Sexual stories go to Westminster: narratives of sexual citizens/outsiders in Britain

'Sexual citizenship' is relatively a new term, which emerged in recent decades with gay and lesbian demands for 'equal rights' with heterosexuals. Rather than taking the concept of sexual citizenship as given, this thesis investigates the conditions of its emergence and the process of its making by focusing on 'stories' offabout homosexuals or hoinosexualities, which have been circulated, debated and represented in the British parliament. I analyse these stories at three different moments in time: during debates on the Sexual Offences Act in the 1960s;Section 28 of the Local Government Act in the 1980s; and the Civil Partnership Act in the 2000s. In particular, I explore the gradual coming-out ofwhat Scott calls, 'the evidence of experience' in the debates, which, in the form of personal stories, has become an important way of (re)presenting/relating evidence of the 'truth' of homosexual identities, linked in turn to the idea of their rights/ rightness. A number of questions guide my inquiry. What are the conditions upon which a (sexual) story's access to the political arena is authorised (or rejected)? Who tells stories or whose stories are told? What 'problems' do stories recount? How are personal sexual stories publicly represented and contested in parliament? What moral and political effects do these stories have on political claims about sexual rights and responsibilities? In addressing these questions, I explore the complexity of stories' journey from personal to political in the sexual citizenship making process, which entails not just a transition from non-recognition to recognition, but also a process of exclusion and misappropriation whereby stories, in the process of becoming public narrative, are often rigidified and formalised, producing stereotypical/fixed 'facts' and 'moral' points. In analysing this problematic process by which sexual stories enter into a public and national political domain, and make their case for the recognition of sexual rights in Britain, I hope to shed light on the more general question of what it means to be a recognised (or recognisable) sexual citizen in contemporary Britain

bZIPDB : A database of regulatory information for human bZIP transcription factors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Basic region-leucine zipper (bZIP) proteins are a class of transcription factors (TFs) that play diverse roles in eukaryotes. Malfunctions in these proteins lead to cancer and various other diseases. For detailed characterization of these TFs, further public resources are required.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>We constructed a database, designated bZIPDB, containing information on 49 human bZIP TFs, by means of automated literature collection and manual curation. bZIPDB aims to provide public data required for deciphering the gene regulatory network of the human bZIP family, e.g., evaluation or reference information for the identification of regulatory modules. The resources provided by bZIPDB include (1) protein interaction data including direct binding, phosphorylation and functional associations between bZIP TFs and other cellular proteins, along with other types of interactions, (2) bZIP TF-target gene relationships, (3) the cellular network of bZIP TFs in particular cell lines, and (4) gene information and ontology. In the current version of the database, 721 protein interactions and 560 TF-target gene relationships are recorded. bZIPDB is annually updated for the newly discovered information.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>bZIPDB is a repository of detailed regulatory information for human bZIP TFs that is collected and processed from the literature, designed to facilitate analysis of this protein family. bZIPDB is available for public use at <url>http://biosoft.kaist.ac.kr/bzipdb</url>.</p

Amperometric microsensors monitoring glutamate-evoked in situ responses of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide from live human neuroblastoma cells

In the brain, nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) are important signaling gases which have multifaceted roles, such as neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and vasodilators. Even though it is difficult to measure NO and CO in a living system due to their high diffusibility and extremely low release levels, electrochemical sensors are promising tools to measure in vivo and in vitro NO and CO gases. In this paper, using amperometric dual and septuple NO/CO microsensors, real-time NO and CO changes evoked by glutamate were monitored simultaneously for human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells. In cultures, the cells were differentiated and matured into functional neurons by retinoic acid and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. When glutamate was administrated to the cells, both NO and CO increases and subsequent decreases returning to the basal levels were observed with a dual NO/CO microsensor. In order to facilitate sensor’s measurement, a flower-type septuple NO/CO microsensor was newly developed and confirmed in terms of the sensitivity and selectivity. The septuple microsensor was employed for the measurements of NO and CO changes as a function of distances from the position of glutamate injection. Our sensor measurements revealed that only functionally differentiated cells responded to glutamate and released NO and CO. © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Amperometric Microsensors Monitoring Glutamate-Evoked In Situ Responses of Nitric Oxide and Carbon Monoxide from Live Human Neuroblastoma Cells

In the brain, nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) are important signaling gases which have multifaceted roles, such as neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and vasodilators. Even though it is difficult to measure NO and CO in a living system due to their high diffusibility and extremely low release levels, electrochemical sensors are promising tools to measure in vivo and in vitro NO and CO gases. In this paper, using amperometric dual and septuple NO/CO microsensors, real-time NO and CO changes evoked by glutamate were monitored simultaneously for human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells. In cultures, the cells were differentiated and matured into functional neurons by retinoic acid and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. When glutamate was administrated to the cells, both NO and CO increases and subsequent decreases returning to the basal levels were observed with a dual NO/CO microsensor. In order to facilitate sensor’s measurement, a flower-type septuple NO/CO microsensor was newly developed and confirmed in terms of the sensitivity and selectivity. The septuple microsensor was employed for the measurements of NO and CO changes as a function of distances from the position of glutamate injection. Our sensor measurements revealed that only functionally differentiated cells responded to glutamate and released NO and CO

Supplementary document for HoloSR: Deep Learning-based Super-Resolution for Real-Time High-Resolution Computer-Generated Holograms - 6897649.pdf

Supplemental Documen

Prediction of Postoperative Complications for Patients of End Stage Renal Disease

End stage renal disease (ESRD) is the last stage of chronic kidney disease that requires dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. Many studies reported a higher risk of mortality in ESRD patients compared with patients without ESRD. In this paper, we develop a model to predict postoperative complications, major cardiac event, for patients who underwent any type of surgery. We compare several widely-used machine learning models through experiments with our collected data yellow of size 3220, and achieved F1 score of 0.797 with the random forest model. Based on experimental results, we found that features related to operation (e.g., anesthesia time, operation time, crystal, and colloid) have the biggest impact on model performance, and also found the best combination of features. We believe that this study will allow physicians to provide more appropriate therapy to the ESRD patients by providing information on potential postoperative complications

Nationwide incidence and treatment pattern of benign prostatic hyperplasia in Korea

Purpose: To investigate the incidence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in Korea and treatment patterns for 3 years after the diagnosis in a nationwide database. Materials and Methods: We created a cohort of patients diagnosed of BPH between 2007 and 2011 from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment database, a nationwide database of reimbursement. The diagnosis of BPH was defined as having the diagnosis of BPH (N40.0 in International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision) as a primary or secondary diagnosis ≥2 times in 2008. The incidence of BPH in 2008 was calculated. Treatment patterns were determined in 3 months interval and traced for 3 years. The incidence and timing of surgery were also determined. For patients taking medications preoperatively, medication-free rate was calculated. Results: The incidence of BPH was 2,105 per 100,000 men (mean age, 59.7±11.4 years), and increased with age. Surgery was performed for 7,955 patients (2.1%), half of the surgery being performed within the first 6 months. Transurethral resection of the prostate was the most commonly performed surgery. The proportion of treatment increased with age until the 7th decade of life. The patients taking medication for >1 year after the initial diagnosis was 21.4%. On average, 82% of patients became medication-free at postoperative 1 year. For patients taking preoperative anticholinergics, 1 year medication-free rate was 73.3%. Conclusions: The incidence of BPH increased with age. Surgery was performed in 2.1% of patients. More than 4/5 patients discontinued medication after surgery, while patients taking preoperative anticholinergics were less likely to

Comparison of the new-Poisoning Mortality Score and the Modified Early Warning Score for predicting in-hospital mortality in patients with acute poisoning

The evaluation of acute poisoning is challenging due to varied toxic substances and clinical presentations. The new-Poisoning Mortality Score was recently developed to assess patients with acute poisoning and showed good performance in predicting in-hospital mortality. The objective of this study is to externally validate the performance of the new-Poisoning Mortality Score and to compare it with the Modified Early Warning Score. This retrospective analysis used data from the 2019–2020 Injury Surveillance Cohort, established by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to perform external validation of the new-Poisoning Mortality Score. The statistical performances of the new-Poisoning Mortality and Modified Early Warning Scores were assessed and compared in terms of discrimination and calibration. Discrimination analysis involved metrics such as sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. For calibration analysis, the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test was utilized and calibration curves for each score were generated to elucidate the relationship between observed and predicted mortalities. This study analysed 16,570 patients with acute poisoning. Significant differences were observed between survivors and those who died in-hospital, including age, sex, and vital signs. The new-Poisoning Mortality Score showed better performance over the Modified Early Warning Score in predicting in-hospital mortality, in terms of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.947 versus 0.800), sensitivity (0.863 versus 0.667), specificity (0.912 versus 0.817), and accuracy (0.911 versus 0.814). When evaluated through calibration curves, the new-Poisoning Mortality Score showed better concordance between predicted and observed mortalities. In subgroup analyses, the score system consistently showed strong performance, excelling particularly in substances with high mortality indices and remaining superior in all substances as a group. Our study has helped to validate the new-Poisoning Mortality Score as an effective tool for predicting in-hospital mortality in patients with acute poisoning in the emergency department. The score system demonstrated superior performance over the Modified Early Warning Score in various metrics. Our findings suggest that the new-Poisoning Mortality Score can contribute to the enhancement of clinical decision-making and patient management.</p