394 research outputs found
Online Information Privacy: Measuring the Cost-Benefit Trade-Off
Concern over information privacy is widespread and rising. However, prior research is silent about the value of information privacy and the benefit of privacy protection. We conducted a conjoint analysis to explore individualsiÌ trade-offs between the benefits and costs of providing personal information to Websites. We find that economic incentives (monetary reward and future convenience) do affect individualsiÌ preferences over Websites with differing privacy policies. For instance, the disallowance of secondary use of personal information is worth between 49.78. Surprisingly, we find that cost-benefit trade-offs did not vary with personal characteristics including gender, contextual knowledge, individualism, and trust propensity
Glucocorticoids alleviate intestinal ER stress by enhancing protein folding and degradation of misfolded proteins
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in intestinal secretory cells has been linked with colitis in mice and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Endogenous intestinal glucocorticoids are important for homeostasis and glucocorticoid drugs are efficacious in IBD. In Winnie mice with intestinal ER stress caused by misfolding of the Muc2 mucin, the glucocorticoid dexamethasone (DEX) suppressed ER stress and activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR), substantially restoring goblet cell Muc2 production. In mice lacking inflammation, a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist increased ER stress, and DEX suppressed ER stress induced by the N-glycosylation inhibitor, tunicamycin (Tm). In cultured human intestinal secretory cells, in a glucocorticoid receptor-dependent manner, DEX suppressed ER stress and UPR activation induced by blocking N-glycosylation, reducing ER Ca2+ or depleting glucose. DEX up-regulated genes encoding chaperones and elements of ER-associated degradation (ERAD), including EDEM1. Silencing EDEM1 partially inhibited DEX's suppression of misfolding-induced ER stress, showing that DEX enhances ERAD. DEX inhibited Tm-induced MUC2 precursor accumulation, promoted production of mature mucin, and restored ER exit and secretion of Winnie mutant recombinant Muc2 domains, consistent with enhanced protein folding. In IBD, glucocorticoids are likely to ameliorate ER stress by promoting correct folding of secreted proteins and enhancing removal of misfolded proteins from the ER
Control of LED Emission with Functional Dielectric Metasurfaces
The improvement of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is one of the major goals of
optoelectronics and photonics research. While emission rate enhancement is
certainly one of the targets, in this regard, for LED integration to complex
photonic devices, one would require to have, additionally, precise control of
the wavefront of the emitted light. Metasurfaces are spatial arrangements of
engineered scatters that may enable this light manipulation capability with
unprecedented resolution. Most of these devices, however, are only able to
function properly under irradiation of light with a large spatial coherence,
typically normally incident lasers. LEDs, on the other hand, have angularly
broad, Lambertian-like emission patterns characterized by a low spatial
coherence, which makes the integration of metasurface devices on LED
architectures extremely challenging. A novel concept for metasurface
integration on LED is proposed, using a cavity to increase the LED spatial
coherence through an angular collimation. Due to the resonant character of the
cavity, extending the spatial coherence of the emitted light does not come at
the price of any reduction in the total emitted power. The experimental
demonstration of the proposed concept is implemented on a GaP LED architecture
including a hybrid metallic-Bragg cavity. By integrating a silicon metasurface
on top we demonstrate two different functionalities of these compact devices:
directional LED emission at a desired angle and LED emission of a vortex beam
with an orbital angular momentum. The presented concept is general, being
applicable to other incoherent light sources and enabling metasurfaces designed
for plane waves to work with incoherent light emitters.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure
Validating and optimising mismatch tolerance of Doppler backscattering measurements with the beam model
We use the beam model of Doppler backscattering (DBS), which was previously
derived from beam tracing and the reciprocity theorem, to shed light on
mismatch attenuation. This attenuation of the backscattered signal occurs when
the wavevector of the probe beam's electric field is not in the plane
perpendicular to the magnetic field. Correcting for this effect is important
for determining the amplitude of the actual density fluctuations. Previous
preliminary comparisons between the model and Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak
(MAST) plasmas were promising. In this work, we quantitatively account for this
effect on DIII-D, a conventional tokamak. We compare the predicted and measured
mismatch attenuation in various DIII-D, MAST, and MAST-U plasmas, showing that
the beam model is applicable in a wide variety of situations. Finally, we
performed a preliminary parameter sweep and found that the mismatch tolerance
can be improved by optimising the probe beam's width and curvature at launch.
This is potentially a design consideration for new DBS systems
Platform adaptive trial of novel antivirals for early treatment of COVID-19 In the community (PANORAMIC): protocol for a randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial of community novel antiviral treatment of COVID-19 in people at increased risk of more severe disease
Introduction: There is an urgent need to determine the safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of novel antiviral treatments for COVID-19 in vaccinated patients in the community at increased risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19.
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Methods and analysis: PANORAMIC is a UK-wide, open-label, prospective, adaptive, multiarm platform, randomised clinical trial that evaluates antiviral treatments for COVID-19 in the community. A master protocol governs the addition of new antiviral treatments as they become available, and the introduction and cessation of existing interventions via interim analyses. The first two interventions to be evaluated are molnupiravir (Lagevrio) and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid). Eligibility criteria: community-dwelling within 5âdays of onset of symptomatic COVID-19 (confirmed by PCR or lateral flow test), and either (1) aged 50 years and over, or (2) aged 18â49 years with qualifying comorbidities. Registration occurs via the trial website and by telephone. Recruitment occurs remotely through the central trial team, or in person through clinical sites. Participants are randomised to receive either usual care or a trial drug plus usual care. Outcomes are collected via a participant-completed daily electronic symptom diary for 28 days post randomisation. Participants and/or their Trial Partner are contacted by the research team after days 7, 14 and 28 if the diary is not completed, or if the participant is unable to access the diary. The primary efficacy endpoint is all-cause, non-elective hospitalisation and/or death within 28 days of randomisation. Multiple prespecified interim analyses allow interventions to be stopped for futility or superiority based on prespecified decision criteria. A prospective economic evaluation is embedded within the trial.
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Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval granted by South CentralâBerkshire REC number: 21/SC/0393; IRAS project ID: 1004274. Results will be presented to policymakers and at conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.
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Trial registration number: ISRCTN30448031; EudraCT number: 2021-005748-31
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