Renaissance Web TV: New Media Promoting Sphere Participation & Information Society Increasing Innovative Business Practices

New media have emerged over the last decade and are increasingly changing business practices within the media industry. Specifically this creative project addresses some of the challenges the television market is encountering, and how it is currently in the process of migrating to the World Wide Web. During this transitional moment in technology, this creative project introduces the proposal for Renaissance Web TV, an interactive Web platform that creates and produces its own original broadcast quality programming for the Web. This is an opportune moment to enter into the television market through Web video. This creative project explores how a Webchannel could use the art of storytelling with informative, cultural and entertaining shows, to engage viewers in social responsibility and activism

A flat trend of star-formation rate with X-ray luminosity of galaxies hosting AGN in the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey

© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.Feedback processes from active galactic nuclei (AGN) are thought to play a crucial role in regulating star formation in massive galaxies. Previous studies using Herschel have resulted in conflicting conclusions as to whether star formation is quenched, enhanced, or not affected by AGN feedback. We use new deep 850 μm observations from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) to investigate star formation in a sample of X-ray selected AGN, probing galaxies up to L 0.5-7keV = 10 46 erg s -1. Here, we present the results of our analysis on a sample of 1957 galaxies at 1 < z < 3, using both S2CLS and ancilliary data at seven additional wavelengths (24-500 μm) from Herschel and Spitzer. We perform a stacking analysis, binning our sample by redshift and X-ray luminosity. By fitting analytical spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to decompose contributions from cold and warm dust, we estimate star formation rates (SFRs) for each 'average' source. We find that the average AGN in our sample resides in a star-forming host galaxy, with SFRs ranging from 80 to 600 M ⊙ yr -1. Within each redshift bin, we see no trend of SFR with X-ray luminosity, instead finding a flat distribution of SFR across ∼3 orders of magnitude of AGN luminosity. By studying instantaneous X-ray luminosities and SFRs, we find no evidence that AGN activity affects star formation in host galaxies.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Advancing prevention of sexually transmitted infections through point-of-care testing : target product profiles and landscape analysis

Objectives: Advancing the field of point-of-care testing (POCT) for STIs can rapidly and substantially improve STI control and prevention by providing targeted, essential STI services (case detection and screening). POCT enables definitive diagnosis and appropriate treatment in a single visit and home and community-based testing. Methods: Since 2014, the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, in collaboration with technical partners, has completed four landscape analyses of promising diagnostics for use at or near the point of patient care to detect syphilis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis and the human papillomavirus. The analyses comprised a literature review and interviews. Two International Technical Consultations on STI POCTs (2014 and 2015) resulted in the development of target product profiles (TPP). Experts in STI microbiology, laboratory diagnostics, clinical management, public health and epidemiology participated in the consultations with representation from all WHO regions. Results: The landscape analysis identified diagnostic tests that are either available on the market, to be released in the near future or in the pipeline. The TPPs specify 28 analytical and operational characteristics of POCTs for use in different populations for surveillance, screening and case management. None of the tests that were identified in the landscape analysis met all of the targets of the TPPs. Conclusion: More efforts of the global health community are needed to accelerate access to affordable quality-assured STI POCTs, particularly in low-and middle-income countries, by supporting the development of new diagnostic platforms as well as strengthening the validation and implementation of existing diagnostics according to internationally endorsed standards and the best available evidence

Deleterious effect of suboptimal diet on rest-activity cycle in Anastrepha ludens manifests itself with age.

Activity patterns and sleep-wake cycles are among the physiological processes that change most prominently as animals age, and are often good indicators of healthspan. In this study, we used the video-based high-resolution behavioral monitoring system (BMS) to monitor the daily activity cycle of tephritid fruit flies Anastrepha ludens over their lifetime. Surprisingly, there was no dramatic change in activity profile with respect to age if flies were consistently fed with a nutritionally balanced diet. However, if flies were fed with sugar-only diet, their activity profile decreased in amplitude at old age, suggesting that suboptimal diet affected activity patterns, and its detrimental effect may not manifest itself until the animal ages. Moreover, by simulating different modes of behavior monitoring with a range of resolution and comparing the resulting conclusions, we confirmed the superior performance of video-based monitoring using high-resolution BMS in accurately representing activity patterns in an insect model

SPG20 protein spartin is recruited to midbodies by ESCRT-III protein Ist1 and participates in cytokinesis.

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs, SPG1-46) are inherited neurological disorders characterized by lower extremity spastic weakness. Loss-of-function SPG20 gene mutations cause an autosomal recessive HSP known as Troyer syndrome. The SPG20 protein spartin localizes to lipid droplets and endosomes, and it interacts with tail interacting protein 47 (TIP47) as well as the ubiquitin E3 ligases atrophin-1-interacting protein (AIP)4 and AIP5. Spartin harbors a domain contained within microtubule-interacting and trafficking molecules (MIT) at its N-terminus, and most proteins with MIT domains interact with specific ESCRT-III proteins. Using yeast two-hybrid and in vitro surface plasmon resonance assays, we demonstrate that the spartin MIT domain binds with micromolar affinity to the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT)-III protein increased sodium tolerance (Ist)1 but not to ESCRT-III proteins charged multivesicular body proteins 1-7. Spartin colocalizes with Ist1 at the midbody, and depletion of Ist1 in cells by small interfering RNA significantly decreases the number of cells where spartin is present at midbodies. Depletion of spartin does not affect Ist1 localization to midbodies but markedly impairs cytokinesis. A structure-based amino acid substitution in the spartin MIT domain (F24D) blocks the spartin-Ist1 interaction. Spartin F24D does not localize to the midbody and acts in a dominant-negative manner to impair cytokinesis. These data suggest that Ist1 interaction is important for spartin recruitment to the midbody and that spartin participates in cytokinesis

Patterns of paid work among higher education students: Implication for the Bradley Reforms

The Bradley review suggests that students with low socio-economic status (SES) need greater financial support than that which is currently offered to them if they are to take up university places and remain at university throughout their courses (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008). This recommendation is, in part, based on research into the necessity for low SES students to maintain paid, term-time employment throughout their higher education to meet their basic needs. This study has been undertaken to explore the connection between SES status and paid term-time employment on a suburban satellite campus of a regional Australian university in order to determine the extent to which this holds true for this site. This research used a four page questionnaire to establish average hours of employment, types of employment, the necessity for employment, the expenditure of the money earned, and the potential for interference between study and paid employment for the full time undergraduate students studying at this site. Overall there was a remarkable level of similarity between the responses of the two SES cohorts studied (low and mid/high), although some differences indicated that the mid/high SES cohort may be slightly more dependent on their earnings than the low SES cohort and that the low SES cohort appeared more likely to view their employment as a preparation for their future careers. Implications for universities’ timetabling, student support services, and efforts to attract low SES students need to consider the site-specific reasons for low SES enrolment rates and the reasons for students’ term-time employment

James Lucena and Joanna Leonora Lucena to John Kean, September 1, 1784

James Lucena and his daughter-in-law Joanna Leonora Lucena wrote to John Kean, addressed to Beaufort. James wrote in response to a letter John wrote to his son John Charles, who is currently touring in Portugal. John succeeded in the agency of Port Wine Business in Great Britain. James is concerned about his “Alien property in America” and enquires about Negros working on his account. He advises John that a loan from Holland is more practical than Portugal. Joanna Leonora Lucena describes cultural differences, beautiful Sintra, and the death of a mutual friend.https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/lhc_1780s/1017/thumbnail.jp

A bacteriophage tubulin harnesses dynamic instability to center DNA in infected cells.

Dynamic instability, polarity, and spatiotemporal organization are hallmarks of the microtubule cytoskeleton that allow formation of complex structures such as the eukaryotic spindle. No similar structure has been identified in prokaryotes. The bacteriophage-encoded tubulin PhuZ is required to position DNA at mid-cell, without which infectivity is compromised. Here, we show that PhuZ filaments, like microtubules, stochastically switch from growing in a distinctly polar manner to catastrophic depolymerization (dynamic instability) both in vitro and in vivo. One end of each PhuZ filament is stably anchored near the cell pole to form a spindle-like array that orients the growing ends toward the phage nucleoid so as to position it near mid-cell. Our results demonstrate how a bacteriophage can harness the properties of a tubulin-like cytoskeleton for efficient propagation. This represents the first identification of a prokaryotic tubulin with the dynamic instability of microtubules and the ability to form a simplified bipolar spindle