E-education in pathology including certification of e-institutions

E–education or electronically transferred continuous education in pathology is one major application of virtual microscopy. The basic conditions and properties of acoustic and visual information transfer, of teaching and learning processes, as well as of knowledge and competence, influence its implementation to a high degree. Educational programs and structures can be judged by access to the basic conditions, by description of the teaching resources, methods, and its program, as well as by identification of competences, and development of an appropriate evaluation system. Classic teaching and learning methods present a constant, usually non-reversible information flow. They are subject to personal circumstances of both teacher and student. The methods of information presentation need to be distinguished between static and dynamic, between acoustic and visual ones. Electronic tools in education include local manually assisted tools (language assistants, computer-assisted design, etc.), local passive tools (slides, movies, sounds, music), open access tools (internet), and specific tools such as Webinars. From the medical point of view information content can be divided into constant (gross and microscopic anatomy) and variable (disease related) items. Most open access available medical courses teach constant information such as anatomy or physiology. Mandatory teaching resources are image archives with user–controlled navigation and labelling, student–oriented user manuals, discussion forums, and expert consultation. A classic undergraduate electronic educational system is WebMic which presents with histology lectures. An example designed for postgraduate teaching is the digital lung pathology system. It includes a description of diagnostic and therapeutic features of 60 rare and common lung diseases, partly in multimedia presentation. Combining multimedia features with the organization structures of a virtual pathology institution will result in a virtual pathology education institution (VPEI), which can develop to a partly automated distant learning faculty in medicine

Corruption and bicameral reforms

During the last decade unicameral proposals have been put forward in fourteen US states. In this paper we analyze the effects of the proposed constitutional reforms, in a setting where decision making is subject to ‘hard time constraints’, and lawmakers face the opposing interests of a lobby and the electorate. We show that bicameralism might lead to a decline in the lawmakers’ bargaining power vis-a-vis the lobby, thus compromising their accountability to voters. Hence, bicameralism is not a panacea against the abuse of power by elected legislators and the proposed unicameral reforms could be effective in reducing corruption among elected representatives

Sodium bicarbonate supplementation improves severe-intensity intermittent exercise under moderate acute hypoxic conditions

Acute moderate hypoxic exposure can substantially impair exercise performance, which occurs with a concurrent exacerbated rise in hydrogen cation (H+) production. The purpose of this study was therefore, to alleviate this acidic stress through sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) supplementation and determine the corresponding effects on severe intensity intermittent exercise performance. Eleven recreationally active individuals participated in this randomised, double-blind, crossover study performed under acute normobaric hypoxic conditions (FiO2% = 14.5%). Pre-experimental trials involved the determination of time to attain peak bicarbonate anion concentrations ([HCO3-]) following NaHCO3 ingestion. The intermittent exercise tests involved repeated 60 s work in their severe intensity domain and 30 s recovery at 20 W to exhaustion. Participants ingested either 0.3 g·kg bm-1 of NaHCO3 or a matched placebo of 0.21 g·kg bm-1 of sodium chloride prior to exercise. Exercise tolerance (+110.9 ± 100.6 s; 95% CI: 43.3 to 178 s; g = 1.0) and work performed in the severe intensity domain (+5.8 ± 6.6 kJ; 95% CI: 1.3 to 9.9 kJ; g = 0.8) were enhanced with NaHCO3 supplementation. Furthermore, a larger post-exercise blood lactate concentration was reported in the experimental group (+4 ± 2.4 mmol·l-1; 95% CI: 2.2 to 5.9; g = 1.8), while blood [HCO3-] and pH remained elevated in the NaHCO3 condition throughout experimentation. In conclusion, this study reported a positive effect of NaHCO3 under acute moderate hypoxic conditions during intermittent exercise and therefore, may offer an ergogenic strategy to mitigate hypoxic induced declines in exercise performance

Experimental Infection of Mice with Avian Paramyxovirus Serotypes 1 to 9

The nine serotypes of avian paramyxoviruses (APMVs) are frequently isolated from domestic and wild birds worldwide. APMV-1, also called Newcastle disease virus, was shown to be attenuated in non-avian species and is being developed as a potential vector for human vaccines. In the present study, we extended this evaluation to the other eight serotypes by evaluating infection in BALB/c mice. Mice were inoculated intranasally with a prototype strain of each of the nine serotypes and monitored for clinical disease, gross pathology, histopathology, virus replication and viral antigen distribution, and seroconversion. On the basis of multiple criteria, each of the APMV serotypes except serotype 5 was found to replicate in mice. Five of the serotypes produced clinical disease and significant weight loss in the following order of severity: 1, 2>6, 9>7. However, disease was short-lived. The other serotypes produced no evident clinical disease. Replication of all of the APMVs except APMV-5 in the nasal turbinates and lungs was confirmed by the recovery of infectious virus and by substantial expression of viral antigen in the epithelial lining detected by immunohistochemistry. Trace levels of infectious APMV-4 and -9 were detected in the brain of some animals; otherwise, no virus was detected in the brain, small intestine, kidney, or spleen. Histologically, infection with the APMVs resulted in lung lesions consistent with broncho-interstitial pneumonia of varying severity that were completely resolved at 14 days post infection. All of the mice infected with the APMVs except APMV-5 produced serotype-specific HI serum antibodies, confirming a lack of replication of APMV-5. Taken together, these results demonstrate that all APMV serotypes except APMV-5 are capable of replicating in mice with minimal disease and pathology

Crowds in or crowds out? The effect of foreign direct investment on domestic investment in Chinese cities

This study investigates the empirical relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic investment (DI) in China using a comprehensive city-level panel over the period from 2003 to 2011. System-generalized method-of-moment estimation reveals mixed results. At the national level, FDI neither crowds in nor crowds out DI, indicating a neutral FDI–DI nexus. However, when the full sample is segmented by geographical topology, a positive and significant FDI–DI nexus can be found in eastern and, to a lesser extent, central cities. A negative, although insignificant, association is reported among western cities. Further, the empirical nexus is conditional on several local absorptive capacities including human capital, financial development, and institutional quality. These findings suggest that a region-based FDI strategy in general and local governments should strengthen their absorptive capacities to fully internalize FDI spillovers

A spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientation on technological innovativeness:an outlook of universities and research based spin offs

partially_open5siBy shifting towards Romer’s (Am Econ Rev 94:1002–1037, 1986) economy and so the spread of knowledge economy, universities started to adopt a collaborative approach with their entrepreneurial ecosystem. They turn out to be risk taker, autonomous, proactive, competitive, and innovative. In a nutshell, they are entrepreneurial oriented with the aim to generate new innovative ventures, known as research-based spin offs. Doubly, this has induced an improvement of technology transfer and the degree of entrepreneurship in the current knowledge economy. However there still is a paucity of studies on the spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientated universities and research-based spin off on technology transfer need to be more explored. Therefore, the article investigates the link between entrepreneurial orientation and such spill overs by offering an outlook of two universities and two research-based spin offs in the United Kingdom. The scope is to provide a deep view of technological innovativeness in a research context, entrepreneurial oriented. Our research suggests that entrepreneurial attitude has become an imperative to succeed in the context where British institutions currently operate. Entrepreneurship brings the necessary technological innovation to the university and its students, which results in better positioning of the university at national and international levels, with the subsequent impact on their ability to attract not only new students and academics but also funding to conduct their research.openScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, FrancescoScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, Francesc

Molecular evolution of cyclin proteins in animals and fungi

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The passage through the cell cycle is controlled by complexes of cyclins, the regulatory units, with cyclin-dependent kinases, the catalytic units. It is also known that cyclins form several families, which differ considerably in primary structure from one eukaryotic organism to another. Despite these lines of evidence, the relationship between the evolution of cyclins and their function is an open issue. Here we present the results of our study on the molecular evolution of A-, B-, D-, E-type cyclin proteins in animals and fungi.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We constructed phylogenetic trees for these proteins, their ancestral sequences and analyzed patterns of amino acid replacements. The analysis of infrequently fixed atypical amino acid replacements in cyclins evidenced that accelerated evolution proceeded predominantly during paralog duplication or after it in animals and fungi and that it was related to aromorphic changes in animals. It was shown also that evolutionary flexibility of cyclin function may be provided by consequential reorganization of regions on protein surface remote from CDK binding sites in animal and fungal cyclins and by functional differentiation of paralogous cyclins formed in animal evolution.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results suggested that changes in the number and/or nature of cyclin-binding proteins may underlie the evolutionary role of the alterations in the molecular structure of cyclins and their involvement in diverse molecular-genetic events.</p

The mass and galaxy distribution around SZ-selected clusters

We present measurements of the radial profiles of the mass and galaxy number density around Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ)-selected clusters using both weak lensing and galaxy counts. The clusters are selected from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Data Release 5 and the galaxies from the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data set. With signal-to-noise ratio of 62 (45) for galaxy (weak lensing) profiles over scales of about 0.2–20 h−1 Mpc, these are the highest precision measurements for SZ-selected clusters to date. Because SZ selection closely approximates mass selection, these measurements enable several tests of theoretical models of the mass and light distribution around clusters. Our main findings are: (1) The splashback feature is detected at a consistent location in both the mass and galaxy profiles and its location is consistent with predictions of cold dark matter N-body simulations. (2) The full mass profile is also consistent with the simulations. (3) The shapes of the galaxy and lensing profiles are remarkably similar for our sample over the entire range of scales, from well inside the cluster halo to the quasilinear regime. We measure the dependence of the profile shapes on the galaxy sample, redshift, and cluster mass. We extend the Diemer & Kravtsov model for the cluster profiles to the linear regime using perturbation theory and show that it provides a good match to the measured profiles. We also compare the measured profiles to predictions of the standard halo model and simulations that include hydrodynamics. Applications of these results to cluster mass estimation, cosmology, and astrophysics are discussed