Business Communication Students Learn To Hear A Bad Speech Habit

Students were trained to perceive filled pauses (FP) as a bad speech habit.  In a series of classroom sensitivity training activities, followed by students being rewarded to observe twenty minutes of live television from the public media, no differences between male and female Business Communication students was revealed.  The practice of teaching students to regard FP as a “bad” speech habit was supported by the literature.  Male and female students learned to recognize FP they heard professional and non-professional speakers make

A coupled analysis of sloshing in floating structures by integrating moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method with a time domain multibody dynamic analysis software

Sloshing effects inside partially filled tanks on LNG carriers and FPSOs motions cannot be ignored. It is necessary to analyze the floating structures motion with the sloshing behavior simultaneously to obtain more accurate stability predictions because the phenomenon may affect the safety and the operability of the vessels in seaways and during loading and offloading process. In the present study, in order to model the coupled effects of platforms motion in waves and the liquid sloshing inside its tank, a hybrid timedomain simulation approach based on the integration of two simulators is proposed. The Numerical Offshore Tank (TPN) simulator, which is a time domain multibody dynamic analysis software, is used for the simulation of open domain hydrodynamic forces. It is able to perform calculations of coupled floating structures motion with the dynamic of mooring and connection lines and risers considering environmental condition such as wave, current and wind. In the other hand, due to the highly nonlinear aspect of the sloshing phenomenon, the Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) method, which demands huge computing resources and it is more suitable to confined domain problems, is used to simulate the sloshing motion and to calculate the loads on the tank walls. The effects due to sloshing is then feed-backed to the TPN simulator as additional force and moment to solve the motion equation of the floating structure. The calculation can be distributed in a PCs cluster and each sloshing tank is solved in a different node. In this way, it allows the calculation of many tanks without increasing the computational time. Simulations were carried out with and without considering the coupled sloshing motions, and the results were compared to assess the effects of the liquid cargo sloshing on the motion of the floating structure

Intracellular dynamics of HIV infection

Early studies of HIV infection dynamics suggested that virus-producing HIV-infected cells had an average half-life of approximately 1 day. However, whether this average behavior is reflective of the dynamics of individual infected cells is unclear. Here, we use HIV-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) constructs and flow cytometry sorting to explore the dynamics of cell infection, viral protein production, and cell death in vitro. By following the numbers of productively infected cells expressing EGFP over time, we show that infected cell death slows down over time. Although infected cell death in vivo could be very different, our results suggest that the constant decay of cell numbers observed in vivo during antiretroviral treatment could reflect a balance of cell death and delayed viral protein production. We observe no correlation between viral protein production and death rate of productively infected cells, showing that viral protein production is not likely to be the sole determinant of the death of HIV-infected cells. Finally, we show that all observed features can be reproduced by a simple model in which infected cells have broad distributions of productive life spans, times to start viral protein production, and viral protein production rates. This broad spectrum of the level and timing of viral protein production provides new insights into the behavior and characteristics of HIV-infected cells

Fine mapping and expression of candidate genes within the chromosome 10 QTL region of the high and low alcohol-drinking rats

The high and low alcohol-drinking (HAD and LAD) rats were selectively bred for differences in alcohol intake. The HAD/LAD rats originated from the N/Nih heterogeneous stock developed from intercrossing eight inbred rat strains. The HAD×LAD F2 were genotyped, and a powerful analytical approach, using ancestral recombination and F2 recombination, was used to narrow a quantitative trait loci (QTL) for alcohol drinking to a 2-cM region on distal chromosome 10 that was in common in the HAD1/LAD1 and HAD2/LAD2 analyses. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to examine mRNA expression of six candidate genes (Crebbp, Trap1, Gnptg, Clcn7, Fahd1, and Mapk8ip3) located within the narrowed QTL region in the HAD1/LAD1 rats. Expression was examined in five brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate putamen, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. All six genes showed differential expression in at least one brain region. Of the genes tested in this study, Crebbp and Mapk8ip3 may be the most promising candidates with regard to alcohol drinking

Myeloid Arginase 1 Insufficiency Exacerbates Amyloid-β Associated Neurodegenerative Pathways and Glial Signatures in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Targeted Transcriptome Analysis

Brain myeloid cells, include infiltrating macrophages and resident microglia, play an essential role in responding to and inducing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) implicate many AD casual and risk genes enriched in brain myeloid cells. Coordinated arginine metabolism through arginase 1 (Arg1) is critical for brain myeloid cells to perform biological functions, whereas dysregulated arginine metabolism disrupts them. Altered arginine metabolism is proposed as a new biomarker pathway for AD. We previously reported Arg1 deficiency in myeloid biased cells using lysozyme M (LysM) promoter-driven deletion worsened amyloidosis-related neuropathology and behavioral impairment. However, it remains unclear how Arg1 deficiency in these cells impacts the whole brain to promote amyloidosis. Herein, we aim to determine how Arg1 deficiency driven by LysM restriction during amyloidosis affects fundamental neurodegenerative pathways at the transcriptome level. By applying several bioinformatic tools and analyses, we found that amyloid-β (Aβ) stimulated transcriptomic signatures in autophagy-related pathways and myeloid cells’ inflammatory response. At the same time, myeloid Arg1 deficiency during amyloidosis promoted gene signatures of lipid metabolism, myelination, and migration of myeloid cells. Focusing on Aβ associated glial transcriptomic signatures, we found myeloid Arg1 deficiency up-regulated glial gene transcripts that positively correlated with Aβ plaque burden. We also observed that Aβ preferentially activated disease-associated microglial signatures to increase phagocytic response, whereas myeloid Arg1 deficiency selectively promoted homeostatic microglial signature that is non-phagocytic. These transcriptomic findings suggest a critical role for proper Arg1 function during normal and pathological challenges associated with amyloidosis. Furthermore, understanding pathways that govern Arg1 metabolism may provide new therapeutic opportunities to rebalance immune function and improve microglia/macrophage fitness

Core-shell Grain Structures and Dielectric Properties of Na0.5K0.5NbO3-LiTaO3-BiScO3 Piezoelectric Ceramics.

The origins of distinctive compositional dependence of relative permittivity, ɛr, in the Pb-free piezoelectric system (1-x)Na0.5K0.5NbO3-xLiTaO3, x≤ 10 mol.% modified with BiScO3 have been revealed using transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (TEM-EDX). As the LiTaO3 content increased the Curie peak at ~370°C in ɛr –T plots became more diffuse, and at x= 5 mol.% an additional higher temperature peak occurred. TEM-EDX analysis showed the change in dielectric properties at x= 5 mol.% was due to a change in microstructure: micron-scale grains were replaced by submicron grains exhibiting core-shell chemical segregation. The outer shell was similar to the target solid solution composition, slightly enriched in Bi, Sc and Ta, whilst the core approximated to (Na, K, Li)NbO3 and was responsible for the additional dielectric peak. Examples of a novel three-tier metastable grain structure were observed for certain compositions

Diphyllobothriasis, Brazil

Cases of human diphyllobothriasis have been reported worldwide. Only 1 case in Brazil was diagnosed by our institution from January 1998 to December 2003. By comparison, 18 cases were diagnosed from March 2004 to January 2005. All patients who became infected ate raw fish in sushi or sashimi