Studies supporting an upper-atmosphere chemical release program. Part I - Experimental studies on chemiluminescence. Part II - A model of releases leading to upper-atmospheric chemi-ion formation Final report, May 1965 - May 1966

Chemiluminescence of chemical compounds released in upper atmosphere and model of releases leading to upper atmospheric chemi-ionizatio

Personal Effects: The Social Character of Scholarly Writing

In Personal Effects, Holdstein and Bleich compile a volume that cuts across the grain of current orthodoxy. These editors and contributors argue that it is fundamental in humanistic scholarship to take account of the personal and collective experiences of scholars, researchers, critics, and teachers. They contend that humanistic inquiry cannot develop successfully at this time without reference to the varieties of subjective, intersubjective, and collective experience of teachers and researchers. In composition studies, they point out, an important strand of theory has continuously mined the personal experience of individual writers ( where they stand even in a destabilized sense of that idea). [S]uch substantive accounts of the \u27inner\u27 academic life provide appropriate and rich contexts for further study and analysis. With this volume, then, these scholars move us to explore the intersections of the social with subjectivity, with voice, ideology, and culture, and to consider the roles of these in the work of academics who study writing and literature. Taken together, the essays in this collection carry forward the idea that the personal, the candidly subjective and intersubjective, must be part of the subject of study in humanities scholarship. They propose an understanding of the personal in scholarship that is more helpful because more clearly anchored in human experience.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1131/thumbnail.jp

An investigation of ground shock effects due to Rayleigh waves generated by sonic booms

Ground shock effects due to Rayleigh waves generated by sonic boom

Enhancing ECG Analysis of Implantable Cardiac Monitor Data: An Efficient Pipeline for Multi-Label Classification

Implantable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) devices are demonstrating as of today, the fastest-growing market for implantable cardiac devices. As such, they are becoming increasingly common in patients for measuring heart electrical activity. ICMs constantly monitor and record a patient's heart rhythm and when triggered - send it to a secure server where health care professionals (denote HCPs from here on) can review it. These devices employ a relatively simplistic rule-based algorithm (due to energy consumption constraints) to alert for abnormal heart rhythms. This algorithm is usually parameterized to an over-sensitive mode in order to not miss a case (resulting in relatively high false-positive rate) and this, combined with the device's nature of constantly monitoring the heart rhythm and its growing popularity, results in HCPs having to analyze and diagnose an increasingly growing amount of data. In order to reduce the load on the latter, automated methods for ECG analysis are nowadays becoming a great tool to assist HCPs in their analysis. While state-of-the-art algorithms are data-driven rather than rule-based, training data for ICMs often consist of specific characteristics which make its analysis unique and particularly challenging. This study presents the challenges and solutions in automatically analyzing ICM data and introduces a method for its classification that outperforms existing methods on such data. As such, it could be used in numerous ways such as aiding HCPs in the analysis of ECGs originating from ICMs by e.g. suggesting a rhythm type

Soziale Identität und Partnerwahl: Partnerpräferenzen von Deutschen und Türken der zweiten Generation

"Ausgehend von Forschung zu sozialen Vorurteilen und der Theorie der sozialen Identität wird die Partnerwahl von deutschen und türkischen Jugendlichen der 2. Generation analysiert. Grundlage der Studie bildet eine schriftliche Befragung von 100 deutschen und 100 türkischen Jugendlichen zur aktuellen Partnersituation sowie Kriterien der Partnerwahl aus der eigenen Sicht (Autostereotyp) und der vermeintlichen Sicht der anderen Gruppe (vermeintliches Autostereotyp). Die Ergebnisse zeigen ein starkes Gefühl der Zugehörigkeit zur eigenen nationalen Gruppe sowie Unterschiede in den Autostereotypen und zwischen Autostereotypen und vermeintlichen Autostereotypen der jeweils anderen Gruppen. Ebenso lassen sich große Unterschiede zwischen den Autostereotypen und vermeintlichen Autostereotypen aus einer Perspektive feststellen. Die Ergebnisse in diesem Bereich der Partnerwahl lassen weder auf eine Gleichheit der Sichtweisen der beiden Kulturen noch auf ein detailliertes Verständnis für die jeweils andere Kultur schließen. Weiterhin läßt sich sagen, daß die jeweils andere Gruppe in allen untersuchten Variablen - unabhängig von realen Unterschieden - als von der eigenen Gruppe verschieden wahrgenommen wird. Das Fazit dieser Studie lautet daher, daß angesichts einer multikulturellen Gesellschaft wie der unsrigen eine Integration der Türken in Deutschland durch Eheschließung kaum denkbar erscheint, wobei Türken im Hinblick auf Aspekte der Partnerwahl insgesamt eher konservative Werte vertreten als Deutsche."[Autorenreferat]"Proceeding from research on social prejudices and the theory of social identity, the choice of partner of German and Turkish juvenile adults is analysed. The basis of this study is a questionnaire addressed to 100 German and 100 Turkish adolescents with regard to their current partner situation and the criteria for choice of partners from their perspective (autostereotype) and what they assume to be the perspective of the other group (supposed autostereotype). The results show a strong feeling of affiliation to their own national group as well as differences in autostereotypes and between autostereotypes and the supposed autostereotypes of the other group. Similarly, great differences between autostereotypes and supposed autostereotypes from one perspective can be discerned. The findings in this field of choice of partner do not indicate an equality in perception of the two cultures or a detailed understanding of the other culture. Furthermore, each group perceives the other group as different from their own in all examined variables, irrespective of real differences. Summing these results up, the integration of Turkish juveniles in a multicultural society such as that of Germany by marriage seems scarcely conceivable, whereby with regard to aspects of choice of partner Turkish juvenile adults take a more conservative view overall than do their Germans counterparts."[author´s abstract

Deletion of claudin-10 rescues claudin-16-deficient mice from hypomagnesemia and hypercalciuria

The tight junction proteins claudin-10 and -16 are crucial for the paracellular reabsorption of cations along the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop in the kidney. In patients, mutations in CLDN16 cause familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria and nephrocalcinosis, while mutations in CLDN10 impair kidney function. Mice lacking claudin-16 display magnesium and calcium wasting, whereas absence of claudin-10 results in hypermagnesemia and interstitial nephrocalcinosis. In order to study the functional interdependence of claudin-10 and -16 we generated double-deficient mice. These mice had normal serum magnesium and urinary excretion of magnesium and calcium and showed polyuria and sodium retention at the expense of increased renal potassium excretion, but no nephrocalcinosis. Isolated thick ascending limb tubules of double mutants displayed a complete loss of paracellular cation selectivity and functionality. Mice lacking both claudin-10 and -16 in the thick ascending limb recruited downstream compensatory mechanisms and showed hypertrophic distal convoluted tubules with changes in gene expression and phosphorylation of ion transporters in this segment, presumably triggered by the mild decrease in serum potassium. Thus, severe individual phenotypes in claudin-10 and claudin-16 knockout mice are corrected by the additional deletion of the other claudin

P11 promoter methylation predicts the antidepressant effect of electroconvulsive therapy

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is among the most effective treatment options for pharmacoresistant major depressive disorder (MDD), some patients still remain refractory to standard ECT practise. Thus, there is a need for markers reliably predicting ECT non/response. In our study, we have taken a novel translational approach for discovering potential biomarkers for the prediction of ECT response. Our hypothesis was that the promoter methylation of p11, a multifunctional protein involved in both depressive-like states and antidepressant treatment responses, is differently regulated in ECT responders vs. nonresponders and thus be a putative biomarker of ECT response. The chronic mild stress model of MDD was adapted with the aim to obtain rats that are resistant to conventional antidepressant drugs (citalopram). Subsequently, electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS) was used to select responders and nonresponders, and compare p11 expression and promoter methylation. In the rat experiments we found that the gene promoter methylation and expression of p11 significantly correlate with the antidepressant effect of ECS. Next, we investigated the predictive properties of p11 promoter methylation in two clinical cohorts of patients with pharmacoresistant MDD. In a proof-of-concept clinical trial in 11 patients with refractory MDD, higher p11 promoter methylation was found in responders to ECT. This finding was replicated in an independent sample of 65 patients with pharmacoresistant MDD. This translational study successfully validated the first biomarker reliably predicting the responsiveness to ECT. Prescreening of this biomarker could help to identify patients eligible for first-line ECT treatment and also help to develop novel antidepressant treatment procedures for depressed patients resistant to all currently approved antidepressant treatments.Peer reviewe

A systematic mapping review of the evolution of the rat Forced Swim Test: Protocols and outcome parameters

As depression is projected to become the leading mental disease burden globally by 2030, understanding the underlying pathology, as well as screening potential anti-depressants with a higher efficacy, faster onset of action, and/or fewer side-effects is essential. A commonly used test for screening novel antidepressants and studying depression-linked aspects in rodents is the Porsolt Forced Swim Test. The present systematic mappping review gives a comprehensive overview of the evolution and of the most prevalently used set-ups of this test in rats, including the choice of animals (strain, sex, and age), technical aspects of protocol and environment, as well as reported outcome measures. Additionally, we provide an accessible list of all existing publications, to support informed decision-making for procedural and technical aspects of the test, to thereby enhance reproducibility and comparability. This should further contribute to reducing the number of unnecessarily replicated experiments, and consequently, reduce the number of animals used in future