimumab.Conclusions Our results show that metastatic melanoma survivors have potentially experienced significant ICI-related toxicityand experience significant impairments in specific HRQoL domains. Future service planning is required to meet this population’sunique survivorship needs.Peer reviewe

‘It's been adapted rather than impacted’: A qualitative evaluation of the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the positive behavioural support of people with an intellectual disability and/or autism

Background: We used a qualitative approach to explore the experiences of social care staff regarding the provision of positive behavioural support (PBS) to people with an intellectual disability at the height of the Covid‐19 restrictions. Method: We conducted semi‐structured interviews with 19 staff who had recently completed a PBS workforce development programme. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Three themes were identified in the context of the restrictions: The challenges to maintaining quality of life and PBS of the people being supported and staff attempts to overcome these; the ways in which PBS and behaviour support plans were implemented and the impact on behaviours that challenge; the ways in which PBS principles were applied at organisational levels to help to understand and address staff stress and distress. Conclusions: Overall, the staff identified many unexpected benefits of the restrictions. The results are discussed in the context of the study limitations

Osteoprotegerin Expression in Liver is Induced by IL13 through TGFβ

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a profibrotic mediator produced by myofibro-blasts under influence of transforming growth factor β (TGFβ). Its expression in experimental models of liver fibrosis correlates well with disease severity and treatment responses. The regulation of OPG in liver tissue is largely unknown and we therefore set out to elucidate which growth factors/interleukins associated with fibrosis induce OPG and through which pathways. METHODS: Precision-cut liver slices of wild type and STAT6-deficient mice and 3T3 fibroblasts were used to investigate the effects of TGFβ, interleukin (IL) 13 (IL13), IL1β, and platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) on expression of OPG. OPG protein was measure by ELISA, whereas OPG mRNA and expression of other relevant genes was measured by qPCR. RESULTS: In addition to TGFβ, only IL13 and not PDGF-BB or IL1β could induce OPG expression in 3T3 fibroblasts and liver slices. This IL13-dependent induction was not shown in liver slices of STAT6-deficient mice and when wild type slices were cotreated with TGFβ receptor 1 kinase inhibitor galunisertib, STAT6 inhibitor AS1517499, or AP1 inhibitor T5224. This suggests that the OPG-inducing effect of IL13 is mediated through IL13 receptor α1-activation and subsequent STAT6-dependent upregulation of IL13 receptor α2, which in turn activates AP1 and induces production of TGFβ and subsequent production of OPG. CONCLUSION: We have shown that IL13 induces OPG release by liver tissue through a TGFβ-dependent pathway involving both the α1 and the α2 receptor of IL13 and transcription factors STAT6 and AP1. OPG may therefore be a novel target for the treatment liver fibrosis as it is mechanistically linked to two important regulators of fibrosis in liver, namely IL13 and TGFβ1

The moral technical imaginaries of internet convergence in an American television network

How emergent technologies are imagined, discussed, and implemented reveals social morality about how society, politics, and economics should be organized. For the television industry in the United States, for instance, the development of internet “convergence” provoked the rise of a new discourse about participatory democracy as well as the hopes for lucrative business opportunities. The simultaneity of technical, moral, and social ordering defines the “moral technical imaginary.” Populating this concept with ethnographic and historical detail, this article expands the theory of the moral technical imaginary with information from six years of participant observation, interviews, and employment with Current TV, an American-based television news network founded by Vice President Al Gore to democratize television production. This chapter explores the limits of political participation and morality when faced with neoliberal capitalism