1,206 research outputs found
Encountering Ourselves through the Human Library
This session highlights the work of Fairfield University’s Library in creating an open space for dialogue to combat stereotypes within their own community by holding a Human Library event. The Human Library supports dialogue in which “Human Books”, or people with a story to tell about their identity, can be “checked out” by “Readers” (event attendees) for one-on-one conversations that have the potential for authentic and honest connection. Assessment results tied to social justice student learning outcomes are presented. Practical advice for how to bring this event to their own Jesuit campuses is shared
smpx-deficient zebrafish embryos: a tool for studying ciliopathies and deafness
Firmly established as a model organism for embryonic developmental studies, zebrafish
is now emerging as an effective system to elucidate the fundamental aspects of several
human diseases. Despite the significant evolutionary distance, gene functions and
pathways are often highly conserved between zebrafish and humans. Previous work has
identified nonsense mutations, associated with hearing deficiency, in the small muscle
protein, X-linked (SMPX) gene and a loss-of-function mechanism underlying this form of
impairment has been proposed. SMPX encodes a cytoskeleton-associated protein that
has been suggested being responsive to mechanical stress. The presence of Smpx in hair
cells of the murine cochlea reinforces the thesis of its importance in ear functioning.
In this study we first provided an overview of the expression of smpx during zebrafish
embryonic development. We showed that from the 4-somite stage, zebrafish smpx was
first expressed in the ciliated organ Kupffer\u2019s vesicle (KV), responsible for the left-right
organs asymmetry, and then, as in mammals, expressed in the heart and in the inner
ear, among other territories. Knock-down of smpx in zebrafish embryos resulted in the
reduced number of cilia in KV and, consequently, the left-right patterning of internal
organs resulted compromised, mimicking human heterotaxy, a disorder of laterality.
Moreover, smpx knock-down resulted in the marked decrease of the number of cilia in
the ear macular regions, providing a possible explanation for the hearing loss in SMPXmutated
patients.
In conclusion, this study contributes to the comprehension of the link between SMPX and
human hearing loss, delivers a novel heterotaxy-candidate gene, and finally provides a
robust animal tool for the future elucidation of the mechanisms behind both
deafness/hearing loss and heterotaxy
Quantifier-Free Interpolation of a Theory of Arrays
The use of interpolants in model checking is becoming an enabling technology
to allow fast and robust verification of hardware and software. The application
of encodings based on the theory of arrays, however, is limited by the
impossibility of deriving quantifier- free interpolants in general. In this
paper, we show that it is possible to obtain quantifier-free interpolants for a
Skolemized version of the extensional theory of arrays. We prove this in two
ways: (1) non-constructively, by using the model theoretic notion of
amalgamation, which is known to be equivalent to admit quantifier-free
interpolation for universal theories; and (2) constructively, by designing an
interpolating procedure, based on solving equations between array updates.
(Interestingly, rewriting techniques are used in the key steps of the solver
and its proof of correctness.) To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
successful attempt of computing quantifier- free interpolants for a variant of
the theory of arrays with extensionality
Fixed-point elimination in the intuitionistic propositional calculus
It is a consequence of existing literature that least and greatest
fixed-points of monotone polynomials on Heyting algebras-that is, the algebraic
models of the Intuitionistic Propositional Calculus-always exist, even when
these algebras are not complete as lattices. The reason is that these extremal
fixed-points are definable by formulas of the IPC. Consequently, the
-calculus based on intuitionistic logic is trivial, every -formula
being equivalent to a fixed-point free formula. We give in this paper an
axiomatization of least and greatest fixed-points of formulas, and an algorithm
to compute a fixed-point free formula equivalent to a given -formula. The
axiomatization of the greatest fixed-point is simple. The axiomatization of the
least fixed-point is more complex, in particular every monotone formula
converges to its least fixed-point by Kleene's iteration in a finite number of
steps, but there is no uniform upper bound on the number of iterations. We
extract, out of the algorithm, upper bounds for such n, depending on the size
of the formula. For some formulas, we show that these upper bounds are
polynomial and optimal
Zinc increases the effects of essential amino acids-whey protein supplements in frail elderly
Abstract: Protein undernutrition is frequent in the elderly. It contributes to the development of osteoporosis, possibly via lower IGF-I. Dietary zinc can influence IGF-I production. Objectives: To determine the influence of dietary zinc addition on IGF-I and bone turnover responses to essential amino acids-whey (EAA-W) protein supplements in frail elderly. Design and setting: A daily oral protein supplement was given to hospitalized patients for 4 weeks. On a randomized, double-blind basis, patients received either an additional 30 mg/day of zinc or control. Participants: Sixty-one hospitalized elderly aged 66.7 to 105.8, with a mini-nutritional assessment score between 17 and 24 were enrolled. Measurements: Activities of daily living; dietary intakes; serum IGF-I, IGF-BP3, CrossLaps™, osteocalcin and zinc were measured before and after 1, 2 and 4 weeks of protein supplementation. Results: Serum IGF-I rapidly increased in both groups. Zinc accelerated this increase with changes of +48.2±14.3 and +22.4±4.7% (p<.05) by 1 week, in the zinc-supplemented and control groups, respectively. Zinc significantly decreased the serum bone resorption marker CrossLaps™ by already 1 week. Activities of daily living improved by +27.0±3.1 and +18.3±4.5% in zinc-supplemented and control groups, respectively. Conclusion: In the elderly, zinc supplementation accelerated the serum IGF-I response to EAA-W protein by 1 week and decreased a biochemical marker of bone resorptio
Finitely generated free Heyting algebras via Birkhoff duality and coalgebra
Algebras axiomatized entirely by rank 1 axioms are algebras for a functor and
thus the free algebras can be obtained by a direct limit process. Dually, the
final coalgebras can be obtained by an inverse limit process. In order to
explore the limits of this method we look at Heyting algebras which have mixed
rank 0-1 axiomatizations. We will see that Heyting algebras are special in that
they are almost rank 1 axiomatized and can be handled by a slight variant of
the rank 1 coalgebraic methods
Assessing the relative accuracy of coral heights reconstructed from drones and structure from motion photogrammetry on coral reefs
Low-altitude high-resolution aerial photographs allow for the reconstruction of structural properties of shallow coral reefs and the quantification of their topographic complexity. This study shows the scope and limitations of two-media (air/water) Structure from Motion—Multi-View Stereo reconstruction method using drone aerial photographs to reconstruct coral height. We apply this method in nine different sites covering a total area of about 7000 m2, and we examine the suitability of the method to obtain topographic complexity estimates (i.e., seafloor rugosity). A simple refraction correction and survey design allowed reaching a root mean square error of 0.1 m for the generated digital models of the seafloor (without the refraction correction the root mean square error was 0.2 m). We find that the complexity of the seafloor extracted from the drone digital models is slightly underestimated compared to the one measured with a traditional in situ survey method
Identificação por "Multiplex PCR" do sorotipo monofásico e atĂpico Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica sorotipo 1,4,[5],12:i:-, no Estado de SĂŁo Paulo, Brasil: freqĂĽĂŞncia e resistĂŞncia antimicrobiana
Salmonella spp. are the etiologic agents of salmonellosis, a worldwide spread zoonoses causing foodborne outbreaks and clinical diseases. By serological identification, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serotype 1,4,[5],12:i:- accounted for 8.8% of human and 1.6% of nonhuman Salmonella strains isolated in SĂŁo Paulo State, during 1991-2000. A total of 28.6% of them amplified a fragment corresponding to H:1,2 (flagellar phase two) through PCR analysis and were further assigned as S. Typhimurium. Antimicrobial resistance was detected in 36.3% of the 369 PCR-negative strains tested, including the multiresistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, sulfonamides, tetracycline, and streptomycin.Salmonella spp. Ă© o agente etiolĂłgico da salmonelose, zoonose mundialmente distribuĂda e responsável por surtos de doenças transmitidas por alimentos e doenças clĂnicas. Sorologicamente, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica sorotipo 1,4,[5],12:i:- correspondeu a 8,8% e 1,6% das cepas de Salmonella de origem humana e nĂŁo-humana, respectivamente, isoladas no Estado de SĂŁo Paulo, no decĂŞnio 1991-2000. Aproximadamente 28,6% destas cepas amplificaram o fragmento correspondente a H:1,2 (fase flagelar dois) em testes de PCR e foram, entĂŁo, identificadas como S. Typhimurium. Das 369 cepas negativas em PCR, 36,3% apresentou resistĂŞncia antimicrobiana, incluindo multirresistĂŞncia a ampicilina, cloranfenicol, sulfonamidas, tetraciclina e estreptomicina
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