Living Walls in The City: Community Values and Expectations

There is an increasing interest in living walls in the urban environment, particularly when linked into green infrastructure for urban heat island mitigation. However, the social acceptance of such systems in Australia is largely untested. To address this knowledge gap, a survey of nineteen local government authorities and twenty living wall owners and managers was conducted. The survey participants included commercial and residential buildings. The survey was used to study living wall owners’ motivations and expectations of living walls as well as the social values attached to the installed infrastructure. This study related the experiences of living wall owners to the current technical knowledge of living walls and contextualised the benefits and costs of living walls for Australian homes and buildings within the public attitudes and motivations for installing such infrastructure. The survey found that social acceptance and the aesthetic values placed on living walls and greenery more broadly represented a substantial advantage for living walls

Living Walls in The City: Community Values and Expectations

There is an increasing interest in living walls in the urban environment, particularly when linked into green infrastructure for urban heat island mitigation. However, the social acceptance of such systems in Australia is largely untested. To address this knowledge gap, a survey of nineteen local government authorities and twenty living wall owners and managers was conducted. The survey participants included commercial and residential buildings. The survey was used to study living wall owners’ motivations and expectations of living walls as well as the social values attached to the installed infrastructure. This study related the experiences of living wall owners to the current technical knowledge of living walls and contextualised the benefits and costs of living walls for Australian homes and buildings within the public attitudes and motivations for installing such infrastructure. The survey found that social acceptance and the aesthetic values placed on living walls and greenery more broadly represented a substantial advantage for living walls

Impacts of mixing on foaming, methane production, stratification and microbial community in full-scale anaerobic co-digestion process

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd This study investigated the impact of mixing on key factors including foaming, substrate stratification, methane production and microbial community in three full scale anaerobic digesters. Digester foaming was observed at one plant that co-digested sewage sludge and food waste, and was operated without mixing. The lack of mixing led to uneven distribution of total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD) and volatile solid (VS) as well as methane production within the digester. 16S rRNA gene-based community analysis clearly differentiated the microbial community from the top and bottom. By contrast, foaming and substrate stratification were not observed at the other two plants with internal circulation mixing. The abundance of methanogens (Methanomicrobia) at the top was about four times higher than at the bottom, correlating to much higher methane production from the top verified by ex-situ biomethane assay, causing foaming. This result is consistent with foaming potential assessment of digestate samples from the digester

Design of a pulse power supply unit for micro-ECM

Electrochemical micro-machining (μECM) requires a particular pulse power supply unit (PSU) to be developed in order to achieve desired machining performance. This paper summarises the development of a pulse PSU meeting the requirements of μECM. The pulse power supply provides tens of nanosecond pulse duration, positive and negative bias voltages and a polarity switching functionality. It fulfils the needs for tool preparation with reversed pulsed ECM on the machine. Moreover, the PSU is equipped with an ultrafast overcurrent protection which prevents the tool electrode from being damaged in case of short circuits. The developed pulse PSU was used to fabricate micro-tools out of 170 μm WC-Co alloy shafts via micro-electrochemical turning and drill deep holes via μECM in a disk made of 18NiCr6. The electrolyte used for both processes was a mixture of sulphuric acid and NaNO3 aqueous solutions.The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission within the project “Minimizing Defects in Micro-Manufacturing Applications (MIDEMMA)” (FP7-2011-NMP-ICT-FoF-285614

Functional screening of amplification outlier oncogenes in organoid models of early tumorigenesis

Genomics; Organoid; Squamous cancerGenómica funcional; Organoide; Cáncer escamosoGenòmica funcional; Organoide; Càncer escamósSomatic copy number gains are pervasive across cancer types, yet their roles in oncogenesis are insufficiently evaluated. This inadequacy is partly due to copy gains spanning large chromosomal regions, obscuring causal loci. Here, we employed organoid modeling to evaluate candidate oncogenic loci identified via integrative computational analysis of extreme copy gains overlapping with extreme expression dysregulation in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Subsets of “outlier” candidates were contextually screened as tissue-specific cDNA lentiviral libraries within cognate esophagus, oral cavity, colon, stomach, pancreas, and lung organoids bearing initial oncogenic mutations. Iterative analysis nominated the kinase DYRK2 at 12q15 as an amplified head and neck squamous carcinoma oncogene in p53−/− oral mucosal organoids. Similarly, FGF3, amplified at 11q13 in 41% of esophageal squamous carcinomas, promoted p53−/− esophageal organoid growth reversible by small molecule and soluble receptor antagonism of FGFRs. Our studies establish organoid-based contextual screening of candidate genomic drivers, enabling functional evaluation during early tumorigenesis.This work was supported by the NCI Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD∧2) Network (U01CA217851, C.J.K and C.C.; U01CA176058, W.C.H.). Support was also provided by NIH K08DE027730 and D.R. discretionary funds to A.A.S., AEI RYC2019- 026576-I, “LaCaixa” Foundation LCF/PR/PR17/51120011 to J.A.S., and NIH U54CA224081, NIH U01CA199241, Emerson Collective, Ludwig Cancer Research, and Stand Up To Cancer to C.J.K. This manuscript is dedicated to the memories of Dr. Daniela Gerhard and Dr. Kenneth Scott

Thy-1 interaction with Fas in lipid rafts regulates fibroblast apoptosis and lung injury resolution.

Thy-1-negative lung fibroblasts are resistant to apoptosis. The mechanisms governing this process and its relevance to fibrotic remodeling remain poorly understood. By using either sorted or transfected lung fibroblasts, we found that Thy-1 expression is associated with downregulation of anti-apoptotic molecules Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, as well as increased levels of cleaved caspase-9. Addition of rhFasL and staurosporine, well-known apoptosis inducers, caused significantly increased cleaved caspase-3, -8, and PARP in Thy-1-transfected cells. Furthermore, rhFasL induced Fas translocation into lipid rafts and its colocalization with Thy-1. These in vitro results indicate that Thy-1, in a manner dependent upon its glycophosphatidylinositol anchor and lipid raft localization, regulates apoptosis in lung fibroblasts via Fas-, Bcl-, and caspase-dependent pathways. In vivo, Thy-1 deficient (Thy1-/-) mice displayed persistence of myofibroblasts in the resolution phase of bleomycin-induced fibrosis, associated with accumulation of collagen and failure of lung fibrosis resolution. Apoptosis of myofibroblasts is decreased in Thy1-/- mice in the resolution phase. Collectively, these findings provide new evidence regarding the role and mechanisms of Thy-1 in initiating myofibroblast apoptosis that heralds the termination of the reparative response to bleomycin-induced lung injury. Understanding the mechanisms regulating fibroblast survival/apoptosis should lead to novel therapeutic interventions for lung fibrosis

Polycrystalline Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Fibers from Colloidal Sols

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66320/1/j.1151-2916.1995.tb08626.x.pd

Influence Of DNA On The Rate Of Porphyrin Metallation

Poly(dG–dC)₂ and poly(dA–dT)₂ have marked influences on the rate of insertion of copper(II) into cationic porphyrins reflecting the interaction mode of the porphyrin with the nucleic acid

Biomarkers differentiate drug-induced liver injury from other liver injury: PONDER study

Background and Aim: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a known complication of volatile anesthetic (VA) agents, and, despite being rare, DILI can be serious. One mechanism of VA-DILI occurs via interleukin 4 (IL-4)driven upregulation of cytochrome P450-2E1, leading to the formation of drug metabolites (haptens) that trigger IL-4-driven antigen-specific T cells and autoantibodies. Our group has developed biomarkers for liver injury and have examined this in patients before and after VA exposure. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the early markers of VA-DILI. Methods: We prospectively followed patients having a VA general anesthetic (sevoflurane and/or desflurane) and compared them with those who received regional or total intravenous anesthesia. Exclusion criteria were known liver disease or any episode of significant hypotension. Baseline data on patient demographics and comorbidities were collected, and blood was analyzed for liver biochemistry, macrophage activation markers (CD206, CD163), and IgG1 and IgG4 antibodies to JHDN5 (the CYP2E1 epitope) and trifluoroacetyl (TFA), the VA drug hapten. Follow-up blood samples were taken 48 h postoperatively and compared with baseline results. DILI was defined as an alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level greater than two times the upper limit of normal (ULN) and post-review agreement by an expert panel, taking into account the pattern of liver function test result derangement and intraoperative events. Results: Of 229 patients recruited, 16 developed an ALT level > 2 × ULN. Twelve were considered likely to have VA-DILI, including four with an ALT rise >3 × ULN. There was a trend to associate VA-DILI with obesity (RR, 2.98; P = 0.063); however, the association with dyslipidemia (RR, 1.47; P = 0.72), male sex (RR, 1.18; P = 0.76), history of atopy (RR, 1.16; P = 0.79), and heavy ethanol consumption (RR, 1.09; P = 0.89) was not statistically significant. Prior VA exposure was not a risk factor (RR, 0.89; P = 0.83). There was a rise in CD206 and decline in CD163 from baseline in all patients. However, in the patients with VA-DILI, the levels were significantly different from all other groups. TFA IgG1 and IgG4 antibodies were elevated in the VA-DILI group when compared with controls. Conclusion: Recognizing that our results may be skewed by our cohort, this work suggests the known immunological pathway mediated by IL-4 in response to an injury: rise in CD206 to stimulate an inflammatory response, and decrease in CD163 to modulate the response. The increase in TFA IgG1 and IgG4 antibodies in the VA-DILI group is consistent with metabolism and the heightened immune response in those who develop DILI. At this early juncture, JHDN5 IgG4 autoantibodies were not detected. Ongoing work is looking at other DILI, and how these markers can be used in DILI

Design of an electrochemical micromachining machine

Electrochemical micromachining (μECM) is a non-conventional machining process based on the phenomenon of electrolysis. μECM became an attractive area of research due to the fact that this process does not create any defective layer after machining and that there is a growing demand for better surface integrity on different micro applications including microfluidics systems, stress-free drilled holes in automotive and aerospace manufacturing with complex shapes, etc. This work presents the design of a next generation μECM machine for the automotive, aerospace, medical and metrology sectors. It has three axes of motion (X, Y, Z) and a spindle allowing the tool-electrode to rotate during machining. The linear slides for each axis use air bearings with linear DC brushless motors and 2-nm resolution encoders for ultra precise motion. The control system is based on the Power PMAC motion controller from Delta Tau. The electrolyte tank is located at the rear of the machine and allows the electrolyte to be changed quickly. This machine features two process control algorithms: fuzzy logic control and adaptive feed rate. A self-developed pulse generator has been mounted and interfaced with the machine and a wire ECM grinding device has been added. The pulse generator has the possibility to reverse the pulse polarity for on-line tool fabrication.The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission within the project “Minimizing Defects in Micro-Manufacturing Applications (MIDEMMA)” (FP7-2011-NMPICT- FoF-285614)