Opening Closed Regimes: What was the Role of Social Media during the Arab Spring?

Social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. A spike in online revolutionary conversations often preceded major events on the ground. Social media helped spread democratic ideas across international borders.National Science Foundationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117568/1/2011_Howard-Duffy-Freelon-Hussain-Mari-Mazaid_PITPI.pd

Redefining Security: NATO's Role in the 21st Century

Created as part of the 2011 Jackson School for International Studies SIS 495: Task Force. Christopher D. Jones, Task Force Advisor; Robert E. Hunter, Evaluator; Chloe Jackson, Coordinator.The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is now an alliance without a purpose. Formed by the Western Allies after the end of World War II its original objective was to defend Europe against Communism and the Soviet threat. Communism has now been discredited and the Soviet Union has ceased to exist. NATO has always viewed itself as having three primary responsibilities, collective defense, crisis management, and collective security. Of these collective defense, as personified in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, has been the most important. However, in recent history NATO has begun to take on more crisis management responsibilities, mainly in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Since the end of the Cold War there has also been a shift in the total defense spending of the various NATO members, with the United States increasingly being the only country able to respond to distant threats. NATO has also begun to have trouble thanks to the rise in power of non-state actors thanks to the fact that it has kept its focus on collective defense despite the lack of a nation-state threat to the Alliance. The Asia-Pacific region has also seen a gain in power and influence, which NATO is not well positioned to interact with

Advanced Material Catheter (AMCath), a minimally invasive endocardial catheter for the delivery of fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels

Injectable hydrogels that aim to mechanically stabilise the weakened left ventricle wall to restore cardiac function or to deliver stem cells in cardiac regenerative therapy have shown promising data. However, the clinical translation of hydrogel-based therapies has been limited due to difficulties injecting them through catheters. We have engineered a novel catheter, Advanced Materials Catheter (AMCath), that overcomes translational hurdles associated with delivering fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels to the myocardium. We developed an experimental technique to measure the force required to inject such hydrogels and determined the mechanical/viscoelastic properties of the resulting hydrogels. The preliminary in vivo feasibility of delivering fast-gelling hydrogels through AMCath was demonstrated by accessing the porcine left ventricle and showing that the hydrogel was retained in the myocardium post-injection (three 200 μL injections delivered, 192, 204 and 183 μL measured). However, the mechanical properties of the hydrogels were reduced by passage through AMCath (≤20.62% reduction). We have also shown AMCath can be used to deliver cardiopoietic adipose-derived stem cell-loaded hydrogels without compromising the viability (80% viability) of the cells in vitro. Therefore, we show that hydrogel/catheter compatibility issues can be overcome as we have demonstrated the minimally invasive delivery of a fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hydrogel to the beating myocardium.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: AMCARE consortium (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No.604531

Advanced Material Catheter (AMCath), a minimally invasive endocardial catheter for the delivery of fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels

Injectable hydrogels that aim to mechanically stabilise the weakened left ventricle wall to restore cardiac function or to deliver stem cells in cardiac regenerative therapy have shown promising data. However, the clinical translation of hydrogel-based therapies has been limited due to difficulties injecting them through catheters. We have engineered a novel catheter, Advanced Materials Catheter (AMCath), that overcomes translational hurdles associated with delivering fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels to the myocardium. We developed an experimental technique to measure the force required to inject such hydrogels and determined the mechanical/viscoelastic properties of the resulting hydrogels. The preliminary in vivo feasibility of delivering fast-gelling hydrogels through AMCath was demonstrated by accessing the porcine left ventricle and showing that the hydrogel was retained in the myocardium post-injection (three 200 μL injections delivered, 192, 204 and 183 μL measured). However, the mechanical properties of the hydrogels were reduced by passage through AMCath (≤20.62% reduction). We have also shown AMCath can be used to deliver cardiopoietic adipose-derived stem cell-loaded hydrogels without compromising the viability (80% viability) of the cells in vitro. Therefore, we show that hydrogel/catheter compatibility issues can be overcome as we have demonstrated the minimally invasive delivery of a fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hydrogel to the beating myocardium.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: AMCARE consortium (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No.604531.peer-reviewe

Multiple dimensions of epigenetic gene regulation in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

International audienc