171 research outputs found
Helping Communities Build: A review of the Community Land Trust Funds and lessons for future support
Testing self-report time-use diaries against objective instruments in real time
This study provides a new test of time-use diary methodology, comparing diaries with a pair of objective criterion measures: wearable cameras and accelerometers. A volunteer sample of respondents (n = 148) completed conventional self-report paper time-use diaries using the standard UK Harmonised European Time Use Study (HETUS) instrument. On the diary day, respondents wore a camera that continuously recorded images of their activities during waking hours (approximately 1,500–2,000 images/day) and also an accelerometer that tracked their physical activity continuously throughout the 24-hour period covered by the diary. Of the initial 148 participants recruited, 131 returned usable diary and camera records, of whom 124 also provided a usable whole-day accelerometer record. The comparison of the diary data with the camera and accelerometer records strongly supports the use of diary methodology at both the aggregate (sample) and individual levels. It provides evidence that time-use data could be used to complement physical activity questionnaires for providing population-level estimates of physical activity. It also implies new opportunities for investigating techniques for calibrating metabolic equivalent of task (MET) attributions to daily activities using large-scale, population-representative time-use diary studies
Report of the FELASA-EFAT Working Group
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.Competent, confident and caring laboratory animal caretakers, technicians and technologists (LAS staff) are vital for good animal welfare, high-quality science and a secure Culture of Care. This requires high-quality education, training, supervision and continuing professional development (CPD) of LAS staff. However, there is a lack of harmonisation regarding how this education and training is conducted among European countries, and nor are there recommendations adapted to Directive 2010/63/EU. Therefore, FELASA and EFAT established a working group with the task of establishing recommendations for education, training and CPD for LAS staff. The working group established five different levels (LAS staff levels 0–4), defining the required level of competence and attitude, as well as suggesting educational requirements for reaching each level. Defining these levels should help to ensure that appropriate educational and CPD activities are in place, and to enable employers and LAS staff to determine the level and career stage attained. Furthermore, proper assessment of competencies and effective CPD schemes for all relevant staff should be established. Regulators should support this by setting standards for competence assessment and ensuring that they are consistently applied. In addition, establishments should involve the LAS staff in defining and developing the Culture of Care. The Animal Welfare Body should be involved and have oversight of education, training and CPD. These recommendations will contribute to harmonisation and increased quality of education, training and CPD, as well as provide clearer career pathways for LAS staff, helping to ensure high standards of animal welfare and science.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin
The Ursinus Weekly, November 16, 1953
Forum hears Norman Palmer talk on India • Honor system is MSGA topic at open discussion • U.C. group visits UN headquarters • Messiah features well-known soloists • Conditions in modern Austria revealed Monday by Thalburg • No easy answer seen by Chi Alpha Society • Faculty join students in show, Friday • Play polished by intense rehearsal • Music Club members attend harp concert • Dr. J. E. Wagner speaks, receives degree, Tuesday • High schools to tour campus • Doctors to appear at pre-med meeting • Dr. Yost presides at English lit reading • Pep talk on FTA affiliation given to campus members • Editorials: Education; Change in policy needed • Song and slogan spur Chest drive • Y sponsored work week commences November 30 • God and the atom to be coming attraction at vespers • Barbershop quartets present fine program • Beardwood Society plans field trip to exposition • Greek columns • Ursinus - F. & M. rivalry ends after fifty years • Variety of speakers highlight programs of past Founders Days • JVs lose second to strong Temple • Hockeyites down Temple in thrilling victory, 1-0 • Juniata defeats Bears for undefeated season • Cagemen initiate season tomorrow • Belles captain All-College teams • LaSalle defeats soccer team; Settles scores for Ursinus • Zartman, Settles, Dawkins score; Bakermen win, 6-2 • Writer satirizes sports jargonhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1483/thumbnail.jp
Increased levels of macrophage inflammatory proteins result in resistance to R5-tropic HIV-1 in a subset of elite controllers
Elite controllers (ECs) are a rare group of HIV seropositive individuals who are able to control viral replication without antiretroviral therapy. The mechanisms responsible for this phenotype, however, have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we examined CD4+ T cell resistance to HIV in a cohort of elite controllers and explored transcriptional signatures associated with cellular resistance. We demonstrate that a subgroup of elite controllers possess CD4+ T cells that are specifically resistant to R5-tropic HIV while remaining fully susceptible to X4-tropic and vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G)-pseudotyped viruses. Transcriptome analysis revealed 17 genes that were differentially regulated in resistant elite controllers relative to healthy controls. Notably, the genes encoding macrophage inflammatory protein 1α (MIP-1α), CCL3 and CCL3L1, were found to be upregulated. The MIP-1α, MIP-1β, and RANTES chemokines are natural ligands of CCR5 and are known to interfere with HIV replication. For three elite controllers, we observed increased production of MIP-1α and/or MIP-1β at the protein level. The supernatant from resistant EC cells contained MIP-1α and MIP-1β and was sufficient to confer R5-tropic resistance to susceptible CD4+ T cells. Additionally, this effect was reversed by using inhibitory anti-MIP antibodies. These results suggest that the T cells of these particular elite controllers may be naturally resistant to HIV infection by blocking R5-tropic viral entr
Social Attention in Children with Epilepsy
Children with epilepsy may be vulnerable to impaired social attention given the increased risk of neu- robehavioural comorbidities. Social attentional orienting and the potential modulatory role of attentional control on the perceptual processing of gaze and emotion cues have not been examined in childhood onset epilepsies. Social attention mechanisms were investigated in patients with epilepsy (n = 25) aged 8–18 years old and performance compared to healthy controls (n = 30). Dynamic gaze and emotion facial stimuli were integrated into an antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm. The time to orient attention and exe- cute a horizontal saccade toward (prosaccade) or away (antisaccade) from a peripheral target measured processing speed of social signals under conditions of low or high attentional control. Patients with epi- lepsy had impaired processing speed compared to healthy controls under conditions of high attentional control only when gaze and emotions were combined meaningfully to signal motivational intent of approach (happy or anger with a direct gaze) or avoidance (fear or sad with an averted gaze). Group dif- ferences were larger in older adolescent patients. Analyses of the discrete gaze emotion combinations found independent effects of epilepsy-related, cognitive and behavioural problems. A delayed disengage- ment from fearful gaze was also found under low attentional control that was linked to epilepsy devel- opmental factors and was similarly observed in patients with higher reported anxiety problems. Overall, findings indicate increased perceptual processing of developmentally relevant social motivations during increased cognitive control, and the possibility of a persistent fear-related attentional bias. This was not limited to patients with chronic epilepsy, lower IQ or reported behavioural problems and has implica- tions for social and emotional development in individuals with childhood onset epilepsies beyond remission
The Manokwari Declaration: Challenges ahead in conserving 70% of Tanah Papua’s forests
The Manokwari Declaration is an unprecedented pledge by the governors of Indonesia’s two New Guinea provinces to promote conservation and become SE Asia’s new Costa Rica. This is an exciting, yet challenging endeavour that will require working on many fronts that transcend single disciplines. Because Indonesian New Guinea has the largest expanse of intact forests in SE Asia, large-scale conservation pledges like the Manokwari Declaration will have a global impact on biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation
Catching Element Formation In The Act
Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address
some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses
a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars,
stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays
and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV
gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly
measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation.
The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see
deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray
energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique
information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at
gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray
instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky
coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This
transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the
gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other
wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps
of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are
distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of
scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in
technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide
set of astrophysical questions.Comment: 14 pages including 3 figure
Fiber Optical Cable and Connector System (FOCCoS) for PFS/Subaru
FOCCoS, Fiber Optical Cable and Connector System, has the main function of
capturing the direct light from the focal plane of Subaru Telescope using
optical fibers, each one with a microlens in its tip, and conducting this light
through a route containing connectors to a set of four spectrographs. The
optical fiber cable is divided in 3 different segments called Cable A, Cable B
and Cable C. Multi-fibers connectors assure precise connection among all
optical fibers of the segments, providing flexibility for instrument changes.
To assure strong and accurate connection, these sets are arranged inside two
types of assemblies: the Tower Connector, for connection between Cable C and
Cable B; and the Gang Connector, for connection between Cable B and Cable A.
Throughput tests were made to evaluate the efficiency of the connections. A
lifetime test connection is in progress. Cable C is installed inside the PFI,
Prime Focus Instrument, where each fiber tip with a microlens is bonded to the
end of the shaft of a 2-stage piezo-electric rotatory motor positioner; this
assembly allows each fiber to be placed anywhere within its patrol region,
which is 9.5mm diameter.. Each positioner uses a fiber arm to support the
ferrule, the microlens, and the optical fiber. 2400 of these assemblies are
arranged on a motor bench plate in a hexagonal-closed-packed disposition.Comment: 11 pages, 20 figure
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