The ethos of sporting games: fair play and elite women's cricket.

The recent intellectual movement away from universalism towards particularism can be witnessed in most divisions of social philosophical thought. Such a paradigmatic shift has radically transformed a number of theories including feminist ethics. In contrast, however, philosophical analyses of fairness in sport have retained allegiance to universalist accounts in that conceptions of fair play remain enshrined in formalist accounts of the nature of rules and laws that govern sporting games. In this thesis, it is argued that universalist accounts of fair play in sport are incomplete in so far as they fail to consider that what constitutes fairness in sport is more than just the interpretation of formal rule structures. The richer analysis of fair play in sport offered here highlights the importance of individual experiences and the structures that shape those experiences. The ethical investigation is compatible with certain feminist ethical commitments. In order to evaluate whether a given sporting ethos is ethical, the thesis is committed methodologically to a mixed model approach. The aim is to find out the beliefs, values and ideologies of the people involved. Hence, a context-respectful methodology collecting and utilising thick descriptions is employed. It is argued that an ethical ethos has no room for intentional rule violation. For a given ethos to be ethical its game must be practised in a certain way with a certain attitude. The evaluation in this thesis concludes that the ethos of English elite women's cricket is unethical. It is hoped that a potential outcome of the thesis will be a different understanding of fair play that may shape new forms of ethical enquiry and challenge existing methodologies. Argument: (1) In sport philosophical literature fair play has been characteristically understood in one way: the formalist account of the nature of rules and laws. (2) While it is true that one can not talk about fair play without reference to the rules and laws of an activity, this account is incomplete since it fails to consider ethos. (3) Part of what an ethos means derives from the beliefs, values and ideologies of players themselves who have constructed agreements as to how the game ought to be enacted. (4) To understand fair play in elite women's cricket, therefore, one must understand the rules and laws but also, crucially, its ethos

Self-Efficacy and Leadership Commitment During Lean Strategy Deployment

Lean strategy deployment (LSD) provides a means to create lasting value at reduced cost; yet most LSD efforts fail to attain sustainable improvements. The current study sought to gain an understanding of how leaders in oral healthcare manufacturing setting in the northeastern region of the United States can apply self-efficacy and leadership commitment during an LSD. Using Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy this qualitative phenomenological study examined the lived experiences and perceptions of 15 mid-to-senior level managers, concerning the use of self-efficacy and leadership commitment during a lean strategy deployment (LSD). The key findings resulted in 10 emergent themes. The top 3 highly regarded themes that emerged from this study were: (1) committing to a lean strategy deployment, (2) communicating lessons learned/changes, and (3) bringing the best out of employees. LSDs are not easy to implement. Many companies attempt to carry out lean activities and many of these same companies fail to have successful results. To be effective, leaders should focus on creating sound practices and give more attention to the human behaviors and leadership characteristics needed to support eliminating barriers and creating a lean culture

Identification de protéines impliquées dans la polyadénylation alternative lors de l'infection par le virus herpès simplex 1.

Plus de 80% de la population est infectée par le virus de l’herpès simplex 1 (VHS-1). Ce virus qui cause des infections aux muqueuses mène aussi à des infections sévères chez les nouveaux-nés et les individus immuno-suprimmés. Le VHS-1 est un virus enveloppé à ADN double brin codant pour plus de 80 gènes, et donc nécessite une régulation génétique efficace. Parmi les modes de régulation employés par le virus est celle de la polyadénylation alternative : une régulation post-transcriptionnelle qui permet au même gène d’utiliser deux sites de polyadénylation différents. Ceci est observé, entre autres, pour les gènes UL24 et UL38 qui utilisent leur propre signal de polyadénylation (signal polyA) ainsi que celui des gènes UL26 et UL40 respectivement. Pour mieux comprendre la régulation de l’expression de ces gènes, nous voulons identifier les protéines intéragissant avec la région 3’ non-traduite (3’ UTR) de ces transcrits. Nous allons utiliser un épitope d’ARN qui est reconnu par la streptavidine, fusionné avec l’ARN correspondant aux 3’UTR des gènes. L’ARN généré sera immobilisé sur billes d’agarose, et cette matrice sera utilisée pour purifier des protéines qui se lient à l’ARN. Nous avons cloné l’épitope de la streptavidine dans pSK-Bluescript ainsi que les 3’ UTR d’UL24, UL26, UL38 et UL40. Les 3’ UTR codent pour la séquence hexamérique AAUAAA ainsi que les régions en amont et en aval de cette séquence qui seraient potentiellement impliquées dans l’efficacité de la polyadénylation. Les ARNs seront produits par transcription in vitro avec la polymérase d’ARN du phage T3. Des lysats cellulaires seront produits à différents temps post-infection, et les protéines qui intéragissent avec les ARNs seront purifiées à l’aide de la colonne streptavidine. Les protéines seront ensuite migrées sur un gel polyacrylamide dénaturant. L’identification des protéines interagissantes sera faite par spectrométrie de masse et par Western blot. Ces expériences nous permettront d’identifier les composantes nécessaires pour moduler l’expression de ces gènes viraux dépendamment du signal polyA favorisé et pourraient expliquer pourquoi ce phénomène est observé durant une infection par le VHS-1

Genetic Taster Status as a Mediator of Neural Activity and Swallowing Mechanics in Healthy Adults

As part of a larger study examining relationships between taste properties and swallowing, we assessed the influence of genetic taster status (GTS) on measures of brain activity and swallowing physiology during taste stimulation in healthy men and women. Twenty-one participants underwent videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during trials of high-intensity taste stimuli. The precisely formulated mixtures included sour, sweet-sour, lemon, and orange taste profiles and unflavored controls. Swallowing physiology was characterized via computational analysis of swallowing mechanics plus other kinematic and temporal measures, all extracted from VFSS recordings. Whole-brain analysis of fMRI data assessed blood oxygen responses to neural activity associated with taste stimulation. Swallowing morphometry, kinematics, temporal measures, and neuroimaging analysis revealed differential responses by GTS. Supertasters exhibited increased amplitude of most pharyngeal movements, and decreased activity in the primary somatosensory cortex compared to nontasters and midtasters. These preliminary findings suggest baseline differences in swallowing physiology and the associated neural underpinnings associated with GTS. Given the potential implications for dysphagia risk and recovery patterns, GTS should be included as a relevant variable in future research regarding swallowing function and dysfunction

Taste Manipulation and Swallowing Mechanics in Trauma-Related Sensory-Based Dysphagia

Purpose: This study explored the effects of highconcentration taste manipulation trials on swallow function in persons with sensory-based dysphagia. Method: Dysphagia researchers partnered with clinical providers to prospectively identify traumatically injured U.S. military service members (N = 18) with sensorybased dysphagia as evidenced by delayed initiation and/or decreased awareness of residue/penetration/ aspiration. Under videofluoroscopy, participants swallowed trials of 3 custom-mixed taste stimuli: unflavored (40% weight/volume [wt/vol] barium sulfate in distilled water), sour (2.7%wt/vol citric acid in 40% wt/vol barium suspension), and sweet–sour (1.11% wt/vol citric acid plus 8% wt/vol sucrose in 40% wt/vol barium suspension). Trials were analyzed and compared via clinical rating tools (the Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile [Martin-Harris et al., 2008] and the Penetration-Aspiration Scale [Rosenbek, Robbins, Roecker, Coyle, & Wood, 1996]). Additionally, a computational analysis of swallowing mechanics (CASM) was applied to a subset of 9 swallows representing all 3 tastants from 3 participants. Results: Friedman’s tests for the 3 stimuli revealed significantly (p \u3c .05) improved functional ratings for Penetration-Aspiration Scale and pharyngoesophageal opening. CASM indicated differences in pharyngeal swallowing mechanics across all tastant comparisons (p ≤ .0001). Eigenvectors revealed increased tongue base retraction, hyoid elevation, and pharyngeal shortening for sweet–sour and, to a lesser extent, sour than for unflavored boluses. Conclusion: Advantageous changes in certain parameters of oropharyngeal swallowing physiology were noted with high-intensity tastants per both clinical ratings and subsequent CASM, suggesting potential therapeutic application for taste manipulation

The C-Band All-Sky Survey: Instrument design, status, and first-look data

The C-Band All-Sky Survey (C-BASS) aims to produce sensitive, all-sky maps of diffuse Galactic emission at 5 GHz in total intensity and linear polarization. These maps will be used (with other surveys) to separate the several astrophysical components contributing to microwave emission, and in particular will allow an accurate map of synchrotron emission to be produced for the subtraction of foregrounds from measurements of the polarized Cosmic Microwave Background. We describe the design of the analog instrument, the optics of our 6.1 m dish at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, the status of observations, and first-look data.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, published in Proceedings of SPIE MIllimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V (2010), Vol. 7741, 77411I-1 - 77411I-1

Observations of Galactic star-forming regions with the Cosmic Background Imager at 31 GHz

Studies of the diffuse Galactic radio emission are interesting both for better understanding the physical conditions in our Galaxy and for minimizing the contamination in cosmological measurements. Motivated by this, we present Cosmic Background Imager 31 GHz observations of the Galactic regions NGC 6357, NGC 6334, W51 and W40 at ∼4.5 arcmin resolution and conduct an investigation of the spectral emission process in the regions at 4.5 arcmin and 1° resolution. We find that most of the emission in the regions is due to optically thin free–free. For two sub-regions of NGC 6334 and for a sub-region of W51 though, at 4.5 arcmin resolution and at 31 GHz we detect less emission than expected from extrapolation of radio data at lower frequencies assuming a spectral index of −0.12 for optically thin free–free emission, at 3.3σ, 3.7σ and 6.5σ, respectively. We also detect excess emission in a sub-region of NCG 6334 at 6.4σ, after ruling out any possible contribution from ultra-compact H II regions. At 1° resolution, we detect a spinning dust component in the spectral energy distribution of W40 that accounts for 18 ± 7 per cent of the total flux density in the region at the peak frequency of 37 GHz. Comparison with 100 μm data indicates an average dust emissivity for the sub-regions of 0.5 ± 4.4 μK(MJy sr^(−1))^(−1). Finally, we translate the excess emission in the regions to an anomalous microwave emission (AME) emissivity relative to the optical depth at 250 μm. We find that this form of emissivity is independent of the AME significance and has a value somewhere in the order of 10^4 Jy

Quantification of Proteins Using Peptide Immunoaffinity Enrichment Coupled with Mass Spectrometry

There is a great need for quantitative assays in measuring proteins. Traditional sandwich immunoassays, largely considered the gold standard in quantitation, are associated with a high cost, long lead time, and are fraught with drawbacks (e.g. heterophilic antibodies, autoantibody interference, 'hook-effect').1 An alternative technique is affinity enrichment of peptides coupled with quantitative mass spectrometry, commonly referred to as SISCAPA (Stable Isotope Standards and Capture by Anti-Peptide Antibodies).2 In this technique, affinity enrichment of peptides with stable isotope dilution and detection by selected/multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (SRM/MRM-MS) provides quantitative measurement of peptides as surrogates for their respective proteins. SRM/MRM-MS is well established for accurate quantitation of small molecules 3, 4 and more recently has been adapted to measure the concentrations of proteins in plasma and cell lysates.5-7 To achieve quantitation of proteins, these larger molecules are digested to component peptides using an enzyme such as trypsin. One or more selected peptides whose sequence is unique to the target protein in that species (i.e. "proteotypic" peptides) are then enriched from the sample using anti-peptide antibodies and measured as quantitative stoichiometric surrogates for protein concentration in the sample. Hence, coupled to stable isotope dilution (SID) methods (i.e. a spiked-in stable isotope labeled peptide standard), SRM/MRM can be used to measure concentrations of proteotypic peptides as surrogates for quantification of proteins in complex biological matrices. The assays have several advantages compared to traditional immunoassays. The reagents are relatively less expensive to generate, the specificity for the analyte is excellent, the assays can be highly multiplexed, enrichment can be performed from neat plasma (no depletion required), and the technique is amenable to a wide array of proteins or modifications of interest.8-13 In this video we demonstrate the basic protocol as adapted to a magnetic bead platform

3D Dynamic Visualization of Swallowing from Multi-Slice Computed Tomography

Human swallowing and its disorders (dysphagia) are still poorly understood, and yet many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) need to be trained to recognize correct, incorrect, and potentially dangerous swallows. The anatomy of the head and neck region is notoriously complex and difficult to visualize and study. Currently, training programs that teach SLPs to recognize swallowing disorders use artistically derived animations of swallowing, rendered at fixed viewpoints, to help students visualize the anatomy of the head and neck region. This work improves on these animations by using state-of-the-art medical images to create a dynamic, interactive, 3D simulation of human swallowing. Images of a male subject during swallow were captured in a single shot using a 320-slice CT scanner [Inamoto et al. 2011]. The images have very high spatial resolution (0:5 x 0:5 x 0:5 mm3), but low temporal resolution (10 Hz). The low temporal resolution resulted in blurring of the fluid being swallowed, making automatic segmentation and visualizations of the fluid difficult to generate