TO STAND AGAINST THE COMPANY: A STUDY OF THE BRITISH HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND PIRACY IN THE INDIAN OCEAN WORLD, CIRCA 1680-1760

This study attempts to explore the multi-faceted challenges and hindrances brought upon the British East India Company by piracy in the Indian Ocean World. European and American pirates in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries influenced economic, political, and social factors in the Indian Ocean. The Angrians in the eighteenth century did the same, constituting an indigenous piratical threat. These forms of piracy encouraged the British East India Company to gradually bolster military strength to mobilize against them. With their own built up strength, Royal navy support, local Mahratta allies, and internal-conflict within the Angres, the British East India Company managed to crush the Angres and then project their military power into the Indian subcontinent. This proved formative leading up to the creation of the British Empire there with the military leadership of Robert Clive. To prove this point, this study utilized published collections of government and court-related documents, letters, journals, newspapers, travel literature, and personal account

Development of a 50 kW wireless power transfer system

A high-power modular wireless power transfer system has been developed intended for use in larger vehicles. This paper presents the design methodology and evolution of the system, including test results. The system utilises SiC switching devices and an 85 kHz operating frequency. 50 kW of wireless power transfer has been achieved over a 200 mm gap at 89% efficiency, showing good promise for the system

Control at stability’s edge minimizes energetic costs: expert stick balancing

Stick balancing on the fingertip is a complex voluntary motor task that requires the stabilization of an unstable system. For seated expert stick balancers, the time delay is 0.23 s, the shortest stick that can be balanced for 240 s is 0.32 m and there is a Embedded Image° dead zone for the estimation of the vertical displacement angle in the saggital plane. These observations motivate a switching-type, pendulum–cart model for balance control which uses an internal model to compensate for the time delay by predicting the sensory consequences of the stick's movements. Numerical simulations using the semi-discretization method suggest that the feedback gains are tuned near the edge of stability. For these choices of the feedback gains, the cost function which takes into account the position of the fingertip and the corrective forces is minimized. Thus, expert stick balancers optimize control with a combination of quick manoeuvrability and minimum energy expenditures

Human GUCY2C-Targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-Expressing T Cells Eliminate Colorectal Cancer Metastases.

One major hurdle to the success of adoptive T-cell therapy is the identification of antigens that permit effective targeting of tumors in the absence of toxicities to essential organs. Previous work has demonstrated that T cells engineered to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) targeting the murine homolog of the colorectal cancer antigen GUCY2C treat established colorectal cancer metastases, without toxicity to the normal GUCY2C-expressing intestinal epithelium, reflecting structural compartmentalization of endogenous GUCY2C to apical membranes comprising the intestinal lumen. Here, we examined the utility of a human-specific, GUCY2C-directed single-chain variable fragment as the basis for a CAR construct targeting human GUCY2C-expressing metastases. Human GUCY2C-targeted murine CAR-T cells promoted antigen-dependent T-cell activation quantified by activation marker upregulation, cytokine production, and killing of GUCY2C-expressing, but not GUCY2C-deficient, cancer cells in vitro. GUCY2C CAR-T cells provided long-term protection against lung metastases of murine colorectal cancer cells engineered to express human GUCY2C in a syngeneic mouse model. GUCY2C murine CAR-T cells recognized and killed human colorectal cancer cells endogenously expressing GUCY2C, providing durable survival in a human xenograft model in immunodeficient mice. Thus, we have identified a human GUCY2C-specific CAR-T cell therapy approach that may be developed for the treatment of GUCY2C-expressing metastatic colorectal cancer

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Article narrates the events surrounding numerous battles fought between the Cherokee and Creek tribes as they moved across the American west. This narrative is told from the perspective of John Ridge, son of Major Ridge, a Cherokee representative who was killed alongside two other men for signing treaties pertaining to the tribe's removal

Dysphagia Screening for Pneumonia Prevention in a Cancer Hospital: Results of a Quality/Safety Initiative.

Objective Hospital-acquired aspiration pneumonia remains a rare but potentially devastating problem. The best means by which to prevent aspiration in a cancer hospital population has not been evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of dysphagia screening on aspiration pneumonia rates in an acute care oncology hospital. Methods A prospective single-institution quality-improvement dysphagia screening protocol at a comprehensive cancer center. Effect of dysphagia screening implemented in 2016 on hospital acquired aspiration pneumonia rates coded “aspiration pneumonitis due to food/vomitus” were compared with rates from 2014-15, prior to implementation. Screening compliance, screening outcomes, patient demographics, and medical data were reviewed as part of a post hoc analysis. Results Of 12,392 admissions in 2014-16, 97 patients developed aspiration pneumonia during their hospitalization. No significant change in aspiration pneumonia rate was seen during the dysphagia screening year when compared to prior years (baseline- 7.36 and screening year- 8.78 per 1000 discharges p=0.33). Sixty-eight of the cases (66%) were associated with emesis/gastrointestinal obstruction or perioperative aspiration and only 15 (15%) with oropharyngeal dysphagia. Multivariate analysis found that patients admitted to GI surgery had an aspiration risk equivalent to patients admitted to head and neck, thoracic and pulmonary services (OR 0.65, p= 0.2). Discussion: Nursing-initiated dysphagia screening did not decrease aspiration pneumonia rates. The causes of aspiration-associated pneumonia were heterogeneous. Aspiration of intestinal contents is a more common source of hospital-acquired pneumonia than oropharyngeal dysphagia