Pulmonary Capillary Hemorrhage Induced by Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Shear Wave Elastography in Ventilated Rats

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151830/1/jum14950.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151830/2/jum14950_am.pd

Acylpeptide hydrolase is a component of the cellular response to DNA damage

Acylpeptide hydrolase (APEH) deacetylates N-alpha-acetylated peptides and selectively degrades oxidized proteins, but the biochemical pathways that are regulated by this protease are unknown. Here, we identify APEH as a component of the cellular response to DNA damage. Although APEH is primarily localised in the cytoplasm, we show that a sub-fraction of this enzyme is sequestered at sites of nuclear damage following UVA irradiation or following oxidative stress. We show that localization of APEH at sites of nuclear damage is mediated by direct interaction with XRCC1, a scaffold protein that accelerates the repair of DNA single-strand breaks. We show that APEH interacts with the amino-terminal domain of XRCC1, and that APEH facilitates both single-strand break repair and cell survival following exposure to H2O2 in human cells. These data identify APEH as a novel proteolytic component of the DNA damage response

Demographic change and response: social context and the practice of birth control in six countries

This paper expands on Kingsley Davis’s demographic thesis of change and re- sponse. Specifically, we consider the social context that accounts for the primacy of particular birth control methods that bring about fertility change during specific time periods. We examine the relevance of state policy (including national family planning programs), the international population establishment, the medical profession, organized religion, and women’s groups using case studies from Japan, Russia, Puerto Rico, China, India, and Cameroon. Some of these countries are undergoing the second demographic transition, others the first. Despite variations in context, heavy reliance on sterilization and/or abortion as a means of birth control is a major response in most of these countries. The key roles of the medical profession and state policy are discussed, along with the general lack of influence of religion and of women’s groups in these countries

Dentin Sialophosphoprotein: A Regulatory Protein for Dental Pulp Stem Cell Identity and Fate

The dentin sialophosphoprotein (dspp) transcript is expressed during tooth development as a DSPP precursor protein, which then undergoes cleavage to form mature dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and phosphophoryn (PP) proteins. Previous studies using DSPP-knockout (KO) mice have reported that these animals have hypomineralized teeth, thin dentin, and a large dental pulp chamber, similar to those from patients with dentinogenesis imperfecta III. However, there is no information about factors that regulate dental pulp stem cell lineage fate, a critical early event in the odontoblast-dentin mineralization scheme. To reveal the role of DSPP in odontoblast lineage differentiation during tooth development, we systematically examined teeth from wild-type (wt) and DSPP-KO C57BL/6 mice between the ages of postnatal day 1 and 3 months. We found developmental abnormalities not previously reported, such as circular dentin formation within dental pulp cells and altered odontoblast differentiation in DSPP-KO mice, even as early as 1 day after birth. Surprisingly, we also identified chondrocyte-like cells in the dental pulp from KO-mice teeth. Thus, these studies that compare wt and DSPP-KO mice suggest that the expression of DSPP precursor protein is required for normal odontoblast lineage differentiation and that the absence of DSPP allows dental pulp cells to differentiate into chondrocyte-like cells, which could negatively impact pulpal wound healing and tissue regeneration.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140203/1/scd.2014.0066.pd

The Global Impact of Container Inventory Imbalance and the Factors that Influence Container Inventory Management Strategies

Abstract Container shipping celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2016, as an innovation that had a tremendous impact on the global supply chain. This paper focuses on the impact of container inventory imbalance that mounts a substantial pressure on global supply chains. The primary objective of this paper is to explore best market practices and ascertain as to what factors influence these strategies. It also evaluates the impact of container inventory imbalance to the global supply chain. The study refers to interviews with industry experts and questionnaire responses from shipping lines operated in Sri Lanka in addition to the desk research to explain the impact of the container inventory problem in the global scale. If carriers provide the right quantity of containers demanded by exporters at the right location at the right time, the optimum supply chain performance could be guaranteed. The consequences of container fleet imbalances are ultimately borne by exporters, importers, consumers, traders and even—inadvertently—other players in the cargo supply chain of international trade. Therefore, carriers need an effective solution to the global container inventory imbalance problem.Keywords: Container Inventory Imbalance, Freight, Forecasting, Flexibility, Strateg

Container Inventory Management: Factors influencing Container Interchange

ABSTRACTEfficient and effective management of empty containers and empty container repositioning is an important issue in the liner shipping industry. Many alliance agreements of carriers have provisions to interchange containers but not practiced in real life scenario. It is hard to find any previous literature on container exchange except the technical details of alliance agreements. The researchers reiterate the conditions provided in carriers’ alliance agreements to interchange containers and in principle recommend container interchange as an efficient and effective container inventory management mechanism. Accordingly, the research attempts to find the factors that influence container interchange between carriers. The research was conducted in Sri Lanka. Researchers believe that the sample is adequate because 16 container carriers in the world top 20 list presently call port of Colombo in Sri Lanka. A series of interviews followed by a questionnaire survey have been carried out and data were analysed mainly using Chi-Square Tests. This would lead to understand the critical factors that influence container exchange and thereby develop efficient, sustainable and effective mechanism for container inventory management through container interchange. The study concluded that five factors namely, operational, legal, branding, benefits, and feasibility may influence the container interchange by carriers. There were two limitations noted in the research; the reluctance to provide information pertaining to container inventory by carriers; and the common dislike of carriers to participate in surveys due to their busy work schedules. These findings would help practitioners to expedite the process of developing a user-friendly container interchange system. In addition, this research will fill the serious gap in the present literature on container exchange and provide an incentive to further research on this topic. The container imbalance is a global issue and finding an efficient and effective solution is vital.Key words: container, inventory, management, shipping, maritime, exchang

Vacancy induced magnetism in graphene and graphene ribbons

We address the electronic structure and magnetic properties of vacancies and voids both in graphene and graphene ribbons. Using a mean field Hubbard model, we study the appearance of magnetic textures associated to removing a single atom (vacancy) and multiple adjacent atoms (voids) as well as the magnetic interactions between them. A simple set of rules, based upon Lieb theorem, link the atomic structure and the spatial arrangement of the defects to the emerging magnetic order. The total spin $S$ of a given defect depends on its sublattice imbalance, but some defects with S=0 can still have local magnetic moments. The sublattice imbalance also determines whether the defects interact ferromagnetically or antiferromagnetically with one another and the range of these magnetic interactions is studied in some simple cases. We find that in semiconducting armchair ribbons and two-dimensional graphene without global sublattice imbalance there is maximum defect density above which local magnetization disappears. Interestingly, the electronic properties of semiconducting graphene ribbons with uncoupled local moments are very similar to those of diluted magnetic semiconductors, presenting giant Zeeman splitting.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure

Windowed Eigen-Decomposition Algorithm for Motion Artifact Reduction in Optical Coherence Tomography-Based Angiography

Optical coherence tomography-based angiography (OCTA) has attracted attention in clinical applications as a non-invasive and high-resolution imaging modality. Motion artifacts are the most seen artifact in OCTA. Eigen-decomposition (ED) algorithms are popular choices for OCTA reconstruction, but have limitations in the reduction of motion artifacts. The OCTA data do not meet one of the requirements of ED, which is that the data should be normally distributed. To overcome this drawback, we propose an easy-to-deploy development of ED, windowed-ED (wED). wED applies a moving window to the input data, which can contrast the blood-flow signals with significantly reduced motion artifacts. To evaluate our wED algorithm, pre-acquired dorsal wound healing data in a murine model were used. The ideal window size was optimized by fitting the data distribution with the normal distribution. Lastly, the cross-sectional and en face results were compared among several OCTA reconstruction algorithms, Speckle Variance, A-scan ED (aED), B-scan ED, and wED. wED could reduce the background noise intensity by 18% and improve PSNR by 4.6%, compared to the second best-performed algorithm, aED. This study can serve as a guide for utilizing wED to reconstruct OCTA images with an optimized window size

Determination of astrophysical 12N(p,g)13O reaction rate from the 2H(12N, 13O)n reaction and its astrophysical implications

The evolution of massive stars with very low-metallicities depends critically on the amount of CNO nuclides which they produce. The $^{12}$N($p$,\,$\gamma$)$^{13}$O reaction is an important branching point in the rap-processes, which are believed to be alternative paths to the slow 3$\alpha$ process for producing CNO seed nuclei and thus could change the fate of massive stars. In the present work, the angular distribution of the $^2$H($^{12}$N,\,$^{13}$O)$n$ proton transfer reaction at $E_{\mathrm{c.m.}}$ = 8.4 MeV has been measured for the first time. Based on the Johnson-Soper approach, the square of the asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC) for the virtual decay of $^{13}$O$_\mathrm{g.s.}$ $\rightarrow$ $^{12}$N + $p$ was extracted to be 3.92 $\pm$ 1.47 fm$^{-1}$ from the measured angular distribution and utilized to compute the direct component in the $^{12}$N($p$,\,$\gamma$)$^{13}$O reaction. The direct astrophysical S-factor at zero energy was then found to be 0.39 $\pm$ 0.15 keV b. By considering the direct capture into the ground state of $^{13}$O, the resonant capture via the first excited state of $^{13}$O and their interference, we determined the total astrophysical S-factors and rates of the $^{12}$N($p$,\,$\gamma$)$^{13}$O reaction. The new rate is two orders of magnitude slower than that from the REACLIB compilation. Our reaction network calculations with the present rate imply that $^{12}$N($p,\,\gamma$)$^{13}$O will only compete successfully with the $\beta^+$ decay of $^{12}$N at higher ($\sim$two orders of magnitude) densities than initially predicted.Comment: 8 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to Physical Review

Are sexual health survey items understood as intended by African and Asian migrants to Australia? Methods, results and recommendations for qualitative pretesting

Introduction: More research and policy action are needed to improve migrant health in areas such as sexual health and blood-borne viruses (SHBBV). While Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice Surveys (KAPS) can inform planning, there are no SHBBV KAPS suitable for use across culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. This study pretests one instrument among people born in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East and North-East Asia living in Australia. Methods: Employees of multicultural organisations were trained to collect data over three rounds using a hybrid qualitative pretesting method. Two researchers independently coded data. Researchers made revisions to survey items after each round. Responses to feedback questions in the final survey were analysed. Results: Sixty-two participants pretested the survey. Issues were identified in all three rounds of pretesting. Of the 77 final survey respondents who responded to a survey experience question, 21% agreed and 3% strongly agreed with the statement ‘I found it hard to understand some questions/words’. Conclusion: It is essential to pretest SHBBV surveys in migrant contexts. We offer the following pretesting guidance: (1) large samples are needed in heterogeneous populations; (2) intersectionality must be considered; (3) it may be necessary to pretest English language surveys in the participants’ first language; (4) bilingual/bicultural workers must be adequately trained to collect data; (5) results need to be interpreted in the context of other factors, including ethics and research aims; and (6) pretesting should occur over multiple rounds