170 research outputs found
The Role of Innate APOBEC3G and Adaptive AID Immune Responses in HLA-HIV/SIV Immunized SHIV Infected Macaques
No full textThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
The corruption of a republic
No full textEminent Indian psychoanalyst and social commentator Dr Ashis Nandy found himself in the middle of a controversy recently after he made a few remarks on corruption at a session entitled ‘The Republic of Ideas’ at the Jaipur literary festival, 24– 28 January 2013. Author and publisher of Tehelka magazine Tarun Tejpal spoke of corruption as an equalising force, to which Dr Nandy said:
Just a response to this part, very briefly. He’s not saying the most important part of the story, which will shock you and it will be a very undignified and, how should I put it, almost vulgar statement on my part. It is a fact that most of the corrupt come from the OBCs (Other Backward Classes) and the Scheduled Castes and now increasingly Scheduled Tribes and as long as this is the case, the Indian republic will survive.
A journalist present at the panel took up this statement, which was later endlessly replayed on a 24-hour television news channel. Dalit organisations and activists protested against Dr Nandy. Not surprisingly, considering the upcoming elections in some key states, some politicians jumped into the fray and called for Dr Nandy’s arrest. In India anti-Dalit speech is punishable under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, and is a non-bailable offence. There were demonstrations and police complaints were filed against him in three different locations. Fearing physical harm and the possibility of imprisonment, Dr Nandy and his family went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of India did grant a stay order on the arrest warrants against him, but at the same time the Chief Justice of India told Dr Nandy’s lawyer ‘Whatever your intent, you can’t go on making statements. Tell your client he has no license to make such comments.’
The Indian social media and blogsphere exploded, with various arguments emerging on behalf of and against Dr Nandy. The most common complaint against Dr Nandy is that he was casteist, and that he had stereotyped Dalits. Such complaints came even from those defending him. A passionate critique by Anoop Kumar outlined Dalit oppression in India and accused specific media personalities of defending Dr Nandy instead of interrogating ‘upper caste anxieties’. There are blogs that, while disagreeing with Dr Nandy, argue for his right to express his opinion and to ‘be wrong’. There are those who argue that his remarks were made in humour, and lament the dearth of an understanding of wit, satire or irony.6 While the case seems to be closed after the Supreme Court judgment, there is still debate about whether this was a victory for freedom of speech or another instance of the way in which the upper castes in India can get away with any derogatory statement against the lower castes.
The freedom of speech argument is unsatisfying. The difference between ‘provocative speech that forces you to think’ and ‘provocative speech that is intended to hurt, denigrate or provoke’ is very context dependent. The intention of any speaker is not only difficult to prove, but also difficult to know. I would like to base my defence of Dr Nandy neither on his right to say what was on his mind, nor on his intention. Instead, I would suggest that his remarks should be understood through a discussion of corruption, and the way in which Dr Nandy uses the term.
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Shvetal Vyas is a PhD student in the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia
Author Correction: Ultra-long-acting in-situ forming implants with cabotegravir protect female macaques against rectal SHIV infection
No full textCorrection to "Ultra-long-acting in-situ forming implants with cabotegravir protect female macaques against rectal SHIV infection
Towards sustainable building solutions: Development of hemp shiv-based green insulation material
No full textThere is currently a growing need for sustainable and environmentally friendly materials. One promising candidate is hemp shiv, which is considered waste material. hemp shiv exhibits lightweight properties and high insulation capabilities. This study focuses on the development of a material based in hemp shiv, recycled cardboard fibers is used as binder material, with the addition of a vegetable coating (colophony and arabic gum) for moisture protection and citric acid to enhance cellulose crosslinking. Thermal insulation properties were assessed measuring the heat transfer through the material. Acoustic insulation properties were evaluated using a Kundt tube within a frequency range of 100–6500 Hz. Mechanical tests, including compression, shear, and bending, were performed to assess the material’s strength. Additionally, moisture and fire resistance properties, as well as microstructure analysis, were examined. The influence of citric acid in the cellulose crosslinking was verified using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy. Results demonstrated that a higher percentage of hemp shiv content led to improved insulation performance, achieving attenuation values greater than 0.85– 0.95 dB/dB and a thermal conductivity of 0.02–0.03 W/m K. These findings indicate a great performance compared to commercial materials. The coating shields the material from external factors. It was observed that the citric acid does not react with hemp shiv.This research was funded by ACCIÓ grant number VALSUCANEM ACE014/20/000024 and PID2020-114070RB-I00 (CELLECOPROD) project, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033. The corresponding author is partially granted through the FPU-UPC scholarship, 2021. The fourth author is a Serra Húnter fellow.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesPostprint (author's final draft
Heterogeneous antiretroviral drug distribution and HIV/SHIV detection in the gut of three species
No full textHIV replication within tissues may increase in response to a reduced exposure to antiretroviral drugs. Traditional approaches to measuring drug concentrations in tissues are unable to characterize a heterogeneous drug distribution. Here, we used mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) to visualize the distribution of six HIV antiretroviral drugs in gut tissue sections from three species (two strains of humanized mice, macaques, and humans). We measured drug concentrations in proximity to CD3+ T cells that are targeted by HIV, as well as expression of HIV or SHIV RNA and expression of the MDR1 drug efflux transporter in gut tissue from HIV-infected humanized mice, SHIV-infected macaques, and HIV-infected humans treated with combination antiretroviral drug therapy. Serial 10-μm sections of snap-frozen ileal and rectal tissue were analyzed by MSI for CD3+ T cells and MDR1 efflux transporter expression by immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The tissue slices were analyzed for HIV/SHIV RNA expression by in situ hybridization and for antiretroviral drug concentrations by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The gastrointestinal tissue distribution of the six drugs was heterogeneous. Fifty percent to 60% of CD3+ T cells did not colocalize with detectable drug concentrations in the gut tissue. In all three species, up to 90% of HIV/SHIV RNA was found to be expressed in gut tissue with no exposure to drug. These data suggest that there may be gut regions with little to no exposure to antiretroviral drugs, which may result in low-level HIV replication contributing to HIV persistence
Adaptation as ‘Climate-Smart’ Development
No full textShiv Someshwar argues that adaptation efforts have taken climate scenarios of the future, over vast spatial scales, as the key framing device, leading primarily to general statements about the need to manage long-term impacts. National policymakers, who are under tremendous pressure to deliver actual development in the face of climate risks, are not well served by this approach. The author proposes five principles to help frame adaptation efforts. They involve managing current climate risks, and for the longer term, a ‘climate-smart’ approach, providing primacy to finding solutions to place-based development risks from climate. Such an approach, which utilizes learning from managing current climate risks for the management of longer term climate risks to development, would be better placed for traction with real-world development programmes, and would provide much needed succour to the lives of the poor and marginal communities who will bear the brunt of impacts from a changing climate. Development (2008) 51, 366–374. doi:10.1057/dev.2008.31
Experimental assessment of hemp shiv and green adhesives to produce a biocomposite material
No full textThis study investigates the utilization of innovative green composites made from hemp shiv, a waste by-product of hemp cultivation, with the aim of promoting sustainability within the construction industry. The manufacturing method involve the application of pressure in a mold to create the samples. These materials were produced using an environmentally friendly binder consisting of colophony, arabic gum and corn starch, moreover white glue and bioepoxy are also used to compare with the green resins. Three different binder compositions for the specimens. The samples underwent mechanical testing through tensile and bending assessments, and their performance was compared to that of non-green binders to validate the effectiveness of the manufacturing processes. The study revealed that decreasing the moisture content during the curing process is crucial for improving the mechanical properties. The best results were achieved when using arabic gum as a binder, yielding a tensile strength of 2.16 MPa and a bending strength of 5.25 MPa, with a composition of 62.5% hemp shiv and a manufacturing process involving a pressure of 5 MPa.Thisresearch was funded by ACCIÓ grant number VALSUCANEM ACE014/20/000024. The corresponding author was partially supported through a FPU-UPC scholarship, 2021. The third author is a Serra Húnter fellow.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesPostprint (author's final draft
An experimental comparison of partitioning strategies in distributed graph processing
No full textIn this thesis, we study the problem of choosing among partitioning strategies in distributed graph processing systems.
To this end, we evaluate and characterize both the performance and resource usage of different partitioning strategies under various popular distributed graph processing systems, applications, input graphs, and execution environments.
Through our experiments, we found that no single partitioning strategy is the best fit for all situations, and that the choice of partitioning strategy has a significant effect on resource usage and application run-time.
Our experiments demonstrate that the choice of partitioning strategy depends on (1) the degree distribution of input graph, (2) the type and duration of the application, and (3) the cluster size.
Based on our results, we present rules of thumb to help users pick the best partitioning strategy for their particular use cases. We present results from each system, as well as from all partitioning strategies implemented in two common systems (PowerLyra and GraphX).Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-05-01The student, Shiv Verma, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-17 at 19:28.The student, Shiv Verma, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2017-04-17 at 19:40.This Thesis was approved for publication on 2017-04-24 at 09:06.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10830 on 2017-08-10 at 15:05:59Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T20:33:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Protective efficacy of a global HIV-1 mosaic vaccine against heterologous SHIV challenges in rhesus monkeys
No full textFull author list omitted for brevity. For the full list of authors, see article.The global diversity of HIV-1 represents a critical challenge facing HIV-1 vaccine development. HIV-1 mosaic antigens are bioinformatically optimized immunogens designed for improved coverage of HIV-1 diversity. However, the protective efficacy of such global HIV-1 vaccine antigens has not previously been evaluated. Here, we demonstrate the capacity of bivalent HIV-1 mosaic antigens to protect rhesus monkeys against acquisition of infection following heterologous challenges with the difficult-to-neutralize simian-human immunodeficiency virus SHIV-SF162P3. Adenovirus/poxvirus and adenovirus/adenovirus vector-based vaccines expressing HIV-1 mosaic Env, Gag, and Pol afforded a significant reduction in the per-exposure acquisition risk following repetitive, intrarectal SHIV-SF162P3 challenges. Protection against acquisition of infection correlated with vaccine-elicited binding, neutralizing, and functional nonneutralizing antibodies, suggesting that the coordinated activity of multiple antibody functions may contribute to protection against difficult-to-neutralize viruses. These data demonstrate the protective efficacy of HIV-1 mosaic antigens and suggest a potential strategy for the development of a global HIV-1 vaccine. PAPERCLIP
Polyelectrolyte complex barrier meshes for the prevention of abdominal adhesions
No full textAdhesions are a painful and expensive result of abdominal surgeries, specifically in the peritoneal cavity. This complication is surprisingly common and requires a second surgery, adhesiolysis, to remove it. Current solutions to adhesions either lack efficacy or produce an inflammatory response in the peritoneum. This project focuses on developing a post-surgical adhesion prevention polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) to both combat the problem of adhesions and promote an anti-inflammatory response. Initially, material properties of the PEC were investigated. Fibroblasts and macrophage cell viabilities were also studied on the PEC since both cell types play a central role in adhesion formation and inflammation. Finally, preliminary in-vivo studies were conducted to determine the true capability of the material as a post-surgical adhesion prevention method.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Shiv A. Mistr
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