The Industrial Ontologies Foundry proof-of-concept project

The current industrial revolution is said to be driven by the digitization that exploits connected information across all aspects of manufacturing. Standards have been recognized as an important enabler. Ontology-based information standard may provide benefits not offered by current information standards. Although there have been ontologies developed in the industrial manufacturing domain, they have been fragmented and inconsistent, and little has received a standard status. With successes in developing coherent ontologies in the biological, biomedical, and financial domains, an effort called Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF) has been formed to pursue the same goal for the industrial manufacturing domain. However, developing a coherent ontology covering the entire industrial manufacturing domain has been known to be a mountainous challenge because of the multidisciplinary nature of manufacturing. To manage the scope and expectations, the IOF community kicked-off its effort with a proof-of-concept (POC) project. This paper describes the developments within the project. It also provides a brief update on the IOF organizational set up

Greene Says Board\u27s Act Set \u27Dangerous Precedent\u27

Article from the February 25, 1975 issue of Amicus Curiae (vol.5:no.10) reporting on a lecture by JeRoyd X. Greene at William & Mary in which he discusses the investigation by the American Association of University Professors into the withdrawal of his appointment as a visiting professor in 1974. He also labels the law school faculty as a bunch of sissies for not backing his appointment more strenuously.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/blackhistorywmls/1022/thumbnail.jp

Glucosamine and Chondroitin for Osteoarthritis

Glucosamine reduces pain and improves function in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis. (Strength of recommendation: B, based on systematic reviews and a meta-analysis) Glucosamine may be beneficial in other forms of osteoarthritis as well. (Strength of recommendation: B, based on a randomized controlled trial [RCT]) Chondroitin has not consistently been found to improve pain or functional status. (Strength of recommendation: B, based on a systematic review and a meta-analysis

Tertius Romane: An Examination Of Muscovite Mystical Political Theology

The relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian state has received less than required academic attention. In the post-Soviet space, the Russian Church has again begun to interact with the Russian state. Through research of Russian primary sources including chronicles, vitae of princes, and various correspondence, this paper traces the origins of the relationship between Church and State and examines both the mystical and political theological actualities of such. This thesis demonstrates similarities, historical themes, and aspects of Church and State interactions through a comparison to Ernst Kantorowicz’s The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology that can be applied to examine modern day Russian Church and State political theology

Even With Rehydration, Preservation in Ethanol Influences the Mechanical Properties of Bone and How Bone Responds to Experimental Manipulation

Typically, bones are harvested at the time of animal euthanasia and stored until mechanical testing. However, storage methods are not standardized, and differential effects on mechanical properties are possible between methods. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects that two common preservation methods (freezing wrapped in saline-soaked gauze and refrigerating ethanol fixed samples) have on bone mechanical properties in the context of an in vitro ribosylation treatment designed to modify mechanical integrity. It was hypothesized that there would be an interactive effect between ribose treatment and preservation method. Tibiae from twenty five 11week old female C57BL/6 mice were separated into 2 preservation groups. Micro-CT scans of contralateral pairs assessed differences in geometry prior to storage. After 7weeks of storage, bones in each pair of tibiae were soaked in a solution containing either 0M or 0.6M ribose for 1week prior to 4 point bending tests. There were no differences in any cortical geometric parameters between contralateral tibiae. There was a significant main effect of ethanol fixation on displacement to yield (-16.3%), stiffness (+24.5%), strain to yield (-13.9%), and elastic modulus (+18.5%) relative to frozen specimens. There was a significant main effect of ribose treatment for yield force (+13.9%), ultimate force (+9.2%), work to yield (+22.2%), yield stress (+14.1%), and resilience (+21.9%) relative to control-soaked bones. Postyield displacement, total displacement, postyield work, total work, total strain, and toughness were analyzed separately within each preservation method due to significant interactions. For samples stored frozen, all six properties were lower in the ribose-soaked group (49%-68%) while no significant effects of ribose were observed in ethanol fixed bones. Storage in ethanol likely caused changes to the collagen matrix which prevented or masked the embrittling effects of ribosylation that were seen in samples stored frozen wrapped in saline-soaked gauze. These data illustrate the clear importance of maintaining hydration if the eventual goal is to use bones for mechanical assessments and further show that storage in ethanol can alter potential to detect effects of experimental manipulation (in this case ribosylation)

First Occurrence of the Enigmatic Peccaries Mylohyus elmorei and Prosthennops serus From the Appalachians: Latest Hemphillian to Early Blancan of Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee

Two peccary species, Mylohyus elmorei and Prosthennops serus are described from the medium-bodied fauna of the Gray Fossil Site (GFS) of northeastern Tennessee. This site, recognized as an oak-hickory forest, is latest Hemphillian or earliest Blancan based on mammalian biochronology, with an estimated age of 4.9-4.5 Ma. The GFS represents the only site outside the Palmetto Fauna of Florida with M. elmorei, greatly expanding the species range north over 920 km, well into the Appalachian region. This is also the first Appalachian occurrence of the relatively widespread P. serus. Our understanding of intraspecific variation for both M. elmorei and P. serus is expanded due to morphological and proportional differences found in cranial and dental material from the GFS, Tyner Farm locality, Palmetto Fauna, and within the literature. The GFS M. elmorei material represents the most complete mandible and second cranium for the species, and preserve intraspecific variation in the length of the diastema, dental proportions, and the complexity of the cuspules of the hypoconulid complex. Similarly, mandibular material from the GFS for P. serus exhibited larger dentitions and a greater degree of robustness than currently recognized for the species

A Model for Spheroid Versus Monolayer Response of SK-N-SH Neuroblastoma Cells to Treatment with 15-Deoxy-\u3cem\u3ePGJ\u3c/em\u3e\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e

Researchers have observed that response of tumor cells to treatment varies depending on whether the cells are grown in monolayer, as in vitro spheroids or in vivo. This study uses data from the literature on monolayer treatment of SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells with 15-deoxy-PGJ2 and couples it with data on growth rates for untreated SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells grown as multicellular spheroids. A linear model is constructed for untreated and treated monolayer data sets, which is tuned to growth, death, and cell cycle data for the monolayer case for both control and treatment with 15-deoxy-PGJ2. The monolayer model is extended to a five-dimensional nonlinear model of in vitro tumor spheroid growth and treatment that includes compartments of the cell cycle (G1,S,G2/M) as well as quiescent (Q) and necrotic (N) cells. Monolayer treatment data for 15-deoxy-PGJ2 is used to derive a prediction of spheroid response under similar treatments. For short periods of treatment, spheroid response is less pronounced than monolayer response. The simulations suggest that the difference in response to treatment of monolayer versus spheroid cultures observed in laboratory studies is a natural consequence of tumor spheroid physiology rather than any special resistance to treatment

Correlation Between Trough Plasma Dabigatran Concentrations and Estimates of Glomerular Filtration Rate Based on Creatinine and Cystatin C

AIMS: Dabigatran is largely cleared by renal excretion. Renal function is thus a major determinant of trough dabigatran concentrations, which correlate with the risk of thromboembolic and haemorrhagic outcomes. Current dabigatran dosing guidelines use the Cockcroft–Gault (CG) equation to gauge renal function, instead of contemporary equations including the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equations employing creatinine (CKD-EPI_Cr), cystatin C (CKD-EPI_Cys) and both renal biomarkers (CKD-EPI_CrCys). METHODS: A linear regression model including the dabigatran etexilate maintenance dose rate, relevant interacting drugs and genetic polymorphisms (including CES1), was used to analyse the relationship between the values from each renal function equation and trough steady-state plasma dabigatran concentrations. RESULTS: The median dose-corrected trough steady-state plasma dabigatran concentration in 52 patients (38–94 years) taking dabigatran etexilate was 60 µg/L (range 9–279). The dose-corrected trough concentration in a patient on phenytoin and phenobarbitone was >3 standard deviations below the cohort mean. The CG, CKD-EPI_Cr, CKD-EPI_Cys and CKD-EPI_CrCys equations explained (R(2), 95 % CI) 32 % (9–55), 37 % (12–60), 41 % (16–64) and 47 % (20–69) of the variability in dabigatran concentrations between patients, respectively. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) comparing the R(2) values for each equation was not statistically significant (p = 0.74). DISCUSSION: Estimates of renal function using the four equations accounted for 32–47 % of the variability in dabigatran concentrations between patients. We are the first to provide evidence that co-administration of phenytoin/phenobarbitone with dabigatran etexilate is associated with significantly reduced dabigatran exposure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40268-014-0045-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

A Model for Spheroid Versus Monolayer Response of SK-N-SH Neuroblastoma Cells to Treatment with 15-Deoxy-PGJ 2

Researchers have observed that response of tumor cells to treatment varies depending on whether the cells are grown in monolayer, as in vitro spheroids or in vivo. This study uses data from the literature on monolayer treatment of SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells with 15-deoxy-PGJ 2 and couples it with data on growth rates for untreated SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells grown as multicellular spheroids. A linear model is constructed for untreated and treated monolayer data sets, which is tuned to growth, death, and cell cycle data for the monolayer case for both control and treatment with 15-deoxy-PGJ 2. The monolayer model is extended to a five-dimensional nonlinear model of in vitro tumor spheroid growth and treatment that includes compartments of the cell cycle (G 1, S, G 2/M) as well as quiescent (Q) and necrotic (N) cells. Monolayer treatment data for 15-deoxy-PGJ 2 is used to derive a prediction of spheroid response under similar treatments. For short periods of treatment, spheroid response is less pronounced than monolayer response. The simulations suggest that the difference in response to treatment of monolayer versus spheroid cultures observed in laboratory studies is a natural consequence of tumor spheroid physiology rather than any special resistance to treatment