THE ROLE OF IL-23 IN THE DIFFERENTIATION OF EFFECTOR TH17 CELLS

We have found that IL-23 plus IL-6 polarization of splenocytes induces a population of IL-17+ T cells, and that polarization with IL-23 results in a large increase in IL-17 secretion, potentially from a population of CD4^CD8^ double negative (DN) T cells. To characterize these populations in vitro and in vivo a combination of cell sorting, flow cytometry, enzyme linked immuno sorbant assay and adoptive transfers were employed. Polarization with IL-23 plus IL-6 induced an effector Thl7 cell population from naïve T cells in vitro and primed lymphocytes polarized with IL-23 plus IL-6 induced EAE in vivo. The DN T cells were demonstrated to be a novel T cell subset with an inherent IL- 17 bias upon activation which was greatly augmented IL-23. This study demonstrates a new role for IL-23 in the development ofT cells

Multi-objective surrogate based hull-form optimization using high-fidelity rans computations

RANS-based optimization procedures for ship design become increasingly complex and require the development of more efficient optimization techniques. The four phases of the design procedure are: shape parameterization, global sensitivity analysis, multi-objective optimization and design review. The dimensions of the design space can be mitigated by a smart choice for the shape parameterization and by screening and ranking the design variables in the global sensitivity phase. Subsequently, Surrogate Based Global Optimization (SBGO) is used to reduce the cost of the multi-objective optimization phase. For a practical application it is shown that the computational time reduces from two weeks to only a day when using SBGO instead of applying a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) directly to the solver. The design review phase is then used to verify and further develop the optimal design. Here, we focus on automatic ship design techniques which comprises the first three steps of the design procedure. Accelerating the ship design process is subject of ongoing research at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, making it useful for practical applications with turnaround times of only a few weeks

Perspektif Amnesty Internasional Terhadap Pelanggaran Ham Etnis Uighur Di Tiongkok Tahun 2016-2021

Isu hak asasi manusia (HAM) merupakan isu global yang menjadi perhatian dunia internasional. dan memiliki pengaruh signifikan terhadap interaksi negara-negara di dunia. Meskipun HAM merupakan bagian penting dari hak-hak yang harus dijamin oleh negara, masih banyak terjadi pelanggaran HAM di masyarakat yang dapat memicu reaksi dari negara lain. Salah satu contoh pelanggaran HAM yang menjadi fokus masyarakat internasional saat ini adalah pelanggaran HAM yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah Tiongkok terhadap para penduduk Uighur di Xinjiang. Amnesty International merupakan salah satu organisasi transnasional yang bergerak aktif dalam menyikapi fenomena tersebut dengan memperjuangkan HAM melalui kampanye publik, lobi politik, dan kerjasama dengan organisasi-organisasi lokal dan internasional. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pandangan Amnesty Internasional terhadap pelanggaran HAM terhadap etnis Uighur di Tiongkok dan upaya-upaya yang telah dilakukan oleh organisasi tersebut untuk mempromosikan HAM di Tiongkok. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif analitis dengan menggunakan data dan informasi yang diperoleh dari laporan-laporan Amnesty International dan sumber-sumber terpercaya lainnya. Hasil penelitian diharapkan dapat memberikan gambaran tentang bagaimana Amnesty International melihat pelanggaran HAM dan upaya yang dilakukan untuk mengangkat isu ini ke tingkat internasional dan memberikan tekanan pada pemerintah Tiongkok untuk menghentikan pelanggaran HAM terhadap etnis Uighu

Tratamiento de fracturas diafisarias inestables de fémur con clavo intramedular encerrojado tipo FMRP

Un grupo de 26 fracturas conminutas de fémur, rotacionalmente inestables, fueron tratadas con clavo intramedular encerrojado tipo FMRP. En 22 casos la conminución afectaba a más del 50% de la cortical. Del total de enclavados, 22 fueron estáticos y 4 dinámicos. La consolidación desde el punto de vista clínico y radiológico ocurrió en el 92% de los casos. En 2 casos se desarrolló un pseudoartrosis. Sólo un paciente mostró un acortamiento mayor de 1 cm. Una angulación mayor de 10° en cualquiera de los planos del espacio fue apreciada en 5 pacientes. No se produjo en ningún caso deformidad rotacional. El clavo intramedular encerrojado ha aumentado las indicaciones del enclavado intramedular en el tratamiento de las fracturas inestables de fémur. La incidencia de infección y pseudoartrosis es baja. La estabilidad del montaje permite una movilización inmediata del paciente, rehabilitación temprana y menor estancia intrahospitalaria. El clavo FMRP disminuye el tiempo de fluoroscopia, un fresado con instrumentos flexibles y es más barato que otros sistemas similares.Twenty six comminuted and rotationally unstable fractures of the femur were treated with the FMBP intramedullary locked nail. Twenty two of the fractures had comminution involving more than 50% of the cortex. Of the nailings, 22 were static and 4 dynamic. Clinical and radiographic union occurred in 92% of cases. There were 2 nonunions. There was one case of deep wound infection. Only one patient had a shortening greater than 1 cm. Angulation in any plane greater than 10° was noted in 5 patients. There were no instances of rotatory deformities. The interlocking nail has expanded the indications for the use of closed intramedullary nailing in the treatment of unstable femoral fractures. The incidence of infection and nonunion is low. Stability of the fractures allows immediate mobilization of the patients, early rehabilitation of the limb and shorter hospital stay. The FMRP nail eliminated fluoroscopy, flexible reamers and is cheaper as compared to other systems

Politik Identitas Dalam Krisis Ukraina 2013

The monetary crisis that happened in Ukraine is not only affected the economic aspect but also politics. Economic instability makes the Ukrainians faced the dilemmatic choices that certainly leads to political consequences. The Ukrainians have to choose between The EU and Russia are the two options owned by as the right solutions. One of the impacts of the Ukrainian policy of choosing Russia as a solution to the crisis is the spread of protests from a pro-EU. This choice turned into violence (riots) and made Ukraine divided into two parts: Crimea and Lviv. Crimea (Eastern Ukraine) which the majority uses Russian language and Lviv (Western Ukraine) who wants to "escape" from Russia and joins the EU. Crimea Referendum is the climax of the conflict in Ukraine, which ended with the decision to separate from the territory of Ukrainian sovereignty and join Russia, voted by the majority of Crimean society. It shows that the Crimean disintegration process is fundamentally happened because there is the domination of primordial issues aside from the competitive situation between EU and Russia. It proves that the politic of identity puts the identity issue as the main instrument in this case

DAMPAK PERANG DAGANG AMERIKA SERIKAT-CINA TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN INVESTASI ASING DI VIETNAM TAHUN 2018-2019

The economic tensions that led to the Trade War between the United States and China not only shook and hurt the economies of both the United States and China. Tax returns that continue to heat up and increase between the two countries with the strongest economies in the world are able to weaken global economic growth. In addition to the negative impacts arising from the Trade War, one of the countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam was able to get a positive impact from the spillover of the Trade War that could increase its economic growth. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of the United States-China Trade War on the growth of foreign investment in Vietnam in 2018-2019. This research uses a qualitative analysis approach with a descriptive explanative writing method using secondary data sources. The results of this study stated that the growth of foreign investment and trade in Vietnam in 2018-2019 increased significantly because it was influenced by two factors, namely external factors were the spillover of the United States-China Trade War, and internal factors were the internal economic and political conditions of Vietnam which tended to stable because there is Doi Moi or economic reforms carried out by the Vietnamese Government since 1986

Automated coronary artery calcification scoring in non-gated chest CT: Agreement and reliability

Objective: To determine the agreement and reliability of fully automated coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring in a lung cancer screening population. Materials and Methods: 1793 low-dose chest CT scans were analyzed (non-contrast-enhanced, non-gated). To establish the reference standard for CAC, first automated calcium scoring was performed using a preliminary version of a method employing coronary calcium atlas and machine learning approach. Thereafter, each scan was inspected by one of four trained raters. When needed, the raters corrected initially automaticity-identified results. In addition, an independent observer subsequently inspected manually corrected results and discarded scans with gross segmentation errors. Subsequently, fully automatic coronary calcium scoring was performed. Agatston score, CAC volume and number of calcifications were computed. Agreement was determined by calculating proportion of agreement and examining Bland-Altman plots. Reliability was determined by calculating linearly weighted kappa (κ) for Agatston strata and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for continuous values. Results: 44 (2.5%) scans were excluded due to metal artifacts or gross segmentation errors. In the remaining 1749 scans, median Agatston score was 39.6 (P25-P75:0-345.9), median volume score was 60.4 mm3 (P25-P75:0-361.4) and median number of calcifications was 2 (P25-P75:0-4) for the automated scores. The k demonstrated very good reliability (0.85) for Agatston risk categories between the automated and reference scores. The Bland-Altman plots showed underestimation of calcium score values by automated quantification. Median difference was 2.5 (p25-p75:0.0-53.2) for Agatston score, 7.6 (p25-p75:0.0-94.4) for CAC volume and 1 (p25-p75:0-5) for number of calcifications. The ICC was very good for Agatston score (0.90), very good for calcium volume (0.88) and good for number of calcifications (0.64). Discussion: Fully automated coron

Fluctuations of Quantum Currents and Unravelings of Master Equations

The very notion of a current fluctuation is problematic in the quantum context. We study that problem in the context of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, both in a microscopic setup and in a Markovian model. Our answer is based on a rigorous result that relates the weak coupling limit of fluctuations of reservoir observables under a global unitary evolution with the statistics of the so-called quantum trajectories. These quantum trajectories are frequently considered in the context of quantum optics, but they remain useful for more general nonequilibrium systems. In contrast with the approaches found in the literature, we do not assume that the system is continuously monitored. Instead, our starting point is a relatively realistic unitary dynamics of the full system.Comment: 18 pages, v1-->v2, Replaced the former Appendix B by a (thematically) different one. Mainly changes in the introductory Section 2+ added reference

SK2 channels in cerebellar Purkinje cells contribute to excitability modulation in motor-learning-specific memory traces

Neurons store information by changing synaptic input weights. In addition, they can adjust their membrane excitability to alter spike output. Here, we demonstrate a role of such "intrinsic plasticity" in behavioral learning in a mouse model that allows us to detect specific consequences of absent excitability modulation. Mice with a Purkinje-cell-specific knockout (KO) of the calcium-activated K+ channel SK2 (L7-SK2) show intact vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain adaptation but impaired eyeblink conditioning (EBC), which relies on the ability to establish associations between stimuli, with the eyelid closure itself depending on a transient suppression of spike firing. In these mice, the intrinsic plasticity of Purkinje cells is prevented without affecting long-term depression or potentiation at their parallel fiber (PF) input. In contrast to the typical spike pattern of EBC-supporting zebrin-negative Purkinje cells, L7-SK2 neurons show reduced background spiking but enhanced excitability. Thus, SK2 plasticity and excitability modulation are essential for specific forms of motor learning

Impact of cumulative complications on 1-year treatment-related healthcare costs in patients with colorectal peritoneal metastases undergoing cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of all minor and major complications on treatment-related healthcare costs in patients who undergo cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for the treatment of colorectal peritoneal metastases (PMs). METHOD: Patients with histologically proven colorectal PMs who underwent CRS + HIPEC from March 2006 to October 2019 in a tertiary referral centre were retrospectively identified from a prospectively maintained database. Patients were divided into six subgroups according to the severity of the complications, which were scored using the comprehensive complication index (CCI) (CCI 0-9.9, CCI 10-19.9, CCI 20-29.9, CCI 30-39.9, CCI 40-49.9, and CCI 50 or higher). Treatment-related healthcare costs up to 1 year after CRS + HIPEC were obtained from the financial department. Differences in costs and survival outcomes were compared using the chi-squared test and Kruskal-Wallis H test. RESULTS: A total of 142 patients were included (CCI 0-9.9, 53 patients; CCI 10-19.9, 0 patients; CCI 20-29.9, 45 patients; CCI 30-39.9, 14 patients; CCI 40-49, 9 patients; and CCI 50 or higher, 21 patients). Median (interquartile range) treatment-related healthcare costs increased significantly and exponentially for the CCI 30-39, CCI 40-49, and CCI 50 or higher groups (€48 993 (€44 262-€84 805); €57 167 (€43 047-€67 591); and €82 219 (€55 487-€145 314) respectively) compared with those for the CCI 0-9.9 and CCI 20-29.9 groups (€33 856 (€24 433-€40 779) and €40 621 (€31 501-€58 761) respectively, P < 0.010). CONCLUSION: Treatment-related healthcare costs increase exponentially as more complications develop among patients who undergo CRS + HIPEC for the treatment of colorectal PMs. Anastomotic leakages after CRS + HIPEC lead to an increase of 295 per cent of treatment-related healthcare costs