Modeling your college library after a commercial bookstore? the Hong Kong Design Institute Library experience

The Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) is a leading design education institute in Hong Kong under the Vocational Training Council (VTC) group. Opened in September 2010, the HKDI Learning Resources Centre is a specialist library for the study of art and design. The mission of the HKDI Library is to support and promote the academic goals of the Institute, i.e., to prepare the students for professional careers; emphasize learning through a creative and interactive environment; meanwhile uphold a positively relaxing, and yet inviting environment that is very much similar to a commercial bookstore. In order to accomplish this, the HKDI Library aims to serve as a user-centered library for creative learning--by providing an important place for both students and faculty to actively engage in study, research, as well as socializing. Through a series of small focus group interviews with both students and faculty staff at the HKDI, the study investigates how influential the library environment could be in fostering students\u27 learning and other social activities under a creative environment

Situational Voluntary Compliance: Adherence to COVID-19 Social Distancing Guidelines in the 2020 Local Outbreak in Beijing

To mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic many countries have adopted mandatory social distancing measures, but in China, social distancing was implemented only as an advisory guideline. This article seeks to understand whether, and why Chinese citizens adhered to such social distancing advice. The data, derived from a survey in the 2020 local outbreak in Beijing, show that voluntary compliance was hardly influ-enced by motivational predictors, but was almost exclusively dependent on a single, key situational predictor, namely people’s practical capacity to follow social distancing. These findings demonstrate that the emphasis on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in existing compliance research does not do justice to the situational nature of voluntary compliance observed within this particular context. We discuss theoretical implications of these findings for the compliance literature. Moreover, we use these findings to provide (tentative) insight into the compliance challenges that China was facing during the course of the pandemic, and to speculate about ways in which compliance may be enhanced during future pandemic outbreaks in China.</p

No turning,a Mouse Mutation Causing Left–Right and Axial Patterning Defects

AbstractPatterning along the left/right axes helps establish the orientation of visceral organ asymmetries, a process which is of fundamental importance to the viability of an organism. A linkage between left/right and axial patterning is indicated by the finding that a number of genes involved in left/right patterning also play a role in anteroposterior and dorsoventral patterning. We have recovered a spontaneous mouse mutation causing left/right patterning defects together with defects in anteroposterior and dorsoventral patterning. This mutation is recessive lethal and was namedno turning (nt)because the mutant embryos fail to undergo embryonic turning.ntembryos exhibit cranial neural tube closure defects and malformed somites and are caudally truncated. Development of the heart arrests at the looped heart tube stage, with cardiovascular defects indicated by ballooning of the pericardial sac and the pooling of blood in various regions of the embryo. Interestingly, inntembryos, the direction of heart looping was randomized.Nodalandlefty,two genes that are normally expressed only in the left lateral plate mesoderm, show expression in the right and left lateral plate mesoderm.Lefty,which is normally also expressed in the floorplate, is not found in the prospective floorplate ofntembryos. This suggests the possibility of notochordal defects. This was confirmed by histological analysis and the examination ofsonic hedgehog, Brachyury,andHNF-3βgene expression. These studies showed that the notochord is present in the earlyntembryo, but degenerates as development progresses. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that the notochord plays an active role in left/right patterning. Our results suggest thatntmay participate in this process by modulating the notochordal expression ofHNF-3β

MAPK phosphorylation of connexin 43 promotes binding of cyclin E and smooth muscle cell proliferation

&lt;p&gt;Rationale: Dedifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) leading to a proliferative cell phenotype significantly contributes to the development of atherosclerosis. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation of proteins including connexin 43 (Cx43) has been associated with VSMC proliferation in atherosclerosis.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Objective: To investigate whether MAPK phosphorylation of Cx43 is directly involved in VSMC proliferation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods and Results: We show in vivo that MAPK-phosphorylated Cx43 forms complexes with the cell cycle control proteins cyclin E and cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) in carotids of apolipoprotein-E receptor null (ApoE−/−) mice and in C57Bl/6 mice treated with platelet-derived growth factor–BB (PDGF). We tested the involvement of Cx43 MAPK phosphorylation in vitro using constructs for full-length Cx43 (Cx43) or the Cx43 C-terminus (Cx43CT) and produced null phosphorylation Ser&gt;Ala (Cx43MK4A/Cx43CTMK4A) and phospho-mimetic Ser&gt;Asp (Cx43MK4D/Cx43CTMK4D) mutations. Coimmunoprecipitation studies in primary VSMC isolated from Cx43 wild-type (Cx43+/+) and Cx43 null (Cx43−/−) mice and analytic size exclusion studies of purified proteins identify that interactions between cyclin E and Cx43 requires Cx43 MAPK phosphorylation. We further demonstrate that Cx43 MAPK phosphorylation is required for PDGF-mediated VSMC proliferation. Finally, using a novel knock-in mouse containing Cx43-MK4A mutation, we show in vivo that interactions between Cx43 and cyclin E are lost and VSMC proliferation does not occur after treatment of carotids with PDGF and that neointima formation is significantly reduced in carotids after injury.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusions: We identify MAPK-phosphorylated Cx43 as a novel interacting partner of cyclin E in VSMC and show that this interaction is critical for VSMC proliferation. This novel interaction may be important in the development of atherosclerotic lesions.&lt;/p&gt

Modulation of mouse neural crest cell motility by N-cadherin and connexin 43 gap junctions

Connexin 43 (Cx43α1) gap junction has been shown to have an essential role in mediating functional coupling of neural crest cells and in modulating neural crest cell migration. Here, we showed that N-cadherin and wnt1 are required for efficient dye coupling but not for the expression of Cx43α1 gap junctions in neural crest cells. Cell motility was found to be altered in the N-cadherin–deficient neural crest cells, but the alterations were different from that elicited by Cx43α1 deficiency. In contrast, wnt1-deficient neural crest cells showed no discernible change in cell motility. These observations suggest that dye coupling may not be a good measure of gap junction communication relevant to motility. Alternatively, Cx43α1 may serve a novel function in motility. We observed that p120 catenin (p120ctn), an Armadillo protein known to modulate cell motility, is colocalized not only with N-cadherin but also with Cx43α1. Moreover, the subcellular distribution of p120ctn was altered with N-cadherin or Cx43α1 deficiency. Based on these findings, we propose a model in which Cx43α1 and N-cadherin may modulate neural crest cell motility by engaging in a dynamic cross-talk with the cell's locomotory apparatus through p120ctn signaling

Ground state of a polydisperse electrorheological solid: Beyond the dipole approximation

The ground state of an electrorheological (ER) fluid has been studied based on our recently proposed dipole-induced dipole (DID) model. We obtained an analytic expression of the interaction between chains of particles which are of the same or different dielectric constants. The effects of dielectric constants on the structure formation in monodisperse and polydisperse electrorheological fluids are studied in a wide range of dielectric contrasts between the particles and the base fluid. Our results showed that the established body-centered tetragonal ground state in monodisperse ER fluids may become unstable due to a polydispersity in the particle dielectric constants. While our results agree with that of the fully multipole theory, the DID model is much simpler, which offers a basis for computer simulations in polydisperse ER fluids.Comment: Accepted for publications by Phys. Rev.

Pilot study evaluating catheter-directed contrast-enhanced ultrasound compared to catheter-directed computed tomography arteriography as adjuncts to digital subtraction angiography to guide transarterial chemoembolization

Cellular mechanisms in basic and clinical gastroenterology and hepatolog

Tests of the random phase approximation for transition strengths

We investigate the reliability of transition strengths computed in the random-phase approximation (RPA), comparing with exact results from diagonalization in full $0\hbar\omega$ shell-model spaces. The RPA and shell-model results are in reasonable agreement for most transitions; however some very low-lying collective transitions, such as isoscalar quadrupole, are in serious disagreement. We suggest the failure lies with incomplete restoration of broken symmetries in the RPA. Furthermore we prove, analytically and numerically, that standard statements regarding the energy-weighted sum rule in the RPA do not hold if an exact symmetry is broken.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; Appendix added with new proof regarding violation of energy-weighted sum rul