A New Framework to Explore the International Vision of College Teacher

Aiming to address the methodology to explore and broaden college teachers’ international vision and horizon for engineering education of college students or engineers, this paper proposed an exploration framework based on Johari Window model. The framework of international vision exploration for teachers includes four zones: open/active vision, called Zone A; hidden/sleeping vision, called Zone B; blind/potential vision, called Zone C; and unknown/darkness vision, called Zone D. The four zones’ characteristics and formation mechanisms were generally analyzed, the corresponding driving forces were then identified in order to help transform teacher international vision within Zones B, C and D into Zone A. To provide the effective and feasible approach, several significant factors including culture tension, original vision conflict and pure curiosity for unknown were then determined in exploring and improving teacher’s international vision in terms of curiosity, inner creativity, potential vision, career development, and worldwide adaptability on engineering education evolution

Pricing Model of Credit Default Swap Based on Jump-Diffusion Process and Volatility with Markov Regime Shift

By introducing the Jump-Diffusion Process and Markov Regime Shift, the paper explores Monte Carlo simulation to examine the pricing problem of single name Credit Default Swaps (CDS), which the price of CDS is affected by both unpredictable idiosyncratic risk and system risk caused by the macroeconomic change. The study shows that the price of CDS increases as the intensity and the amplitude of the Jump-Diffusion Process increase. Furthermore, the CDS price depends on the initial state and transition intensity of the volatility of the corporate value, which the former can reflect the influence of macroeconomic situation

Data-driven identification of structural alerts for mitigating the risk of drug-induced human liver injuries

El presente trabajo propone, tomando como eje los postulados de Iuri Lotman acerca de la memoria, una lectura de la novela Los pichiciegos (1984), del escritor argentino Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill (1941-2010). Escrito en paralelo a la guerra de las Malvinas, este relato pone en cuestión la narrativa oficial de la guerra y problematiza, en clave literaria, las tensiones entre memoria y ficción en la construcción de un acontecimiento relevante de la historia latinoamericana. De este modo, nuestro trabajo propone un abordaje, desde el campo de la semiótica de la cultura, de las complejas relaciones entre memoria y ficción.From the perspective of Iuri Lotman´s concept about memory, this paper propose a reading of Los pichiciegos, novel that wrote by the Argentinian author Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill (1941-2010). Written at the same moment of Falklans War happens, this story calls into question the official narrative of the war and discuss, in literary key, boundaries between memory and fiction on contemporary Latin-American history. Thus, from the field of Cultural Semiotics, our work proposes an approach of the complex relationship between memory and fiction in Los Pichiciegos.Aquest treball proposa, prenent com a eix els postulats de Iuri Lotman sobre la memòria, una lectura de la novel·la Los pichiciegos (1984), de l'escriptor argentí Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill (1941-2010). Escrit en paral·lel a la guerra de les Malvines, aquest relat posa en qüestió la narrativa oficial de la guerra i problematitza, en clau literària, les tensions entre memòria i ficció en construir un esdeveniment rellevant de la història llatinoamericana. D'aquesta manera, el nostre treball proposa un abordatge, des del camp de la semiòtica de la cultura, de les complexes relacions entre memòria i ficció

Effect of passive finger exercises on grip strength and the ability to perform activities of daily living for older people with dementia: a 12-week randomized controlled trial

Background: Dementia adds burden to society. As it is not curable, physical exercise activities are optimal to improve the physical strength and quality-of-life of people with dementia. Aim: Design, implementation, and examination of a set of passive finger exercises and their effects on improving grip strength and activities of daily living (ADL) for older people with dementia. Methods: Forty older people with dementia were recruited and randomly allocated into an experimental group and a control group, each with 20 people. The control group received routine nursing care. In addition to this, the experimental group received 25-minutes of passive finger exercises every day for 12 weeks. The health outcomes measured were grip strength and ADL, before and after the intervention. Grip strength was assessed by electrical hand muscle dynamometer. ADL were assessed with Barthel index. Results: Although there was no effect on grip strength, passive finger exercises led to significant improvements in urinary control, defecation function, and overall ADL in comparison with the control group. Implications for practice: Passive finger exercises can be integrated into physical exercise programs for older people with dementia to improve their urinary control, defecation function, and ADL

Selective delivery of interleukine-1 receptor antagonist to inflamed joint by albumin fusion

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, a cytokine that is highly therapeutic to rheumatoid arthritis and several other inflammatory diseases, exhibits rapid blood clearance and poor retention time on the target in clinical application due to its small size and lack of specificity to target tissue. Albumin has been widely employed as macromolecular carrier for drug delivery purpose to extend the plasma half-life of therapeutic molecules and has been shown to selectively accumulate and to be metabolized in the inflamed joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. This suggests that genetic fusion of IL-1ra to albumin can probably overcome the drawbacks of in vivo application of IL-1ra. RESULT: A recombinant protein, engineered by fusing human serum albumin (HSA) to the carboxyl terminal of IL-1ra, was produced in Pichia pastoris and purified to homogeneity. The fusion protein retained the antagonist activity of IL-1ra and had a plasma half-life of approximately 30-fold more than that of IL-1ra in healthy mice. In vivo bio-distribution studies demonstrated that the fusion protein selectively accumulated in arthritic paws for a long period of time in mice with collagen-induced arthritis, showing low uptake rates in normal organs such as liver, kidney, spleen and lung in contrast to IL-1ra alone. Moreover, this fusion protein was able to significantly improve the therapeutic efficacy of IL-1ra in collagen-induced arthritis mouse model. CONCLUSIONS: The fusion protein described here, able to selectively deliver IL-1ra to inflamed tissue, could yield important contributions for the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases

Time-Independent Reliability Analysis of Bridge System Based on Mixed Copula Models

The actual structural systems have many failure modes. Due to the same random sources owned by the performance functions of these failure modes, there usually exist some nonlinear correlations between the various failure modes. How to handle the nonlinear correlations is one of the main scientific problems in the field of structural system reliability. In this paper, for the two-component systems and multiple-component systems with multiple failure modes, the mixed copula models for time-independent reliability analysis of series systems, parallel systems, series-parallel systems, and parallel-series systems are presented. These obtained mixed copula models, considering the nonlinear correlation between failure modes, are obtained with the chosen optimal copula functions with the Bayesian selection criteria and Monte Carlo Sampling (MCS) method. And a numerical example is provided to illustrate the feasibility and application of the built mixed models for structural system reliability

Two-family outbreak of botulism associated with the consumption of smoked ribs in Sichuan Province, China

SummaryBackgroundOn September 22, 2013, two patients from Sichuan Province, China presented with symptoms of food-borne botulism, a rare but fatal illness caused by the consumption of foods containing Clostridium botulinum neurotoxins.MethodsInvestigators reviewed the medical charts and food consumption histories, and interviewed patients and family members. Food samples and clinical specimens were tested for botulinum toxin and neurotoxin-producing Clostridium species by standard methods.ResultsThe first two index cases presented with cranial neuropathies and flaccid paralysis, and required mechanical ventilation. There were 12 confirmed outbreak-associated cases. Botulinum toxin type A was identified in the smoked ribs, and all of the patients had consumed the smoked ribs from the same local restaurant. The smoked ribs contained no added salt, sugar, or preservative. Botulinum toxin production likely resulted from the cold-smoking preparation method and inappropriate refrigeration.ConclusionsSmoked ribs produced by a local restaurant, contaminated with type A botulism, was the contributor to this outbreak. The supervision of food safety should be strengthened to prevent future outbreaks in China

Virus-derived transgenes expressing hairpin RNA give immunity to Tobacco mosaic virus and Cucumber mosaic virus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An effective method for obtaining resistant transgenic plants is to induce RNA silencing by expressing virus-derived dsRNA in plants and this method has been successfully implemented for the generation of different plant lines resistant to many plant viruses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Inverted repeats of the partial <it>Tobacco mosaic virus </it>(TMV) movement protein (MP) gene and the partial <it>Cucumber mosaic virus </it>(CMV) replication protein (Rep) gene were introduced into the plant expression vector and the recombinant plasmids were transformed into <it>Agrobacterium tumefaciens</it>. <it>Agrobacterium</it>-mediated transformation was carried out and three transgenic tobacco lines (MP16-17-3, MP16-17-29 and MP16-17-58) immune to TMV infection and three transgenic tobacco lines (Rep15-1-1, Rep15-1-7 and Rep15-1-32) immune to CMV infection were obtained. Virus inoculation assays showed that the resistance of these transgenic plants could inherit and keep stable in T₄progeny. The low temperature (15℃) did not influence the resistance of transgenic plants. There was no significant correlation between the resistance and the copy number of the transgene. CMV infection could not break the resistance to TMV in the transgenic tobacco plants expressing TMV hairpin MP RNA.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We have demonstrated that transgenic tobacco plants expressed partial TMV movement gene and partial CMV replicase gene in the form of an intermolecular intron-hairpin RNA exhibited complete resistance to TMV or CMV infection.</p

On the microstructure and mechanical properties of silver-bearing antibacterial CD4MCu duplex stainless steels:Solid solution temperature

The Ag-bearing antibacterial stainless steel has attracted substantial attention in the field of bacterial proliferation prevention. In this study, a Cu-Ag alloy was incorporated into a CD4MCu duplex stainless steel (DSS) to produce a good antibacterial property. The Ag-bearing CD4MCu duplex stainless steel samples were conducted solid solution treatment at various temperatures. The effects of the solid solution temperature on the microstructure, mechanical and corrosion properties, as well as silver ion release characteristics and antibacterial properties were investigated. Results show that apart from the original alpha, gamma phases, Ag-bearing phases were formed in all samples after solid solution at different temperatures. The volume fraction of gamma and Ag-bearing phases decrease with increasing solution temperature. The tensile strength, hardness, elongation, and corrosion resistance first decrease and then increase along with the increase in the solid solution temperature. The heat treatment conducted at 1150 degrees C increases the strength, the hardness, the pitting corrosion resistance, and the antimicrobial capability simultaneously. The antibacterial rates of all the Ag-bearing CD4MCu duplex stainless steel samples after solid solution treatment are above 99%, indicating their good anti-bacterial capabilities

TiGER: A database for tissue-specific gene expression and regulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding how genes are expressed and regulated in different tissues is a fundamental and challenging question. However, most of currently available biological databases do not focus on tissue-specific gene regulation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The recent development of computational methods for tissue-specific combinational gene regulation, based on transcription factor binding sites, enables us to perform a large-scale analysis of tissue-specific gene regulation in human tissues. The results are stored in a web database called TiGER (Tissue-specific Gene Expression and Regulation). The database contains three types of data including tissue-specific gene expression profiles, combinatorial gene regulations, and cis-regulatory module (CRM) detections. At present the database contains expression profiles for 19,526 UniGene genes, combinatorial regulations for 7,341 transcription factor pairs and 6,232 putative CRMs for 2,130 RefSeq genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have developed and made publicly available a database, TiGER, which summarizes and provides large scale data sets for tissue-specific gene expression and regulation in a variety of human tissues. This resource is available at <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr></abbrgrp>.</p