233 research outputs found
Politics and ideology in a Protestant working class community in Belfast
Get PDFThe thesis considers the politics and ideology of Belfast's
Protestant working class (PKC). It is also conceived as a
contribution to discussions concerning the nature and theory of 'ideology' within the Marxist tradition. Traditional Irish Marxism has been dismissive of the PWC reducing their politics to the protection of marginal privelege sustained by Britain's Imperialist presence. This thesis argues that such a perspective is inadequate.
It is essential to move away from the concept of loyalist ideology as a systematised form of false consciousness, rather it is necessary to look at the ideology of Protestant workers at the level of day to day experiences and practices. Such collectively lived experiences give
the-alternative sets of practices embodied in working class culture. It is therefore important to draw on the sociological tradition of the community study. To fully understand PWC images of society it is necessary to construct the relationship between, local ideologies and
the theoretically developed ideologies, generated by national institutions. In order to do this the thesis looks at the social structure and politics of a particular PWC commmity in Belfast. The thesis then outlines by way of case study how the PWC have reacted to the contemporary political and social situation in Northern Ireland. The
thesis draws on interviews with residents, political activists and paramilitary members. In particular it identifies the politics and ideology of those active in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). In overall terms it highlights
the ideology by which Protestant workers make sense of, and give meaning to, their social and political worlds
Selectivity of Inhibition of N-Succinyl-L, L-diaminopimelic acid desuccinylase in bacteria : the product of dapE-gene is not the target of L-Captopril antimicrobial activity
Get PDFJournal Menu Abstracting and Indexing Aims and Scope Annual Issues Article Processing Charges Articles in Press Author Guidelines Bibliographic Information Contact Information Editorial Board Editorial Workflow Free eTOC Alerts Reviewers Acknowledgment Subscription Information Open Special Issues Published Special Issues Special Issue Guidelines Abstract Full-Text PDF Full-Text HTML Linked References How to Cite this Article Bioinorganic Chemistry and ApplicationsVolume 2011 (2011), Article ID 306465, 6 pagesdoi:10.1155/2011/306465Research ArticleSelectivity of Inhibition of N-Succinyl-L,L-Diaminopimelic Acid Desuccinylase in Bacteria: The product of dapE-gene Is Not the Target of L-Captopril Antimicrobial ActivityNarasimha Rao Uda and Marc CreusDepartment of Chemistry, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 51, Basel 4056, SwitzerlandReceived 22 December 2010; Accepted 21 January 2011Academic Editor: Zheng Dong Copyright © 2011 Narasimha Rao Uda and Marc Creus. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.AbstractThe emergence of bacterial strains that are resistant to virtually all currently available antibiotics underscores the importance of developing new antimicrobial compounds. N-succinyl-L,L-diaminopimelic acid desuccinylase (DapE) is a metallohydrolase involved in the meso-diaminopimelate (mDAP)/lysine biosynthetic pathway necessary for lysine biosynthesis and for building the peptidoglycan cell wall. Because DapE is essential for Gram-negative and some Gram-positive bacteria, DapE has been proposed as a good target for antibiotic development. Recently, L-captopril has been suggested as a lead compound for inhibition of DapE, although its selectivity for this enzyme target in bacteria remains unclear (Gillner et al. (2009)). Here, we tested the selectivity of L-captopril against DapE in bacteria. Since DapE knockout strains of gram-negative bacteria are viable upon chemical supplementation with mDAP, we reasoned that the antimicrobial activity of compounds targeting DapE should be abolished in mDAP-containing media. Although L-captopril had modest antimicrobial activity in Escherichia coli and in Salmonella enterica, to our surprise, inhibition of bacterial growth was independent both of mDAP supplementation and DapE over-expression. We conclude that DapE is not the main target of L-captopril inhibition in these bacteria. The methods implemented here will be useful for screening DapE-selective antimicrobial compounds directly in bacterial cultures
Efikasno određivanje sadržaja undecilenske kiseline u farmaceutskim preparatima: Novi, jednostavan pristup
Get PDFUndecylenic acid (UDA), a medium-chain fatty acid industrially derived from castor oil,
naturally occurs in black elderberry. UDA has attracted significant attention due to diverse
applications in pharmaceutical formulations, particularly as a topical antifungal agent. Recent
research has even hinted potential role of UDA in inducing apoptosis in tumor cells, further
elevating its importance in therapeutic contexts.
The primary objective of this study was to design a rapid and straightforward analytical
method for determining UDA content in commercially available preparations. The presence
of a terminal double bond in UDA enables it to undergo addition reactions, rendering it an
invaluable tool for quantifying UDA concentration in commercial products.The poster presentation of this conference paper was held during the 6th Student Section of the 31st International Conference on Ecological Truth and Environmental Research (EcoTER '24), which took place in Sokobanja, Serbia, from June 18th to 21st, 2024. The presentation was given by the first author, Aleksa Vizi
Avaliação da evapotranspiração real da bacia do alto Rio Negro, região sul brasileira, por meio do modelo SEBAL
Get PDFDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia AmbientalA evapotranspiração desempenha um importante papel no balanço de água e energia entre a superfície e a atmosfera terrestre. Atualmente, técnicas de sensoriamento associadas a modelos hidrológicos são uma alternativa para a representação da evapotranspiração distribuída, frente às dificuldades de medição apresentadas pelos métodos diretos e de espacialização dos resultados obtidos pelos métodos clássicos indiretos, por representarem valores pontuais de localização específica. Nesse contexto, o objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar a distribuição espaço-temporal da evapotranspiração real na bacia do alto Rio Negro (3454 km2), região Sul brasileira, por meio de imagens ASTER aplicadas ao Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL). O uso de imagens ASTER foi em função de sua resolução espacial refinada, tanto na região do visível (15 m), quanto na do infravermelho (30 e 90 m). Através de um mosaico de imagens datadas de 13 e 22 de abril de 2006 e de dados meteorológicos, o SEBAL calculou o fluxo de calor latente para o momento de aquisição das imagens como um residual do balanço de energia da superfície, possibilitando a posterior estimativa da evapotranspiração real em diferentes escalas temporais e sua análise em função dos diferentes usos e coberturas do solo. Os resultados do SEBAL foram comparados com os métodos do balanço hídrico sazonal e do simplificado, respectivamente em escala mensal e anual para 2006. Em escala diária, o SEBAL estimou satisfatoriamente a evapotranspiração em comparação com outros estudos, observando-se os valores médios, em mm.dia-1, de 1,6 (solo exposto claro), 2,2 (área urbana), 2,7 (pastagem), 2,8 (agricultura), 3,3 (solo exposto escuro), 4,2 (floresta nativa), 4,3 (reflorestamento) e 5,0 (água). Os valores de evapotranspiração real mensal e anual podem ter sidos superestimados em decorrência de ter sido utilizada apenas uma imagem de fração evaporativa para extrapolação dos dados. De maneira geral, foram observadas as maiores taxas de evapotranspiração nas áreas de florestas, que cobrem aproximadamente 71% da área da bacia, evidenciando a importância de estudos relacionados à influência da Floresta Ombrófila Mista e de Pinus sp. no balanço hídrico da bacia do alto Rio NegroEvapotranspiration plays an important role in water and energy balance between the land surface and the atmosphere. Currently, remote sensing techniques associated with hydrological models are an alternative to the distributed representation of evapotranspiration, taking into account measurement difficulties presented by the direct methods and difficulty on the spatialization of the results obtained by classical indirect methods, because they represent specific values for specific location. In these circumstances, the objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of actual evapotranspiration in the upper Rio Negro basin (3,454 km2), Southern Brazil, using ASTER images applied to the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL). The ASTER images were used because of their fine spatial resolution both in the visible region (15 m) and in the infrared (30 and 90 m). Through the mosaic of images from April 13th and 22nd, 2006 and the meteorological data, the SEBAL estimated the latent heat flux, for the moment of image acquisition, as a residual of the energy balance of the surface, allowing the subsequent estimation of actual evapotranspiration on different scales and its analysis for different land uses. The results obtained by the SEBAL were compared with the methods of seasonal water balance and simplified water balance, at monthly and annual scale for 2006, respectively. In comparison with other studies, the SEBAL satisfactorily estimated evapotranspiration on a daily basis, showing the average values in mm.day-1, 1.6 (light bare soil), 2.2 (urban area), 2.7 (pasture), 2.8 (agriculture), 3.3 (dark bare soil), 4.2 (native forest), 4.3 (reforestation) and 5.0 (water) Evapotranspiration values were overestimated at monthly and annual scales, probably because only one image of evaporative fraction was used for data extrapolation. In general, forest areas showed the highest rates of evapotranspiration, covering approximately 71% of the basin area. Then, it is indicated the importance of studies related to the influence of Araucaria forest and Pinus sp. on the water balance of the upper Rio Negro basi
Detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Tat protein by aptamer-based biosensors
No full textPreparing for Tissue and Implant Tracking System Implementation in Interventional Radiology
No full textThis quality improvement project addressed workflow inefficiencies and regulatory risks in the tissue and implant tracking process within the Interventional Radiology (IR) department at a hospital system in the Intermountain West. The existing system lacked interoperability with the electronic health record (EHR), contributing to manual workarounds and increased documentation burden. The project\u27s primary aim was to conduct preparatory activities to support the future implementation of a more efficient and interoperable tracking system. Actions taken included: (1) development and attempted distribution of a staff survey to assess perceptions of the current tracking system and identify workflow barriers, and (2) creation of a current-state workflow diagram based on a semi-structured interview with an IR technologist. While no survey responses were received due to organizational limitations, this highlighted important barriers such as survey fatigue and lack of executive approval. The workflow diagram identified multiple inefficiencies, particularly related to redundant barcode scanning and manual data entry. These findings were synthesized and shared with the implementation team to inform planning, staff education, and stakeholder engagement strategies. The project demonstrated the value of informatics leadership in identifying organizational readiness, facilitating stakeholder communication, and developing visual tools to support implementation planning
Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Disguised-gait-based Person Identification on Micro-Doppler Signatures
No full textIn recent years, gait-based person identification has gained significant interest for a variety of applications, including security systems and public security forensics. Meanwhile, this task is faced with the challenge of disguised gaits. When a human subject changes what he or she is wearing or carrying, it becomes challenging to reliably identify the subject's identity using gait data. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) model, named Guided Subspace Alignment under the Class-Aware condition (G-SAC), to recognize human subjects based on their disguised gait data by fully exploiting the intrinsic information in gait biometrics. To accomplish this, we employ neighbourhood component analysis (NCA) to create an intrinsic feature subspace from which we can obtain similarities between normal and disguised gaits. With the aid of a proposed constraint for adaptive class-Aware alignment, the class-level discriminative feature representation can be learned guided by this subspace. Our experimental results on a measured micro-Doppler radar dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. The comparison results with several state-of-The-Art methods indicate that our work provides a promising domain adaptation solution for the concerned problem, even in cases where the disguised pattern differs significantly from the normal gaits. Additionally, we extend our approach to more complex multi-Target domain adaptation (MTDA) challenge and video-based gait recognition tasks, the superior results demonstrate that the proposed model has a great deal of potential for tackling increasingly difficult problems.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Microwave Sensing, Signals & System
The Agglutinin of Common Nettle (Urtica dioica L.) Plant Effects on Gene Expression Related to Apoptosis of Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cell Line
No full textTreatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) requires new drugs as result of a rise in new cases and high disease relapse. Plant lectins with the ability to bind carbohydrates on the cell surface have the potential to treat cancer. Urticadioica L. agglutinin (UDA) is a low weight lectin with anti-benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) impact. Here, we examine the impact of UDA on HL-60 cell line. Cytotoxicity and cytostatic effects were assessed in HL-60 cells treated with UDA and vincristine (positive control). The effects of the lectin on cell cycle phases and cell death mechanism were surveyed by propidium iodide (PI) staining and annexin V/PI, respectively. The activation status of the apoptosis pathway was determined by western blotting. Finally, the expression levels of 84 genes were examined by the Human cancer drug target gene PCR array kit. The results indicated that the increase in UDA concentration inhibited the proliferation of HL-60 cells as well as apoptosis induction. Cell cycle analysis showed that the number of sub G1 cells increased essentially. Experimental observations showed that UDA can induce cell apoptosis through a caspase 9-dependent pathway. The expression changes of 21 genes confirmed the apoptotic events in HL-60 cells treated with UDA. In this, we have presented the first investigation on the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of a lectin isolated from rhizomes and roots of Urticadioica L. on human AML cells. Generally, the results suggest that UDA may have therapeutic value for leukemia and would be studied further as a new drug for AML later on. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature
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