145 research outputs found
Vivre avec les déchets :
Cet article analyse le rĂŽle des dĂ©chets et leurs significations dans la formation des communautĂ©s de rĂ©cupĂ©rateurs dans les mĂ©tropoles chinoises actuelles. Nous y montrons quâen Chine, les rĂ©cupĂ©rateurs de dĂ©chets rappellent, dans une certaine mesure, les conditions dâun travail prĂ©caire et stigmatisant typique des sociĂ©tĂ©s du Sud. Mais nous avons remarquĂ© quâen Chine, les raisons financiĂšres seules ne permettaient pas dâĂ©clairer ce qui poussait les travailleurs migrants Ă se lancer dans cette activitĂ©. En fait, les rĂ©cupĂ©rateurs de dĂ©chets de PĂ©kin entraient aussi dans ce commerce car il procurait lâexpĂ©rience dâune forme de citoyennetĂ© urbaine, en sâaffranchissant du rĂ©gime de travail des usines et en sâadonnant Ă une forme dâentreprenariat rendant possible le fait de fonder un foyer dans la pĂ©riphĂ©rie de la capitale du pays. Leurs techniques de travail avec les dĂ©chets offrent un prisme pour comprendre une dimension plus large de la vie sociale et culturelle au sein des communautĂ©s de rĂ©cupĂ©rateurs dâune grande ville chinoise â ce que nous dĂ©signons par « vivre avec les dĂ©chets ». Dans cet article, lâexpression sâentend comme un cadre qui englobe les efforts dĂ©ployĂ©s pour travailler avec, faire lâexpĂ©rience de, et vivre parmi les matiĂšres rĂ©siduelles au quotidien. Comment les rĂ©cupĂ©rateurs de dĂ©chets parlent-ils de leur mĂ©tier ? Sâagit-il uniquement de stigmatisation et de souffrance ? Peut-il signifier commerce et mobilitĂ© ? Que pensent les rĂ©cupĂ©rateurs du fait dâĂ©lever des enfants dans une cour remplie de dĂ©chets rĂ©cupĂ©rĂ©s ? Si « la saletĂ© est matiĂšre mal placĂ©e (dirt is matter out of place) » (Douglas 1966), comment gĂšrent-ils les impuretĂ©s et la contamination au quotidien ? Quels efforts font-ils pour normaliser ou Ă©tablir des limites dans cet environnement indĂ©sirable de travail et de vie ? Vivre avec les dĂ©chets est donc profondĂ©ment liĂ© aux efforts produits non seulement pour gagner sa vie, mais aussi pour constamment renĂ©gocier sa position et tracer des frontiĂšres avec les dĂ©chets au sein de la famille et de la communautĂ©, ceci afin de rendre ce travail supportable, voire porteur de sens
GW25-e3097 Two birds with one stone: α-blocker therapy on LUTS/BPH in men concomitant with mild hypertension
Sampling strategies and integrated reconstruction for reducing distortion and boundary slice aliasing in high-resolution 3D diffusion MRI
Purpose:Â To develop a new method for high-fidelity, high-resolution 3D multi-slab diffusion MRI with minimal distortion and boundary slice aliasing.
Methods:Â Our method modifies 3D multi-slab imaging to integrate blip-reversed acquisitions for distortion correction and oversampling in the slice direction (kz) for reducing boundary slice aliasing. Our aim is to achieve robust acceleration to keep the scan time the same as conventional 3D multi-slab acquisitions, in which data are acquired with a single direction of blip traversal and without kz-oversampling. We employ a two-stage reconstruction. In the first stage, the blip-up/down images are respectively reconstructed and analyzed to produce a field map for each diffusion direction. In the second stage, the blip-reversed data and the field map are incorporated into a joint reconstruction to produce images that are corrected for distortion and boundary slice aliasing.
Results:Â We conducted experiments at 7T in six healthy subjects. Stage 1 reconstruction produces images from highly under-sampled data (Râ=â7.2) with sufficient quality to provide accurate field map estimation. Stage 2 joint reconstruction substantially reduces distortion artifacts with comparable quality to fully-sampled blip-reversed results (2.4Ă scan time). Whole-brain in-vivo results acquired at 1.22âmm and 1.05âmm isotropic resolutions demonstrate improved anatomical fidelity compared to conventional 3D multi-slab imaging. Data demonstrate good reliability and reproducibility of the proposed method over multiple subjects.
Conclusion:Â The proposed acquisition and reconstruction framework provide major reductions in distortion and boundary slice aliasing for 3D multi-slab diffusion MRI without increasing the scan time, which can potentially produce high-quality, high-resolution diffusion MRI
Hybrid-space reconstruction with add-on distortion correction for simultaneous multi-slab diffusion MRI
Purpose: This study aims to propose a model-based reconstruction algorithm
for simultaneous multi-slab diffusion MRI acquired with blipped-CAIPI gradients
(blipped-SMSlab), which can also incorporate distortion correction.
Methods: We formulate blipped-SMSlab in a 4D k-space with kz gradients for
the intra-slab slice encoding and km (blipped-CAIPI) gradients for the
inter-slab encoding. Because kz and km gradients share the same physical axis,
the blipped-CAIPI gradients introduce phase interference in the z-km domain
while motion induces phase variations in the kz-m domain. Thus, our previous
k-space-based reconstruction would need multiple steps to transform data back
and forth between k-space and image space for phase correction. Here we propose
a model-based hybrid-space reconstruction algorithm to correct the phase errors
simultaneously. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is combined with distortion
correction, and jointly reconstructs data acquired with the blip-up/down
acquisition to reduce the g-factor penalty.
Results: The blipped-CAIPI-induced phase interference is corrected by the
hybrid-space reconstruction. Blipped-CAIPI can reduce the g-factor penalty
compared to the non-blipped acquisition in the basic reconstruction.
Additionally, the joint reconstruction simultaneously corrects the image
distortions and improves the 1/g-factors by around 50%. Furthermore, through
the joint reconstruction, SMSlab acquisitions without the blipped-CAIPI
gradients also show comparable correction performance with blipped-SMSlab.
Conclusion: The proposed model-based hybrid-space reconstruction can
reconstruct blipped-SMSlab diffusion MRI successfully. Its extension to a joint
reconstruction of the blip-up/down acquisition can correct EPI distortions and
further reduce the g-factor penalty compared with the separate reconstruction.Comment: 10 figures+tables, 8 supplementary figure
Correlated states in twisted double bilayer graphene
Electron-electron interactions play an important role in graphene and related
systems and can induce exotic quantum states, especially in a stacked bilayer
with a small twist angle. For bilayer graphene where the two layers are twisted
by a "magic angle", flat band and strong many-body effects lead to correlated
insulating states and superconductivity. In contrast to monolayer graphene, the
band structure of untwisted bilayer graphene can be further tuned by a
displacement field, providing an extra degree of freedom to control the flat
band that should appear when two bilayers are stacked on top of each other.
Here, we report the discovery and characterization of such displacement-field
tunable electronic phases in twisted double bilayer graphene. We observe
insulating states at a half-filled conduction band in an intermediate range of
displacement fields. Furthermore, the resistance gap in the correlated
insulator increases with respect to the in-plane magnetic fields and we find
that the g factor according to spin Zeeman effect is ~2, indicating spin
polarization at half filling. These results establish the twisted double
bilayer graphene as an easily tunable platform for exploring quantum many-body
states
Blood Pressure Changes in Relation to Arsenic Exposure in a U.S. Pregnancy Cohort
Background:
Inorganic arsenic exposure has been related to the risk of increased blood pressure based largely on cross-sectional studies conducted in highly exposed populations. Pregnancy is a period of particular vulnerability to environmental insults. However, little is known about the cardiovascular impacts of arsenic exposure during pregnancy. Objectives:
We evaluated the association between prenatal arsenic exposure and maternal blood pressure over the course of pregnancy in a U.S. population. Methods:
The New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study is an ongoing prospective cohort study in which \u3e 10% of participant household wells exceed the arsenic maximum contaminant level of 10 ÎŒg/L established by the U.S. EPA. Total urinary arsenic measured at 24â28 weeks gestation was measured and used as a biomarker of exposure during pregnancy in 514 pregnant women, 18â45 years of age, who used a private well in their household. Outcomes were repeated blood pressure measurements (systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure) recorded during pregnancy. Results:
Using linear mixed effects models, we estimated that, on average, each 5-ÎŒg/L increase in urinary arsenic was associated with a 0.15-mmHg (95% CI: 0.02, 0.29; p = 0.022) increase in systolic blood pressure per month and a 0.14-mmHg (95% CI: 0.02, 0.25; p = 0.021) increase in pulse pressure per month over the course of pregnancy. Conclusions:
In our U.S. cohort of pregnant women, arsenic exposure was associated with greater increases in blood pressure over the course of pregnancy. These findings may have important implications because even modest increases in blood pressure impact cardiovascular disease risk
Phylogenetic and structural diversity of aromatically dense pili from environmental metagenomes
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bray, M.S., Wu, J., Padilla, C.C., Stewart, F.J., Fowle, D.A., Henny, C., Simister, R.L., Thompson, K.J., Crowe, S.A. and Glass, J.B. (2020), Phylogenetic and structural diversity of aromatically dense pili from environmental metagenomes. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 12: 49-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12809, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12809. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wileyâs version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.Electroactive type IV pili, or e-pili, are used by some microbial species for extracellular electron transfer. Recent studies suggest that e-pili may be more phylogenetically and structurally diverse than previously assumed. Here, we used updated aromatic density thresholds (â„9.8% aromatic amino acids, â€22-aa aromatic gaps and aromatic amino acids at residues 1, 24, 27, 50 and/or 51, and 32 and/or 57) to search for putative e-pilin genes in metagenomes from diverse ecosystems with active microbial metal cycling. Environmental putative e-pilins were diverse in length and phylogeny, and included truncated e-pilins in Geobacter spp., as well as longer putative e-pilins in Fe(II)-oxidizing Betaproteobacteria and Zetaproteobacteria
Regulating the Coordination Environment of MesoporeâConfined Single Atoms from MetalloproteinâMOFs for Highly Efficient Biocatalysis (Adv. Mater. 44/2022)
Decoding tumor heterogeneity in uveal melanoma: basement membrane genes as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets revealed by multi-omics approaches for cancer immunotherapy
Background: Uveal melanoma (UVM) is a primary intraocular malignancy that poses a significant threat to patientsâ visual function and life. The basement membrane (BM) is critical for establishing and maintaining cell polarity, adult function, embryonic and organ morphogenesis, and many other biological processes. Some basement membrane protein genes have been proven to be prognostic biomarkers for various cancers. This research aimed to develop a novel risk assessment system based on BMRGs that would serve as a theoretical foundation for tailored and accurate treatment.Methods: We used gene expression profiles and clinical data from the TCGA-UVM cohort of 80 UVM patients as a training set. 56 UVM patients from the combined cohort of GSE84976 and GSE22138 were employed as an external validation dataset. Prognostic characteristics of basement membrane protein-related genes (BMRGs) were characterized by Lasso, stepwise multifactorial Cox. Multivariate analysis revealed BMRGs to be independent predictors of UVM. The TISCH database probes the crosstalk of BMEGs in the tumor microenvironment at the single-cell level. Finally, we investigated the function of ITGA5 in UVM using multiple experimental techniques, including CCK8, transwell, wound healing assay, and colony formation assay.Results: There are three genes in the prognostic risk model (ADAMTS10, ADAMTS14, and ITGA5). After validation, we determined that the model is quite reliable and accurately forecasts the prognosis of UVM patients. Immunotherapy is more likely to be beneficial for UVM patients in the high-risk group, whereas the survival advantage may be greater for UVM patients in the low-risk group. Knockdown of ITGA5 expression was shown to inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasive ability of UVM cells in vitro experiments.Conclusion: The 3-BMRGs feature model we constructed has excellent predictive performance which plays a key role in the prognosis, informing the individualized treatment of UVM patients. It also provides a new perspective for assessing pre-immune efficacy
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