Design of an Ultrasonic Ribbon Bonder

Ultrasonic Bonding is a solid-state bonding mechanism that can join two dissimilar materials. This report details work done to design, build, and analyze an ultrasonic ribbon bonder for research use at Santa Clara University. The bonder would allow researchers to view the bond site as the bond is being formed, which would be accomplished by bonding an aluminum ribbon to a silica substrate. Unfortunately, issues corresponding to COVID-19 led to difficulty in building the bonder during the final stages of construction. This led the team to focus on analysis rather than construction of the bonder. Specifically focusing on creating a plot of tool amplitude versus transverse force for different input powers, which showed a linear relationship between amplitude and force and also showed that input power has significantly more impact on amplitude than it does on force

A profile of anti-vaccination lobbying on the South African internet, 2011 - 2013

Background. The South African Vaccination and Immunisation Centre receives many requests to explain the validity of internet-based anti-vaccination claims. Previous global studies on internet-based anti-vaccination lobbying had not identified anti-vaccination web pages originating in South Africa (SA).Objective. To characterise SA internet-based anti-vaccination lobbying.Methods. In 2011, searches for anti-vaccination content were performed using Google, Yahoo and MSN-Bing, limited to English-language SA web pages. Content analysis was performed on web pages expressing anti-vaccination sentiment about infant vaccination. This was repeated in 2012 and 2013 using Google, with the first 700 web pages per search being analysed.Results. Blogs/forums, articles and e-shops constituted 40.3%, 55.2% and 4.5% of web pages, respectively. Authors were lay people (63.5%), complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners (23.1%), medical professionals practising CAM (7.7%) and medical professionals practising only allopathic medicine (5.8%). Advertisements appeared on 55.2% of web pages. Of these, 67.6% were sponsored by or linked to organisations with financial interests in discrediting vaccines, with 80.0% and 24.0% of web pages sponsored by these organisations claiming respectively that vaccines are ineffective and that vaccination is profit driven. The vast majority of web pages (92.5%) claimed that vaccines are not safe, and 77.6% of anti-vaccination claims originated from the USA.Conclusion. South Africans are creating web pages or blogs for local anti-vaccination lobbying. Research is needed to understand what influence internet-based anti-vaccination lobbying has on the uptake of infant vaccination in SA

TGFβ signaling in myeloid cells promotes lung and liver metastasis through different mechanisms

TGFβ overexpression is commonly detected in cancer patients and correlates with poor prognosis and metastasis. Cancer progression is often associated with an enhanced recruitment of myeloid-derived cells to the tumor microenvironment. Here we show that functional TGFβ-signaling in myeloid cells is required for metastasis to the lungs and the liver. Myeloid-specific deletion of Tgfbr2 resulted in reduced spontaneous lung metastasis, which was associated with a reduction of proinflammatory cytokines in the metastatic microenvironment. Notably, CD8+ T cell depletion in myeloid-specific Tgfbr2-deficient mice rescued lung metastasis. Myeloid-specific Tgfbr2-deficiency resulted in reduced liver metastasis with an almost complete absence of myeloid cells within metastatic foci. On contrary, an accumulation of Tgfβ-responsive myeloid cells was associated with an increased recruitment of monocytes and granulocytes and higher proinflammatory cytokine levels in control mice. Monocytic cells isolated from metastatic livers of Tgfbr2-deficient mice showed increased polarization towards the M1 phenotype, Tnfα and Il-1β expression, reduced levels of M2 markers and reduced production of chemokines responsible for myeloid-cell recruitment. No significant differences in Tgfβ levels were observed at metastatic sites of any model. These data demonstrate that Tgfβ signaling in monocytic myeloid cells suppresses CD8+ T cell activity during lung metastasis, while these cells actively contribute to tumor growth during liver metastasis. Thus, myeloid cells modulate metastasis through different mechanisms in a tissue-specific manner

Reduce losses in agri production : developing building blocks for the network of excellence postharvest food losses

Value chains for perishable products, including fruits and vegetables, require an integrated approach to cope with the challenges in producing sufficient food products in a resourceefficient manner. Developing economies are increasingly investing in their potential of agricultural production. However, the lack of an adequate functioning infrastructure in the postharvest chain, lack of or limited knowledge of products and the proper handling of these, but also the poor linkages between production and markets, often result in large losses of the harvested product before it reaches the consumer market. This report forms the synthesis of the development of a Network of Excellence Postharvest Food Losses and a summary of the status regarding the development of the Network

Reducing postharves food losses in developing economies by using a Network of Excellence as an intervention tool

Value chains for perishable products, including fruits and vegetables, require an integrated approach to cope with the challenges in producing sufficient food products in a resource-efficient manner. Developing economies are increasingly investing in their potential of agricultural production; however the absence of a sufficient and functioning infrastructure in the postharvest chain results in large shares of harvested product being lost before reaching the consumer market. This study provides clear analysis of the causes of these postharvest losses and suggests the development of effective interventions that form the nucleus of the network of excellence in support of chain actors to improve performance, increase efficiency and provide good quality food products in local and global markets