Impact of Building Information Modeling Implementation on the Acceptance of Integrated Delivery Systems: Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

In recent years, building information modeling (BIM) has been increasingly employed by the architecture, engineering and construction industry worldwide as a result of digital government initiatives. In spite of some promising early evidence on the benefits of BIM, the momentum of this top-down drive should build upon after-implementation empirical evidence. Through the structural equation modeling analysis of survey returns from 145 Chinese BIM-enabled projects, this research demonstrates that BIM’s degree of implementation can positively affect the acceptability of integrated project delivery (IPD) in the future via increased perception of the need for supply chain incentivization and improved communication quality enabled by BIM. Rolling out BIM on a wider scale may yield an additional benefit in lowering the barrier to the implementation of IPD systems. This finding can serve as evidential support for government mandates that require the compulsory adoption of BIM in public projects

Module Map of Stem Cell Genes Guides Creation of Epithelial Cancer Stem Cells

SummarySelf-renewal is a hallmark of stem cells and cancer, but existence of a shared stemness program remains controversial. Here, we construct a gene module map to systematically relate transcriptional programs in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), adult tissue stem cells, and human cancers. This map reveals two predominant gene modules that distinguish ESCs and adult tissue stem cells. The ESC-like transcriptional program is activated in diverse human epithelial cancers and strongly predicts metastasis and death. c-Myc, but not other oncogenes, is sufficient to reactivate the ESC-like program in normal and cancer cells. In primary human keratinocytes transformed by Ras and IκBα, c-Myc increases the fraction of tumor-initiating cells by 150-fold, enabling tumor formation and serial propagation with as few as 500 cells. c-Myc-enhanced tumor initiation is cell-autonomous and independent of genomic instability. Thus, activation of an ESC-like transcriptional program in differentiated adult cells may induce pathologic self-renewal characteristic of cancer stem cells

Global Advances in Value-Based Payment and Their Implications for Global Health Management Education, Development, and Practice

Global advances in health policy reform, health system improvement and health management education and practice need to be closely aligned to successfully change national health policies and improve the performance of health care delivery organizations. This paper describes the globally acknowledged need for incentive-based organizational performance and relevant implications for health care management education (HCME) and practice. It also outlines the major rationale underlying Value-Based Payment (VBP) or Pay for Performance (P4P) health policy initiatives and their basic elements. Clearly, the major global health policy shift that is underway will likely ultimately have major impacts on the strategic and operational management and performance of health care delivery organizations. Thus, practical specific suggestions are made regarding changes that need to be introduced and strengthened in contemporary health care management education and development programs to help organizational managers in the future

Structure-Based Design of Non-Natural Amino Acid Inhibitors of Amyloid Fibrillation

Many globular and natively disordered proteins can convert into amyloid fibers. These fibers are associated with numerous pathologies1 as well as with normal cellular functions2,3, and frequently form during protein denaturation4,5. Inhibitors of pathological amyloid fibers could serve as leads for therapeutics, provided the inhibitors were specific enough to avoid interfering with normal processes. Here we show that computer-aided, structure-based design can yield highly specific peptide inhibitors of amyloid formation. Using known atomic structures of segments of amyloid fibers as templates, we have designed and characterized an all D-amino acid inhibitor of fibrillation of the tau protein found in Alzheimer’s disease, and a non-natural L-amino acid inhibitor of an amyloid fiber that enhances sexual transmission of HIV. Our results indicate that peptides from structure-based designs can disrupt the fibrillation of full-length proteins, including those like tau that lack fully ordered native structures

DNA Ligase IV Guides End-Processing Choice during Nonhomologous End Joining

Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) must adapt to diverse end structures during repair of chromosome breaks. Here, we investigate the mechanistic basis for this flexibility. DNA ends are aligned in a paired-end complex (PEC) by Ku, XLF, XRCC4, and DNA ligase IV (LIG4); we show by single-molecule analysis how terminal mispairs lead to mobilization of ends within PECs and consequent sampling of more end-alignment configurations. This remodeling is essential for direct ligation of damaged and mispaired ends during cellular NHEJ, since remodeling and ligation of such ends both require a LIG4-specific structural motif, insert1. Insert1 is also required for PEC remodeling that enables nucleolytic processing when end structures block direct ligation. Accordingly, cells expressing LIG4 lacking insert1 are sensitive to ionizing radiation. Cellular NHEJ of diverse ends thus identifies the steps necessary for repair through LIG4-mediated sensing of differences in end structure and consequent dynamic remodeling of aligned ends

Manual / Issue 2 / Lorem Ipsum

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Lorem Ipsum.The second issue. In potently meaningful and deliberately meaningless ways, this issue, “Lorem ipsum,” celebrates text. The standard placeholder text used by designers and printers, lorem ipsum isn’t really Latin. Mangled over centuries of use, the passage has become meaningless and untranslatable—and yet it is highly useful in that in its incomprehensibility, it occupies space. Over the centuries and across many inventions and innovations in type and printing, lorem ipsum has acted as a space filler and form shaper in conventional printing, desktop publishing, and electronic typesetting. Join us as we read and read into calls to action, incantations, prayers, portrayals, missives, notes, proclamations, and musings. Softcover, 60 pages. Published 2014 by the RISD Museum. Manual 2 (Lorem Ipsum) contributors include James Allen, Alison W. Chang, Kenneth Goldsmith, Cyrus Highsmith, Jan Howard, Kate Irvin, Antoine Revoy, and Nancy Skolos.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1001/thumbnail.jp

Alkali Metal Bismuth(III) Chloride Double Salts

Evaporative co-crystallization of MCl (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) with BiOCl in aqueous HCl produces double salts: MxBiyCl(x+3y)·zH2O. The sodium salt, Na2BiCl5·5H2O (monoclinic P21/c, a = 8.6983(7) Å, b = 21.7779(17) Å, c = 7.1831(6) Å, β = 103.0540(10)°, V = 1325.54(19) Å3, Z = 4) is composed of zigzag chains of μ2-Cl-cis-linked (BiCl5)n2n– chains. Edge-sharing chains of NaCln(OH2)6−n octahedra (n = 0, 2, 3) are linked through μ3-Cl to Bi. The potassium salt, K7Bi3Cl16 (trigonal R−3c, a = 12.7053(9) Å, b = 12.7053(9) Å, c = 99.794(7) Å, V = 13,951(2) Å3, Z = 18) contains (Bi2Cl10)4– edge-sharing dimers of octahedra and simple (BiCl6)3– octahedra. The K+ ions are 5- to 8-coordinate and the chlorides are 3-, 4-, or 5-coordinate. The rubidium salt, Rb3BiCl6·0.5H2O (orthorhombic Pnma, a = 12.6778(10) Å, b = 25.326(2) Å, c = 8.1498(7) Å, V = 2616.8(4) Å3, Z = 8) contains (BiCl6)3– octahedra. The Rb+ ions are 6-, 8-, and 9-coordinate, and the chlorides are 4- or 5-coordinate. Two cesium salts were formed: Cs3BiCl6 (orthorhombic Pbcm, a = 8.2463(9) Å, b = 12.9980(15) Å, c = 26.481(3) Å, V = 2838.4(6) Å3, Z = 8) being comprised of (BiCl6)3– octahedra, 8-coordinate Cs+, and 3-, 4-, and 5-coordinate Cl−. In Cs3Bi2Cl9 (orthorhombic Pnma, a = 18.4615(15) Å, b = 7.5752(6) Å, c = 13.0807(11) Å, V = 1818.87(11) Å3, Z = 4) Bi octahedra are linked by μ2-bridged Cl into edge-sharing Bi4 squares which form zigzag (Bi2Cl9)n3n– ladders. The 12-coordinate Cs+ ions bridge the ladders, and the Cl− ions are 5- and 6-coordinate. Four of the double salts are weakly photoluminescent at 78 K, each showing a series of three excitation peaks near 295, 340, and 380 nm and a broad emission near 440 nm

Protocol for the development of guidance for stakeholder engagement in health and healthcare guideline development and implementation

Stakeholder engagement has become widely accepted as a necessary component of guideline development and implementation. While frameworks for developing guidelines express the need for those potentially affected by guideline recommendations to be involved in their development, there is a lack of consensus on how this should be done in practice. Further, there is a lack of guidance on how to equitably and meaningfully engage multiple stakeholders. We aim to develop guidance for the meaningful and equitable engagement of multiple stakeholders in guideline development and implementation. METHODS: This will be a multi-stage project. The first stage is to conduct a series of four systematic reviews. These will (1) describe existing guidance and methods for stakeholder engagement in guideline development and implementation, (2) characterize barriers and facilitators to stakeholder engagement in guideline development and implementation, (3) explore the impact of stakeholder engagement on guideline development and implementation, and (4) identify issues related to conflicts of interest when engaging multiple stakeholders in guideline development and implementation. DISCUSSION: We will collaborate with our multiple and diverse stakeholders to develop guidance for multi-stakeholder engagement in guideline development and implementation. We will use the results of the systematic reviews to develop a candidate list of draft guidance recommendations and will seek broad feedback on the draft guidance via an online survey of guideline developers and external stakeholders. An invited group of representatives from all stakeholder groups will discuss the results of the survey at a consensus meeting which will inform the development of the final guidance papers. Our overall goal is to improve the development of guidelines through meaningful and equitable multi-stakeholder engagement, and subsequently to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities in health

Verticalization of bacterial biofilms

Biofilms are communities of bacteria adhered to surfaces. Recently, biofilms of rod-shaped bacteria were observed at single-cell resolution and shown to develop from a disordered, two-dimensional layer of founder cells into a three-dimensional structure with a vertically-aligned core. Here, we elucidate the physical mechanism underpinning this transition using a combination of agent-based and continuum modeling. We find that verticalization proceeds through a series of localized mechanical instabilities on the cellular scale. For short cells, these instabilities are primarily triggered by cell division, whereas long cells are more likely to be peeled off the surface by nearby vertical cells, creating an "inverse domino effect". The interplay between cell growth and cell verticalization gives rise to an exotic mechanical state in which the effective surface pressure becomes constant throughout the growing core of the biofilm surface layer. This dynamical isobaricity determines the expansion speed of a biofilm cluster and thereby governs how cells access the third dimension. In particular, theory predicts that a longer average cell length yields more rapidly expanding, flatter biofilms. We experimentally show that such changes in biofilm development occur by exploiting chemicals that modulate cell length.Comment: Main text 10 pages, 4 figures; Supplementary Information 35 pages, 15 figure