Computational simulation of matrix micro-slip bands in SiC/Ti-15 composite

Computational simulation procedures are used to identify the key deformation mechanisms for (0)(sub 8) and (90)(sub 8) SiC/Ti-15 metal matrix composites. The computational simulation procedures employed consist of a three-dimensional finite-element analysis and a micromechanics based computer code METCAN. The interphase properties used in the analysis have been calibrated using the METCAN computer code with the (90)(sub 8) experimental stress-strain curve. Results of simulation show that although shear stresses are sufficiently high to cause the formation of some slip bands in the matrix concentrated mostly near the fibers, the nonlinearity in the composite stress-strain curve in the case of (90)(sub 8) composite is dominated by interfacial damage, such as microcracks and debonding rather than microplasticity. The stress-strain curve for (0)(sub 8) composite is largely controlled by the fibers and shows only slight nonlinearity at higher strain levels that could be the result of matrix microplasticity

Transcription activator like effector (TALE)-directed piggyBac transposition in human cells.

Insertional therapies have shown great potential for combating genetic disease and safer methods would undoubtedly broaden the variety of possible illness that can be treated. A major challenge that remains is reducing the risk of insertional mutagenesis due to random insertion by both viral and non-viral vectors. Targetable nucleases are capable of inducing double-stranded breaks to enhance homologous recombination for the introduction of transgenes at specific sequences. However, off-target DNA cleavages at unknown sites can lead to mutations that are difficult to detect. Alternatively, the piggyBac transposase is able perform all of the steps required for integration; therefore, cells confirmed to contain a single copy of a targeted transposon, for which its location is known, are likely to be devoid of aberrant genomic modifications. We aimed to retarget transposon insertions by comparing a series of novel hyperactive piggyBac constructs tethered to a custom transcription activator like effector DNA-binding domain designed to bind the first intron of the human CCR5 gene. Multiple targeting strategies were evaluated using combinations of both plasmid-DNA and transposase-protein relocalization to the target sequence. We demonstrated user-defined directed transposition to the CCR5 genomic safe harbor and isolated single-copy clones harboring targeted integrations

The Use of Palliative Performance Score in Patients with End-Stage Liver Disease

● Palliative Care services are often underutilized in patients with End-Stage Liver Disease (ESLD) and often only initiated at the end of life ● The Palliative Performance Score (PPS) is an important tool used in Palliative Care to assess functional status ● PPS has five functional dimensions: ambulation, activity level and evidence of disease, self-care, oral intake, and level of consciousness ● The aim of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score and PPS in ESLD patients ● MELD is used to predict mortality and to prioritize liver transplant allocation in ESLD patientshttps://jdc.jefferson.edu/medposters/1011/thumbnail.jp

Dissecting the genetic architecture of coronary artery disease by genome engineering

One of the greatest challenges facing biomedical research since the sequencing of the human genome has been to understand the role of genetic variation in human disease. Many genetic variants have been associated with common diseases. However, determining the functional consequences of these variants has been hard. Several variants are often inherited together in tightly linked blocks, making it difficult to determine the causative variant. People have millions of other genetic differences, making it difficult to correlate cellular phenotypes with a particular variant. Different gene sets are expressed in different cells, but it is difficult to extract disease-relevant cells from large numbers of patients. We describe a method with the potential to revolutionize the functional analysis of genetic variation, using custom nucleases to genetically modify individual variants in induced pluripotent stem cells. This process would provide unprecedented analytical power, present the first general method to determine if a variant is causative, and analyze function disease-relevant cell types. We will focus on variants at the 9p21 region of the genome that have been associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). The methods should provide a new way to unlock the wealth of data from genome-wide association studies, and to probe the genetic architecture of common diseases. We will describe our improved methods for inexpensive and rapid construction of highly active zinc finger and TALE nucleases to examine the functional role of polymorphisms at the 9p21 CAD risk locus

Effects on the transcriptome upon deletion of a distal element cannot be predicted by the size of the H3K27Ac peak in human cells.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with increased risk for colorectal cancer (CRC). A molecular understanding of the functional consequences of this genetic variation is complicated because most GWAS SNPs are located in non-coding regions. We used epigenomic information to identify H3K27Ac peaks in HCT116 colon cancer cells that harbor SNPs associated with an increased risk for CRC. Employing CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases, we deleted a CRC risk-associated H3K27Ac peak from HCT116 cells and observed large-scale changes in gene expression, resulting in decreased expression of many nearby genes. As a comparison, we showed that deletion of a robust H3K27Ac peak not associated with CRC had minimal effects on the transcriptome. Interestingly, although there is no H3K27Ac peak in HEK293 cells in the E7 region, deletion of this region in HEK293 cells decreased expression of several of the same genes that were downregulated in HCT116 cells, including the MYC oncogene. Accordingly, deletion of E7 causes changes in cell culture assays in HCT116 and HEK293 cells. In summary, we show that effects on the transcriptome upon deletion of a distal regulatory element cannot be predicted by the size or presence of an H3K27Ac peak

Towards End-to-end Video-based Eye-Tracking

Estimating eye-gaze from images alone is a challenging task, in large parts due to un-observable person-specific factors. Achieving high accuracy typically requires labeled data from test users which may not be attainable in real applications. We observe that there exists a strong relationship between what users are looking at and the appearance of the user's eyes. In response to this understanding, we propose a novel dataset and accompanying method which aims to explicitly learn these semantic and temporal relationships. Our video dataset consists of time-synchronized screen recordings, user-facing camera views, and eye gaze data, which allows for new benchmarks in temporal gaze tracking as well as label-free refinement of gaze. Importantly, we demonstrate that the fusion of information from visual stimuli as well as eye images can lead towards achieving performance similar to literature-reported figures acquired through supervised personalization. Our final method yields significant performance improvements on our proposed EVE dataset, with up to a 28 percent improvement in Point-of-Gaze estimates (resulting in 2.49 degrees in angular error), paving the path towards high-accuracy screen-based eye tracking purely from webcam sensors. The dataset and reference source code are available at https://ait.ethz.ch/projects/2020/EVEComment: Accepted at ECCV 202

Measuring of roundness of WPC materials after turning

Natural fibers offer several advantages. They are renewable, inexpensive, can be used to isolate a sound and have got a low density. The disadvantages of these materials are: susceptibility to moisture, low fire resistance, and sensitivity to biodegradation. Their disadvantages are possible to eliminate by using of thermosetting and thermoplastic matrixes obtaining the plastics filled by organic fillers. Nowadays is preferred a usage of thermoplastic matrixes (especially in WPC product)

Концепция базового национально-ориентированного учебника практического курса русского языка для школ Индии

In this article conception of modern textbook for students learning Russian out of the language environment is suggested. To achieve this aim it was necessary to solve the following problems: to reveal students' communicative needs, which influence the amount and level of their communicative competence; to give systematic description of the components of structure of the textbook on practical course of Russian language; to analyze the language and communicative components of the manual content and its communicative structure; to elaborate the structure of the manual units, to characterize main teaching technologies realized.В статье описывается концепция современного школьного учебника, предназначенного для овладения русским языком вне языковой среды. С этой целью потребовалось последовательно решать следующие задачи: выявить коммуникативные потребности обучающихся, влияющие на объем и уровень их коммуникативной компетенции; дать целостное системное описание структурных компонентов учебника практического курса русского языка как иностранного для школьников средней ступени; описать языковые и речевые компоненты содержания учебника, его коммуникативную организацию; рассмотреть вопрос о структуре уроков учебника; изложить основные реализуемые в нем технологии обучения