Digital Commons Network^™

Breast Cancer Detection Using Interferometric Music: Experimental And Numerical Assessment, Giuseppe Ruvio, Raffaele Solimene, Antonio Cuccaro, Domenico Gaetano, Jacinta Browne, Max Ammann

Articles

Purpose: In microwave breast cancer detection it is often beneficial to arrange sensors in close proximity to the breast. The resulting coupling generally changes the antenna response. As an a priori characterization of the radio-frequency system becomes difficult, this can lead to severe degradation of the detection efficacy. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate advantages of adopting an Interferometric Multiple Signal Classification (I-MUSIC) approach due to its limited dependence 25 from a priori information on the antenna. The performance of I-MUSIC detection was measured in terms of Signal-to-Clutter Ratio (SCR), Signal-to-Mean Ratio (SMR) and Spatial Displacement (SD) and …

New Insights Into The Mechanism Of Visible Light Photocatalysis, Suresh Pillai, Swagata Banerjee, Polycarpos Falaras, Kevin O'Shea, John A. Byrne, Dionysios D. Dionysiou

Articles

ABSTRACT: In recent years, the area of developing visible-lightactive photocatalysts based on titanium dioxide has been enormously investigated due to its wide range of applications in energy and environment related fields. Various strategies have been designed to efficiently utilize the solar radiation and to enhance the efficiency of photocatalytic processes. Building on the fundamental strategies to improve the visible light activity of TiO2-based photocatalysts, this Perspective aims to give an insight into many contemporary developments in the field of visible-light-active photocatalysis. Various examples of advanced TiO2 composites have been discussed in relation to their visible light induced photoconversion efficiency, dynamics …

Sue And Settle: Demonizing The Environmental Citizen Suit, Stephen M. Johnson

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When federal agencies fail to issue regulations, respond to petitions, approve plans, review standards, or take any number of actions that are required by statute, the federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and federal environmental laws authorize citizens to sue the agencies to force them to carry out their legal obligations. Indeed, Congress anticipated that citizens would play an important role in the enforcement of federal environmental laws. When faced with lawsuits for failing to perform non-discretionary duties, agencies tend to settle because their liability is clear.

Cold Comfort Food: A Systematic Examination Of The Rituals And Rights Of The Last Meal, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

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Last meals are a resilient ritual accompanying executions in the United States. Yet states vary considerably in the ways they administer last meals. This paper explores the recent decision in Texas to abolish the tradition altogether. It seeks to understand, through consultation of historical and contemporary sources, what the ritual signifies. We then go on to analyze execution procedures in all 35 of the states that allowed executions in 2010, and show that last meal allowances are paradoxically at their most expansive in states traditionally associated with high rates of capital punishment (Texas now being the exception to that rule.) …

Assessing System Resilience And Ecosystem Services In Large River Basins, Barbara Cosens

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No abstract provided.

Ambient Measurements Of Biological Aerosol Particles Near Killarney, Ireland: A Comparison Between Real-Time Fluorescence And Microscopy Techniques, D. A. Healy, J. A. Huffmann, David O'Connor, C. Pohlker, U. Poschil, J. R. Sodeau

Articles

Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) can contribute significantly to the coarse particle burden in many environments. PBAPs can thus influence climate and precipitation systems as cloud nuclei and can spread disease to humans, animals, and plants. Measurement data and techniques for PBAPs in natural environments at high time- and size resolution are, however, sparse, and so large uncertainties remain in the role that biological particles play in the Earth system. In this study two commercial real-time fluorescence particle sensors and a Sporewatch single-stage particle impactor were operated continuously from 2 August to 2 September 2010 at a rural sampling location …

Antimicrobial Properties Of Vertically Aligned Nano-Tubular Copper, Kafil Razeeb, Joanna Podporska-Carroll, Mamun Jamal, Maksudul Hassan, Michael Nolan, Declan Mccormack, Brid Quilty, Simon Newcombe, Suresh Pillai

Articles

In this work, the antimicrobial properties of vertically aligned nano-tubular Cu arrays (NT-Cu) fabricated via a template-based electrodeposition approach were investigated. The NT-Cu display good bactericidal activity against S.aureus and bacteriostatic properties against E.coli, S.sonnei, S.enterica and C.albicans. In contrast, Cu-foil electrodeposited from the same solution shows low biological activity against the same microorganisms. The antimicrobial activity of NT-Cu depends on both the type of microorganism and exposure time. After 6 hours of exposure, over 99.99% (log red = 4.43) of S.aureus population was inactivated, whereas, for E.coli, S.sonnei, S.enterica and C.albicans it was 97.8, 94.2, 89.9, and 90.3%, respectively.

A Decade Of Adaptive Governance Scholarship: Synthesis And Future Directions, Barbara Cosens

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Adaptive governance is an emergent form of environmental governance that is increasingly called upon by scholars and practitioners to coordinate resource management regimes in the face of the complexity and uncertainty associated with rapid environmental change. Although the term “adaptive governance” is not exclusively applied to the governance of social-ecological systems, related research represents a significant outgrowth of literature on resilience, social-ecological systems, and environmental governance. We present a chronology of major scholarship on adaptive governance, synthesizing efforts to define the concept and identifying the array of governance concepts associated with transformation toward adaptive governance. Based on this synthesis, we …

It's Worth The Hassle Part Ii: How Does The Baby Veronica Case Impact Cases Involving Indian Children?, Elizabeth Brandt

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No abstract provided.

Green Siting For Green Energy, Amy Wilson Morris, Jessica Owley, Emily Capello

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No abstract provided.

Human Rights Standards Concerning Transnational Corporations And Other Business Entities, David Weissbrodt

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The rapid expansion of transnational economic activity and corresponding growth in power of transnational corporations and other business entities have prompted renewed international discourse and action over the past decade to address the human rights abuses committed by businesses. 2 The responsibility of businesses to respect human rights has been at the heart of the discussion. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948, states that "every individual and every organ of society ... shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and ... to secure their universal and effective recognition and …

Effect Of Light On The Biodegradation Of Selective Azo Dyes By Escherichia Coli And Pseudomonas Sp. And Optimization Of Conditions For Decolorization, Muhammad Kashif, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Ghaffar, Muhammad Yameen, Bushra Munir

Articles

The degradation of two azo dyes; congo red and acid red 27, commonly used in textile industries, was investigated using Pseudomonassp. and Escherichia coli strains isolated from dye contaminated soil sludge. An aqueous medium containing 100 mg/L of dyes were used for the biodegradation experiments. The degradation results as color removal performance were obtained after 5 days incubation. Different factors like azoreductases specificity, pH and effects of a range of wavelengths of light on decolorization efficiencies were studied. Pseudomonassp. showed highest degradation rate for congo red and Escherichia coli showed highest degradation rate for acid red 27. The color of …

Complex Value Choices At The Environment-Energy Interface, Hari M. Osofsky

Articles

This dilemma of environment-energy decisions that have major positives and negatives from either a health or ecosystem perspective poses an important ethical challenge that this Essay explores. Namely, in many cases, one can value humans, species, and ecosystems, and still not be able to resolve the best way forward. The Essay focuses in particular on a core problem at the environment-energy interface: people demand cheap and reliable energy, which pushes us towards new technology or the massive expansion of existing technology, both of which carry risks and possibilities for a cleaner future. The Essay considers this dilemma in the U.S. …

Hybrid Energy Governance, Hari M. Osofsky, Hannah J. Wiseman

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This Article develops a novel theory of energy governance and uses it to assess how institutional innovation can help meet critical challenges. Energy law is substantively complex and deeply fragmented. Each energy sector - including fuel extraction and pipelines, electricity generation and transmission, and transportation - has its own legal regime and federalism approach; confusion often exists at moments of crisis about how much authority federal, state, and local regulators have in these areas. The complexity and fragmentation of energy law are particularly problematic because the energy system faces major transitions due to emerging technology, more unpredictable and extreme weather …

The Geography Of Solving Global Environmental Problems: Reflections On Polycentric Efforts To Address Climate Change, Hari M. Osofsky

Articles

This essay considers how we might fit local efforts to address climate change, especially those by very small, suburban cities, within models for solving "global problems." While acknowledging the need for more action on climate change at international, national, and state levels, and regional ones in between, this essay explores how different types of cities, as they participate in multilevel networks, can provide models for action and complement efforts to address climate change through the treaty regime. Using a diverse group of suburbs in the Twin Cities metropolitan region making innovative climate change and sustainability efforts as a case example, …

A Strange Kind Of Identity Theft: How Competing Definitions Of "Indian" May Deny Individual Identity, Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne

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To the extent we think about it all, most of us believe what our parents tell us about where we came from-about who our grandparents are, who our ancestors were, our ethnic background, our family histories. My own family story includes claims to Scottish, Irish, French, and English ancestry. It also includes the Cherokee great-grandmother so popular in American genealogical stories. I have not undertaken an extensive genealogical search to more accurately pinpoint the threads of my ancestral quilt; I have simply accepted the family lore without much thought to whether it was verifiable.

My family's claimed link to the …

A Review Of Psychometric Data Analysis And Applications In Modelling Of Academic Achievement In Tertiary Education, Geraldine Gray, Colm Mcguinness, Philip Owende, Aiden Carthy

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Increasing college participation rates, and diversity in student population, is posing a challenge to colleges in their attempts to facilitate learners achieve their full academic potential. Learning analytics is an evolving discipline with capability for educational data analysis that could enable better understanding of learning process, and therefore mitigate these challenges. The outcome from such data analysis will be dependent on the range, type, and quality of available data and the type of analysis performed. This study reviewed factors that could be used to predict academic performance, but which are currently not systematically measured in tertiary education. It focused on …

The Association Of Cold Weather And All-Cause And Cause-Specific Mortality In The Island Of Ireland Between 1984 And 2007, Ariana Zeka, Stephen Browne, Helen Mcavoy, Patrick Goodman

Articles

Background: This study aimed to assess the relationship between cold temperature and daily mortality in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland (NI), and to explore any differences in the population responses between the two jurisdictions. Methods: A time-stratified case-crossover approach was used to examine this relationship in two adult national populations, between 1984 and 2007. Daily mortality risk was examined in association with exposure to daily maximum temperatures on the same day and up to 6 weeks preceding death, during the winter (December-February) and an extended cold period (October-March), using distributed lag models. Model stratification by age and …

H-Index For Quantifying The Fractal Or Scaling Structure Of Geographic Features, Bin Jiang, Junjun Yin

Articles

Although geographic features, such as mountains and coastlines, are fractal, some studies have claimed that the fractal property is not universal. This claim, which is dubious, is mainly attributed to the strict definition of fractal dimension as a measure or index for characterizing the complexity of fractals. In this article, we propose an alternative, ht-index, to quantify the fractal or scaling structure of geographic features. A geographic feature has ht-index (h) if the pattern of far more small things than large ones recurs (h – 1) times at different scales. The higher the ht-index, the more complex …

Mitigating The Impacts Of The Renewable Energy Gold Rush, Amy Wilson Morris, Jessica Owley

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No abstract provided.

The Forkhead Transcription Factor, Foxp3: A Critical Role In Male Fertility In Mice., Jake S Jasurda, Deborah O Jung, Erin D Froeter, David B Schwartz, Torin D Hopkins, Corrie L Farris, Stacey Mcgee, Prema Narayan, Buffy S Ellsworth

Articles

Fertility is dependent on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Each component of this axis is essential for normal reproductive function. Mice with a mutation in the forkhead transcription factor gene, Foxp3, exhibit autoimmunity and infertility. We have previously shown that Foxp3 mutant mice have significantly reduced expression of pituitary gonadotropins. To address the role of Foxp3 in gonadal function, we examined the gonadal phenotype of these mice. Foxp3 mutant mice have significantly reduced seminal vesicle and testis weights compared with Foxp3(+/Y) littermates. Spermatogenesis in Foxp3 mutant males is arrested prior to spermatid elongation. Activation of luteinizing hormone signaling in Foxp3 mutant mice …

Quantitative Trait Loci Underlying Partial Resistance To Cercospora Sojina Race 2 Detected In Soybean Seedlings In Greenhouse Assays, Hemlata Sharma, David A. Lightfoot

Articles

Cercospora sojina (Hara), an air-borne pathogen, infects soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] leaves causing frog-eye leaf spot (FLS). Three major genes (Rcs1-3) underlie resistance to the major races of FLS but two were not yet mapped. In addition quantitative trait loci provide partial resistance to many strains. FLS race 2 was an isolate first collected in the 1950’s when damaging FLS first arose. ‘Essex’ was partially resistant while ‘Forrest’ was partially susceptible to mixed races of FLS. The objective here was to identify quantitative trait loci underlying resistance to FLS race 2 in the greenhouse using recombinant inbred lines (RILs) …

Btk Regulated Macrophage Polarization In Response To Lipopolysaccharide, Joan Ní Gabhann, Emily Hams, Siobhán Smith, Claire Wynne, Jennifer C. Byrne, Kiva Brennan, Shaun Spence, Adrien Kissenpfennig

Articles

Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a strong inducer of inflammation and does so by inducing polarization of macrophages to the classic inflammatory M1 population. Given the role of Btk as a critical signal transducer downstream of TLR4, we investigated its role in M1/M2 induction. In Btk deficient (Btk^−\−) mice we observed markedly reduced recruitment of M1 macrophages following intraperitoneal administration of LPS. Ex vivo analysis demonstrated an impaired ability of Btk^−/− macrophages to polarize into M1 macrophages, instead showing enhanced induction of immunosuppressive M2-associated markers in response to M1 polarizing stimuli, a finding accompanied by reduced phosphorylation …

Trim68 Negatively Regulates Ifn-B Production By Degrading Trk Fused Gene, A Novel Driver Of Ifn-B Downstream Of Anti-Viral Detection Systems, Claire Wynne, Elisa Lazzari, Siobhan Smith, Eoghan Mccarthy, Joan Ni Gabhann, Lara Kallai, Rowan Higgs, Sally Ann Cryan, Christine Byron, Caroline Jefferies

Articles

In recent years members of the tripartite motif-containing (TRIM) family of E3 ubiquitin ligases have been shown to both positively and negatively regulate viral defence and as such are emerging as compelling targets for modulating the anti-viral immune response. In this study we identify TRIM68, a close homologue of TRIM21, as a novel regulator of Toll-like receptor (TLR)- and RIG-I-like receptor (RLR)-driven type I IFN production. Proteomic analysis of TRIM68-containing complexes identified TRK-fused gene (TFG) as a potential TRIM68 target. Overexpression of TRIM68 and TFG confirmed their ability to associate, with TLR3 stimulation appearing to enhance the interaction. TFG is …

Comparison Of Semi-Automated And Manual Measurements Of Carotid Intima-Media Thickening, Oscar Mac Ananey, G Mellotte, V Maher

Articles

Carotid intima-media thickening (CIMT) is a marker of both arteriosclerotic and atherosclerotic risks. Technological advances have semiautomated CIMT image acquisition and quantification. Studies comparing manual and automated methods have yielded conflicting results possibly due to plaque inclusion in measurements. Low atherosclerotic risk subjects (n = 126) were recruited to minimise the effect of focal atherosclerotic lesions on CIMT variability. CIMT was assessed by high-resolution B-mode ultrasound (Philips HDX7E, Phillips, UK) images of the common carotid artery using both manual and semiautomated methods (QLAB, Phillips, UK). Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the mean differences of paired measurements (Bland-Altman method) were used …

How To Feel Like A Woman, Or Why Punishment Is A Drag, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

If a man in prison says that he was made -to feel like a woman," this is commonly understood to mean that he was degraded, dehumanized, and sexualized. This association of femininity with punishment has significant implications for the way our society understands not only the sexual abuse of men in prison but also sexual abuse generally These important implications are usually overlooked, however, because law and society typically regard prison feminization as a problem of gender transposition: that is, as a problem of men being treated like women. In contrast, this Article argues that feminization is punitive for both …

Using Structure-Based Organic Chemistry Online Tutorials With 2 Automated Correction For Student Practice And Review, Timothy O'Sullivan, Gráinne Hargaden

Articles

This article describes the development and implementation of an open-access organic chemistry question bank for online tutorials and assessments at University College Cork and Technological University Dublin. SOCOT (structure-based organic chemistry online tutorials) may be used to supplement traditional small-group tutorials, thereby allowing students to develop essential problem-solving skills in organic chemistry. This online approach may be used for both formative and summative assessment. Students complete one problem set weekly or fortnightly, which consists of a number of questions of varying difficulty. A wide range of question types is possible; for example, prediction of reaction products, identification of reaction intermediates …

Β-Lactam Estrogen Receptor Antagonists And A Dual-Targeting Estrogen Receptor/Tubulin Ligand, Niamh O'Boyle, Jade K. Pollock, Miriam Carr, Andrew Js Knox, Seema M. Nathwani, Shu Wang, Laura Caboni, Daniela M. Zisterer, Mary Meegan

Articles

Twelve novel β-lactams were synthesised and their antiproliferative effects and binding affinity for the predominant isoforms of the estrogen receptor (ER), ERα and ERβ, were determined. β-Lactams 23 and 26 had the strongest binding affinities for ERα (IC₅₀ values: 40 and 8 nM respectively) and ERβ (IC₅₀ values: 19 and 15 nM). β-Lactam 26 was the most potent in antiproliferative assays using MCF-7 breast cancer cells, and further biochemical analysis showed that it caused accumulation of cells in G₂/M phase (mitotic blockade) and depolymerisation of tubulin in MCF-7 cells. Compound 26 also induced apoptosis and downregulation …

In Vitro Oxygen Availability Modulates The Effect Of Artesunate On Hela Cells, James Murray, Sandra Gannan, Sarah Rawe, James Murphy

Articles

Background/Aim: Hypoxia can affect chemo - therapeutic drug efficacy in cancer patients, yet related in vitro assays in oxygen-rich environment remain the norm. Such levels are well beyond normoxic/hypoxic levels typically experienced by normal tissues/tumor masses. The present study evaluated how artesunate anti-tumor efficacy is modulated by oxygen availability in HeLa cells and its implications for future in vitro analyses. Materials and Methods: Real-time cell analysis was employed to evaluate HeLa cell toxicity to artesunate at 21%, 4% or 1% oxygen. Cell count analysis was performed to validate real-time data. Results: An increase in artesunate efficacy was observed when oxygen …

A Troublesome Right: The Law In Dworkin's Treatment Of Law And Religion A Symposium On Ronald Dworkin's Religion Without God, Paul Horwitz

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No abstract provided.