Searching for γ\gamma-ray Counterparts to Very Faint X-Ray Transient Neutron Star binaries

Very faint X-ray transients (VFXTs) are a group of X-ray binaries with low luminosities, the peak X-ray luminosities during their outbursts being only 10$^{34}$--10$^{36}$ erg\,s$^{-1}$. Using the $\gamma$-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard {\it Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope}, we investigate their possible nature of containing rotation-powered pulsars, or more specifically being transitional millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Among more than 40 known VFXTs, we select 12 neutron star systems. We analyze the LAT data for the fields of the 12 VFXTs in 0.2--300 GeV energy range, but do not find any counterparts likely detected by {\it Fermi}. We obtain the luminosity upper limits for the 12 sources. While the distances to the sources are largely uncertain, the upper limits are comparable to the luminosities of two transitional systems PSR J1023$-$0038 and XSS J12270$-$4859. From our study, we conclude that no evidence is found at $\gamma$-rays for the suggestion that some of VFXTs could contain rotation-powered MSPs (or be transitional MSP systems).Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Development of activity-based language learning of Chinese for a primary school in western Sydney : a participatory action research study

This study explores the use of activity-based learning in the Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom, for young learners in the western Sydney region. The research takes account of current opportunities and the challenges arising from language policy in the Australian context. Activity-based learning is the focus of this research, with hands-on experiments and various classroom activities used rather than having students passively listening to the teacher. In this study, to engage students and to improve their Chinese learning, a wide range of activities, using music, drama games and visual arts, were implemented in the classroom. This thesis aims to answer the following three research questions: How can activity-based learning be used to teach Chinese language to learners who do not have a Chinese language background, in a western Sydney primary school? What factors influence the implementation of an activity-based approach of this kind? What evidence of learning, in relation to outcomes listed in the NSW Chinese K-10 syllabus for Stage 2 students, can be ascertained following the implementation of an activity- based approach to learning Chinese language? This study applied a qualitative methodology using action research with a teacher-as-researcher. The action research involved planning, acting, observing, reflecting and re-planning in a spiral cycle. The teacher-researcher, also a beginning teacher, fostered her own professional learning through reflection, on a weekly basis, on her own teaching practice and used the action research mode to improve the teaching activities. Two cycles of data were collected from a variety of sources, including: feedback from the classroom teacher obtained through observation and interviews; the teacher-researcher’s weekly reflective journal: student focus groups; and checklists completed by students at the end of each cycle. This research shows that the use of an activity-based learning approach for young learners in western Sydney has a significant impact on their Chinese language learning. Such approaches can engage students emotionally, behaviourally and cognitively through a variety of classroom activities. By using various activities such as simple drama games, Chinese songs and visual arts activities, students have achieved the outcomes outlined in the Chinese syllabus, in a relaxing and productive learning environment. Different classroom activities, incorporating various art forms, make Chinese easier to learn and remember, which helps to keep students emotionally engaged and to maintain their interest in learning Chinese. Hence, it is an effective way to motivate students to continue studying Chinese at the next stage. In the meantime, the teacher-researcher’ s professional learning has been enhanced in the process of conducting this research with the help of the teacher-as-researcher mode of action research

Identification of potential sialic acid binding proteins on cell membranes by proximity chemical labeling.

The cell membrane contains a highly interactive glycan surface on a scaffold of proteins and lipids. Sialic acids are negatively charged monosaccharides, and the proteins that bind to sialic acids play an important role in maintaining the integrity and collective functions of this interactive space. Sialic acid binding proteins are not readily identified and have nearly all been discovered empirically. In this research, we developed a proximity labeling method to characterize proteins with oxidation by localized radicals produced in situ. The sites of oxidation were identified and quantified using a standard proteomic workflow. In this method, a clickable probe was synthesized and attached to modified sialic acids on the cell membrane, which functioned as a catalyst for the localized formation of radicals from hydrogen peroxide. The proteins in the sialic acid environment were labeled through amino acid oxidation, and were categorized into three groups including sialylated proteins, non-sialylated proteins with transmembrane domains, and proteins that are associated with the membrane with neither sialylated nor transmembrane domains. The analysis of the last group of proteins showed that they were associated with binding functions including carbohydrate binding, anion binding, and cation binding, thereby revealing the nature of the sialic acid-protein interaction. This new tool identified potential sialic acid-binding proteins in the extracellular space and proteins that were organized around sialylated glycans in cells

Study on heat input for superalloy welding by using FEA simulation and experimental verification / Gege Nurfaizee Fadzil.

The purpose of this study is to find out optimum heat source for IN625 nickel based super alloy by using experimental and finite element analysis. The investigation on heat source was use in the welding process in order to seek the relationship between mechanical characteristic and macrostructure. It also employed in order to find out the optimum heat source on butt join and had included simulation (SYSWELD). Information in IN625 coupons parameter such as variable current, voltage and traveling speed while welding have been taken and was applied in SYSWELD. The distortion effects from welding works are then being measure by using CMM. The hardness values are taken by portable Hardness Vickers equipment. The macro graph from experimental measured to develop heat source fitting for SYSWELD application. It is hope that by using simulation software the time taken to predicting outcome of super alloys welding can be shortened hence avoiding trial and error method which currently being employed

Elucidating the Functional Relevance of BAP1 in the Liver

Prognosis for primary liver cancer remain poor due to a combination of factors including late presentation of disease, genetic heterogeneity and ineffective therapies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to disentangle genetic heterogeneity by characterizing individual mutations and investigating potential vulnerabilities that these mutations may harbor. BAP1 inactivation is one of the most common genetic alterations in liver cancer with prevalence up to 25% in intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) and up to 7% in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), indicating a potential role in these diseases. BAP1 is an epigenetic modifier that deubiquitinates the mono-ubiquitinated K119 residue on histone 2A. In addition to its deubiquitinase activity, BAP1 also contains a HBM motif that mediates the interaction with host cell factor-1 (HCF-1), O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT), and the polycomb group proteins ASXL1 and ASXL2 and thus is a central point for epigenetic regulation. However, despite its functional properties and mutational prevalence in liver cancer, the role of BAP1 in the liver remains unknown. In order to dissect the functional relevance of BAP1 in the liver, I employed Tet-regulatable shRNA mouse strains and in-vivo CRISPR/Cas9 technology as well as in-vitro models of BAP1 depletion in this study. Surprisingly, liver specific Bap1 depletion (using shRNAs) in dietary models of metabolic distress (CD-HFD and HFD) led to acute fatality and severe hepatic injury characterized by elevated serum transaminases (ALT and AST) and Bilirubin, as well as TUNEL positive hepatocytes. Conversely, endogenous restoration of Bap1 rescued fatality and attenuated liver damage, thereby highlighting the importance of BAP1 in this process. Transcriptional profiling and lipidomics analyses revealed elevated unfolded protein response pathway and dysregulated fatty acid metabolism upon Bap1 depletion under metabolic stress. Moreover, to elucidate the role of BAP1 in liver tumorigenesis and liver plasticity, I combined Bap1 loss with other prevalent oncogenic events in liver cancer in-vivo by hydrodynamic tail vein injection. In contrast to the observations in non-tumorigenic livers, Bap1 loss accelerated liver tumorigenesis in combination with Pten-deficiency and enforced YAP expression (YAPS127A) resulting in HCC like tumors. Furthermore, Bap1 loss also co-operated with YAPS127A alone to drive liver tumorigenesis, thereby reinforcing the notion that BAP1 is a bonafide liver tumor suppressor. Similarly, a cocktail comprising Bap1 loss in combination with Arid1a loss and YAPS127A, delivered to murine hepatocytes resulted in a phenotypic switch and liver cancer lineage reprograming exemplified by tumors bearing hallmarks of iCCA, thereby implicating BAP1 in liver cancer plasticity. Additionally, BAP1 deficiency (in tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic livers) was demonstrated to inversely correlate with strong CHOP (ER stress sensor) expression, thus providing a molecular hallmark and point of convergence for BAP1 deficiency in liver pathologies. Finally, using in-vivo and in-vitro models, I identified BAP1 deficiency as a therapeutic vulnerability in TP53 depletion driven tumors. This highlighted the unexpected utility of a tumor suppressor as a genotype specific therapy in liver cancer. Together, the results from this study implicate BAP1 as a critical determinant of hepatic survival in metabolic distress states, as well as a bonafide liver tumor suppressor. Furthermore, BAP1 deficiency was unraveled as a therapeutic vulnerability in TP53 null tumors. Thus, this study unveils previously undiscovered context dependent functions of BAP1 in the liver

Regional admittivity reconstruction with multi-frequency complex admittance data using contactless capacitive electrical tomography

Tomographic imaging of the electrical properties distribution within biological subjects such as the human body has been an active research goal in electrical tomography (ET). As the electrical properties of a living tissue vary with the excitation frequency, measuring the frequency-dependent behaviour of the effective dielectric can increase the possibilities for tissue characterisation, and thus enhance the potential for extended clinical applications. The ET system generally enables to capture the changes in effective dielectric properties at low spatial resolution, therefore, the complete complex admittance spectrum can be reconstructed by ET to enrich the information content and further provide better diagnostic. In this work, we demonstrate a novel contactless ET system which relies on the capacitive coupled principle, the capacitive coupled electrical tomography (CCET). Except the non-contact measuring characteristic, the capacitance-based imaging principle enables the system to obtain the measurements at higher excitation frequencies. These characteristics give CCET great potential in future medical application, as the high-frequency component of complex impedance plays a dominant role in establishing the link between the microscopic cell structures and the macroscopic admittivity images obtained from multi-frequency ET systems. In this paper, we used multi-frequency electrical signals from 320 kHz to 14 MHz to conduct the single and multiple inclusions test with different biological samples. Both the reconstructed tomographic images and the Cole-Cole plots confirm the ability of CCET in characterising different objects.</p

A New Label-Free and Contactless Bio-Tomographic Imaging with Miniaturized Capacitively-Coupled Spectroscopy Measurements

A new bio-imaging method has been developed by introducing an experimental verification of capacitively coupled resistivity imaging in a small scale. This paper focuses on the 2D circular array imaging sensor as well as a 3D planar array imaging sensor with spectroscopic measurements in a wide range from low frequency to radiofrequency. Both these two setups are well suited for standard containers used in cell and culture biological studies, allowing for fully non-invasive testing. This is true as the capacitive based imaging sensor can extract dielectric spectroscopic images from the sample without direct contact with the medium. The paper shows the concept by deriving a wide range of spectroscopic information from biological test samples. We drive both spectra of electrical conductivity and the change rate of electrical conductivity with frequency as a piece of fundamentally important information. The high-frequency excitation allows the interrogation of critical properties that arise from the cell nucleus.</p

Kredibilitas Endorser dan Merek terhadap Minat Beli dengan Sikap terhadap Merek dan Kredibilitas Merek sebagai Intervening pada Produk Lemonilo

This research aims to determine the effect of endorser credibility and brand credibility on purchase intentions with attitude towards the brand and attitude towards brand credibility as intervening variables for Lemonilo products. The research method is quantitative with a non-probability sampling technique with a total sample of 271 respondents. The data analysis technique used is SEM-PLS. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that endorser credibility and brand credibility have a positive and significant influence on attitudes towards brand credibility, attitude towards the brand, and purchase intention through the variables attitude towards brand credibility and attitude towards the brand. &nbsp; Keyword: Attitude Towards Brand, Attitude Towards Brand Credibility, Brand Credibility, Endorser Credibility, Purchase Intention