High-Vacuum Condenser Design: Experimental Effects from Cesium and Mercury Ion Beams

Effects of variable-energy electrostatic rocket-engine ion exhaust beams that pertain to the design of high-vacuum condensers are discussed. Three ion-engine beam sources, using cesium and mercury as propellants, were operated at energy levels of 200 to 9000 electron volts and currents of 0.002 to 0.200 ampere. Five condenser geometries, having surface areas from 0.287 to 5.76 square meters, were tested. Values for a function of the accommodation and condensation coefficients, which appears in an existing theoretical analysis, were determined. Although exhibiting rather wide variations in some tests, the values were estimated at approximately 0.15 for cesium and 0.015 for mercury. A method of estimating condenser surface area requirements is given

Z historii wymowy wyrazu hala ‘pastwisko górskie’

Polish word hala “mountain pasture” is generally derived from the Slovak hol’a, and this borrowing, combined with the introduction of pseudo-correct a, was supposed to be credited to Romantic literature, and precisely was the result of etymological experiments of Seweryn Goszczyński. The present paper demonstrates that the word hala, written exclusively with a and often with ll, is a quite frequent phenomenon in the texts of Księga państwa żywieckiego (“The Book of the Żywiec State”) from the year 1681. The pronunciation hala instead of hola may have been used at that time by literate inhabitants of the Beskidy Mountains, familiar with the standard of the literary language, although rather poorly, thus inclined to adjust to the tendency of hypercorrectness. The German typographic influence cannot be excluded

Puerto Rico : Zika Virus

Puerto Rico has had an epidemic of Zika virus within the past few years. Considering the close distance to America, the U.S. has been up-to-date in stopping the spread of Zika from Puerto Rico to the states. In 2016 particularly, the United States declared Puerto Rico to be in a state of emergency due to the heavy presence of the virus. Although this specific outbreak has been terminated, the likelihood of another such occurrence is high, so it is important to learn about the effects of Zika and ways to prevent the spread. The major result of having the virus is within the fetal baby of the infected mother. Babies will be born with microcephaly, shrinkage of the head, which results in severe brain damage. Common groups of people affected include pregnant women, as well as women in general within any age group. Certain solutions to stop the virus include genetically-modified mosquitoes, contraceptive prevention kits, and vaccination. Not much has been put into effect yet, but a fix is in the making

Automatic refinement of user requirements : a case study in software tool evaluation

This paper presents an assessment of system effectiveness in automatic requirements refinement by comparing results obtained from experts and novices with those achieved by the system. As the investigated system was a combination of a tightly inter-connected methods and a tool, the evaluation framework melded together a number of distinct methodological approaches structured into three empirical studies, which aimed at the construction of a case problem domain, calibrating the system using this defined domain elements and finally using the calibrated system to assess its effectiveness. In consequence, it was concluded that the evaluated methods and tools were effective in supporting requirements refinement.<br /

Selected aspects of inherited susceptibility to prostate cancer and tumours of different site of origin

Epidemiologic research conducted over the last two decades has led us to believe that inherited factors play an important role in the aetiology of prostate cancer, but the genes which underlie the inherited susceptibility are elusive. The most compelling associations to date are with genes involved in DNA damage repair, including BRCA2. In Poland we have initiated a programme to identify DNA variants which confer an increased risk of prostate cancer and other cancers. Here we review our recent results. We found that germline mutations in BRCA1, CHEK2 and NBS1 confer an increased prostate cancer risk in Polish men. We provide evidence that CHEK2 is a multi-organ cancer susceptibility gene. We show that inherited variation in RNASEL and MSR1 genes do not contribute to prostate cancer development in Poland

New insights into the "in vivo" and "in vitro" functions of mammalian TOR complex 2

Target of rapamycin (TOR) is the main controller of cell growth and metabolism in response to nutrients, growth factors and the cellular energy status. TOR is a serine/threonine kinase conserved from yeast to mammals and is found in two functionally and structurally distinct multi-protein complexes named TOR complex 1 (TORC1) and TORC2. Mammalian TORC1 (mTORC1) contains mTOR, mLST8, raptor and PRAS40, while mTORC2 contains mTOR, mLST8, rictor, mSin1, and PRR5. mTORC2 is activated in response to growth factors, such as insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), and its main functions involve the regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics and phosphorylation of several AGC kinases in their hydrophobic motif. TORC1 is directly inhibited by the immunosuppressant and anti-cancer drug rapamycin, whereas TORC2 is not. Thus, use of rapamycin provides a simple and straightforward method to specifically study the TORC1 signaling branch. There is no known TORC2-specific inhibitor, so genetic manipulation is required to study its biological function(s). This thesis describes new in vivo and in vitro functions of mTORC2. The first part deals with the in vivo function of mTORC2 in adipose tissue. The adipose tissue, in addition to its function as a long-term fat storage depot, also has endocrine functions, plays an important role in the regulation of whole body glucose and lipid metabolism and is one of the most insulin-responsive tissues in the body. To study mTORC2 function in adipose tissue, we have generated mice that lack the mTORC2-essential component rictor specifically in adipose tissue. Phenotypic characterization revealed the unexpected finding that these mice were larger due to an increase in lean tissue mass and that they had elevated serum IGF1 levels. Furthermore, the knockout mice were hyperinsulinemic, but glucose tolerant. Overall, these findings suggest an important role for adipose mTORC2 in controlling full body growth and whole body glucose metabolism. The second part of this thesis describes a new in vitro function of mTORC2 in fibroblasts. We have taken advantage of the raptor and rictor floxed mice to isolate mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), which were then used to establish inducible raptor and rictor knockout MEF cell lines. After initial characterization of these two cell lines, a deeper analysis of the role of mTORC2 in the actin-mediated process of cell migration was performed. We have found that mTORC2 is required for cell migration and for regulating the activity of the Rho GTPases Rac1, Cdc42, and RhoA. We have extended this study by showing that mTORC2-dependent cell migration is also required in oncogenic cells, which suggests that mTORC2 could have an important function in the development of cancer and metastasis