30233 research outputs found
Sort by
A Combined LC-MS and Immunoassay Approach to Characterize Preservative-Induced Destabilization of Human Papillomavirus Virus-like Particles Adsorbed to an Aluminum-Salt Adjuvant (Dataset)
No full textDuring the multi-dose formulation development of recombinant vaccine candidates, protein antigens can be destabilized by antimicrobial preservatives (APs). The degradation mechanisms are often poorly understood since available analytical tools are limited due to low protein concentrations and the presence of adjuvants. In this work, we evaluate different analytical approaches to monitor the structural integrity of HPV16 VLPs adsorbed to Alhydrogel™ (AH) in the presence and absence of APs (i.e., destabilizing m-cresol, MC or non-destabilizing chlorobutanol, CB) under accelerated conditions (pH 7.4, 50°C). First, in vitro potency losses displayed only modest correlations with the results from two commonly used methods of protein analysis (SDS-PAGE, DSC). Next, results from two alternative analytical approaches provided a better understanding of physicochemical events occurring under these same conditions: (1) competitive ELISA immunoassays with a panel of mAbs against conformational and linear epitopes on HPV16 VLPs, and (2) LC-MS peptide mapping to evaluate the accessibility/redox state of the 12 cysteine residues within each L1 protein compising the HPV16 VLP (i.e., with 360 L1 proteins per VLP, there are 4,320 Cys residues per VLP). These methods expand the limited analytical toolset currently available to characterize AH-adsorbed antigens and provide additional insights into the molecular mechanism(s) of AP-induced destabilization of vaccine antigens
Wind-Induced Vibration Monitoring of High-Mast Illumination Poles Using Wireless Smart Sensors
No full textThis paper describes the use of wireless smart sensors for examining the underlying mechanism for the wind-induced vibration of high-mast illumination pole (HMIP) structures. HMIPs are tall, slender structures with low inherent damping. Video recordings of multiple HMIPs showed considerable vibrations of these HMIPs under wind loading in the state of Kansas. The HMIPs experienced cyclic large-amplitude displacements at the top, which can produce high-stress demand and lead to fatigue cracking at the bottom of the pole. In this study, the natural frequencies of the HMIP were assessed using pluck tests and finite element modeling, and the recorded vibration frequencies were obtained through computer vision-based video analysis. Meanwhile, a 30.48 m tall HMIP with three LED luminaires made of galvanized steel located in Wakeeney, Kansas, was selected for long-term vibration monitoring using wireless smart sensors to investigate the underlying mechanism for the excessive wind-induced vibrations. Data analysis with the long-term monitoring data indicates that while vortex-induced vibration occurs frequently at relatively low amplitude, buffeting-induced vibration was the leading cause of the excessive vibrations of the monitored HMIP. The findings provide crucial information to guide the design of vibration mitigation strategies for these HMIP structures
Elucidating how quorum sensing reprogramming alters cooperativity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at National Diversity in STEM Conference on 11/01/2024.The gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses quorum sensing (QS) to sense and respond to changes in population density. QS in general involves the production of a signal, which binds to a receptor, activating gene expression. In P. aeruginosa the QS receptor LasR activates cooperative activities such as exoprotease production. Like most cooperative behaviors, these activities can be exploited by social cheaters that do not cooperate. If unchecked, cheaters can overrun cooperators and cooperative behaviors can be lost from the population. LasR mutants are a type of cheater. In some P. aeruginosa strains, LasR mutants do not make exoproteases, and are also unable to activate another QS regulator, RhlR. In other strains, RhlR functions in parallel to LasR. In these strains, RhlR can activate protease production. I hypothesize that QS architecture affects cooperator-cheater dynamics. To test this hypothesis, I use an experimental evolution model. In populations serially passaged on casein, which requires digestion by exproteases for carbon and energy, lasR mutants spontaneously emerge and proliferate. I show that lasR mutants are conditional cooperators in strains with parallel QS systems; they fail to grow by themselves at low population density but can produce sufficient exoprotease at high density. I also show that these lasR mutants activate exoprotease production when grown with LasR-intact cooperators; this is a type of coercion of lasR mutants to cooperate. Coercive interactions have implications for the long-term stability of QS. These results have relevance to understanding diverse QS architectures and how cooperative behaviors evolve
Monitoring Training Load and Neuromuscular Fatigue in Professional Male and Female Volleyball Players
No full textVolleyball is considered one of the most popular international team sports. It is a complex game that combines explosive movements and sudden changes of direction with short periods of rest in which players are required to possess adequate physical (e.g., height, body mass) and physiological characteristics (e.g., speed, agility, strength). Over the recent years, with rapid technological growth, various testing modalities (e.g., force plate systems, accelerometers) have been used during volleyball practice sessions and games to obtain a better understanding of training-related adaptations and neuromuscular fatigue, as well as workloads that athletes are exposed to during training and/or competition. However, to this day, there is still a lack of scientific literature encompassing a comprehensive analysis of neuromuscular performance that entails a plethora of force-time metrics during both eccentric and concentric phases of the jumping motion, especially within the male and female collegiate and professional athletes. Thus, the purpose of the following research studies is to: a) assess pre-post changes in force-time metrics during both concentric and eccentric phases of the countermovement vertical jump and determine the relationship between internal and external load variables within a cohort of elite professional male volleyball players, b) examine season-long neuromuscular performance changes in collegiate female volleyball players, and c) examine differences in countermovement vertical jump force- time metrics during both eccentric and concentric phases of the jumping motion across three different competitive levels in female volleyball players (i.e., national team, professional league, collegiate)
Leveraging AF4 chromatography for separation of SNE adjuvants
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at Pittcon on 03/04/2024.Adjuvants are non-antigenic components of vaccines that are included in final drug products to enhance overall immunogenicity and durability. Oil-in-water stable nanoemulsions (SNEs) are a subtype of adjuvants used in commercial and investigational vaccine products. Traditionally, SNEs have been characterized using batched light scattering methods, which have low resolution for complex mixtures. To better characterize SNE population heterogeneity, separation methods coupled with light scattering detection can be used to inform process development. One limitation of traditional separation methods like size-exclusion chromatography is high shear causing nanodroplet degradation. Asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) is an alternative size-based separation method that could be utilized to better characterize SNE samples with low sheer applied to the samples. In this presentation, method development using AF4 for SNE characterization is described. Several parameters are investigated, including elution profile, focusing area, and flow rate. Using the developed method, two products are characterized and method robustness is demonstrated
Best practices for the naming of species
No full textThe process of describing a species has evolved considerably since the modern age of taxonomy was initiated with the publication of the 10th edition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturæ in 1758. Nevertheless, the basic unit of the taxonomic framework remains the species group (species and subspecies). As a result, it is incumbent upon individuals undertaking species-group descriptions to strive for the highest standards, just as it is for reviewers and editors to hold authors to those same standards. The clear and mounting biodiversity crisis, the increasing proliferation of journals, the multiplication of journals publishing only in electronic format, the decline in the number of trained taxonomists, and the complex and at times misinterpreted wording of the rules governing taxonomy have resulted in a growing number of species names that are unavailable because one or more aspects required of a species-level taxonomic description are lacking. Here, we present best practices for the required elements of a taxonomic description and identify some of the common pitfalls leading to an inadequate description resulting in an unavailable name. We also suggest best practices that would enhance taxonomic descriptions and make them more informative.
Resumen
El proceso de descripción de una especie ha evolucionado considerablemente desde que se inició la era moderna de la taxonomía con la publicación de la 10ª edición del Systema Naturæ de Linneo en 1758. No obstante, la unidad básica del marco taxonómico sigue siendo el grupo de la especie, es decir: las especies y subespecies. Por ello, aquellos quienes realizan descripciones de entes en estas categorías taxonómicas deben esforzarse por alcanzar los más altos niveles de calidad, al igual que los revisores y editores, quienes deben exigir a los autores que se atengan a esos mismos niveles. La evidente y creciente crisis de la biodiversidad, la creciente proliferación de revistas, la multiplicación de revistas que publican sólo en formato electrónico, la disminución del número de taxónomos formados y la compleja y a veces malinterpretada redacción de las normas que rigen la taxonomía, conjuntamente han dado lugar a un número cada vez mayor de nombres de especies que no son disponibles desde el punto de vista taxonómico porque faltan uno o más aspectos requeridos por las reglas de nomenclatura taxonómica para una descripción taxonómica a nivel de especie. A continuación, presentamos las mejores prácticas para los elementos requeridos de una descripción taxonómica e identificamos algunos de los escollos comunes que conducen a una descripción inadecuada que resulta en un nombre no disponible, es decir, no válido taxonómicamente. También sugerimos buenas prácticas para mejorar las descripciones taxonómicas y hacerlas más informativas
Social Identity and Voting Behavior in a Deeply Divided Society: The Case of Israel
No full textThis paper examines what best explains political behavior in a deeply divided society. Despite the democratic nature of the Israeli political system, we suggest that Israel’s society is characterized by social affiliations mainly defined by social identity that include race, ethnicity, and religion and amount to tribalism. Based on the results of the 2020 election, we examined whether these social affiliations or other socioeconomic characteristics better explain voting behavior. First, we found a significant correlation between tribalism and voting behavior in Israel and socioeconomic characteristics and voting behavior in Israel. When comparing tribalism’s correlation versus other socioeconomic characteristics, we found that the correlation between tribalism and voting behavior in Israel trumps the correlation between socioeconomic characteristics and voting behavior in Israel, except for the Ashkenazi Jews. In other words, voting behavior is better explained by affiliation to the social group, that is, by kinship, race, ethnicity, and religion, than by other socioeconomic characteristics such as education level, economic status, or geographic location. This extends the idea of “in-group favoritism”
Productivity over Menstrual Justice: Reinforcement of Neoliberal Self Care through the Japanese Government’s Promotion of Femtech
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at The Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) on 09/14/2024.Femtech, or the technologies that help manage women’s reproductive health issues, have rapidly developed in the 2020s. Along with the advantages that these technologies bring, they can serve as temporary solutions for gender inequality in the workplace without offering any long-term resolutions and instead reinforce epistemic injustice. This paper will examine Femtech discourses and promotion strategies in Japan, where Femtech is implemented through various government policies. Femtech promotion in Japan is inseparable from the Basic Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, introduced by the Japanese government in 2015. In this paper, I will demonstrate how the Japanese government’s Femtech promotion strategies marginalize menstruators in various ways. These strategies have several effects: the reinforcing of male dominance in managerial positions; the limiting/restricting of the Femtech target audience to cisgender, heterosexual office-working women with sufficient financial means to afford the technologies and services; and the reinforcing of epistemic injustice whereby menstruators’ bodies are subjected to numerical measurements for the sake of productivity, among others. Analyzing the case study of Japan’s Femtech discourses and promotion strategies, this paper aims to shed light on issues related to gynocolonialism and neoliberal government policies more broadly
Who We Are and How We Talk About Volunteering: Older Adult Volunteers’ Perspective
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at 110th Annual Convention of National Communication Association on 11/22/2024.
.Guided by the theoretical lens of the Communicative Ecology Model of Successful Aging (CEMSA; Fowler et al., 2015), self-categorization theory (SCT; Turner & Reynolds, 2012) and the model of Selection, Optimization with Compensation (SOC; Baltes & Baltes, 1990), we conducted an interview study of 25 older adult volunteers to explore how they discursively managed and negotiated their identity and volunteering experience. Our findings revealed three themes in the older adults’ accounts of volunteering experience: 1) positive characteristics of older adult volunteers, 2) transcendence of negative perceptions of aging through volunteering, and (3) SOC talks of positively managing and negotiate volunteer work
Ten Myths About the Effect of Social Media Use on Well-Being
No full textA grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.This viewpoint reviews the empirical evidence regarding the association between social media use and well-being, including life satisfaction and affective well-being, and the association between social media use and ill-being, including loneliness, anxiety, and depressive symptomology. To frame this discussion, this viewpoint will present 10 widely believed myths about social media, each drawn from popular discourse on the topic. In rebuttal, this viewpoint will offer a warranted claim supported by the research. The goal is to bring popular beliefs into dialogue with state-of-the-art quantitative social scientific evidence. It is the intention of this viewpoint to provide a more accurate and nuanced claim to challenge each myth. This viewpoint will bring attention to the importance of using rigorous scientific evidence to inform public debates about social media use and well-being, especially among adolescents and young adults