Station-keeping guidance

The station-keeping guidance system is described, which is designed to automatically keep one orbiting vehicle within a prescribed zone fixed with respect to another orbiting vehicle. The active vehicle, i.e. the one performing the station-keeping maneuvers, is referred to as the shuttle. The other passive orbiting vehicle is denoted as the workshop. The passive vehicle is assumed to be in a low-eccentricity near-earth orbit. The primary navigation sensor considered is a gimballed tracking radar located on board the shuttle. It provides data on relative range and range rate between the two vehicles. Also measured are the shaft and trunnion axes gimbal angles. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is provided on board the orbiter. The IMU is used at all times to provide an attitude reference for the vehicle. The IMU accelerometers are used periodically to monitor the velocity-correction burns applied to the shuttle during the station-keeping mode. The guidance system is capable of station-keeping the shuttle in any arbitrary position with respect to the workshop by periodically applying velocity-correction pulses to the shuttle

Elucidating the Roles of Novel Genes in MHC-I Presentation

The major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) antigen presentation pathway is necessary for the immune system to be able to detect, control, and eliminate cancers. MHC-I binds oligopeptides derived from cellular proteins and presents them on the cell surface to CD8+ T cells. Consequently, the CD8+ T cells can monitor whether any cells are making abnormal proteins and, if so, can destroy those cells. Because MHC-I presentation is not essential for cell viability, immune selection pressure often leads to cancers that are MHC-I low as they can better evade CD8+ T cell recognition. It is, therefore, important to fully understand the mechanisms of MHC-I presentation as this will identify new ways to target and exploit the pathway for cancer therapeutics. Although several components of the MHC-I pathway have already been characterized, some knowledge gaps remain. Unbiased forward genetic screens from our lab identified some novel gene candidates, such as IRF2, which positively regulate MHC-I presentation. In this dissertation, I will reveal which antigen presentation pathway genes are transcriptionally controlled by IRF2 and contribute to the MHC-I presentation deficiency observed in cells lacking IRF2 and I will also show that IRF2 negatively regulates PD-L1 expression. By influencing both MHC-I antigen presentation and PD-L1 expression in this manner, cancers lacking IRF2 (of which there are many) are both harder to see and more difficult to eliminate

Lupus nephritis

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of lupus nephritis

Dipstick urinalysis for the diagnosis of acute UTI

Approximately two-thirds of women who present with classic symptoms of acute UTI have bacterial infection of the bladder. Dipstick urinalysis moderately improves the accuracy of clinical symptoms in establishing or excluding acute UTI in women. (Strength of Recommendation [SOR]: A, based on systematic reviews of cross-sectional studies and a validated clinical decision rule.) A positive nitrite test is more useful than a positive leukocyte esterase (LE) test, although both increase the odds of a UTI diagnosis. If nitrite and LE tests are negative, the odds of a UTI decrease by 40 to 60 percent. (SOR: A, based on systematic reviews of cross-sectional studies including men and women.

Cybraries in paradise: new technologies and ethnographic repositories.

Digital technologies are altering research practices surrounding creation and use of ethnographic field recordings, and the methodologies and paradigms of the disciplines centered around their interpretation. In this chapter we discuss some examples of our current research practices as fieldworkers in active engagement with cultural heritage communities documenting music and language in the Asia- Pacific region, and as developers and curators of the digital repository PARADISEC (the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures: ). We suggest a number of benefits that the use of digital technologies can bring to the recording of material from small and endangered cultures, and to its re-use by communities and researchers. We believe it is a matter of social justice as well as scientific interest that ethnographic recordings held in higher education institutions should be preserved and made accessible to future generations. We argue that, with appropriate planning and care by researchers, digitization of research recordings in audiovisual media can facilitate access by remote communities to records of their cultural heritage held in higher education institutions to a far greater extent than was possible in the analog age.Australian Research Counci

Effects of social support and personal coping resources on depressive symptoms: Different for various chronic diseases?

Effects of psychosocial coping resources on depressive symptoms were examined and compared in older persons with no chronic disease or with recently symptomatic diabetes mellitus, lung disease, cardiac disease, arthritis, or cancer. The 719 persons without diseases reported less depressive symptoms than the chronically ill. Direct favorable effects on depressive symptoms were found for having a partner, having many close relationships, greater feelings of mastery, greater self-efficacy expectations, and high self-esteem. Buffer effects were observed for feelings of mastery, having many diffuse relationships, and receiving emotional support. Buffer effects were differential across diseases for emotional support (in cardiac disease and arthritis only) and for diffuse relationships (in lung disease). Receiving instrumental support was associated with more depressive symptoms, especially in diabetes patients

Engineered gp120 immunogens that elicit VRC01-like antibodies by vaccination

Background: One of the great challenges for an HIV vaccine is to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies specific for conserved epitopes from which the virus cannot easily escape. The CD4 binding site is one such epitope against which several antibodies (e.g. b12, VRC01) have been isolated. In macaques infected with SHIV, passive immunization with these CD4-directed neutralizing antibodies fails to control the virus, but prophylactic administration is highly protective. Similarly, patients who generate neutralizing antibodies over the course of an HIV infection derive no clinical benefit from them, but eliciting such antibodies prophylactically by vaccination may prevent the virus from establishing its lethal foothold

Stability and Change of Neuroticism in Aging

Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used to study the relationship between neuroticism and aging. At baseline, cross-sectional analyses of data from 2,117 respondents (aged 55–85 years, M = 70) showed no significant age differences. The magnitude of the 3- and 6-year stability coefficients was high, and 12% of the elderly participants showed a clinically relevant mean level change. Longitudinal multilevel analyses showed a small but statistical significant change with aging, but the mean change was not considered clinically relevant. A U-formed course was found, showing a slight decrease until respondents reached the age of 70. Adjusting the model for physical health-related variables slightly increased the stability. An additional interaction analysis showed that the individual trajectory of neuroticism was not affected by the physical health status. In conclusion, neuroticism remains rather stable in middle and older adulthood, with some apparent increase in late life