Resilient widowed older adults and their family and friend relations

This study examined the relationship of family and friends to the resiliency of older widows. Data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) survey (Waite et al., 2007), which sampled persons 57-85 years of age (n = 3005), was used. It was hypothesized that older widows have greater breadth and depth of family and friend relationships than older married adults. Multiple regression analysis results revealed that older widows engaged more frequently in family and friend relations compared to older married adults, possibly enabling greater resilience to widowhood

Functionality Requirements for Fleet Management System

The project aims to identify the functional requirements of fleet management system with Unified Modelling Language (UML). Three main phases were involved in this project, which are defining requirements, analyze requirements and validate functionalities. The functionalities of requirement are presented by using UML diagrams that consists of use case diagram, use case specification, sequence diagram, collaboration diagram and class diagram. The prototype was built to provide a guideline in developing the running system of Fleet Management System on user’s needs

Towards a Model of Quarks and Leptons

We propose an extra-dimension framework on the orbifold $S^1/Z_2$ for understanding the origin of the fermion mass and mixing hierarchies. Introducing the flavor symmetry $G_F(=${\it non-Abelian}$\times${\it Abelian}) as well as the extra gauged $U(1)$ symmetries through the bulk, we regard the $SU(2)$ singlet and doublet fermions in the Standard Model (SM) to be localized at the separate 3-branes and let the extra $SU(2)$ singlet flavored fermions in the bulk couple to the SM fermions at the 3-branes. The extra $U(1)$ symmetries satisfy the $U(1)$ gravitational anomaly-free condition, playing a crucial role in achieving the desirable fermion mass and mixing hierarchies and making the flavored axion naturally light. The singlet scalar fields, the flavon fields, are responsible for the spontaneous breaking of $G_F$ on the two 3-branes, while the $SU(2)$ singlet flavored fermions are integrated out to give rise to the effective Yukawa couplings for the SM fermions, endowed with the information of $G_F$ breaking in the two sectors. The flavored axion from the PQ symmetry is also proposed for solving the strong CP problem and being a dark matter candidate in our model.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

A Study on the Effect on River Habitat Change by small dam removal - A Case Study of Gokreung 2 & Gotan Small Dam Removal

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Simulated microgravity with floating environment promotes migration of non-small cell lung cancers

A migration of cancer is one of the most important factors affecting cancer therapy. Particularly, a cancer migration study in a microgravity environment has gained attention as a tool for developing cancer therapy. In this study, we evaluated the proliferation and migration of two types (adenocarcinoma A549, squamous cell carcinoma H1703) of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) in a floating environment with microgravity. When we measured proliferation of two NSCLCs in the microgravity (MG) and ground-gravity (CONT), although initial cell adhesion in MG was low, a normalized proliferation rate of A549 in MG was higher than that in CONT. Wound healing results of A549 and H1703 showed rapid recovery in MG; particularly, the migration rate of A549 was faster than that of H1703 both the normal and low proliferating conditions. Gene expression results showed that the microgravity accelerated the migration of NSCLC. Both A549 and H1703 in MG highly expressed the migration-related genes MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 compared to CONT at 24 h. Furthermore, analysis of MMP-2 protein synthesis revealed weaker metastatic performance of H1703 than that of A549. Therefore, the simulated microgravity based cancer culture environment will be a potential for migration and metastasis studies of lung cancers

CVD-grown monolayer MoS2 in bioabsorbable electronics and biosensors

Transient electronics entails the capability of electronic components to dissolve or reabsorb in a controlled manner when used in biomedical implants. Here, the authors perform a systematic study of the processes of hydrolysis, bioabsorption, cytotoxicity and immunological biocompatibility of monolayer MoS2

Pre-set extrusion bioprinting for multiscale heterogeneous tissue structure fabrication

Recent advances in three-dimensional bioprinting technology have led to various attempts in fabricating human tissue-like structures. However, current bioprinting technologies have limitations for creating native tissue-like structures. To resolve these issues, we developed a new pre-set extrusion bioprinting technique that can create heterogeneous, multicellular, and multimaterial structures simultaneously. The key to this ability lies in the use of a precursor cartridge that can stably preserve a multimaterial with a pre-defined configuration that can be simply embedded in a syringe-based printer head. The multimaterial can be printed and miniaturized through a micro-nozzle without conspicuous deformation according to the pre-defined configuration of the precursor cartridge. Using this system, we fabricated heterogeneous tissue-like structures such as spinal cords, hepatic lobule, blood vessels, and capillaries. We further obtained a heterogeneous patterned model that embeds HepG2 cells with endothelial cells in a hepatic lobule-like structure. In comparison with homogeneous and heterogeneous cell printing, the heterogeneous patterned model showed a well-organized hepatic lobule structure and higher enzyme activity of CYP3A4. Therefore, this pre-set extrusion bioprinting method could be widely used in the fabrication of a variety of artificial and functional tissues or organs

Long-term outcome of Bartter syndrome in 54 patients: A multicenter study in Korea

IntroductionBartter syndrome (BS) is a rare salt-wasting tubulopathy caused by mutations in genes encoding sodium, potassium, or chloride transporters of the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle and/or the distal convoluted tubule of the kidney. BS is characterized by polyuria, failure to thrive, hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, hyperreninemia, and hyperaldosteronism. Potassium and/or sodium supplements, potassium-sparing diuretics, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to treat BS. While its symptoms and initial management are relatively well known, long-term outcomes and treatments are scarce.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 54 Korean patients who were clinically or genetically diagnosed with BS from seven centers in Korea.ResultsAll patients included in this study were clinically or genetically diagnosed with BS at a median age of 5 (range, 0–271) months, and their median follow-up was 8 (range, 0.5–27) years. Genetic diagnosis of BS was confirmed in 39 patients: 4 had SLC12A1 gene mutations, 1 had KCNJ1 gene mutations, 33 had CLCNKB gene mutations, and 1 had BSND mutation. Potassium chloride supplements and potassium-sparing diuretics were administered in 94% and 68% of patients, respectively. The mean dosage of potassium chloride supplements was 5.0 and 2.1 mEq/day/kg for patients younger and older than 18 years, respectively. Nephrocalcinosis was a common finding of BS, and it also improved with age in some patients. At the last follow-up of 8 years after the initial diagnosis, 41% had short stature (height less than 3rd percentile) and impaired kidney function was observed in six patients [chronic kidney disease (CKD) G3, n = 4; CKD G5, n = 2].ConclusionBS patients require a large amount of potassium supplementation along with potassium-sparing agents throughout their lives, but tend to improve with age. Despite management, a significant portion of this population exhibited growth impairment, while 11% developed CKD G3–G5