1,086 research outputs found
Combat Veterans, Mental Health Issues, and the Death Penalty: Addressing the Impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury
More than 1.5 million Americans have participated in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past seven years. Some of these veterans have subsequently committed capital crimes and found themselves in our nation’s criminal justice system. This Essay argues that combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury at the time of their offenses should not be subject to the death penalty. Offering mitigating evidence regarding military training, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury presents one means that combat veterans may use to argue for their lives during the sentencing phase of their trials. Alternatively, Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons offer a framework for establishing a legislatively or judicially created categorical exclusion for these offenders, exempting them from the death penalty as a matter of law. By understanding how combat service and service-related injuries affect the personal culpability of these offenders, the legal system can avoid the consequences of sentencing to death America’s mentally wounded warriors, ensuring that only the worst offenders are subject to the ultimate punishment
How Do Software Startups Pivot? Empirical Results from a Multiple Case Study
In order to handle intense time pressure and survive in dynamic market,
software startups have to make crucial decisions constantly on whether to
change directions or stay on chosen courses, or in the terms of Lean Startup,
to pivot or to persevere. The existing research and knowledge on software
startup pivots are very limited. In this study, we focused on understanding the
pivoting processes of software startups, and identified the triggering factors
and pivot types. To achieve this, we employed a multiple case study approach,
and analyzed the data obtained from four software startups. The initial
findings show that different software startups make different types of pivots
related to business and technology during their product development life cycle.
The pivots are triggered by various factors including negative customer
feedback.Comment: Conference publication, International Conference on Software Business
(ICSOB'16), Sloveni
IL RECETTORE DELLA DOPAMINA DI TIPO 2 (DRD2) INIBISCE LA MIGRAZIONE DI CELLULE DI ADENOMA IPOFISARIO NON SECERNENTE TRAMITE INATTIVAZIONE DI COFILINA
Non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPAs) are benign in nature, frequently present local invasiveness that strongly reduces neurosurgery success. Medical therapy is still under debate, although evidences indicate that dopamine (DA) receptor 2 (DRD2) agonists induce tumor shrinkage in some patients. Aims of this study were: to evaluate the effect of DR2D agonist BIM53097 on migration and invasion of NFPA cells, and to investigate the molecular mechanisms regulating the motility of these cells, focusing on the role of cofilin, an actin severing protein involved in actin reorganization.
Our data demonstrated that BIM53097 incubation significantly reduced cell migration (42\ub16% p<0.05) and invasion (32\ub12%, p<0.01) and increased about 4-fold cofilin phosphorylation at Ser3 in a subset of NFPAs, these data being replicated in HP75 cells. Both these effects were completely abolished by ROCK inhibitor Y-27632. The overexpression of wild type or phospho-deficient (S3A) cofilin in HP75 cells increased cell migration (49\ub16% and 57\ub19% increase vs empty vector, respectively, p<0.05), suggesting a causal role for active (dephosphorylated) cofilin in cell motility. In agreement, invasive NFPAs showed lower phospho-cofilin/total cofilin ratio with respect to non invasive tumors.
In conclusion, our data reveal that DRD2 agonist reduced NFPA cells migration through a molecular mechanism that involves ROCK-dependent phosphorylation of cofilin, and suggest that cofilin phosphorylation status might be a molecular marker associated with the invasive behaviour of NFPAs
Complement system network in cell physiology and in human diseases
The complement system is a multi-functional system representing the first line host defense against pathogens in innate immune response, through three different pathways. Impairment of its function, consisting in deficiency or excessive deregulated activation, may lead to severe systemic infections or autoimmune disorders. These diseases may be inherited or acquired. Despite many diagnostic tools are currently available, ranging from traditional, such as hemolytic or ELISA based assays, to innovative ones, like next generation sequencing techniques, these diseases are often not recognized. As for therapeutic aspects, strategies based on the use of targeted drugs are now widespread. The aim of this review is to present an updated overview of complement system pathophysiology, clinical implications of its dysfunction and to summarize diagnostic and therapeutic approaches
Underserved Populations in the United States: Research, Response and Resilience
Angelo P. Giardino, Robert Sanborn, William V. Flores and E. Christopher Lloyd discuss the latest issue of the Journal of Family Strengths
Constraints on the Universal Varying Yukawa Couplings: from SM-like to Fermiophobic
Varying the Standard Model (SM) fermion Yukawa couplings universally by a
generic positive scale factor (), we study the phenomenological fit to
the current available experimental results for the Higgs boson search at hadron
colliders. We point out that the Higgs production cross section and its decay
branching ratio to can be varied oppositely by to make
their product almost invariant. Thus, our scenario and the SM Higgs are
indistinguishable in the inclusive channel. The current
measurements on direct Yukawa coupling strength in the
channel are not precise enough to fix the scale factor . The most
promising is the vector-boson-fusion channel in which the CMS has already
observed possible suppression effect on the Yukawa couplings. Further more, the
global fit of the experimental data can get the optimal value by
introducing a suppression factor on the SM Yukawa couplings.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, update analysis is supplemente
Spectrophotometric properties of dwarf planet Ceres from the VIR spectrometer on board the Dawn mission
We study the spectrophotometric properties of dwarf planet Ceres in the
VIS-IR spectral range by means of hyper-spectral images acquired by the VIR
imaging spectrometer on board the NASA Dawn mission. Disk-resolved observations
with a phase angle within the interval were used
to characterize Ceres' phase curve in the 0.465-4.05 m spectral range.
Hapke's model was applied to perform the photometric correction of the dataset,
allowing us to produce albedo and color maps of the surface. The -band
magnitude phase function of Ceres was fitted with both the classical linear
model and H-G formalism. The single-scattering albedo and the asymmetry
parameter at 0.55m are and ,
respectively (two-lobe Henyey-Greenstein phase function); the modeled geometric
albedo is ; the roughness parameter is
. Albedo maps indicate small variability
on a global scale with an average reflectance of . Isolated
areas such as the Occator bright spots, Haulani, and Oxo show an albedo much
higher than average. We measure a significant spectral phase reddening, and the
average spectral slope of Ceres' surface after photometric correction is
and at VIS and IR wavelengths, respectively.
Broadband color indices are and . H-G
modeling of the -band magnitude phase curve for gives
and , while the classical linear model provides
and . The comparison with
spectrophotometric properties of other minor bodies indicates that Ceres has a
less back-scattering phase function and a slightly higher albedo than comets
and C-type objects. However, the latter represents the closest match in the
usual asteroid taxonomy.Comment: 14 pages, 20 figures, published online on Astronomy and Astrophysics
on 13 February 2017. Revised to reflect minor changes in text and figures
made in proofs, updated value of V-R and R-
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