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The state of information technology in China
In order to increase the modernization of its society, the Chinese government has marked Information Technology as an enabler of this goal. The implementation of this goal has been in progress for over 15 years. Many landmarks have been reached in hardware manufacturing and software development. However there still remains significant impediments that inhibit rapid growth of this technology into Chinese organizations. This paper will discuss what these obstades are and how the Chinese government is attempting to remedy them
The Veterans Administrationâs Care and Coordination Home Telehealth Program (CCHT) in Action: Merging âHomeâ and âHealthâ
This article discusses a home telehealth project that employs innovative informatics and telemedicine technologies to meet the needs of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). We provide background information concerning the project and program management issues inclusive of the methods for patient selection process, the decision support system used in this process, and descriptions of the home telehealth technologies. Our goal is to articulate program management insights incurred in the implementation of the project to provide useful information to other healthcare systems considering home telehealth as a contemporary option for care delivery
Over-expressing the C3 photosynthesis cycle enzyme Sedoheptulose-1-7 Bisphosphatase improves photosynthetic carbon gain and yield under fully open air CO2fumigation (FACE)
Abstract
Background
Biochemical models predict that photosynthesis in C3 plants is most frequently limited by the slower of two processes, the maximum capacity of the enzyme Rubisco to carboxylate RuBP (Vc,max), or the regeneration of RuBP via electron transport (J). At current atmospheric [CO2] levels Rubisco is not saturated; consequently, elevating [CO2] increases the velocity of carboxylation and inhibits the competing oxygenation reaction which is also catalyzed by Rubisco. In the future, leaf photosynthesis (A) should be increasingly limited by RuBP regeneration, as [CO2] is predicted to exceed 550 ppm by 2050. The C3 cycle enzyme sedoheptulose-1,7 bisphosphatase (SBPase, EC 3.1.3.17) has been shown to exert strong metabolic control over RuBP regeneration at light saturation.
Results
We tested the hypothesis that tobacco transformed to overexpressing SBPase will exhibit greater stimulation of A than wild type (WT) tobacco when grown under field conditions at elevated [CO2] (585 ppm) under fully open air fumigation. Growth under elevated [CO2] stimulated instantaneous A and the diurnal photosynthetic integral (A') more in transformants than WT. There was evidence of photosynthetic acclimation to elevated [CO2] via downregulation of Vc,max in both WT and transformants. Nevertheless, greater carbon assimilation and electron transport rates (J and Jmax) for transformants led to greater yield increases than WT at elevated [CO2] compared to ambient grown plants.
Conclusion
These results provide proof of concept that increasing content and activity of a single photosynthesis enzyme can enhance carbon assimilation and yield of C3 crops grown at [CO2] expected by the middle of the 21st century.
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Toward a Theory of Emergent Leadership for Collaborative Information Systems Development among Social Enterprises
Many social enterprises (SEs) are adopting collaborative strategies to overcome fragmentation and duplication in the socialsector to effectively address the worldâs social needs (i.e. hunger, poverty, healthcare, education). SEs are increasinglyutilizing IT to support collaboration. However, historically SEs have been slow to integrate IT into their organizations solittle is known about information systems design (ISD) in SEs; even less at the collaborative level. Effective leadership inISD is important to realizing desired outcomes. Current leadership theories do not translate easily to the SE context. Weexplore the collective leadership, emerging from the collaborative ISD process itself, as being relevant to SE contexts. Weapply the neohumanist philosophy, and incorporate Habermasâ Theory of Communicative Action, to develop a theory ofleadership in collaborative SE ISD, in which leadership emerges from communicative actions in the ISD process. We offer aframework for leadership in collaborative ISD in social sector collaboration
Learning and Recognition of a Non-conscious Sequence of Events in Human Primary Visual Cortex
Published Online: March 03, 2016Human primary visual cortex (V1) has long been
associated with learning simple low-level visual discriminations
[1] and is classically considered outside
of neural systems that support high-level cognitive
behavior in contexts that differ from the original
conditions of learning, such as recognition memory
[2, 3]. Here, we used a novel fMRI-based dichoptic
masking protocolâdesigned to induce activity in
V1, without modulation from visual awarenessâto
test whether human V1 is implicated in human observers
rapidly learning and then later (15â20 min)
recognizing a non-conscious and complex (secondorder)
visuospatial sequence. Learning was associated
with a change in V1 activity, as part of a
temporo-occipital and basal ganglia network, which
is at variance with the cortico-cerebellar network
identified in prior studies of ââimplicitââ sequence
learning that involved motor responses and visible
stimuli (e.g., [4]). Recognition memory was associated
with V1 activity, as part of a temporo-occipital
network involving the hippocampus, under conditions
that were not imputable to mechanisms associated
with conscious retrieval. Notably, the V1 responses
during learning and recognition separately
predicted non-conscious recognition memory, and
functional coupling between V1 and the hippocampus
was enhanced for old retrieval cues. The results
provide a basis for novel hypotheses about the
signals that can drive recognition memory, because
these data (1) identify human V1 with a memory
network that can code complex associative serial
visuospatial information and support later nonconscious
recognition memory-guided behavior (cf.
[5]) and (2) align with mouse models of experiencedependent
V1 plasticity in learning and memory [6].This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT073735MA;
C.R.R. and C.K.; http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/), the Medical Research Council
(UK, 89631; D.S.; http://www.mrc.ac.uk/), the National Institute for Health
Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre based at Oxford University
Hospitals NHS Trust and University of Oxford (C.R.R., C.A.A., and C.K.;
http://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/), and the Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Research Network (C.A.A.; https://www.crn.nihr.ac.uk/dementia)
Toenail Manganese: A Sensitive and Specific Biomarker of Exposure to Manganese in Career Welders
Manganese (Mn) is an essential trace metal. It is also a component of welding fume. Chronic inhalation of manganese from welding fume has been associated with decreased neurological function. Currently, there is not a universally recognized biomarker for Mn exposure; however, hair and toenails have shown promise. In a cohort of 45 male welders and 35 age-matched factory control subjects, we assessed the sensitivity and specificity of toenail Mn to distinguish occupationally exposed subjects from unexposed controls. Further we examined the exposure time window that best correlates with the proposed biomarker, and investigated if non-occupational exposure factors impacted toenail Mn concentrations. Toenail clippings were analyzed for Mn using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Exposure to respirable Mn-containing particles (<4 Âľm) was estimated using an exposure model that combines personal air monitoring, work history information, and dietary intake to estimate an individual's exposure to Mn from inhalation of welding fume. We assessed the group differences in toenail concentrations using a Student's t-test between welders and control subjects and performed a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to identify a threshold in toenail concentration that has the highest sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing welders from control subjects. Additionally, we performed mixed-model regressions to investigate the association between different exposure windows and toenail Mn concentrations. We observed that toenail Mn concentrations were significantly elevated among welders compared to control subjects (6.87 Âą 2.56 versus 2.70 Âą 1.70 Âľg g-1; P < 0.001). Our results show that using a toenail Mn concentration of 4.14 Âľg g-1 as cutoff allows for discriminating between controls and welders with 91% specificity and 94% sensitivity [area under curve (AUC) = 0.98]. Additionally, we found that a threshold of 4.66 Âľg g-1 toenail Mn concentration enables a 90% sensitive and 90% specific discrimination (AUC = 0.96) between subjects with average exposure above or below the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Value (TLV) of 0.02 mg m-3 during the exposure window of 7-12 months prior to the nail being clipped. Investigating which exposure window was best reflected by toenail Mn reproduced the result from another study of toenail Mn being significantly (P < 0.001) associated with exposure 7-12 months prior to the nail being clipped. Lastly, we found that dietary intake, body mass index, age, smoking status, and ethnicity had no significant effect on toenail Mn concentrations. Our results suggest that toenail Mn is a sensitive, specific, and easy-to-acquire biomarker of Mn exposure, which is feasible to be used in an industrial welder population
Longâterm surveillance biopsy: Is it necessary after pediatric heart transplant?
Due to limited and conflicting data in pediatric patients, longâterm routine surveillance endomyocardial biopsy (RSB) in pediatric heart transplant (HT) remains controversial. We sought to characterize the rate of positive RSB and determine factors associated with RSBâdetected rejection. Records of patients transplanted at a single institution from 1995 to 2015 with >2 year of postâHT biopsy data were reviewed for RSBâdetected rejections occurring >2 year postâHT. We illustrated the trajectory of significant rejections (ISHLT Grade âĽ3A/2R) among total RSB performed over time and used multivariable logistic regression to model the association between time and risk of rejection. We estimated KaplanâMeier freedom from rejection rates by patient characteristics and used the logârank test to assess differences in rejection probabilities. We identified the bestâfitting Cox proportional hazards regression model. In 140 patients, 86% did not have any episodes of significant RSBâdetected rejection >2 year postâHT. The overall empirical rate of RSBâdetected rejection >2 year postâHT was 2.9/100 patientâyears. The percentage of rejection among 815 RSB was 2.6% and remained stable over time. Years since transplant remained unassociated with rejection risk after adjusting for patient characteristics (OR = 0.98; 95% CI 0.78â1.23; P = 0.86). Older age at HT was the only factor that remained significantly associated with risk of RSBâdetected rejection under multivariable Cox analysis (P = 0.008). Most pediatric patients did not have RSBâdetected rejection beyond 2 years postâHT, and the majority of those who did were older at time of HT. Indiscriminate longâterm RSB in pediatric heart transplant should be reconsidered given the low rate of detected rejection.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147767/1/petr13330_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147767/2/petr13330.pd
The Grizzly, April 25, 2019
Coffee Shop and Brew Pub Aims to Open Second Location Near UC ⢠In Memory of Dorinda Ma, 1993-2018 ⢠New History Professor Makes Her Mark ⢠Ursinus Student\u27s Internship Takes Her to Yellowstone ⢠Sesquicentennial Celebration Continues with Minerva Term ⢠Ursinus\u27 First Pride Festival ⢠Opinions: Restructuring the Tax Process Might Benefit Americans; Notre Dame Tragedy Speaks to the Necessity of Historical Preservation ⢠UC Golf Ready to Make Noise in CC ⢠The History! With an Exclamation Point! Award: Alex Mumme ⢠Baker and Lyons Reflect on UC Careershttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1620/thumbnail.jp
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