2,211 research outputs found
First measurement of low intensity fast neutron background from rock at the Boulby Underground Laboratory
A technique to measure low intensity fast neutron flux has been developed.
The design, calibrations, procedure for data analysis and interpretation of the
results are discussed in detail. The technique has been applied to measure the
neutron background from rock at the Boulby Underground Laboratory, a site used
for dark matter and other experiments, requiring shielding from cosmic ray
muons. The experiment was performed using a liquid scintillation detector. A
6.1 litre volume stainless steel cell was filled with an in-house made liquid
scintillator loaded with Gd to enhance neutron capture. A two-pulse signature
(proton recoils followed by gammas from neutron capture) was used to identify
the neutron events from much larger gamma background from PMTs. Suppression of
gammas from the rock was achieved by surrounding the detector with high-purity
lead and copper. Calibrations of the detector were performed with various gamma
and neutron sources. Special care was taken to eliminate PMT afterpulses and
correlated background events from the delayed coincidences of two pulses in the
Bi-Po decay chain. A four month run revealed a neutron-induced event rate of
1.84 +- 0.65 (stat.) events/day. Monte Carlo simulations based on the GEANT4
toolkit were carried out to estimate the efficiency of the detector and the
energy spectra of the expected proton recoils. From comparison of the measured
rate with Monte Carlo simulations the flux of fast neutrons from rock was
estimated as (1.72 +- 0.61 (stat.) +- 0.38 (syst.))*10^(-6) cm^(-2) s^(-1)
above 0.5 MeV.Comment: 37 pages, 24 figures, to be published in Astroparticle Physic
âHandle with careâ: literature, archaeology, slavery
This article examines the relationship between literary and bioarchaeological approaches to slavery, and investigates how the methods and priorities of each discipline might inform each other in understanding what it was like to be enslaved. Both bioarchaeologists and creative writers have attempted to access the inner lives of enslaved people, yet there has been little interaction between these disciplines. This paper offers an account of an interdisciplinary research project which brought together a literary scholar, two archaeological scientists and seven creative writers to explore how writing might not only communicate a history primarily understood through archaeological evidence, but could itself inform approaches to that evidence. We discuss two key themes which emerged from the project as ways of opening up, rather than claiming, the past: Conversation and Caring. These are themes which were also crucial to the success of the interdisciplinary process, as it was only through attention to our relationships with each other that we were ultimately able to begin to reassess the nature of material in each of our disciplines.AHR
Cultural health assets of Somali and Oromo refugees and immigrants in Minnesota: Findings from a community-based participatory research project
This community-based participatory research study sought to identify the cultural health assets of the Somali and Oromo communities in one Minnesota neighborhood that could be mobilized to develop culturally appropriate health interventions. Community asset mappers conducted 76 interviews with Somali and Oromo refugees in in Minnesota regarding the cultural assets of their community. A community-university data analysis team coded data for major themes. Key cultural health assets of the Somali and Oromo refugee communities revealed in this study include religion and religious beliefs, religious and cultural practices, a strong culture of sharing, interconnectedness, the prominence of oral traditions, traditional healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, traditional foods and medicine, and a strong cultural value placed on health. These cultural health assets can be used as building blocks for culturally relevant health interventions.published_or_final_versio
Transiently silencing genes associated with voluntary physical activity using intravenous injection of Vivoâmorpholinos
Physical inactivity has been associated with several diseases and conditions with multiple candidate genes proposed to regulate voluntary physical activity. However, there has not been a reliable method to silence candidate genes in vivo to determine causal mechanisms of physical activity regulation. The novel molecular biology tool, Vivoâmorpholinos, is a potential method to transiently silence specific genes. Thus, the aim of this study was to validate the use of Vivoâmorpholinos in a mouse model for voluntary physical activity with several subâobjectives. We observed that Vivomorpholinos achieved between 60 â 97% knockdown of Drd1â, Vmat2â, and Glut4âprotein in skeletal muscle, the delivery moiety of Vivoâmorpholinos (scramble) did not influence physical activity and that a cocktail of multiple Vivoâmorpholinos can be given in a single treatment to achieve protein knockdown of two different targeted proteins in skeletal muscle simultaneously. Knocking down Drd1, Vmat2, or Glut4 protein in skeletal muscle did not affect physical activity. Vivoâmorpholinos injected intravenously alone did not significantly knockdown Vmat2âprotein expression in the brain (p=0.28). However, the use of a bradykinin analog to increase bloodâbrainâbarrier permeability in conjunction with the Vivomorpholinos significantly (p=0.0001) decreased Vmat2âprotein in the brain with a corresponding later overâexpression of Vmat2 coincident with a significant (p=0.0016) increase in physical activity. We conclude that with appropriate research design, Vivoâmorpholinos can be a valuable tool in determining causal geneâphenotype relationships in whole animal models
Evaluation of a Vivo-Morpholino Delivery Method to the Brain and the Affect on Physical Activity
Evaluation of a Vivo-Morpholino Delivery Method to the Brain and the Affect on Physical Activity
*David P. Ferguson MS, Emily E. Schmitt MS, J. Timothy Lightfoot PhD FACSM
Biology of Physical Activity Lab, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843
*To be judged in the doctoral category
Physical inactivity has been shown to be correlated to various disease and conditions. Therefore, there is interest in the genetic mechanisms that control daily physical activity. Vivo-morpholinos are a new molecular biology tool that allows for the transient silencing of specific genes in an animal model, thereby allowing for a systematic method to turn off potential candidate genes involved in the regulation of physical activity. Vivo-morpholinos have not been shown to be effective at silencing genes in the brain due to the fact that the vivo-morpholino cannot cross the blood brain barrier. To counteract this, a tail vein injection (55 ul total volume; 11mg/kg vivo-morpholino; 6.5ug/kg RMP7) was given on three consecutive days containing the bradykinin analog RMP7 and a vivo-morpholino targeting Vmat2 to male C57/LJ mice (n=6). RMP7 has been shown to increase blood brain barrier permeability while Vmat2 is a dopamine transporter and is thought to be involved in the regulation of voluntary physical activity. Control animals received either RMP7 plus saline (n=6) or RMP7 plus a vivo-morpholino âscrambleâ control (n=6). Physical activity was measured by wheel running. Results showed there was not a significant (p=0.24) knockdown in Vmat2 in the brain with RMP7 administration as compared to control animals. Interestingly there was a significant (p=0.001) knockdown in daily physical activity in the Vmat2 treated animals compared to the control group. RMP7 may still be a viable option for vivo-morpholino delivery in the brain; however an increased dosage may be required
SCUBA - A submillimetre camera operating on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
The Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) is one of a new
generation of cameras designed to operate in the submillimetre waveband. The
instrument has a wide wavelength range covering all the atmospheric
transmission windows between 300 and 2000 microns. In the heart of the
instrument are two arrays of bolometers optimised for the short (350/450
microns) and long (750/850 microns) wavelength ends of the submillimetre
spectrum. The two arrays can be used simultaneously, giving a unique
dual-wavelength capability, and have a 2.3 arc-minute field of view on the sky.
Background-limited performance is achieved by cooling the arrays to below 100
mK. SCUBA has now been in active service for over a year, and has already made
substantial breakthroughs in many areas of astronomy. In this paper we present
an overview of the performance of SCUBA during the commissioning phase on the
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT).Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures (1 JPEG), Proc SPIE vol 335
Radical change and dietary conservatism: Mixing model estimates of human diets along the Inner Asia and Chinaâs mountain corridors
Recent research has demonstrated that a series of mountains from the eastern Iranian Plateau to eastern Kazakhstan and to western China played a significant role in trans-Eurasian exchange during the third and second millennia BC. In close association with these mountain corridors, a number of southwestern Asian cereals, notably free threshing wheat and barley, moved eastward, and broomcorn millet, among other plant foods originating in China, moved westward. In this paper, we apply Bayesian stable isotope mixing models to published and newly obtained isotopic data in order to quantitatively estimate the contribution of different food resources to human diets, and we consider the complexity of human food strategies at both ends of these mountain corridors: southern Kazakhstan and the Hexi Corridor in western China. Our results contrast the rapid adoption of wheat and/or barley in the Hexi Corridor with the gradual, incremental adoption of millet in southern Kazakhstan during the second millennium BC.The authors are grateful to European Research Council, under grant 24964 (FOGLIP), Washington University Deanery Office Grant, American Association of University Women (AAUW), International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) for financial support. We are thankful to Catherine Kneale and James Rolfe from Cambridge for assistance with isotopic analysis. We are also grateful to Pavel Tarasov for helps to the manuscript; and to Professors Mayke Wagner and Pavel Tarasov and Dr Robert Spengler for organizing the workshop, entitled âThe Introduction and Intensification of Agriculture in Central Eurasiaâ, Berlin in 2015
Major histocompatibility complex Iâinduced endoplasmic reticulum stress mediates the secretion of proâinflammatory muscleâderived cytokines
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, to view a copy of the license, see: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I is an important component of intracellular antigen presentation. However, improper expression of MHC I upon the cell surface has been associated with several autoimmune diseases. Myositis is a rare acquired autoimmune disease which targets skeletal muscle, and MHC I overexpression on the surface of muscle fibres and immune cell infiltration are clinical hallmarks. MHC I overexpression may have an important pathogenic role, mediated by the activation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. Given the evidence that muscle is a diverse source of cytokines, we aimed to investigate whether MHC I overexpression can modify the profile of muscleâderived cytokines and what role the ER stress pathway may play. Using C2C12 myoblasts we overexpressed MHC I with a Hâ2kb vector in the presence or absence of salubrinal an ER stress pathway modifying compound. MHC I overexpression induced ER stress pathway activation and elevated cytokine gene expression. MHC I overexpression caused significant release of cytokines and chemokines, which was attenuated in the presence of salubrinal. Conditioned media from MHC I overexpressing cells induced in vitro Tâcell chemotaxis, atrophy of healthy myotubes and modified mitochondrial function, features which were attenuated in the presence of salubrinal. Collectively, these data suggest that MHC I overexpression can induce proâinflammatory cytokine/chemokine release from C2C12 myoblasts, a process which appears to be mediated inâpart by the ER stress pathway.Peer reviewe
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