2,435 research outputs found
2014 Convocation
Welcome: Robert Hernandez, Director of Student Affairs Pledge of Allegiance: Vinesh Kannan, Student Council President Opening Remarks: Catherine C. Veal, IMSA President; Branson Lawrence Jr., IMSA Principal Featured Musical Piece Sitar: JJ Gregg, Class of 1998 Keynote Address: Ana Tellez, Class of 2002, Interactive Media Director, CommunicatedHealth Inc. Closing Remarks: Branson Lawrence Jr., IMSA Principa
Inflammatory monocytes require type I interferon receptor signaling to activate NK cells via IL-18 during a mucosal viral infection
The requirement of type I interferon (IFN) for natural killer (NK) cell activation in response to viral infection is known, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that type I IFN signaling in inflammatory monocytes, but not in dendritic cells (DCs) or NK cells, is essential for NK cell function in response to a mucosal herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection. Mice deficient in type I IFN signaling, Ifnar(-/-) and Irf9(-/-) mice, had significantly lower levels of inflammatory monocytes, were deficient in IL-18 production, and lacked NK cell-derived IFN-gamma. Depletion of inflammatory monocytes, but not DCs or other myeloid cells, resulted in lower levels of IL-18 and a complete abrogation of NK cell function in HSV-2 infection. Moreover, this resulted in higher susceptibility to HSV-2 infection. Although Il18(-/-) mice had normal levels of inflammatory monocytes, their NK cells were unresponsive to HSV-2 challenge. This study highlights the importance of type I IFN signaling in inflammatory monocytes and the induction of the early innate antiviral response
The Structure of Proteins: Two Hydrogen-Bonded Helical Configurations of the Polypeptide Chain
During the past fifteen years we have been attacking the problem of the structure of proteins in several ways. One of these ways is the complete and accurate determination of the crystal structure of amino acids, peptides, and other simple substances related to proteins, in order that information about interatomic distances, bond angles, and other configurational parameters might be obtained that would permit the reliable prediction of reasonable configurations for the polypeptide chain. We have now used this information to construct two reasonable hydrogen-bonded helical configurations for the polypeptide chain; we think that it is likely that these configurations constitute an important part of the structure of both fibrous and globular proteins, as well as of synthetic polypeptides. A letter announcing their discovery was published last year [1].
The problem that we have set ourselves is that of finding all hydrogen-bonded structures for a single polypeptide chain, in which the residues are equivalent (except for the differences in the side chain R). An amino acid residue (other than glycine) has no symmetry elements. The general operation of conversion of one residue of a single chain into a second residue equivalent to the first is accordingly a rotation about an axis accompanied by translation along the axis. Hence the only configurations for a chain compatible with our postulate of equivalence of the residues are helical configurations. For rotational angle 180° the helical configurations may degenerate to a simple chain with all of the principal atoms, C, C' (the carbonyl carbon), N, and O, in the same plane
A Structured Approach for Synchronising the Applications of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a systematic approach for evaluating the potential failure modes in a system, and is mainly employed in three distinct tasks labelled: (1) Functional FMEA – evaluating those failures associated with product functional definition, (2) Design FMEA – analysing those failures associated with design definition and (3) Process FMEA – assessing potential failures in manufacturing and assembly processes. The lit-erature review has shown limited works on the field of synchronising these different tasks into a working model. To address this gap, this research developed a framework for integrating these tasks of FMEAs, and then qualita-tively validating the proposed framework. This research adopted a semi-structured questionnaire to collect ex-perts’ feedback and validate the proposed framework. The t-test was then employed to evaluate the collected feedback. The findings highlight that the proposed framework is applicable and could facilitate the synchronisa-tion of the different tasks of FMEA. This research presents a methodological approach for executing and synchro-nising FMEAs. Therefore, the proposed framework is practically relevant as an aid for the practitioners in catching the cascading failures and reducing the relevant impact
Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion
Where did the universe come from? Is life a result of chance, or design? If God is loving and all-powerful, why does evil still exist? Is religious belief just a byproduct of undirected evolutionary processes? Or did God make sure humans would evolve in such a way as to believe? Are philosophers closed-minded about religion? And why is so much of philosophy of religion about God-but not about gods? Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion introduces students to some of the major traditional arguments for and against the existence of God. It also includes discussions of some less well-known, but thought-provoking arguments for the existence of God, and one of the most important new challenges to religious belief from the Cognitive Science of Religion. An introductory chapter traces the deep interconnections between philosophy and religion throughout Western history, and a final chapter considers what place there is for non-Western and non-monotheistic religions within contemporary philosophy of religion. Whatever your religious beliefs-or lack of beliefs-we think you will find many of the arguments in this book fascinating to think about, and useful starting points for deeper philosophical discussions
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