Preliminary evaluation of the radioactive waste isolation potential of the alluvium-filled valleys of the Great Basin

The occurrences, geologic features, hydrology, and thermal, mechanical, and mineralogical properties of the alluvium-filled valleys are compared with those of other media within the Great Basin. Computer modeling of heat conduction indicates that heat generated by the radioactive waste can be dissipated through the alluvium in a manner that will not threaten the integrity of the repository, although waste emplacement densities will be lower than for other media available. This investigation has not revealed any failure mechanism by which one can rule out alluvium as a primary waste isolation medium. However, the alluvium appears to rank behind one or more other possible media in all properties examined except, perhaps, in sorption properties. It is therefore recommended that alluvium be considered as a secondary isolation medium unless primary sites in other rock types in the Great Basin are eliminated from consideration on grounds other than those considered here

Indymedia and the long story of rebellion against neoliberal capitalism

Indymedia was born of the anti-globalisation movement of the late 1990s and quickly spread to become a social movement in its own right. This article reflects on how prescient the claims of the anti-globalisation movement have proven to be and how 20 years ago Indymedia and the anti-globalisation movement predicted there was trouble ahead and that neoliberalism was a central part of the problem. It notes how a history of struggle and protest emanating from the days of Indymedia has developed over time building a counter-politics that is becoming ever wiser about the multiple intersectional harms of capitalism and ever more sophisticated in its political response. The challenge is what comes next

Identifying the geographical potential of rooftop systems: space competition and synergy

Industrial EcologyEnvironmental Biolog

P-Type ATPase TAT-2 Negatively Regulates Monomethyl Branched-Chain Fatty Acid Mediated Function in Post-Embryonic Growth and Development in C. elegans

Monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids (mmBCFAs) are essential for Caenorhabditis elegans growth and development. To identify factors acting downstream of mmBCFAs for their function in growth regulation, we conducted a genetic screen for suppressors of the L1 arrest that occurs in animals depleted of the 17-carbon mmBCFA C17ISO. Three of the suppressor mutations defined an unexpected player, the P-type ATPase TAT-2, which belongs to the flippase family of proteins that are implicated in mediating phospholipid bilayer asymmetry. We provide evidence that TAT-2, but not other TAT genes, has a specific role in antagonizing the regulatory activity of mmBCFAs in intestinal cells. Interestingly, we found that mutations in tat-2 also suppress the lethality caused by inhibition of the first step in sphingolipid biosynthesis. We further showed that the fatty acid side-chains of glycosylceramides contain 20%–30% mmBCFAs and that this fraction is greatly diminished in the absence of mmBCFA biosynthesis. These results suggest a model in which a C17ISO-containing sphingolipid may mediate the regulatory functions of mmBCFAs and is negatively regulated by TAT-2 in intestinal cells. This work indicates a novel connection between a P-type ATPase and the critical regulatory function of a specific fatty acid

Plasma NGAL levels in stable kidney transplant recipients and the risk of allograft loss

BACKGROUND: The object of this study was to investigate the utility of Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and Calprotectin (CPT) to predict long-term graft survival in stable kidney transplant recipients (KTR). METHODS: 709 stable outpatient KTR were enrolled >2 months post-transplant. The utility of plasma and urinary NGAL (pNGAL, uNGAL) and plasma and urinary CPT at enrollment to predict death-censored graft loss (GL) was evaluated during a 58-month follow-up. RESULTS: Among biomarkers, pNGAL showed best predictive ability for graft loss and was the only biomarker with an AUC > 0.7 for GL within 5 years. Patients with GL within 5 years (n=49) had a median pNGAL of 304[IQR 235-358] versus 182[IQR 128 -246]ng/ml with surviving grafts (p<0.001). Time-dependent Receiver operating characteristic analyses at 58 months indicated an Area-Under-the-Curve (AUC) for pNGAL of 0.795, serum creatinine (sCr) based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) CKD EPI had an AUC of 0.866. pNGAL added to a model based on conventional risk factors for GL with death as competing risk (age, transplant age, presence of donor specific antibodies, presence of proteinuria, history of delayed graft function) had a strong independent association with GL (subdistribution Hazard ratio (sHR) for binary log transfomed pNGAL (log2 (pNGAL)) (3.4 95% CI 2.24-5.15), p<0.0001). This association was substantially attenuated when eGFR was added to the model (sHR for log2 (pNGAL) 1.63 95% CI 0.92-2.88, p=0.095). Category-free net reclassification improvement of a risk model including log2(pNGAL) additionally to conventional risk factors and eGFR was 54.3% (95% CI 9.2 to 99.3%) but C-statistic did not improve significantly. CONCLUSIONS: pNGAL was an independent predictor of renal allograft loss in stable KTR from one transplant center but did not show consistent added value when compared to baseline predictors including the conventional marker eGFR. Future studies in larger cohorts are warranted

Four challenges in the field of alternative, radical and citizens’ media research

In January 1994 the Zapatista movement in southern Mexico inaugurated a new era of media use for dissent. Since that time, an array of dissenting collectives and individuals have appropriated media technologies in order to make their voices heard or to articulate alternative identities. From Zapatista media to the Arab Spring, social movements throughout the world are taking over, hybridizing, recycling, and adapting media technologies. This new era poses a new set of challenges for academics and researchers in the field of Communication for Social Change (CfSC). Based on examples from Mexico, Lebanon, and Colombia, this article highlights and discusses four such research challenges: accounting for historical context; acknowledging the complexity of communication processes; anchoring analysis in a political economy of information and communication technologies; and positioning new research in relation to existing knowledge and literature within the field of communication and social change.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Host-specific pit-forming epizoans on Silurian crinoids

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75404/1/j.1502-3931.1978.tb01229.x.pd

WriteSim TCExam - An open source text simulation environment for training novice researchers in scientific writing

BACKGROUND: The ability to write clearly and effectively is of central importance to the scientific enterprise. Encouraged by the success of simulation environments in other biomedical sciences, we developed WriteSim TCExam, an open-source, Web-based, textual simulation environment for teaching effective writing techniques to novice researchers. We shortlisted and modified an existing open source application - TCExam to serve as a textual simulation environment. After testing usability internally in our team, we conducted formal field usability studies with novice researchers. These were followed by formal surveys with researchers fitting the role of administrators and users (novice researchers) RESULTS: The development process was guided by feedback from usability tests within our research team. Online surveys and formal studies, involving members of the Research on Research group and selected novice researchers, show that the application is user-friendly. Additionally it has been used to train 25 novice researchers in scientific writing to date and has generated encouraging results. CONCLUSION: WriteSim TCExam is the first Web-based, open-source textual simulation environment designed to complement traditional scientific writing instruction. While initial reviews by students and educators have been positive, a formal study is needed to measure its benefits in comparison to standard instructional methods

Expanding the role of supervision in child psychiatric education

Despite the burgeoning of available therapeutic interventions, the sparse literature devoted to child psychiatric supervision concentrates on individual psychotherapy. The non-cognitive aspects of the expanding supervisory challenge continues to converge on the clinician's personality, which is a focus of educational attention only in sequestered or haphazard parts of programs. The unidimensional supervisory literature addresses this issue by questioning the extent to which supervision should resemble traditional pedagogy or personal psychotherapy. In contrast to this emphasis on elusive unconscious influences on clinical work, scant attention has been devoted to other influences stemming from the clinician's current experiences, affiliations, identifications, aspirations and similar more easily modifiable factors that exert considerable leverage and tend to be more accessible to rational scrutiny in supervision. The latter half of this paper discusses these factors.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43974/1/10578_2005_Article_BF01463219.pd

Identification of Common Differentially Expressed Genes in Urinary Bladder Cancer

BACKGROUND: Current diagnosis and treatment of urinary bladder cancer (BC) has shown great progress with the utilization of microarrays. PURPOSE: Our goal was to identify common differentially expressed (DE) genes among clinically relevant subclasses of BC using microarrays. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: BC samples and controls, both experimental and publicly available datasets, were analyzed by whole genome microarrays. We grouped the samples according to their histology and defined the DE genes in each sample individually, as well as in each tumor group. A dual analysis strategy was followed. First, experimental samples were analyzed and conclusions were formulated; and second, experimental sets were combined with publicly available microarray datasets and were further analyzed in search of common DE genes. The experimental dataset identified 831 genes that were DE in all tumor samples, simultaneously. Moreover, 33 genes were up-regulated and 85 genes were down-regulated in all 10 BC samples compared to the 5 normal tissues, simultaneously. Hierarchical clustering partitioned tumor groups in accordance to their histology. K-means clustering of all genes and all samples, as well as clustering of tumor groups, presented 49 clusters. K-means clustering of common DE genes in all samples revealed 24 clusters. Genes manifested various differential patterns of expression, based on PCA. YY1 and NFκB were among the most common transcription factors that regulated the expression of the identified DE genes. Chromosome 1 contained 32 DE genes, followed by chromosomes 2 and 11, which contained 25 and 23 DE genes, respectively. Chromosome 21 had the least number of DE genes. GO analysis revealed the prevalence of transport and binding genes in the common down-regulated DE genes; the prevalence of RNA metabolism and processing genes in the up-regulated DE genes; as well as the prevalence of genes responsible for cell communication and signal transduction in the DE genes that were down-regulated in T1-Grade III tumors and up-regulated in T2/T3-Grade III tumors. Combination of samples from all microarray platforms revealed 17 common DE genes, (BMP4, CRYGD, DBH, GJB1, KRT83, MPZ, NHLH1, TACR3, ACTC1, MFAP4, SPARCL1, TAGLN, TPM2, CDC20, LHCGR, TM9SF1 and HCCS) 4 of which participate in numerous pathways. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The identification of the common DE genes among BC samples of different histology can provide further insight into the discovery of new putative markers