exciting opportunity
Recently Published Documents


TOTAL DOCUMENTS

150
(FIVE YEARS 76)

H-INDEX

15
(FIVE YEARS 4)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley M Fuller ◽  
Ann DeVine ◽  
Ileana Murazzi ◽  
Nicola J Mason ◽  
Kristy Weber ◽  
...  

Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS), an aggressive subtype of soft-tissue sarcoma (STS), is exceedingly rare in humans and lacks effective, well-tolerated therapies. In contrast, STS are relatively common in canine companion animals; thus, incorporation of veterinary patients into studies of UPS offers an exciting opportunity to develop novel therapeutic strategies for this rare human disease. Genome-wide studies have demonstrated that UPS is characterized by aberrant patterns of DNA methylation. However, the mechanisms and impact of this epigenetic modification on UPS biology and clinical behavior are poorly understood. Leveraging cell lines and tissue specimens derived from human and canine patients, we discovered that the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3B is overexpressed in UPS relative to normal mesenchymal tissues and associated with a poor prognosis. Consistent with these findings, genetic DNMT3B depletion strongly inhibited UPS cell proliferation and tumor progression. However, existing hypomethylating agents, including the clinically approved drug 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine and the DNMT3B-inhibiting tool compound nanaomycin A, were ineffective in UPS due to cellular uptake and toxicity issues. Thus, further development of DNMT3B-targeting strategies for these patients is critical.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vanessa Coxhead

<p>Density and Desire explores changes in the social organisation of New Zealand, the notion and use of the home, the contribution of dwellings in our cities and an alternative vision for the future dwelling.  New Zealand is experiencing a period of rapid transformation that is changing the way we live, work and socialise, as well as our sense of cultural identity. Our population is becoming dramatically more diverse, more urban, and of very different age and family profiles, creating demand for a wider range of housing options that can adapt to changing social patterns. For these reasons and more, we face new questions about living in a community, of dwelling diversity, of promoting sociability, and of creating conditions for neighbourliness.  The move towards higher density living in New Zealand’s major cities provides an exciting opportunity for architecture. There is an urgent need to build dwellings and this thesis argues that apartments are a necessary part of our future. However, there is a certain stigma attached to apartment dwelling as ‘second best’ — if you can’t afford a house, you’ll settle for an apartment. The romance of the ‘Quarter-Acre Pavlova Paradise’ (Mitchell) is traded in for a plot peppered with horror stories: paper-thin walls, shoebox-sized ‘chicken coop’ confinement, lack of flexibility, onerous body corporate rules… the list could go on, and it does. The research benchmarks itself against the quantity and the quality of the single detached dwelling on a quarter-acre block both as a spatial measure and the representation of home. By asking ‘how many more dwellings can we get on that space’ and ‘what is the notion of home in the future’, it seeks to resolve some of the problems associated with our initial round of higher density.  Domestic architecture can be defined as a system of relationships between oppositions — this thesis explores these relationships through three strategies: Hybrid, Separations & Connections, and Looseness. Each of these deals with the spatial and social characteristics of the city and the home and are used as a technique for controlling relationships at a range of scales and intimacies — from urban to interior — and as a tool for connecting or interrupting the public and private, inside and outside, and building and landscape.  Density and Desire offers a conceptual framework with a series of strategies that demonstrate the potential of the apartment building to re-define urban living and the peculiar New Zealand urban dream.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vanessa Coxhead

<p>Density and Desire explores changes in the social organisation of New Zealand, the notion and use of the home, the contribution of dwellings in our cities and an alternative vision for the future dwelling.  New Zealand is experiencing a period of rapid transformation that is changing the way we live, work and socialise, as well as our sense of cultural identity. Our population is becoming dramatically more diverse, more urban, and of very different age and family profiles, creating demand for a wider range of housing options that can adapt to changing social patterns. For these reasons and more, we face new questions about living in a community, of dwelling diversity, of promoting sociability, and of creating conditions for neighbourliness.  The move towards higher density living in New Zealand’s major cities provides an exciting opportunity for architecture. There is an urgent need to build dwellings and this thesis argues that apartments are a necessary part of our future. However, there is a certain stigma attached to apartment dwelling as ‘second best’ — if you can’t afford a house, you’ll settle for an apartment. The romance of the ‘Quarter-Acre Pavlova Paradise’ (Mitchell) is traded in for a plot peppered with horror stories: paper-thin walls, shoebox-sized ‘chicken coop’ confinement, lack of flexibility, onerous body corporate rules… the list could go on, and it does. The research benchmarks itself against the quantity and the quality of the single detached dwelling on a quarter-acre block both as a spatial measure and the representation of home. By asking ‘how many more dwellings can we get on that space’ and ‘what is the notion of home in the future’, it seeks to resolve some of the problems associated with our initial round of higher density.  Domestic architecture can be defined as a system of relationships between oppositions — this thesis explores these relationships through three strategies: Hybrid, Separations & Connections, and Looseness. Each of these deals with the spatial and social characteristics of the city and the home and are used as a technique for controlling relationships at a range of scales and intimacies — from urban to interior — and as a tool for connecting or interrupting the public and private, inside and outside, and building and landscape.  Density and Desire offers a conceptual framework with a series of strategies that demonstrate the potential of the apartment building to re-define urban living and the peculiar New Zealand urban dream.</p>


Chemosensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 327
Author(s):  
Panxue Wang ◽  
Yan Sun ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Xiang Li ◽  
Miaomiao Liu ◽  
...  

Rapid and facile determination of pesticides is critically important in food and environmental monitoring. This study developed a self-assembled gold nanoparticle array based SERS method for highly specific and sensitive detection of acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide that used to be difficult in SERS analysis due to its low affinity with SERS substrates. SERS detection and quantification of acetamiprid was conducted with self-assembled gold nanoparticle arrays at the interface of chloroform and water as the enhancing substrate. Since targets dissolved in chloroform (organic phase) also have access to the hot-spots of Au NP array, the developed method exhibited good sensitivity and specificity for acetamiprid determination. Under the optimal conditions, SERS intensities at Raman shifts of 631 cm−1 and 1109 cm−1 displayed a good linear relationship with the logarithm concentration of acetamiprid in the range of 5.0 × 10−7 to 1.0 × 10−4 mol/L (0.11335 ppm to 22.67 ppm), with correlation coefficients of 0.97972 and 0.97552, respectively. The calculated LOD and LOQ of this method were 1.19 × 10−7 mol/L (0.265 ppb) and 2.63 × 10−7 mol/L (0.586 ppb), respectively, using SERS signal at 631 cm−1, and 2.95 × 10−7 mol/L (0.657 ppb) and 3.86 × 10−7 mol/L (0.860 ppb) using SERS signal at 1109 cm−1, respectively. Furthermore, the developed SERS method was successfully applied in determining acetamiprid on the surface of apple and spinach. This method offers an exciting opportunity for rapid detection of acetamiprid and other organic pesticides considering its advantages of simple preparation process, good specificity and sensitivity, and short detection time (within 1 h).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Charlotte Stewart

<p>A Line of Best Fit explores weakness and disconnection in the city. Weakness: There are over 600 earthquake prone buildings in Wellington. The urgency to strengthen buildings risks compromising the aesthetic integrity of the city through abrasive strengthening techniques, or losing a large portion of our built environment to demolition. The need for extensive earthquake strengthening in Wellington, Christchurch and other New Zealand cities provides an exciting opportunity for architecture. Disconnection: In Wellington pedestrian activity is focused around three main routes: Cuba Street, Lambton Quay and Courtney Place. The adjacent areas are often disconnected and lack vibrancy due to large building footprints, no-exit laneways and lack of public spaces. The Design proposes a strategy for earthquake strengthening, preserving and upgrading the built environment, and expanding and connecting the pedestrian realm. The site is two earthquake prone buildings on the block between Marion Street and Taranaki Street in central Wellington. A cut through the centre of the Aspro and Cathie Buildings ties the buildings together to strengthen and create a new arcade as public space. The cut aligns with existing pedestrian routes connecting the block with the city. The Design is divided into three components: Void, Curve, and Pattern and Structure. Void investigates the implications of cutting a portion out the existing buildings and the opportunities this provides for connection, urban interaction, and light. Curve discusses the unusual form of The Design in terms of scale, the human response and the surrounding spaces. Pattern and Structure considers the structural requirements of the project and how a void enveloped in perforated screens can strengthen the earthquake prone buildings. The importance of connection, providing strength in the city, a dialogue between old and new, and engagement with the unexpected are evaluated. Opportunities for further development and research are discussed, with particular reference to how the principles of The Design could be implemented on a larger scale throughout our cities. A Line of Best Fit is an architectural proposal that creates strength and connection.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Charlotte Stewart

<p>A Line of Best Fit explores weakness and disconnection in the city. Weakness: There are over 600 earthquake prone buildings in Wellington. The urgency to strengthen buildings risks compromising the aesthetic integrity of the city through abrasive strengthening techniques, or losing a large portion of our built environment to demolition. The need for extensive earthquake strengthening in Wellington, Christchurch and other New Zealand cities provides an exciting opportunity for architecture. Disconnection: In Wellington pedestrian activity is focused around three main routes: Cuba Street, Lambton Quay and Courtney Place. The adjacent areas are often disconnected and lack vibrancy due to large building footprints, no-exit laneways and lack of public spaces. The Design proposes a strategy for earthquake strengthening, preserving and upgrading the built environment, and expanding and connecting the pedestrian realm. The site is two earthquake prone buildings on the block between Marion Street and Taranaki Street in central Wellington. A cut through the centre of the Aspro and Cathie Buildings ties the buildings together to strengthen and create a new arcade as public space. The cut aligns with existing pedestrian routes connecting the block with the city. The Design is divided into three components: Void, Curve, and Pattern and Structure. Void investigates the implications of cutting a portion out the existing buildings and the opportunities this provides for connection, urban interaction, and light. Curve discusses the unusual form of The Design in terms of scale, the human response and the surrounding spaces. Pattern and Structure considers the structural requirements of the project and how a void enveloped in perforated screens can strengthen the earthquake prone buildings. The importance of connection, providing strength in the city, a dialogue between old and new, and engagement with the unexpected are evaluated. Opportunities for further development and research are discussed, with particular reference to how the principles of The Design could be implemented on a larger scale throughout our cities. A Line of Best Fit is an architectural proposal that creates strength and connection.</p>


Author(s):  
Jingkai Wang

The Event Horizon Telescope’s image of the M87 black hole provides an exciting opportunity to study black hole physics. Since a black hole’s event horizon absorbs all electromagnetic waves, it is difficult to actively probe the horizon’s existence. However, with the help of a family of extremely compact, horizon-less objects, named “gravastars”, whose external spacetimes are nearly identical to those of black holes, one can test the absence of event horizons: absences of additional features that arise due to the existence of the gravastar, or its surface, can be used as quantitative evidence for black holes. We apply Gralla et al. approach of studying black hole images to study the images of two types of gravastars: transparent ones and reflective ones. In both cases, the transmission of rays through gravastars, or their reflections on their surfaces, leads to more rings in their images. For simple emission models, where the redshifted emissivity of the disk is peaked at a particular radius [Formula: see text], the position of a series of rings can be related in a simple manner to light ray propagation: a ring shows up around impact parameter [Formula: see text] whenever rays incident from infinity at [Formula: see text] intersects the disk at [Formula: see text]. We show that additional rings will appear in the images of transparent and reflective gravastars. In particular, one of the additional rings for the reflective gravastar is due to the prompt reflection of light on the gravastar surface, and appears to be well separated from the others. This can be an intuitive feature, which may be reliably used to constrain the reflectivity of the black hole’s horizon.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Lennon ◽  
Grant Rigney ◽  
Vanessa Raymont ◽  
Perminder Sachdev

Effective, disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remain a quandary, following a panoply of expensive failures in human clinical trials. Given the stagnation in therapeutics, alternative approaches are needed. Recent successes of genetic therapies in other neurodegenerative diseases may highlight the way forward. This scoping review explores suggested targets of genetic therapy in AD, with a focus on vector-based approaches in pre-clinical and clinical trials. Putative targets of genetic therapies tested in pre-clinical trials include amyloid pathway intermediates and enzymes modulation, tau protein downregulation, APOE4 downregulation and APOE2 upregulation, neurotrophin expression (nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor), and inflammatory cytokine alteration, among several other approaches. There have been three completed human clinical trials for genetic therapy in AD patients, all of which upregulated NGF in AD patients, showing some mixed evidence of benefit. Several impediments remain to be surpassed before genetic therapies can be successfully applied to AD, including the challenge of delivering monogenic genetic therapies for complex polygenic disorders, risks in the dominant delivery method (intracranial injection), stability of genetic therapies in vivo, poor translatability of pre-clinical AD models, and the expense of genetic therapy production. Genetic therapies represent an exciting opportunity within the world of AD therapeutics, but clinical applications likely remain a long term, rather than short term, possibility.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dang ◽  
Christoforos Efstathiou ◽  
Dijue Sun ◽  
Nishanth Sastry ◽  
Viji M Draviam

Time-lapse microscopy movies have transformed the study of subcellular dynamics. However, manual analysis of movies can introduce bias and variability, obscuring important insights. While automation can overcome such limitations, spatial and temporal discontinuities in time-lapse movies render methods such as object segmentation and tracking difficult. Here we present SpinX, a framework for reconstructing gaps between successive frames by combining Deep Learning and mathematical object modelling. By incorporating expert feedback through selective annotations, SpinX identifies subcellular structures, despite confounding neighbour-cell information, non-uniform illumination and variable marker intensities. The automation and continuity introduced allows precise 3-Dimensional tracking and analysis of spindle movements with respect to the cell cortex for the first time. We demonstrate the utility of SpinX using distinct spindle markers and drug treatments. In summary, SpinX provides an exciting opportunity to study spindle dynamics in a sophisticated way, creating a framework for step changes in studies using time-lapse microscopy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Mata ◽  
Blythe Vogel ◽  
Estibaliz Palma ◽  
Mallik Malapatil

We present evidence of the recent introduction and quick spread of the European firebug Pyrrhocoris apterus in Australia, as documented on the citizen science platform iNaturalist. The first public record of the species was reported in December 2018 in the City of Brimbank (Melbourne, Victoria). Since then, the species distribution has quickly expanded into 15 local government areas surrounding this first observation, including areas in both Metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. The number of records of the European firebug in Victoria has also seen a substantial increase, with a current tally of almost 100 observations in iNaturalist as of July 31st, 2021. The case of the European firebug in Australia adds to the list of examples of citizen scientists playing a key role in not only early detection of newly introduced species but in documenting their expansion across their non-native range. Citizen science presents an exciting opportunity to complement biosecurity efforts carried out by government agencies, which often lack resources to sufficiently fund detection and monitoring programs given the overwhelming number of current and potential invasive species. Recognising and supporting the invaluable contribution of citizen scientists to science and society can help reduce this gap by: (1) increasing the number of introduced species that are quickly detected; (2) gathering evidence of the species’ early expansion stage; and (3) prompting adequate monitoring and rapid management plans for potentially harmful species.Given the range expansion patterns of the European firebug worldwide, their adaptation ability, and future climate scenarios, we suspect this species will continue expanding beyond Victoria, including other parts of Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. We firmly believe that most of the knowledge about how this expansion process continues to happen will be provided by citizen scientists.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document