Low loss slow light propagation in silicon slot waveguide

Silicon slot waveguide Bragg gratings have been designed, fabricated and the experimental data has been analyzed for its slow light properties. Slow light with a group index of 12.38 at a wavelength near 1555 nm and having a low propagation loss of 5.1 dB/mm has been determined for internally corrugated slot waveguide Bragg gratings on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The combination of slow light and low propagation loss make the internally corrugated slot waveguide Bragg gratings especially attractive as a phase shifter section for low drive voltage, high speed and compact electro-optic modulators.Web of Science2718262172620

A educação das meninas a partir da boneca Barbie e seus padrões. The education of girls based on the Barbie Doll and its standards

Resenha/Review [ROVERI, Fernanda Theodoro. Barbie na educação de meninas: do rosa ao choque. São Paulo: Annablume, 2012. 134p.

The factors influencing entrepreneurship in post-conflict regions: the case of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea

Post-conflict reconstruction and development is a challenge for many civil war-torn countries. The commonly used reconstruction and development strategies such as peace building provide temporary relief from the effects of war but fail to address the long-term issue of economic development of a country. Scholars are now recognising that entrepreneurship is the solution to sustainable post-conflict reconstruction and economic development. Local entrepreneurship provides employment opportunities, sustains livelihoods and reduces poverty. Most importantly entrepreneurship creates employment opportunities for ex-combatants’ reintegration into civil society. This research contributes to the literature on post-conflict reconstruction and development. It focuses on post-conflict Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. Entrepreneurs seem to be driving the economic reconstruction of post-conflict Bougainville. However, entrepreneurship and development seem to be occurring only in North Bougainville, while South Bougainville remains marginalised. In addition, many South Bougainvilleans entrepreneurs are migrating from their homes to North Bougainville in order to establish businesses. The study looks at the factors or motivation behind this phenomenon. The research used mixed methods research which consisted of a survey questionnaire for the quantitative component and in-depth interviews for its qualitative component. The survey questionnaire was conducted on a sample of Bougainville entrepreneurs, while the sample for the in-depth interviews comprised South Bougainville entrepreneurs. The research was conducted in the Buka and Kokopau towns of North Bougainville. Data from the survey questionnaire was analysed using SPSS. An inductive reasoning approach was used to analyse qualitative data for emerging themes. Analysis showed that market size, proximity to government services and transport infrastructure are some motivational factors attracting South Bougainvillean entrepreneurs to Buka and Kokopau. The result also shows ‘push factors’. The lack of employment opportunities is pushing people into entrepreneurship. Security is also shown to be important factor in determining the business location. The main constraint businesses face is lack of funds or access to funding. Another problem for the Bougainville-owned retail businesses is the Chinese-owned shops whose cheaper prices are driving the Bougainvilleans out of business. In conclusion, the research emphasises that in order to encourage entrepreneurship the following factors need to be addressed: building transport infrastructure; establishing security; and providing funding. Future research needs to focus on how to stimulate entrepreneurship in South Bougainville

ROUPAS PARA MAMÃES: CORPO E GRAVIDEZ NAS REPRESENTAÇÕES PARA A MATERNIDADE NA REVISTA MANEQUIM (1963)

To examine the representations for motherhood through the analysis of the pregnancy clothes that circulated in the Manequim Magazine, especially in the special edition "future mommy", of 1963, is the purpose of this text. Our approach discusses how gestation is incorporated by fashion and how it produced and disseminated representations for the pregnant body with the values of motherhood. In the article, we show how corporal transformations defined clothing lines appropriate to gestation in the 1960’s, assimilating influences of trends and styles of young fashion, factors that contributed to the expansion of the consumption.Examinar as representações para a maternidade por meio da análise das roupas para grávidas que circularam na revista Manequim, notadamente, na edição especial “Futura mamãe”, de 1963, é o objetivo deste texto. Nossa abordagem discute como a gestação é incorporada pela moda e como esta produziu e difundiu representações para o corpo grávido. No artigo, indicamos, ainda, como as transformações corporais definiram linhas de indumentárias apropriadas à gestação nos anos 1960 e como estas assimilaram tendências e estilos da moda jovem, o que contribuiu para a ampliação do consumo

A primeira-dama Maria Thereza Goulart e o costureiro Dener: a valorização da moda nacional nos anos 1960 * The first lady Maria Thereza Goulart and couturier Dener: the valorization of national fashion in the 1960s

As transformações na cultura das aparências dos anos 1960 são examinadas por meio da primeira-dama Maria Thereza Goulart e do costureiro Dener Pamplona de Abreu. Na abordagem, os documentos memorialísticos e da imprensa, em específico, uma edição da Revista Manchete de 1963, possibilitou dimensionar os processos sociais, culturais e políticos envolvidos na criação da moda brasileira. Evidenciamos, assim, como a relação entre os dois personagens, mediada pelas roupas da alta-costura, produziam sentidos para a moda nacional e faziam emergir padrões estéticos que influenciavam os segmentos femininos a valorizarem a beleza e a elegância dos corpos e das roupas “à brasileira”

BCL6 and LRF crosstalk in follicular lymphoma

B cell Lymphoma 6 (BCL6) and Leukaemia/Lymphoma related factor (LRF) are Pokproteins over-expressed in some types of Non-Hodgkin\u27s lymphoma. BCL6 is located on chromosome 3 in the breakpoint affecting 3q27 band which is the most frequent translocation in Non-Hodgkin\u27s lymphomas. This gene is a transcriptional repressor whose principal effect is to thwart the response to DNA damage by directly inhibiting both p53 and the cell cycle inhibitor p21. In lymphoma cells BCL6 prevents apoptosis induced by DNA damage. LRF, encoded by the Zbtb7a gene, also known as Pokemon, is a transcriptional repressor involved in many cellular processes as viral infection, differentiation, inflammation and oncogenesis. LRF plays an important role as proto-oncogene in Non- Hodgkin\u27s lymphomas: LRF indirectly inhibits p53, by repressing p14/ARF with consequent activation of MDM2 followed by p53 degradation. LRF is often aberrantly over-expressed in association with BCL6 in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL), the commonest types of Non- Hodgkin\u27s lymphomas. It has been demonstrated that microRNAs, a class of endogenous 22-25 nt single stranded RNA molecules, regulate target gene expression at the post-transcriptional level by binding with imperfect complementarity to specific regions of the 3\u27UTR of the target mRNA and act by repressing its translation. Recently miRNAs were shown to participate in the network of oncogenes and tumour suppressors, behaving either as tumour suppressors or as oncogenes, with the consequent implication of their potential use as novel anti tumourigenic drug. For these reason we investigated the role of miRNAs in the complex network connecting BCL6 and LRF in follicular lymphoma. Results In this work we focused our attention on the possible correlation between BCL6 and LRF in DOHH2 cells taking into consideration miRNAs which potentially link these two oncogenes. Using our data and data present in the literature, we reconstructed a hypothetical circuit connecting BCL6 and LRF. A negative feedback loop appears to link BCL6 to LRF, however in DLBCL and FL both genes are over expressed; these data strongly indicate that the negative feedback loop is bypassed in tumour cells to favour high proliferation rate. Different approaches were used to modulate the expression of BCL6 and LRF in Dohh2, a cell line derived from Follicular Lymphoma. A) Dohh2 cells were treated with etoposide, a chemotherapeutic agent that is able to reduce both BCL6 and LRF. Our results show that the reduction of BCL-6/LRF cells is followed by cell proliferation block and over-expression of miR-145, a tumour suppressor miRNA, under p53 control, which targets c-myc. Interestingly while c-myc was down regulated as expected, E2F1 resulted to be up regulated. B) To verify whether miR-145 could substitute for etoposide treatment miR-145 was transiently over expressed in Dohh2 cells. Although the network was influenced by miR-145 and both BCL6 and LRF were down regulated, no change in the proliferation rate of Dohh2 cells was found. Unexpectedly p53 was also markedly down regulated which could in part explain why cell proliferation was not inhibited notwithstanding BCL6/LRF decrease. C) In order to see the effect of a prolonged increase of miR-145, stably BCL6 silenced Dohh2 cells were used. In this case miR-145 was stably up regulated due to p53 increase and LRF was down regulated, yet again no effect on cell proliferation was observed. Our results clearly show that in the tumour Dohh2 cells BCL6 and LRF are always co-regulated (contrary to the hypothetical network); however their concomitant down regulation is not sufficient to determine cell proliferation block as cells appear to find a new equilibrium to counteract these anti-proliferative signals. We suggest that the down regulation of BCL6/LRF must be concomitant to the upregulation of the tumour suppressor p53 and the proto-oncogene E2F1 to influence the cell cycle and that miRNAs (such as miR-145 and miR-20) are part of these regulatory mechanisms

Using the Autopilot pattern to deploy container resources at a WLCG Tier-2

Containers are becoming ubiquitous within the WLCG, with CMS announcing a requirement for its sites to provide Singularity during 2018. The ubiquity of containers means it is now possible to reify the combination of an application and its configuration into a single easy-to-deploy unit, avoiding the need to make use of a myriad of configuration management tools such as Puppet, Ansible or Salt. This allows use to be made of industry-standard devops techniques within the operations domain, such as Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD), which can lead to faster upgrades and greater system security. One interesting technique is the Autopilot pattern, which provides mechanisms for application life-cycle management which are accessible from within the container itself. Using modern service discovery techniques, each container manages its own configuration, monitors its own health, and adapts to changing requirements through the use of event triggers. In this paper, we expand on previous work to create and deploy resources to a WLCG Tier-2 via containers, and investigate the viability of using the Autopilot pattern at a WLCG site to deploy and manage computational resources

Immortalized mouse embryo fibroblasts are resistant to miR-290-induced senescence regardless of p53 status

Immortalized mouse embryo fibroblasts are resistant to miR-290-induced senescence regardless of p53 status. Physiol Genomics 43: 1153-1159, 2011. First published August 16, 2011; doi:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00064.2011.-The prosenescence role of miR-290 and nocodazole has been documented in primary mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF), while it is not clear whether immortal murine fibroblasts are still responsive to these senescence inducing stimuli. To establish this point, immortal murine fibroblasts with functional (NIH3T3) or nonfunctional p53 (I-MEF) and low levels of miR-290 were tested for their capability to undergo senescence after exposure to either nocodazole or miR-290. Our results clearly indicate that nocodazole induces senescence only in NIH3T3 cells with a functional p53 but not in I-MEF lacking a functional p53. miR-290 overexpression is unable to address any of the tested immortalized clones toward senescence, regardless of the p53 status, suggesting that the prosenescence role of miR-290 is specific for primary but not for immortal murine fibroblasts. Moreover our findings suggest that the mere downregulation of a potential tumor suppressor miRNA in a given cell type does not necessarily imply that it behaves as a tumor suppressor

Immortalization of MEF is characterized by the deregulation of specific miRNAs with potential tumor suppressor activity

The life span (Hayflick limit) of primary mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) in culture is variable but it is still unclear if the escape of the Hayflick limit is also variable. To address this point MEF were expanded every fifteen days (6T15) instead of every three days (6T3) until they became immortal. With this protocol MEF lifespan was extended and immortalization accordingly delayed. By testing a panel of genes (p19ARF, p16, p21) and miRNAs (miR-20a, miR-21, miR-28, miR-290) related to primary MEF senescence, a switch of p21 from up to down regulation, the down regulation of specific miRNAs as well as a massive shift from diploidy to hyperdiploidy were observed in coincidence with the resumption of cell proliferation. Collectively, these data indicate that the inactivation of genes and miRNAs, important in controlling cell proliferation, might be determinant for the escape from the Hayflick limit. In support of this hypothesis was the finding that some of the down regulated miRNAs transfected in immortalized MEF inhibited cell proliferation thus displaying a tumor suppressor-like activity

Passeio Sonoro Comentado: metodologia de identificação da paisagem sonora representada por pessoas surdas | Commented soundwalk: methodology for identifying the soundscape representedby deaf people

O tema deste artigo é a paisagem sonora representada pelas pessoas surdas através de uma experiência com o som para além da audição. Adota-se uma interpretação socioantropológica da surdez, incorporando proposições identitárias e culturais próprias a esse grupo de pessoas. Nesse aspecto, o artigo objetiva apresentar a metodologia dos “Passeios Sonoros Comentados”, que visa à identificação e à organização da apreensão das sonoridades urbanas pelos surdos, a seu próprio modo. As discussões e considerações finais apontam para as diferenças de interpretações sonoras entre surdos e ouvintes e sua influência na relação do surdo com o espaço urbano