921 research outputs found
Use of Patterns for Knowledge Management in the Ceramic Tile Design Chain
Knowledge Management (KM) is a complex objective, especially in the instance of extended enterprises consisting of SMEs, and critical in new product design and development (NPD). The use of patterns is essential to get KM in collaborative NPD processes. This paper presents the use of patterns adopted in the CE-TILE project to standardize information and knowledge in collaborative work. The different types of patterns and models established for the knowledge capture, formalization and configuration are also described
Dexamethasone inhibits ozone-induced gene expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-2 in rat lung
AbstractTo address the potential role of the chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) in airway inflammation, we examined whether MIP-2 may play a role in ozone-induced neutrophilic inflammation of airways and its modulation by dexamethasone in rat lung. Following ozone exposure, MIP-2 mRNA expression in the lung peaked at 2 h after exposure and slowly declined thereafter. Dexamethasone suppressed ozone-induced MIP-2 mRNA expression and neutrophil accumulation in the lung. We suggest that the MIP-2 mRNA induction may switch on the neutrophilic influx observed in this model of lung inflammation. Furthermore, the MIP-2 expression is regulated by dexamethasone which may represent one of the mechanisms by which glucocorticoids exert their potent anti-inflammatory properties
Educating a global workforce?
In the public rhetoric, at least, education is the answer to most, if not all, the questions raised by the global knowledge-based economy. In this chapter we begin an examination of what education promises the global workforce, and what the global workforce, and the knowledgebased economy, might reasonably ask of education. Different perspectives on the knowledgebased economy imply different constructions of ‘knowledge’. Workers are characterised within these frameworks as ‘knowledge workers’ (an elite), or, perhaps, ‘knowledgeable workers’ (the non-elite majority) and questions arise around what they are required to learn, to know, and to be able to do. The global knowledge-based economy produces profound challenges to workrelated education at every level. While these challenges manifest themselves in uniquely local ways at specific local sites, they are produced, and must be addressed, in contexts that are uncompromisingly global. If work-related education is to contribute to positive outcomes for people and for local communities we (workers, corporations, educators, researchers, policy makers, politicians and international organisations) must find new ways to pay attention to the ways in which a workforce in the knowledge-based economy can be understood to be ‘global’ as well as ‘local’, and what workers need to be able to know and be able to do to move across and within these spatial and temporal domains
Dirac gaugino as leptophilic dark matter
We investigate the leptophilic properties of Dirac gauginos in an
R--symmetric N=2 supersymmetric model with extended gauge and Higgs sectors.
The annihilation of Dirac gauginos to leptons requires no chirality flip in the
final states so that it is not suppressed as in the Majorana case. This implies
that it can be sizable enough to explain the positron excess observed by the
PAMELA experiment with moderate or no boost factors. When squark masses are
heavy, the annihilation of Dirac gauginos to hadrons is controlled by their
Higgsino fraction and is driven by the and final states.
Moreover, at variance with the Majorana case, Dirac gauginos with a
non-vanishing higgsino fraction can also have a vector coupling with the
gauge boson leading to a sizable spin--independent scattering cross section off
nuclei. Saturating the current antiproton limit, we show that Dirac gauginos
can leave a signal in direct detection experiments at the level of the
sensitivity of dark matter searches at present and in the near future.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, typos corrected, final version published on
JCA
Relativistic D-brane Scattering is Extremely Inelastic
We study the effects of quantum production of open strings on the
relativistic scattering of D-branes. We find strong corrections to the brane
trajectory from copious production of highly-excited open strings, whose
typical oscillator level is proportional to the square of the rapidity. In the
corrected trajectory, the branes rapidly coincide and remain trapped in a
configuration with enhanced symmetry. This is a purely stringy effect which
makes relativistic brane collisions exceptionally inelastic. We trace this
effect to velocity-dependent corrections to the open-string mass, which render
open strings between relativistic D-branes surprisingly light. We observe that
pair-creation of open strings could play an important role in cosmological
scenarios in which branes approach each other at very high speeds.Comment: 30 pages; added references and a comment about velocity-dependent
masse
The effects of the bacterial interaction with visible-light responsive titania photocatalyst on the bactericidal performance
Bactericidal activity of traditional titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalyst is effective only upon irradiation by ultraviolet light, which restricts the potential applications of TiO2 for use in our living environments. Recently carbon-containing TiO2 was found to be photoactive at visible-light illumination that affords the potential to overcome this problem; although, the bactericidal activity of these photocatalysts is relatively lower than conventional disinfectants. Evidenced from scanning electron microscopy and confocal Raman spectral mapping analysis, we found the interaction with bacteria was significantly enhanced in these anatase/rutile mixed-phase carbon-containing TiO2. Bacteria-killing experiments indicate that a significantly higher proportion of all tested pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella flexneri and Acinetobacter baumannii, were eliminated by the new nanoparticle with higher bacterial interaction property. These findings suggest the created materials with high bacterial interaction ability might be a useful strategy to improve the antimicrobial activity of visible-light-activated TiO2
Oxygen Moment Formation and Canting in Li2CuO2
The possibilities of oxygen moment formation and canting in the quasi-1D
cuprate Li2CuO2 are investigated using single crystal neutron diffraction at 2
K. The observed magnetic intensities could not be explained without the
inclusion of a large ordered oxygen moment of 0.11(1) Bohr magnetons.
Least-squares refinement of the magnetic structure of Li2CuO2 in combination
with a spin-density Patterson analysis shows that the magnetization densities
of the Cu and O atoms are highly aspherical, forming quasi-1D ribbons of
localised Cu and O moments. Magnetic structure refinements and low-field
magnetization measurements both suggest that the magnetic structure of Li2CuO2
at 2 K may be canted. A possible model for the canted configuration is
proposed.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures (screen resolution
Role of non-coding RNAs in maintaining primary airway smooth muscle cells
BACKGROUND: The airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell maintains its own proliferative rate and contributes to the inflammatory response in the airways, effects that are inhibited by corticosteroids, used in the treatment of airways diseases. OBJECTIVE: We determined the differential expression of mRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNA species (lncRNAs) in primary ASM cells following treatment with a corticosteroid, dexamethasone, and fetal calf serum (FCS). METHODS: mRNA, miRNA and lncRNA expression was measured by microarray and quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: A small number of miRNAs (including miR-150, −371-5p, −718, −940, −1181, −1207-5p, −1915, and −3663-3p) were decreased following exposure to dexamethasone and FCS. The mRNA targets of these miRNAs were increased in expression. The changes in mRNA expression were associated with regulation of ASM actin cytoskeleton. We also observed changes in expression of lncRNAs, including natural antisense, pseudogenes, intronic lncRNAs, and intergenic lncRNAs following dexamethasone and FCS. We confirmed the change in expression of three of these, LINC00882, LINC00883, PVT1, and its transcriptional activator, c-MYC. We propose that four of these lincRNAs (RP11-46A10.4, LINC00883, BCYRN1, and LINC00882) act as miRNA ‘sponges’ for 4 miRNAs (miR-150, −371-5p, −940, −1207-5p). CONCLUSION: This in-vitro model of primary ASM cell phenotype was associated with the regulation of several ncRNAs. Their identification allows for in-vitro functional experimentation to establish causality with the primary ASM phenotype, and in airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Angular Conditions,Relations between Breit and Light-Front Frames, and Subleading Power Corrections
We analyze the current matrix elements in the general collinear (Breit)
frames and find the relation between the ordinary (or canonical) helicity
amplitudes and the light-front helicity amplitudes. Using the conservation of
angular momentum, we derive a general angular condition which should be
satisfied by the light-front helicity amplitudes for any spin system. In
addition, we obtain the light-front parity and time-reversal relations for the
light-front helicity amplitudes. Applying these relations to the spin-1 form
factor analysis, we note that the general angular condition relating the five
helicity amplitudes is reduced to the usual angular condition relating the four
helicity amplitudes due to the light-front time-reversal condition. We make
some comments on the consequences of the angular condition for the analysis of
the high- deuteron electromagnetic form factors, and we further apply the
general angular condition to the electromagnetic transition between spin-1/2
and spin-3/2 systems and find a relation useful for the analysis of the
N- transition form factors. We also discuss the scaling law and the
subleading power corrections in the Breit and light-front frames.Comment: 24 pages,2 figure
Transition Form Factors between Pseudoscalar and Vector Mesons in Light-Front Dynamics
We study the transition form factors between pseudoscalar and vector mesons
using a covariant fermion field theory model in dimensions. Performing
the light-front calculation in the frame in parallel with the
manifestly covariant calculation, we note that the suspected nonvanishing
zero-mode contribution to the light-front current does not exist in our
analysis of transition form factors. We also perform the light-front
calculation in a purely longitudinal frame and confirm that the form
factors obtained directly from the timelike region are identical to the ones
obtained by the analytic continuation from the spacelike region. Our results
for the decay process satisfy the constraints on the
heavy-to-heavy semileptonic decays imposed by the flavor independence in the
heavy quark limit.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figure
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