Impaired osteoblast differentiation in annexin A2- and -A5-deficient cells.

Annexins are a class of calcium-binding proteins with diverse functions in the regulation of lipid rafts, inflammation, fibrinolysis, transcriptional programming and ion transport. Within bone, they are well-characterized as components of mineralizing matrix vesicles, although little else is known as to their function during osteogenesis. We employed shRNA to generate annexin A2 (AnxA2)- or annexin A5 (AnxA5)-knockdown pre-osteoblasts, and determined whether proliferation or osteogenic differentiation was altered in knockdown cells, compared to pSiren (Si) controls. We report that DNA content, a marker of proliferation, was significantly reduced in both AnxA2 and AnxA5 knockdown cells. Alkaline phosphatase expression and activity were also suppressed in AnxA2- or AnxA5-knockdown after 14 days of culture. The pattern of osteogenic gene expression was altered in knockdown cells, with Col1a1 expressed more rapidly in knock-down cells, compared to pSiren. In contrast, Runx2, Ibsp, and Bglap all revealed decreased expression after 14 days of culture. In both AnxA2- and AnxA5-knockdown, interleukin-induced STAT6 signaling was markedly attenuated compared to pSiren controls. These data suggest that AnxA2 and AnxA5 can influence bone formation via regulation of osteoprogenitor proliferation, differentiation, and responsiveness to cytokines in addition to their well-studied function in matrix vesicles

Implicit Attitudes and Terror Management: Pilot of Implicit Association Test as a Means of Measuring Death-Thought Accessibility

Terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) has been extensively tested and applied in a variety of contexts. One of the major criticisms of TMT is that there are methodological issues with assessing some of the proposed processes within the theory, such as activation of death thought accessibility. The present study provides an initial test of a proposed alternative for measuring death thought accessibility using an image-based implicit association test instead of the traditional word fragment completion task used in a majority of TMT research. An experiment was carried out with 200 undergraduate students using a 2 (mortality salience: Yes or no) x 2 (social/fiscal conservatism: Low or high) between-subjects design. Results provided partial empirical support for the use of an IAT-based measure for death thought accessibility relying on color images. The IAT-based measure outperformed the traditional word fragment completion task at discriminating between mortality and non-mortality salient participants in terms of death thought accessibility.Moreover, this study also tested the mortality salience hypothesis to determine whether mortality salience activates cultural worldview defenses following a brief delay. Specifically, participants with differing political ideologies were asked to evaluate an editorial in support of the Muslim ban. Results found that after being reminded of their death, participants with strong levels of conservatism reported more positive attitudes toward the Muslim ban, relative to those in the control condition (i.e., non-mortality salient). Implications of the findings for this study as well as directions for future research are discussed

Searching for a Silver Lining: Mediated Intergroup Contact and Mental Health Perceptions

This study investigated viewer responses to characters from Silver Linings Playbook, a movie about characters dealing with mental illness, from the perspective of mediated intergroup contact hypothesis. Researchers tested if identification with fictional characters with mental illness reduced viewers’ negative stereotypes about mental illness and increased their willingness to support people with the same illnesses as the characters. Additionally, empathy was tested as a mediator between identification and stereotype reduction. One hundred forty-five participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 character conditions. The hypotheses associated with identification and stereotypes and intentions were partially supported. For two characters, empathy mediated the relationship between identification and negative stereotypes. Implications for mediated portrayals of health issues and behaviors are discussed

Well That Was Unexpected: Effect of Intimacy and Commitment on Responses to an Interpersonal Expectancy Violation

This investigation explored the effect an individual’s level of relational commitment and intimacy has on his or her perceptions of and responses to a positive or negative expectancy violation performed by their dating partner. One hundred-ninety undergraduates were randomly assigned to read 1 of 4 scenarios depicting a situation involving their dating partner committing either a positive/negative expectancy violation. Participants were asked to assess the situation in terms of the nature of the expectancy violation (positive/negative), violation severity, and level of unexpectedness. Moreover, they were asked the extent to which they were willing to talk about the situation with the other person. Results found that perceived intensity of violations varied depending on both the nature of the expectancy violation and commitment/intimacy level. Highly committed/intimate respondents reported greater willingness to discuss negative expectancy violations with the other person than less committed/intimate respondents, but reported lower likelihood in using negativity as their strategy. Less committed/intimate respondents reported greater willingness to discuss positive expectancy violations compared to their highly committed/intimate counterparts

Double side interior permanent magnet linear synchronous motor and drive system

Linear motor has been applied in various fields such as factory and office automation. A linear motor differs from a rotational motor, in which it has a simpler structure. Linear Synchronous Motor is one of the types of linear motor and its application is very wide which is from the small application (i.e. industrials automation) to large application (i.e. maglev transportation) [1]. The thrust which is generated by linear motor is high, even with the size of the motor is small [2]. This is the feature of the linear motor compared to rotational motor where a gear is needed to change the rotational movement to the linear movement. Therefore the linear motor can reduce the mechanical losses. This paper discuss on the proposal of Double Side Interior Permanent Magnet of Linear Synchronous Motor (DIPM-LSM). The structure and three dimensions of magnetic circuit of DIPM-LSM are discussed. This type of DIPM-LSM can be driven by sinusoidal and pulse voltage input. The three phase two coils excitation-driving mode of open loop drive systems are also been discussed

A clinical evaluation of the performance of the GP-II contact lens

A clinical evaluation of the GP-II Contact Lens was made. Subjects were fitted with standard availability lenses and were subsequently monitored for a two month period. Of the twenty who started, twelve completed the study, thus 60% were successful. This study showed that corneal physiology was basically uncompromised within this experimental period. Variables considered were subjective symptoms, corneal health, lens centration and movement pachometry, keratometry, and distance refraction

Towards understanding the clinical significance of QT peak prolongation: a novel marker of myocardial ischemia independently demonstrated in two prospective studies

Background: QT peak prolongation identified patients at risk of death or non-fatal MI. We tested the hypothesis that QT peak prolongation might be associated with significant myocardial ischaemia in two separate cohorts to see how widely applicable the concept was. Methods and Results: In the first study, 134 stroke survivors were prospectively recruited and had 12-lead ECGs and Nuclear myocardial perfusion scanning. QT peak was measured in lead I of a 12-lead ECG and heart rate corrected by Bazett’s formula (QTpc). QTpc prolongation to 360ms or more was 92% specific at diagnosing severe myocardial ischaemia. This hypothesis-generating study led us to perform a second prospective study in a different cohort of patients who were referred for dobutamine stress echocardiography. 13 of 102 patients had significant myocardial ischaemia. Significant myocardial ischaemia was associated with QT peak prolongation at rest (mean 354ms, 95% CI 341-367ms, compared with mean 332ms, 95% CI 327-337ms in those without significant ischaemia; p=0.002). QT peak prolongation to 360ms or more was 88% specific at diagnosing significant myocardial ischaemia in the stress echocardiography study. QT peak prolongation to 360ms or more was associated with over 4-fold increase odds ratio of significant myocardial ischaemia. The Mantel- Haenszel Common Odds Ratio Estimate=4.4, 95% CI=1.2-16.0, p=0.023. Conclusion: QT peak (QTpc) prolongation to 360ms or more should make us suspect the presence of significant myocardial ischaemia. Such patients merit further investigations for potentially treatable ischaemic heart disease to reduce their risk of subsequent death or non-fatal MI

Design and experimental characterization of a tunable vibration-based electromagnetic micro-generator

Vibration-based micro-generators, as an alternative source of energy, have become increasingly significant in the last decade. This paper presents a new tunable electromagnetic vibration-based micro-generator. Frequency tuning is realized by applying an axial tensile force to the micro-generator. The dimensions of the generator, especially the dimensions of the coil and the air gap between magnets, have been optimized to maximize the output voltage and power of the micro-generator. The resonant frequency has been successfully tuned from 67.6 to 98 Hz when various axial tensile forces were applied to the structure. The generator produced a power of 61.6–156.6 µW over the tuning range when excited at vibrations of 0.59 ms-2. The tuning mechanism has little effect on the total damping. When the tuning force applied on the generator becomes larger than the generator’s inertial force, the total damping increases resulting in reduced output power. The resonant frequency increases less than indicated from simulation and approaches that of a straight tensioned cable when the force associated with the tension in the beam becomes much greater than the beam stiffness. The test results agree with the theoretical analysis presented

Determination of CERES TOA Fluxes Using Machine Learning Algorithms. Part I: Classification and Retrieval of CERES Cloudy and Clear Scenes

Continuous monitoring of the earth radiation budget (ERB) is critical to the understanding of Earths climate and its variability with time. The Clouds and the Earths Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is able to provide a long record of ERB for such scientific studies. This manuscript, which is the first of a two-part paper, describes the new CERES algorithm for improving the clear/cloudy scene classification without the use of coincident cloud imager data. This new CERES algorithm is based on a subset of the modern artificial intelligence (AI) paradigm called machine learning (ML) algorithms. This paper describes the development and application of the ML algorithm known as random forests (RF), which is used to classify CERES broadband footprint measurements into clear and cloudy scenes. Results from the RF analysis carried using the CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) data for January and July are presented in the manuscript. The daytime RF misclassification rate (MCR) shows relatively large values (>30%) for snow, sea ice, and bright desert surface types, while lower values (<10%) for the forest surface type. MCR values observed for the nighttime data in general show relatively larger values for most of the surface types compared to the daytime MCR values. The modified MCR values show lower values (<4%) for most surface types after thin cloud data are excluded from the analysis. Sensitivity analysis shows that the number of input variables and decision trees used in the RF analysis has a substantial influence on determining the classification error