Use of fecal steroids to infer the sources of fecal indicator bacteria in the Lower Santa Ana River Watershed, California: sewage is unlikely a significant source

The Santa Ana River (SAR), CA and adjacent wetlands have been identified as potential sources of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) to the surf zone at Huntington Beach, CA. A suite of fecal steroids, including coprostanol (COP), epicoprostanol (eCOP), cholesterol (CHOE), cholestanol (CHOA), alpha-cholestanone (aONE), beta-cholestanone (bONE), beta-sitosterol (bSIT), stigmasterol (STIG), stigmastanol (STAN), and campesterol (CAM), were used as chemical markers to examine whether sewage was a significant source of FIB within the lower Santa Ana River watershed. A total of 54 water samples were collected from three locations in the intertidal zone near the mouth of the Santa Ana River at different tidal stages. Steroid ratios in SAR samples were different from those found in raw and treated sewage from a local wastewater treatment plant or in nearby effluent plume and did not appear to be influenced by the sampling location, daily tides, and spring/neap tidal cycle. The characteristics of steroid ratios suggested a diagenetic ratherthan a biogenic source forthe COP content of the samples. The log-based concentrations of COP and FIB in the SAR samples were not significantly correlated, inconsistent with sewage being the source of FIB in the study area. In addition, multivariate statistical analysis showed that the concentrations of FIB were better correlated with bird fecal steroids than with the typical sewage sterols. The results implied that sewage was not a significant source of fecal steroids, and therefore perhaps FIB to the study area. Instead, birds may be one possible source of the intermittently high levels of FIB observed in the lower Santa Ana River watershed and the nearby surf zone.     

Assessment of photo-activated adhesive workholding (PAW) technology for holding “hard-to-hold” workpieces for machining

Manufacturers often have to machine “hard-to-hold” metallic workpieces using conventional fixturing. In these special cases, machined feature quality typically suffers from set-up related errors, or set-up lead time suffers from the extra time necessary to check and correct for them. A technology that may alleviate both problems is photo-activated workholding (PAW) technology. This paper describes an investigation in which a photo-activated workholding (PAW) technology solution was created to hold a “hard-to-hold” bracket casting for low volume machining at a contract manufacturer. A comparison to the existing conventional solution revealed that the PAW technology yielded substantially better machined feature quality, machining lead time, and machining cost.     

The Formal and Informal Worlds of State and Civil Society: What Do They Offer to the Urban Poor?

In recent years, a positive developmental role has been increasingly expected of civil society organizations. Focusing on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and grass-roots organizations (GROs), the extent to which these organizations exist, adopt pro-poor strategies and have a positive influence in governmental processes in nine cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America is analysed. The findings demonstrate that a number of issues identified from the wider literature about the internal governance arrangements of NGOs and GROs, their commitment and ability to represent and address the needs of the poor, and their relationships with wider political and administrative processes are also a matter for concern at city level. While there are some successful development NGOs, many only operate on a small scale and many do not empower poor people and their organizations. Formal interactions between government and civil society organizations are apparently becoming more common, but informal exchanges between GROs, politicians and officials continue, and may in some circumstances be more productive in terms of delivering practical benefits to poor areas. However, such clientelist relations reinforce undemocratic leadership at community level and perpetuate differential treatment of low-income settlements.     

Interaction of hIAPP with Model Raft Membranes and Pancreatic β‐Cells: Cytotoxicity of hIAPP Oligomers

Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with β‐cell failure, which correlates with the formation of pancreatic islet amyloid deposits. The human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) is the major component of islet amyloid and undergoes structural changes followed by self‐association and pathological tissue deposition during aggregation in T2DM. There is clear evidence that the aggregation process is accelerated in the presence of particular lipid membranes. Whereas hIAPP aggregation has been extensively studied in homogeneous model membrane systems, especially negatively charged lipid bilayers, information on the interaction of hIAPP with heterogeneous model raft membranes has been missing until now. In the present study, we focus on the principles of aggregation and amyloid formation of hIAPP in the presence of model raft membranes. Time‐lapse tapping mode AFM and confocal fluorescence microscopy experiments followed membrane permeabilization and localization of hIAPP in the raft membrane. Together with the ThT and WST‐1 assay, the data revealed elevated cytotoxicity of hIAPP oligomers on INS‐1E cells.     

Claudins Overexpression in Ovarian Cancer: Potential Targets for Clostridium Perfringens Enterotoxin (CPE) Based Diagnosis and Therapy

Claudins are a family of tight junction proteins regulating paracellular permeability and cell polarity with different patterns of expression in benign and malignant human tissues. There are approximately 27 members of the claudin family identified to date with varying cell and tissue-specific expression. Claudins-3, -4 and -7 represent the most highly differentially expressed claudins in ovarian cancer. While their exact role in ovarian tumors is still being elucidated, these proteins are thought to be critical for ovarian cancer cell invasion/dissemination and resistance to chemotherapy. Claudin-3 and claudin-4 are the natural receptors for the Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE), a potent cytolytic toxin. These surface proteins may therefore represent attractive targets for the detection and treatment of chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer and other aggressive solid tumors overexpressing claudin-3 and -4 using CPE-based theranostic agents.     

Novel macro-microporous gelatin scaffold fabricated by particulate leaching for soft tissue reconstruction with adipose-derived stem cells

The restoration of body contours as shaped by adipose tissue remains a clinical challenge specifically in patients who have experienced loss of contour due to trauma, surgical removal of tumours or congenital abnormalities. We have developed a novel macro-microporous biomaterial for use in soft tissue re-bulking and augmentation. Alginate beads provided the pore template for the construct. Incorporation, and subsequent dissolution, of the beads within a 7 % (w/v) gelatin matrix, produced a highly porous scaffold with an average pore size of 2.01 ± 0.08 mm. The ability of this scaffold to support the in vitro growth and differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) was then investigated. Histological analysis confirmed that the scaffold itself provided a suitable environment to support the growth of ADSCs on the scaffold walls. When delivered into the macropores in a fibrin hydrogel, ADSCs proliferated and filled the pores. In addition, ADSCs could readily be differentiated along the adipogenic lineage. These results therefore describe a novel scaffold that can support the proliferation and delivery of ADSCs. The scaffold is the first stage in developing a clinical alternative to current treatment methods for soft tissue reconstruction.     

Nanosized titania derived from a novel sol-gel process for ammonia gas sensor applications

Highly redispersible anatase nanoparticles were prepared by a novel sol-gel based hydrothermal process for gas sensing applications. Thin titania films composed of nanoparticles were deposited on Au interdigital electrodes by dip-coating, annealed and tested in a gas test bench at 350 °C. The anatase films showed a very high sensitivity towards ammonia and no cross interference by CO₂, O₂ and C₃H₈. To classify the sensor as an ammonia gas sensor, a comparison with other sensor designs from literature has been performed.     

Using frames to disambiguate prepositions

In natural language processing (NLP), disambiguation is the procedure used to solve name conflicts of polysemic concepts (different meanings); in fact, phrase disambiguation is a problem not totally solved in NLP. Several disambiguation types exist; for instance, noun disambiguation (bank is a word with several meanings) or when a word is both used as a noun and as a preposition. Work herein reported describes an algorithm and its implementation to disambiguate prepositions in Spanish phrases; some of them are: a {to} (Translation to English are in bold for explanation purposes; they give only one of the senses of the Spanish word, which usually have multiple meanings.), ante {before}, bajo {under}, cabe {fits}, desde {from}, contra {against}, en {in}, por {by}, según {according to}, sin {without}, entre {between}, so {under}, con {with}, hacia {towards}, sobre {about}, hasta {until}, de {of}, tras {after}, para {for}. This tool will be used in a text analyzer (being built) that converts a text document to its corresponding ontology representation, with the goal of allowing another program to use the information to answer non trivial questions (**).