958 resultados para crown, dragon, fleur-de-lys
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Can war be justified? Expressions of opinions by the general assemblies of the World Council of Churches on the question of war as a method of settling conflicts. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the expressions of opinions recorded in the documents of the general assemblies of the WCC during the Cold War period from 1948 to 1983 on the use of war as a method of settling international and national conflicts. The main sources are the official reports of the WCC´s assemblies during the years 1948 to 1983. This study divides the discussions into three periods. The first period (1949-1968) is dominated by the pressures arising from the Second World War. Experiences of the war led the assemblies of the WCC to the conclusion that modern warfare as a method of settling conflicts should be rejected. Modern war was contrary to God´s purposes and the whole meaning of creation, said the assembly. Although the WCC rejected modern war, it left open the possibility of conflict where principles of just war may be practised. The question of war was also linked to the state and its function, which led to the need to create a politically neutral doctrine for the socio-ethical thinking of churches and of the WCC itself. The doctrine was formulated using the words "responsible society". The question of war and socio-ethical thinking were on the WCC`s agenda throughout the first period. Another issue that had an influence on the first period was the increasing role of Third World countries. This new dimension also brought new aspects to the question of war and violence. The second period (1968-1975) presented greater challenges to the WCC, especially in traditional western countries. The Third World, political activity in the socialist world and ideas of revolution were discussed. The WCC`s fourth Assembly in Uppsala was challenged by these new ideas of revolution. The old doctrine of "responsible society" was seen by many participants as unsuitable in the modern world, especially for Third World countries. The situation of a world governed by armaments, causing social and economic disruption, was felt by churches to be problematic. The peace movement gathered pace and attention. There was pressure to see armed forces as an option on the way to a new world order. The idea of a just war was challenged by that of just revolution. These ideas of revolution did not receive support from the Uppsala Assembly, but they pressured the WCC to reconsider its socio-ethical thinking. Revolution was seen as a possibility, but only when it could be peaceful. In the Nairobi Assembly the theme of just, participatory and sustainable society provided yet another viewpoint, dealing with the life of the world and its problems as a whole. The third period (1975-1983) introduced a new, alternative doctrine the "JPIC Process", justice, peace and the integrity of creation for social thinking in the WCC. The WCC no longer wanted to discuss war or poverty as separate questions, but wanted to combine all aspects of life to see the impact of an arms-governed world on humankind. Thus, during the last period, discussions focused on socio-ethical questions, where war and violence were only parts of a larger problem. Through the new JPIC Process, the WCC`s Assembly in Vancouver looked for a new world, one without violence, in all aspects of life. Despite differing opinions in socio-ethical thinking, the churches in the WCC agreed that modern warfare cannot be regarded as acceptable or just. The old idea of a "just war" still had a place, but it was not seen by all as a valid principle. As a result the WCC viewed war as a final solution to be employed when all other methods had failed. Such a war would have to secure peace and justice for all. In the discussions there was a strong political east-west divide, and, during the last two decades, a north-south divide as well. The effect of the Cold War was obvious. In the background to the theological positions were two main concepts namely the idea of God´s activity in man´s history through the so-called regiments and, the concept of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
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The maximum height of a siphon is generally assumed to be dependent on barometric pressure—about 10 m at sea level. This limit arises because the pressure in a siphon above the upper reservoir level is below the ambient pressure, and when the height of a siphon approaches 10 m, the pressure at the crown of the siphon falls below the vapour pressure of water causing water to boil breaking the column. After breaking, the columns on either side are supported by differential pressure between ambient and the low-pressure region at the top of the siphon. Here we report an experiment of a siphon operating at sea level at a height of 15 m, well above 10 m. Prior degassing of the water prevented cavitation. This experiment provides conclusive evidence that siphons operate through gravity and molecular cohesion.
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Protein-protein interactions play a Crucial role in Virus assembly and stability. With the view of disrupting capsid assembly and capturing smaller oligomers, interfacial residue mutations were carried Out in the coat protein gene of Sesbania Mosaic Virus, a T=3 ss (+) RNA plant virus. A single point mutation of a Trp 170 present at the five-fold interface of the virus to a charged residue (Glu or Lys) arrested assembly of virus like particles and resulted in stable Soluble dimers of the capsid Protein. The X-ray crystal structure of one of the isolated dimer mutants - rCP Delta N65W170K was determined to a resolution of 2.65 angstrom. Detailed analysis of the dimeric mutant protein structure revealed that a number of Structural changes take place, especially in the loop and interfacial regions during the course of assembly. The isolated chiller was ``more relaxed'' than the dimer found in the T=3 or T=1 capsids. The isolated dimer does not bind Ca2+ ion and consequently four C-terminal residues are disordered. The FG loop, which interacts with RNA in the Virus, has different conformations in the isolated dimer and the intact Virus Suggesting its flexible nature and the conformational changes that accompany assembly. The isolated choler mutant was much less stable when compared to the assembled capsids, suggesting the importance of inter-subunit interactions and Ca2+ mediated interactions in the stability of the capsids. With this study, SeMV becomes the first icosahedral virus for which X-ray crystal Structures of T=3, T=1 capsids as well as a smaller oligomer of the capsid protein have been determined.
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The 3prime terminal 1255nt sequence of Physalis mottle virus (PhMV) genomic RNA has been determined from a set of overlapping cDNA clones. The open reading frame (ORF) at the 3prime terminus corresponds to the amino acid sequence of the coat protein (CP) determined earlier except for the absence of the dipeptide, Lys-Leu, at position 110-111. In addition, the sequence upstream of the CP gene contains the message coding for 178 amino acid residues of the C-terminus of the putative replicase protein (RP). The sequence downstream of the CP gene contains an untranslated region whose terminal 80 nucleotides can be folded into a characteristic tRNA-like structure. A phylogenetic tree constructed after aligning separately the sequence of the CP, the replicase protein (RP) and the tRNA-like structure determined in this study with the corresponding sequences of other tymoviruses shows that PhMV wrongly named belladonna mottle virus [BDMV(I)] is a separate tymovirus and not another strain of BDMV(E) as originally envisaged. The phylogenetic tree in all the three cases is identical showing that any subset of genomic sequence of sufficient length can be used for establishing evolutionary relationships among tymoviruses.
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Tooth development is regulated by sequential and reciprocal interactions between epithelium and mesenchyme. The molecular mechanisms underlying this regulation are conserved and most of the participating molecules belong to several signalling families. Research focusing on mouse teeth has uncovered many aspects of tooth development, including molecular and evolutionary specifi cs, and in addition offered a valuable system to analyse the regulation of epithelial stem cells. In mice the spatial and temporal regulation of cell differentiation and the mechanisms of patterning during development can be analysed both in vivo and in vitro. Follistatin (Fst), a negative regulator of TGFβ superfamily signalling, is an important inhibitor during embryonic development. We showed the necessity of modulation of TGFβ signalling by Fst in three different regulatory steps during tooth development. First we showed that tinkering with the level of TGFβ signalling by Fst may cause variation in the molar cusp patterning and crown morphogenesis. Second, our results indicated that in the continuously growing mouse incisors asymmetric expression of Fst is responsible for the labial-lingual patterning of ameloblast differentiation and enamel formation. Two TGFβ superfamily signals, BMP and Activin, are required for proper ameloblast differentiation and Fst modulates their effects. Third, we identifi ed a complex signalling network regulating the maintenance and proliferation of epithelial stem cells in the incisor, and showed that Fst is an essential modulator of this regulation. FGF3 in cooperation with FGF10 stimulates proliferation of epithelial stem cells and transit amplifying cells in the labial cervical loop. BMP4 represses Fgf3 expression whereas Activin inhibits the repressive effect of BMP4 on the labial side. Thus, Fst inhibits Activin rather than BMP4 in the cervical loop area and limits the proliferation of lingual epithelium, thereby causing the asymmetric maintenance and proliferation of epithelial stem cells. In addition, we detected Lgr5, a Wnt target gene and an epithelial stem cell marker in the intestine, in the putative epithelial stem cells of the incisor, suggesting that Lgr5 is a marker of incisor stem cells but is not regulated by Wnt/β-catenin signalling in the incisor. Thus the epithelial stem cells in the incisor may not be directly regulated by Wnt/β-catenin signalling. In conclusion, we showed in the mouse incisors that modulating the balance between inductive and inhibitory signals constitutes a key mechanism regulating the epithelial stem cells and ameloblast differentiation. Furthermore, we found additional support for the location of the putative epithelial stem cells and for the stemness of these cells. In the mouse molar we showed the necessity of fi ne-tuning the signalling in the regulation of the crown morphogenesis, and that altering the levels of an inhibitor can cause variation in the crown patterning.
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Generating discriminative input features is a key requirement for achieving highly accurate classifiers. The process of generating features from raw data is known as feature engineering and it can take significant manual effort. In this paper we propose automated feature engineering to derive a suite of additional features from a given set of basic features with the aim of both improving classifier accuracy through discriminative features, and to assist data scientists through automation. Our implementation is specific to HTTP computer network traffic. To measure the effectiveness of our proposal, we compare the performance of a supervised machine learning classifier built with automated feature engineering versus one using human-guided features. The classifier addresses a problem in computer network security, namely the detection of HTTP tunnels. We use Bro to process network traffic into base features and then apply automated feature engineering to calculate a larger set of derived features. The derived features are calculated without favour to any base feature and include entropy, length and N-grams for all string features, and counts and averages over time for all numeric features. Feature selection is then used to find the most relevant subset of these features. Testing showed that both classifiers achieved a detection rate above 99.93% at a false positive rate below 0.01%. For our datasets, we conclude that automated feature engineering can provide the advantages of increasing classifier development speed and reducing development technical difficulties through the removal of manual feature engineering. These are achieved while also maintaining classification accuracy.
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Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are becoming commonplace in the study of inshore coastal marine habitats. Combined with shipboard systems, scientists are able to make in-situ measurements of water column and benthic properties. In CSIRO, autonomous gliders are used to collect water column data, while surface vessels are used to collect bathymetry information through the use of swath mapping, bottom grabs, and towed video systems. Although these methods have provided good data coverage for coastal and deep waters beyond 50m, there has been an increasing need for autonomous in-situ sampling in waters less than 50m deep. In addition, the collection of benthic and water column data has been conducted separately, requiring extensive post-processing to combine data streams. As such, a new AUV was developed for in-situ observations of both benthic habitat and water column properties in shallow waters. This paper provides an overview of the Starbug X AUV system, its operational characteristics including vision-based navigation and oceanographic sensor integration.
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We examined whether C-terminal residues of soluble recombinant FtsZ of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtFtsZ) have any role in MtFtsZ polymerization in vitro. MtFtsZ-delta C1, which lacks C-terminal extreme Arg residue (underlined in the C-terminal extreme stretch of 13 residues, DDDDVDVPPFMRR), but retaining the penultimate Arg residue (DDDDVDVPPFMR), polymerizes like full-length MtFtsZ in vitro. However, MtFtsZ-delta C2 that lacks both the Arg residues at the C-terminus (DDDDVDVPPFM), neither polymerizes at pH 6.5 nor forms even single- or double-stranded filaments at pH 7.7 in the presence of 10 mM CaCl2. Neither replacement of the penultimate Arg residue, in the C-terminal Arg deletion mutant DDDDVDVPPFMR, with Lys or His or Ala or Asp (DDDDVDVPPFMK/H/A/D) enabled polymerization. Although MtFtsZ-delta C2 showed secondary and tertiary structural changes, which might have affected polymerization, GTPase activity of MtFtsZ-delta C2 was comparable to that of MtFtsZ. These data suggest that MtFtsZ requires an Arg residue as the extreme C-terminal residue for polymerization in vitro. The polypeptide segment containing C-terminal 67 residues, whose coordinates were absent from MtFtsZ crystal structure, was modeled on tubulin and MtFtsZ dimers. Possibilities for the influence of the C-terminal Arg residues on the stability of the dimer and thereby on MtFtsZ polymerization have been discussed.
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The need to address substance use among people with psychosis has been well established. However, treatment studies targeting substance use in this population have reported mixed results. Substance users with psychosis in no or minimal treatment control groups achieve similar reductions in substance use compared to those in more active substance use treatment, suggesting a role for natural recovery from substance use. This meta-analysis aims to quantify the amount of natural recovery from substance use within control groups of treatment studies containing samples of psychotic substance users, with a particular focus on changes in cannabis use. A systematic search was conducted to identify substance use treatment studies. Meta-analyses were performed to quantify reductions in the frequency of substance use in the past 30 days. Significant but modest reductions (mean reduction of 0.3–0.4 SD across the time points) in the frequency of substance use were found at 6 to 24 months follow up. The current study is the first to quantify changes in substance use in samples enrolled in no treatment or minimal treatment control conditions. These findings highlight the potential role of natural recovery from substance use among individuals with psychosis, although they do not rule out effects of regression to the mean. Additionally, the results provide a baseline from which to estimate likely changes or needed effects sizes in intervention studies. Future research is required to identify the processes underpinning these changes, in order to identify strategies that may better support self-management of substance use in people with psychosis.
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Transfer RNAs of Azospirillum lipoferum were separated by two- dimensional gel electrophoresis and identified by aminoacylation. Thirty-six tRNA spots were resolved by this technique and twenty-six tRNA species have been identified. There are five tRNAs for Leu, four for Val, three for Pro, two each for Arg, Ile, Lys and Tyr, and one each for Ala, Asp, His, Phe, Ser and Thr. The tRNA(Asn) (QUU) was purified and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The A. lipoferum tRNA(Asn) (QUU) is 92% similar to B. subtilis tRNA(Asn) gene and two hypermodified nucleosides, queuosine (Q) and N-(9-beta-D Ribofuranosylpurine-6-YL) carbamoyl)-threonine (t(6)A) are present in this tRNA.
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Complaints and disciplinary processes play a significant role in health professional regulation. Many countries are transitioning from models of self-regulation to greater external oversight through systems including meta regulation, responsive (risk–based) regulation, and “networked governance”. Such systems harness, in differing ways, public, private, professional and non-governmental bodies to exert influence over the conduct of health professionals and services. Interesting literature is emerging regarding complainants’ motivations and experiences, the impact of complaints processes on health professionals and identification of features such as complainant and health professional profiles, types of complaints and outcomes. This paper concentrates on studies identifying vulnerable groups and their participation in health care regulatory systems.
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Birds represent the most diverse extant tetrapod clade, with ca. 10,000 extant species, and the timing of the crown avian radiation remains hotly debated. The fossil record supports a primarily Cenozoic radiation of crown birds, whereas molecular divergence dating analyses generally imply that this radiation was well underway during the Cretaceous. Furthermore, substantial differences have been noted between published divergence estimates. These have been variously attributed to clock model, calibration regime, and gene type. One underappreciated phenomenon is that disparity between fossil ages and molecular dates tends to be proportionally greater for shallower nodes in the avian Tree of Life. Here, we explore potential drivers of disparity in avian divergence dates through a set of analyses applying various calibration strategies and coding methods to a mitochondrial genome dataset and an 18-gene nuclear dataset, both sampled across 72 taxa. Our analyses support the occurrence of two deep divergences (i.e., the Palaeognathae/Neognathae split and the Galloanserae/Neoaves split) well within the Cretaceous, followed by a rapid radiation of Neoaves near the K-Pg boundary. However, 95% highest posterior density intervals for most basal divergences in Neoaves cross the boundary, and we emphasize that, barring unreasonably strict prior distributions, distinguishing between a rapid Early Paleocene radiation and a Late Cretaceous radiation may be beyond the resolving power of currently favored divergence dating methods. In contrast to recent observations for placental mammals, constraining all divergences within Neoaves to occur in the Cenozoic does not result in unreasonably high inferred substitution rates. Comparisons of nuclear DNA (nDNA) versus mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) datasets and NT- versus RY-coded mitochondrial data reveal patterns of disparity that are consistent with substitution model misspecifications that result in tree compression/tree extension artifacts, which may explain some discordance between previous divergence estimates based on different sequence types. Comparisons of fully calibrated and nominally calibrated trees support a correlation between body mass and apparent dating error. Overall, our results are consistent with (but do not require) a Paleogene radiation for most major clades of crown birds.
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Evaluation of protein and metabolite expression patterns in blood using mass spectrometry and high-throughput antibody-based screening platforms has potential for the discovery of new biomarkers for managing breast cancer patient treatment. Previously identified blood-based breast cancer biomarkers, including cancer antigen 15.3 (CA15-3) are useful in combination with imaging (computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, X-rays) and physical examination for monitoring tumour burden in advanced breast cancer patients. However, these biomarkers suffer from insufficient levels of accuracy and with new therapies available for the treatment of breast cancer, there is an urgent need for reliable, non-invasive biomarkers that measure tumour burden with high sensitivity and specificity so as to provide early warning of the need to switch to an alternative treatment. The aim of this study was to identify a biomarker signature of tumour burden using cancer and non-cancer (healthy controls/non-malignant breast disease) patient samples. Results demonstrate that combinations of three candidate biomarkers from Glutamate, 12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, Beta-hydroxybutyrate, Factor V and Matrix metalloproteinase-1 with CA15-3, an established biomarker for breast cancer, were found to mirror tumour burden, with AUC values ranging from 0.71 to 0.98 when comparing non-malignant breast disease to the different stages of breast cancer. Further validation of these biomarker panels could potentially facilitate the management of breast cancer patients, especially to assess changes in tumour burden in combination with imaging and physical examination.
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This thesis concerns the dynamics of nanoparticle impacts on solid surfaces. These impacts occur, for instance, in space, where micro- and nanometeoroids hit surfaces of planets, moons, and spacecraft. On Earth, materials are bombarded with nanoparticles in cluster ion beam devices, in order to clean or smooth their surfaces, or to analyse their elemental composition. In both cases, the result depends on the combined effects of countless single impacts. However, the dynamics of single impacts must be understood before the overall effects of nanoparticle radiation can be modelled. In addition to applications, nanoparticle impacts are also important to basic research in the nanoscience field, because the impacts provide an excellent case to test the applicability of atomic-level interaction models to very dynamic conditions. In this thesis, the stopping of nanoparticles in matter is explored using classical molecular dynamics computer simulations. The materials investigated are gold, silicon, and silica. Impacts on silicon through a native oxide layer and formation of complex craters are also simulated. Nanoparticles up to a diameter of 20 nm (315000 atoms) were used as projectiles. The molecular dynamics method and interatomic potentials for silicon and gold are examined in this thesis. It is shown that the displacement cascade expansionmechanism and crater crown formation are very sensitive to the choice of atomic interaction model. However, the best of the current interatomic models can be utilized in nanoparticle impact simulation, if caution is exercised. The stopping of monatomic ions in matter is understood very well nowadays. However, interactions become very complex when several atoms impact on a surface simultaneously and within a short distance, as happens in a nanoparticle impact. A high energy density is deposited in a relatively small volume, which induces ejection of material and formation of a crater. Very high yields of excavated material are observed experimentally. In addition, the yields scale nonlinearly with the cluster size and impact energy at small cluster sizes, whereas in macroscopic hypervelocity impacts, the scaling 2 is linear. The aim of this thesis is to explore the atomistic mechanisms behind the nonlinear scaling at small cluster sizes. It is shown here that the nonlinear scaling of ejected material yield disappears at large impactor sizes because the stopping mechanism of nanoparticles gradually changes to the same mechanism as in macroscopic hypervelocity impacts. The high yields at small impactor size are due to the early escape of energetic atoms from the hot region. In addition, the sputtering yield is shown to depend very much on the spatial initial energy and momentum distributions that the nanoparticle induces in the material in the first phase of the impact. At the later phases, the ejection of material occurs by several mechanisms. The most important mechanism at high energies or at large cluster sizes is atomic cluster ejection from the transient liquid crown that surrounds the crater. The cluster impact dynamics detected in the simulations are in agreement with several recent experimental results. In addition, it is shown that relatively weak impacts can induce modifications on the surface of an amorphous target over a larger area than was previously expected. This is a probable explanation for the formation of the complex crater shapes observed on these surfaces with atomic force microscopy. Clusters that consist of hundreds of thousands of atoms induce long-range modifications in crystalline gold.
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Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer in the world and is the most common cause of cancer-related death in both men and women. Research into causes, prevention and treatment of lung cancer is ongoing and much progress has been made recently in these areas, however survival rates have not significantly improved. Therefore, it is essential to develop biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer, prediction of metastasis and evaluation of treatment efficiency, as well as using these molecules to provide some understanding about tumour biology and translate highly promising findings in basic science research to clinical application. In this investigation, two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were initially used to analyse conditioned media from a panel of lung cancer and normal bronchial epithelial cell lines. Significant proteins were identified with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2B1 (hnRNPA2B1), pyruvate kinase M2 isoform (PKM2), Hsc-70 interacting protein and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) selected for analysis in serum from healthy individuals and lung cancer patients. hnRNPA2B1, PKM2 and LDHA were found to be statistically significant in all comparisons. Tissue analysis and knockdown of hnRNPA2B1 using siRNA subsequently demonstrated both the overexpression and potential role for this molecule in lung tumorigenesis. The data presented highlights a number of in vitro derived candidate biomarkers subsequently verified in patient samples and also provides some insight into their roles in the complex intracellular mechanisms associated with tumour progression.