Mechanisms of eye development and evolution of the arthropod visual system: The lateral eyes of myriapoda are not modified insect ommatidia

AbstractThe lateral eyes of Crustacea and Insecta consist of many single optical units, the ommatidia, that are composed of a small, strictly determined and evolutionarily conserved set of cells. In contrast, the eyes of Myriapoda (millipedes and centipedes) are fields of optical units, the lateral ocelli, each of which is composed of up to several hundreds of cells. For many years these striking differences between the lateral eyes of Crustacea/Insecta versus Myriapoda have puzzled evolutionary biologists, as the Myriapoda are traditionally considered to be closely related to the Insecta. The prevailing hypothesis to explain this paradox has been that the myriapod fields of lateral ocelli derive from insect compound eyes by disintegration of the latter into single ommatidia and subsequent fusion of several ommatidia to form multicellular ocelli. To provide a fresh view on this problem, we counted and mapped the arrangement of ocelli during postembryonic development of a diplopod. Furthermore, the arrangement of proliferating cells in the eyes of another diplopod and two chilopods was monitored by labelling with the mitosis marker bromodeoxyuridine. Our results confirm that during eye growth in Myriapoda new elements are added to the side of the eye field, which extend the rows of earlier-generated optical units. This pattern closely resembles that in horseshoe crabs (Chelicerata) and Trilobita. We conclude that the trilobite, xiphosuran, diplopod and chilopod mechanism of eye growth represents the ancestral euarthropod mode of visual-system formation, which raises the possibility that the eyes of Diplopoda and Chilopoda may not be secondarily reconstructed insect eyes

Focused Ultrasound Treatment of a Spheroid In Vitro Tumour Model

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Ultrasound waves can be applied for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Focused ultrasound is approved for tissue ablation, e.g., in the treatment of uterine fibroids or essential tremors. Besides the non-invasive image-guided surgical intervention at temperatures above 55 °C, FUS is investigated in other fields like blood-brain barrier opening, hyperthermia, and neuromodulation. FUS offers potential as an adjuvant therapy in cancer treatment. Therefore, analysis of FUS effects on cancer cells is necessary. We performed studies on two human cancer cell line spheroids using a newly developed high-throughput in vitro FUS applicator with 32 individual transducers. This study aimed to perform basic experiments with a new in vitro FUS device on a 3D tumour model to acquire insight into the effects of FUS at the cellular level. These experiments may contribute to a better understanding and predictions of cancer treatment efficacy. ABSTRACT: Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a non-invasive technique producing a variety of biological effects by either thermal or mechanical mechanisms of ultrasound interaction with the targeted tissue. FUS could bring benefits, e.g., tumour sensitisation, immune stimulation, and targeted drug delivery, but investigation of FUS effects at the cellular level is still missing. New techniques are commonly tested in vitro on two-dimensional (2D) monolayer cancer cell culture models. The 3D tumour model—spheroid—is mainly utilised to mimic solid tumours from an architectural standpoint. It is a promising method to simulate the characteristics of tumours in vitro and their various responses to therapeutic alternatives. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of FUS on human prostate and glioblastoma cancer tumour spheroids in vitro. The experimental follow-up enclosed the measurements of spheroid integrity and growth kinetics, DNA damage, and cellular metabolic activity by measuring intracellular ATP content in the spheroids. Our results showed that pulsed FUS treatment induced molecular effects in 3D tumour models. With the disruption of the spheroid integrity, we observed an increase in DNA double-strand breaks, leading to damage in the cancer cells depending on the cancer cell type

Evaluation of a developed MRI-guided focused ultrasound system in 7 T small animal MRI and proof-of-concept in a prostate cancer xenograft model to improve radiation therapy

Focused ultrasound (FUS) can be used to physiologically change or destroy tissue in a non-invasive way. A few commercial systems have clinical approval for the thermal ablation of solid tumors for the treatment of neurological diseases and palliative pain management of bone metastases. However, the thermal effects of FUS are known to lead to various biological effects, such as inhibition of repair of DNA damage, reduction in tumor hypoxia, and induction of apoptosis. Here, we studied radiosensitization as a combination therapy of FUS and RT in a xenograft mouse model using newly developed MRI-compatible FUS equipment. Xenograft tumor-bearing mice were produced by subcutaneous injection of the human prostate cancer cell line PC-3. Animals were treated with FUS in 7 T MRI at 4.8 W/cm2 to reach ~45 °C and held for 30 min. The temperature was controlled via fiber optics and proton resonance frequency shift (PRF) MR thermometry in parallel. In the combination group, animals were treated with FUS followed by X-ray at a single dose of 10 Gy. The effects of FUS and RT were assessed via hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. Tumor proliferation was detected by the immunohistochemistry of Ki67 and apoptosis was measured by a TUNEL assay. At 40 days follow-up, the impact of RT on cancer cells was significantly improved by FUS as demonstrated by a reduction in cell nucleoli from 189 to 237 compared to RT alone. Inhibition of tumor growth by 4.6 times was observed in vivo in the FUS + RT group (85.3%) in contrast to the tumor volume of 393% in the untreated control. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of combined MRI-guided FUS and RT for the treatment of prostate cancer in a xenograft mouse model and may provide a chance for less invasive cancer therapy through radiosensitization

Das Forschungsdatenzentrum der Universität Hamburg

The more recent discussion of research data practices at relevant conferences, workshops and respective publications suggest substantially different foci of problems and solutions in managing data between scientific disciplines. There seems to be a particularly profound gap in natural science and humanities whereas social and life sciences are placed somewhere in between. Indeed data centers tailored to the specific needs of a single discipline (physics, chemistry, climate studies) are numerous in science and tend to be nearly absent for a specific humanities subject. While the former ask for and report solutions on scaling up (larger quantities of data can be run by the same application) and scaling out (larger quantities of data can use the same infrastructure), the latter are concerned with the heterogeneity of relatively small amounts of data (long-tail problem) and a divergence of agreed standards; something we may term as cross scaling. In either case, an efficiency problem has to be solved. On the one hand, huge amounts of data have to be handled within an acceptable time frame, on the other hand, many different applications with diverse functionalities have to be handled with an acceptable number of resources.  We would like to argue here that independent from the discipline either optimization problem should be addressed. Throughout the last decade, we have also observed that projects in science diversify and prefer individualized solutions which additionally hints at increasing data heterogeneity in natural science as well while, at the same time, some humanities projects produce petabytes of data. To show the necessity of a differentiated approach, the research data center of Universität Hamburg is offered as a case in point. The evolution of the center specialized in humanities projects to a research data center offering services for the whole university whereas other disciplinary data centers continue to exist side by side illustrates the entire range of tasks of data stewardship. It includes the continuous development of services while getting more and more involved in natural science projects as well as task sharing and communication with other data institutions. A core asset to understand the requirements of each discipline is a multidisciplinary team. Yet, the main organizing principle of the offered services centers around the stages of the data life cycle (1. data creation and deposit, 2. managing active data, 3. data repositories and archives, 4. data catalog and registries). The interdigitation of these stages is paramount in the long term strategy

Education, sense of mastery and mental health: results from a nation wide health monitoring study in Norway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Earlier studies have shown that people with low level of education have increased rates of mental health problems. The aim of the present study is to investigate the association between level of education and psychological distress, and to explore to which extent the association is mediated by sense of mastery, and social variables like social support, negative life events, household income, employment and marital status.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The data for the study were obtained from the Level of Living Survey conducted by Statistics Norway in 2002. Data on psychological distress and psychosocial variables were gathered by a self-administered questionnaire, whereas socio-demographic data were based on register statistics. Psychological distress was measured by Hopkins Symptom Checklist 25 items.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was a significant association between low level of education and psychological distress in both genders, the association being strongest in women aged 55–67 years. Low level of education was also significantly associated with low sense of mastery, low social support, many negative life events (only in men), low household income and unemployment,. Sense of mastery emerged as a strong mediating variable between level of education and psychological distress, whereas the other variables played a minor role when adjusting for sense of mastery.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Low sense of mastery seems to account for much of the association between low educational level and psychological distress, and should be an important target in mental health promotion for groups with low level of education.</p

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI