Operational Comparison of Three Electrofishing Systems

Three different electrofishing systems were compared to determine their relative efficiency with respect to species and numbers of fish collected. These results indicated that modifications or changes in electrofishing gear during a monitoring program should not be made unless it can be demonstrated that collecting efficiency is not altered

Motherhood, Moral Authority and the Charismatic Matriarch in the Aftermath of Lethal Violence

Images of maternal suffering are an evocative and powerful means of communication in a world where the private grief of victims has increasingly become subject to commodification and public consumption. This article looks at the influence of bereaved mothers as symbols of respect, peace and dignity in the aftermath of violence, and as a result their persuasive presence in family activism. Drawing upon two case studies, this article explores the importance of victims’ stories in public life and, in particular, the presence of the charismatic matriarch in creating communities of solidarity, raising awareness of harms that have previously gone unheard and prompting policy change. It considers the ‘canonical’ story of the mother in public life and concludes by arguing that more attention should be paid to victims’ stories and their influence on policy-making, politics and eventually in becoming public grievances

Reflection and learning in clinical nursing education mediated by ePortfolio

This paper reports on an investigation into learning mediated by the elective elements of an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) designed to facilitate four learning styles. The design takes a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. The setting was Course 4, a ten-week clinical course in Basic Nursing. The participants were eleven first-year students on Course 4 randomly selected. Data was generated by participant observations, interviews and portfolio documents. The entire material was interpreted according to Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation. The study showed that the elective elements of ePortfolio were mostly used by students with theorist style and used the least by students with pragmatist style. Some students can reflect without a learning tool, other students need supervision. The themes a fellow player and an opponent were deduced. The conclusion was that the elective elements work like fellow players and opponents, as they facilitate reflections on nursing practice and one’s own learning processes, and they mediate learning of important nursing competency elements. The tools can promote differentiation of supervision, and allow more time to supervise students who need more support. There is potential to enable students to select among the learning tools

Simulations of charge transfer in Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Devices

Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Devices (EMCCDs) are a variant of traditional CCD technology well suited to applications that demand high speed operation in low light conditions. On-chip signal amplification allows the sensor to effectively suppress the noise introduced by readout electronics, permitting sub-electron read noise at MHz pixel rates. The devices have been the subject of many detailed studies concerning their operation, however there has not been a study into the transfer and multiplication process within the EMCCD gain register. Such an investigation has the potential to explain certain observed performance characteristics, as well as inform further optimisations to their operation. In this study, the results from simulation of charge transfer within an EMCCD gain register element are discussed with a specific focus on the implications for serial charge transfer efficiency (CTE). The effects of operating voltage and readout speed are explored in context with typical operating conditions. It is shown that during transfer, a small portion of signal charge may become trapped at the semiconductor-insulator interface that could act to degrade the serial CTE in certain operating conditions

Redox signals at the ER-mitochondria interface control melanoma progression.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are emerging as important regulators of cancer growth and metastatic spread. However, how cells integrate redox signals to affect cancer progression is not fully understood. Mitochondria are cellular redox hubs, which are highly regulated by interactions with neighboring organelles. Here, we investigated how ROS at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-mitochondria interface are generated and translated to affect melanoma outcome. We show that TMX1 and TMX3 oxidoreductases, which promote ER-mitochondria communication, are upregulated in melanoma cells and patient samples. TMX knockdown altered mitochondrial organization, enhanced bioenergetics, and elevated mitochondrial- and NOX4-derived ROS. The TMX-knockdown-induced oxidative stress suppressed melanoma proliferation, migration, and xenograft tumor growth by inhibiting NFAT1. Furthermore, we identified NFAT1-positive and NFAT1-negative melanoma subgroups, wherein NFAT1 expression correlates with melanoma stage and metastatic potential. Integrative bioinformatics revealed that genes coding for mitochondrial- and redox-related proteins are under NFAT1 control and indicated that TMX1, TMX3, and NFAT1 are associated with poor disease outcome. Our study unravels a novel redox-controlled ER-mitochondria-NFAT1 signaling loop that regulates melanoma pathobiology and provides biomarkers indicative of aggressive disease

Structure and oxidation kinetics of the Si(100)-SiO2 interface

We present first-principles calculations of the structural and electronic properties of Si(001)-SiO2 interfaces. We first arrive at reasonable structures for the c-Si/a-SiO2 interface via a Monte-Carlo simulated annealing applied to an empirical interatomic potential, and then relax these structures using first-principles calculations within the framework of density-functional theory. We find a transition region at the interface, having a thickness on the order of 20\AA, in which there is some oxygen deficiency and a corresponding presence of sub-oxide Si species (mostly Si^+2 and Si^+3). Distributions of bond lengths and bond angles, and the nature of the electronic states at the interface, are investigated and discussed. The behavior of atomic oxygen in a-SiO2 is also investigated. The peroxyl linkage configuration is found to be lower in energy than interstitial or threefold configurations. Based on these results, we suggest a possible mechanism for oxygen diffusion in a-SiO2 that may be relevant to the oxidation process.Comment: 7 pages, two-column style with 6 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#ng_sio

A Modular Fibrinogen Model that Captures the Stress-Strain Behavior of Fibrin Fibers

We tested what to our knowledge is a new computational model for fibrin fiber mechanical behavior. The model is composed of three distinct elements: the folded fibrinogen core as seen in the crystal structure, the unstructured α-C connector, and the partially folded α-C domain. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of all three regions and how they may contribute to fibrin fiber stress-strain behavior. Yet no molecular model has been computationally tested that takes into account the individual contributions of all these regions. Constant velocity, steered molecular dynamics studies at 0.025 Å/ps were conducted on the folded fibrinogen core and the α-C domain to determine their force-displacement behavior. A wormlike chain model with a persistence length of 0.8 nm (Kuhn length = 1.6 nm) was used to model the mechanical behavior of the unfolded α-C connector. The three components were combined to calculate the total stress-strain response, which was then compared to experimental data. The results show that the three-component model successfully captures the experimentally determined stress-strain behavior of fibrin fibers. The model evinces the key contribution of the α-C domains to fibrin fiber stress-strain behavior. However, conversion of the α-helical coiled coils to β-strands, and partial unfolding of the protein, may also contribute

The influence of anesthetics, neurotransmitters and antibiotics on the relaxation processes in lipid membranes

In the proximity of melting transitions of artificial and biological membranes fluctuations in enthalpy, area, volume and concentration are enhanced. This results in domain formation, changes of the elastic constants, changes in permeability and slowing down of relaxation processes. In this study we used pressure perturbation calorimetry to investigate the relaxation time scale after a jump into the melting transition regime of artificial lipid membranes. This time corresponds to the characteristic rate of domain growth. The studies were performed on single-component large unilamellar and multilamellar vesicle systems with and without the addition of small molecules such as general anesthetics, neurotransmitters and antibiotics. These drugs interact with membranes and affect melting points and profiles. In all systems we found that heat capacity and relaxation times are related to each other in a simple manner. The maximum relaxation time depends on the cooperativity of the heat capacity profile and decreases with a broadening of the transition. For this reason the influence of a drug on the time scale of domain formation processes can be understood on the basis of their influence on the heat capacity profile. This allows estimations of the time scale of domain formation processes in biological membranes.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure