Co-creating Persona Scenarios with Diverse Users Enriching Inclusive Design

In this article, we will examine personas as methodological approach and review some critiques about how its use may omit or stereotype users with disabilities or even restrict user involvement. We review previous persona creation methods and compare it to our approach where we involve diverse users directly in the personas creation process, to ensure more grounded personas. This approach has recently been refined in a project where we are building a tool aiming to give citizens more control over their health information. We discuss our experiences and offer some experience based guidelines for using our method

Highly Active and Stable CeO₂‑Promoted CuCl₂/Al₂O₃ Oxychlorination Catalysts Developed by Rational Design Using a Rate Diagram of the Catalytic Cycle

In this study, we have developed a method to predict the steady-state rate and Cu oxidation state during ethylene oxychlorination from a reaction rate diagram of the individual steps involved in the catalytic oxychlorination cycle. The steady state of the redox cycle is represented by a cross point of the reaction rates of the reduction and oxidation steps as a function of the Cu²⁺ in the rate diagram. Transient kinetics of elementary reactions and steady-state kinetics of the overall catalytic cycle were investigated in an operando study using combined mass and UV–vis-NIR spectrophotometry. The catalytic consequence of the promoters was then evaluated in terms of reduction and oxidation activity as well as number of active sites, site activity, and the catalyst oxidation state at steady state. Results revealed that the neat CuCl₂ catalysts operated at low Cu²⁺ at the steady-state conditions with stoichiometric feed composition, as a result of relatively low oxidation rate of Cu¹⁺. As a consequence of a high content of Cu¹⁺, ethylene conversion and selectivity are low, and the catalyst deactivates rapidly. By the promotion of the CuCl₂ catalyst by K, the reactor operates at a high Cu²⁺ concentration with much improved stability as a result of enhanced oxidation rate, but the catalyst has low activity due to significantly reduced reduction rate. Therefore, the rate diagram has been applied as a tool for a rational design of the CuCl₂-based oxychlorination catalysts, and Ce was proposed as the promoter due to its high promotion to the oxidation and low reactivity with Cu ions. It was found that the activity of the Ce-promoted catalysts increased 8 times compared to the neat CuCl₂ catalyst and moreover significantly improved the stability for the oxychlorination catalyst at steady state, due to the enhancement of both the rates of the reduction and oxidation. It is anticipated that the methodology developed here paves the way for a general method for catalyst design of heterogeneous catalysts where the catalyst undergoes oxidation state changes, in particular in redox reactions

Cell diversity and plasticity during atrioventricular heart valve EMTs

Abstract Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs) of both endocardium and epicardium guide atrioventricular heart valve formation, but the cellular complexity and small scale of this tissue have restricted analyses. To circumvent these issues, we analyzed over 50,000 murine single-cell transcriptomes from embryonic day (E)7.75 hearts to E12.5 atrioventricular canals. We delineate mesenchymal and endocardial bifurcation during endocardial EMT, identify a distinct, transdifferentiating epicardial population during epicardial EMT, and reveal the activation of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity during both processes. In Sox9-deficient valves, we observe increased epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity, indicating a role for SOX9 in promoting endothelial and mesenchymal cell fate decisions. Lastly, we deconvolve cell interactions guiding the initiation and progression of cardiac valve EMTs. Overall, these data reveal mechanisms of emergence of mesenchyme from endocardium or epicardium at single-cell resolution and will serve as an atlas of EMT initiation and progression with broad implications in regenerative medicine and cancer biology

Speed Dating: An OBU Opera Production

https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/f17_dating/1023/thumbnail.jp

Cross-border forms of animal use by indigenous peoples

Revised version of the original published article “Cross-Border Forms of Animal Use by Indigenous Peoples” by Stefan Kirchner, American Journal of International Law, Unbound Volume 111, 2017, p. 402–407. The original article was published as an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)The chapter discusses animal use by indigenous peoples that involve crossing state borders, using the example of reindeer herding by indigenous Sámi in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Animals play important cultural, economic, and spiritual roles for indigenous communities. This particular form of interaction between humans and animals is, however, not sufficiently recognized by contemporary laws. The risk of overruling the interests of migratory animals, and of the pastoralist (semi-)nomadic human communities depending on them, is exacerbated when the herds cross boundariesViešosios teisės katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta

Femtosecond X-ray coherent diffraction of aligned amyloid fibrils on low background grapheme

© 2018 The Author(s). Here we present a new approach to diffraction imaging of amyloid fibrils, combining a free-standing graphene support and single nanofocused X-ray pulses of femtosecond duration from an X-ray free-electron laser. Due to the very low background scattering from the graphene support and mutual alignment of filaments, diffraction from tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) filaments and amyloid protofibrils is obtained to 2.7 Å and 2.4 Å resolution in single diffraction patterns, respectively. Some TMV diffraction patterns exhibit asymmetry that indicates the presence of a limited number of axial rotations in the XFEL focus. Signal-to-noise levels from individual diffraction patterns are enhanced using computational alignment and merging, giving patterns that are superior to those obtainable from synchrotron radiation sources. We anticipate that our approach will be a starting point for further investigations into unsolved structures of filaments and other weakly scattering objects