Multiplexed Profiling of Extracellular Vesicles for Biomarker Development

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived membranous particles that play a crucial role in molecular trafficking, intercellular transport and the egress of unwanted proteins. They have been implicated in many diseases including cancer and neurodegeneration. EVs are detected in all bodily fluids, and their protein and nucleic acid content offers a means of assessing the status of the cells from which they originated. As such, they provide opportunities in biomarker discovery for diagnosis, prognosis or the stratification of diseases as well as an objective monitoring of therapies. The simultaneous assaying of multiple EV-derived markers will be required for an impactful practical application, and multiplexing platforms have evolved with the potential to achieve this. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview of the currently available multiplexing platforms for EV analysis, with a primary focus on miniaturized and integrated devices that offer potential step changes in analytical power, throughput and consistency.

Varieties of Digital Authoritarianism

Digital authoritarianism threatens the privacy and rights of Internet users worldwide, yet scholarship on this topic remains limited in analytical power and case selection. In this article, we introduce a comprehensive analytical framework to the field of Internet governance and apply it first, briefly, to the well-known case of China and then, in more depth, to the still-understudied Russian case. We identify the extent and relative centralization of Internet governance as well as proactive versus reactive approaches to governance as notable differences between the cases, highlighting variation among digital authoritarians’ governance strategies. We conclude that Russia’s Internet governance model is less comprehensive and consistent than China’s, but its components may be more easily exported to other political systems. We then consider whether recent changes to Russia’s Internet governance suggest that it could converge with the Chinese model over time.

Multifunctionality of Prostatic Acid Phosphatase in Prostate Cancer Pathogenesis

The role of human prostatic acid phosphatase (PAcP, P15309|PPAP_HUMAN) in prostate cancer was investigated using a new proteomic tool termed signal sequence swapping (replacement of domains from the native cleaved amino terminal signal sequence of secretory/membrane proteins with corresponding regions of functionally distinct signal sequence subtypes). This manipulation preferentially redirects proteins to different pathways of biogenesis at the endoplasmic reticulum, magnifying normally difficult to detect subsets of the protein of interest. For PAcP this technique reveals three forms identical in amino acid sequence but profoundly different in physiological functions, subcellular location, and biochemical properties. These three forms of PAcP can also occur with the wild-type PAcP signal sequence. Clinical specimens from patients with prostate cancer demonstrate that one form, termed PLPAcP, correlates with early prostate cancer. These findings confirm the analytical power of this method, implicate PLPAcP in prostate cancer pathogenesis, and suggest novel anticancer therapeutic strategies.

Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Research

The analytical power of artificial intelligence can revolutionize the field of cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment by analyzing the huge raw data available in biomedical science. In this review, we have discussed current challenges, development, and future perspectives of artificial intelligence in cancer research.

A REVIEW STUDY OF ECONOMICS ANALYSIS IN ENGINEERING PROJECTS

Engineering economics, previously known as engineering economy, is a subset of economics concerned with the use and application of economic principles in the analysis of engineering decisions. As a discipline, it is focused on the branch of economics known as microeconomics in that it studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources. Thus, it focuses on the decision making process, its context and environment. It is pragmatic by nature, integrating economic theory with engineering practice. But, it is also a simplified application of microeconomic theory in that it avoids a number of microeconomic concepts such as price determination, competition and demand/supply. As a discipline though, it is closely related to others such as statistics, mathematics and cost accounting. It draws upon the logical framework of economics but adds to that the analytical power of mathematics and statistics. Engineers seek solutions to problems, and the economic viability of each potential solution is normally considered along with the technical aspects. Fundamentally, engineering economics involves formulating, estimating, and evaluating the economic outcomes when alternatives to accomplish a defined purpose are available. The study includes an introduction to the application of economic techniques to the evaluation of design and engineering alternatives, cash flow concepts, interest factors, comparison of alternatives, benefit - cost analysis, and conclusions of the study. One of the objectives of the economic analysis in engineering projects is the good management which consists primarily of making wise decisions; wise decisions in turn involve making a choice between alternatives. Engineering considerations determine the possibility of a project being carried out and point out the alternative ways in which the project could be handled. Economic considerations also largely determine a project's desirability and dictate ho

PROFIL INTELIGENSI REMAJA PUTRI YANG TINGGAL DI PANTI ASUHAN

Adolescent who are currently sitting on high schools or should be equal begin to prepare for a career on the next one. Career determination is based on desire and potential of interests and talents. To understand these interests and potential, a measurement must be taken, one of them with an intelligence measuring instrument. The purpose of this study is to provide a profile of the adolescent girls intelligence living at the female orphanage in Solo city. This study is a descriptive quantitative study. The measuring instrument uses the IST intelligence test instrument. The career interest survey uses the RMIB. The subjects used were 8 beneficiaries in the female orphanage. Determination of the subject using purposive sampling, namely adolescent girls who sit at the high school level or equivalent. The measurement results show 2 people with IQ in the category above average, and 6 people with the average category. Of the 5 categorizations, no subject was in the low category. While the categories indicated by 3 aspects, namely, verbal ability, analytical power, and memory

Rediscovering the Relative Deprivation and Crime Debate: Tracking its Fortunes from Left Realism to the Precariat

This article revisits the concept of relative deprivation and asks whether it is still useful for criminology. The article traces the way relative deprivation has been used in the past to understand crime and how it has connections to other, more recent, additions to debates on social justice. I argue that relative deprivation has disappeared even in the place that it had become the key explanation for crime—left realism. In so doing, I explore the resurrection of left realism in criminology—what I refer to as “post-millennial left realism”—first, by those who were associated with it originally, and then with Hall and Winlow’s (2015, 2017) shift in emphasis to what they term “ultra-realism.” I maintain that relative deprivation is still a powerful concept for bridging several related areas that should still be central to the concerns of criminology—in part, because it is still a major concern in popular social science and social psychology. Why has it disappeared in criminology? I present an argument that suggests that the absence of certain research methods, such as ethnographic and qualitative or small-scale survey methods, has impoverished our understanding of the lived reality of people experiencing the social transformations of a networked, precarious society. The massive polarization and disruption in politics and social discourse, as well as the worldwide economic, public health, and social transformations (ranging from the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter protests to the COVID-19 global pandemic) have demonstrated the continued relevance and analytical power that relative deprivation, in its elaborated form, brings to questions of crime and justice.

Participatory Mapping with High-resolution Satellite Imagery: A Mixed Method Assessment of Land Degradation and Rehabilitation in Northern Burkina Faso

Sahelian West Africa is a region that has high population densities and that has frequent severe droughts and enormous pressure on natural resources. Because of these challenges, it is the place where the term desertification was originally coined. Recently, however, experts have identified large zones of greening where the amount of vegetation exceeds what one would expect based on rainfall alone. This pattern is well documented, but its mechanisms remain poorly understood. This research employs participatory mapping linked with high-resolution satellite imagery to better understand the human role behind regional vegetation trends. Through a case study of three communities in northern Burkina Faso, this paper presents a pilot methodology for explicitly mapping perceived areas of both land degradation and rehabilitation. Combining participatory mapping exercises with standard image classification techniques allows areas of land degradation and rehabilitation to be precisely located and their extents measured for individual communities and their surrounding terroirs. Results of the spatial analysis show that the relative proportion of greening and browning varies among communities. In the case of Sakou, nearly 60 percent of its terroir is degraded. While in another, Kouka, this is 48 percent. This method also elicits perspectives of Burkinabè agro-pastoralists on the local land-use practices driving these twin environmental processes. Altogether, this case study demonstrates the analytical power of integrating ethnography and high-resolution satellite imagery to provide a bottom-up perspective on social-ecological dynamics.

Offshore pelagic subsidies dominate carbon inputs to coral reef predators

Coral reefs were traditionally perceived as productive hot spots in oligotrophic waters. While modern evidence indicates that many coral reef food webs are heavily subsidized by planktonic production, the pathways through which this occurs remain unresolved. We used the analytical power of carbon isotope analysis of essential amino acids to distinguish between alternative carbon pathways supporting four key reef predators across an oceanic atoll. This technique separates benthic versus planktonic inputs, further identifying two distinct planktonic pathways (nearshore reef-associated plankton and offshore pelagic plankton), and revealing that these reef predators are overwhelmingly sustained by offshore pelagic sources rather than by reef sources (including reef-associated plankton). Notably, pelagic reliance did not vary between species or reef habitats, emphasizing that allochthonous energetic subsidies may have system-wide importance. These results help explain how coral reefs maintain exceptional productivity in apparently nutrient-poor tropical settings, but also emphasize their susceptibility to future ocean productivity fluctuations.