In 1748, as yellow fever raged in Charleston, South Carolina, doctor John Lining remarked, "There is something very singular in the constitution of the Negroes, which renders them not liable to this ...fever." Lining's comments presaged ideas about blackness that would endure in medical discourses and beyond. In this fascinating medical history, Rana A. Hogarth examines the creation and circulation of medical ideas about blackness in the Atlantic World during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She shows how white physicians deployed blackness as a medically significant marker of difference and used medical knowledge to improve plantation labor efficiency, safeguard colonial and civic interests, and enhance control over black bodies during the era of slavery.Hogarth refigures Atlantic slave societies as medical frontiers of knowledge production on the topic of racial difference. Rather than looking to their counterparts in Europe who collected and dissected bodies to gain knowledge about race, white physicians in Atlantic slaveholding regions created and tested ideas about race based on the contexts in which they lived and practiced. What emerges in sharp relief is the ways in which blackness was reified in medical discourses and used to perpetuate notions of white supremacy.
Here, we generated a genome-scale shRNA library targeting long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) in the mouse. We performed an unbiased loss-of-function study in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) ...and identified 20 lincRNAs involved in the maintenance of pluripotency. Among these, TUNA (Tcl1 Upstream Neuron-Associated lincRNA, or megamind) was required for pluripotency and formed a complex with three RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). The TUNA-RBP complex was detected at the promoters of Nanog, Sox2, and Fgf4, and knockdown of TUNA or the individual RBPs inhibited neural differentiation of mESCs. TUNA showed striking evolutionary conservation of both sequence- and CNS-restricted expression in vertebrates. Accordingly, knockdown of tuna in zebrafish caused impaired locomotor function, and TUNA expression in the brains of Huntington’s disease patients was significantly associated with disease grade. Our results suggest that the lincRNA TUNA plays a vital role in pluripotency and neural differentiation of ESCs and is associated with neurological function of adult vertebrates.
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•Genome-wide RNAi screen identified 20 lincRNAs controlling pluripotency•lincRNA TUNA is required for pluripotency and neural differentiation•TUNA interacts with RNA-binding proteins through a conserved sequence•TUNA expression in Huntington’s patients was associated with disease grade
Using a genome-wide shRNA library targeting lincRNAs, Lin et al. performed an unbiased loss-of-function study in ESCs and identified 20 lincRNAs involved in pluripotency maintenance. A lincRNA, TUNA, forms a multiprotein complex with the RNA-binding proteins PTBP1, hnRNP-K, and Nucleolin. TUNA plays a vital role in pluripotency and neural differentiation of ESCs and is associated with neurological function in adult vertebrates.
Are the answers to biological questions obtained via live fluorescence microscopy substantially affected by phototoxicity? Although a single set of standards for assessing phototoxicity cannot exist ...owing to the breadth of samples and experimental questions associated with biological imaging, we need quantitative, practical assessments and reporting standards to ensure that imaging has a minimal impact on observed biological processes and sample health. Here we discuss the problem of phototoxicity in biology and suggest guidelines to improve its reporting and assessment.
Both a quasi‐biennial variability and an overall linearly increasing trend are identified in the Sub‐Antarctic Mode Water (SAMW) subduction rate across the Southern Hemisphere ocean, using the Argo ...data during 2005–2019. The quasi‐biennial variability is mainly due to variability of the mixed layer depth. Variability of wind stress curl in the SAMW formation regions associated with the Southern Annular Mode plays a critical role in generating the quasi‐biennial variability of the mixed layer depth and consequently the SAMW subduction rates. The SAMW subduction rate across the Southern Hemisphere ocean, long‐term mean totaling 56 Sv, has increased at 0.73 ± 0.65 Sv year−1 over the past 15 years. The increase has directly contributed to the observed increase in the total SAMW volume. Much of this increasing trend can be explained by the deepening mixed layers, which in turn are primarily forced by the strengthening westerly winds under an increasing Southern Annular Mode.
Plain Language Summary
The upper ocean heat content has increased globally during the past decades. Recent studies have shown that this warming trend has concentrated in the extratropical Southern Hemisphere ocean and can be largely explained by the Sub‐Antarctic Mode Water (SAMW) variability. Analysis of the Argo data reveals an increasing trend of the SAMW subduction rate during the period 2005–2019. Superimposed with this increasing trend is a quasi‐biennial variability resulting from changes of the mixed layer depth. The increasing trend of the SAMW subduction rate directly contributes to the decade‐long increase of the total SAMW volume. A large portion of this increasing trend is due to deepening of the mixed layer. Enhanced downward Ekman pumping in the SAMW subduction regions associated with an increasing Southern Annular Mode is primarily responsible for the increasing trends of the mixed layer depth and consequently the SAMW subduction rate.
Key Points
A quasi‐biennial variability in the Sub‐Antarctic Mode Water subduction rate is revealed in response to the mixed layer depth variability
The Sub‐Antarctic Mode Water subduction rate has increased, contributing to the water's volume increase during the Argo period
Changes in wind stress curl associated with the westerly winds play a key role in modulating the Sub‐Antarctic Mode Water subduction rate
Tannic acid is a chief gallo-tannin belonging to the hydrolysable tannins extracted from gall nuts and other plant sources. A myriad of pharmaceutical and biological applications in the medical field ...has been well recognized to tannic acid. Among these effects, potential anticancer activities against several solid malignancies such as liver, breast, lung, pancreatic, colorectal and ovarian cancers have been reported. Tannic acid was found to play a maestro-role in tuning several oncological signaling pathways including JAK/STAT, RAS/RAF/mTOR, TGF-β1/TGF-β1R axis, VEGF/VEGFR and CXCL12/CXCR4 axes. The combinational beneficial effects of tannic acid with other conventional chemotherapeutic drugs have been clearly demonstrated in literature such as a synergistic anticancer effect and enhancement of the chemo-sensitivity in several resistant cases. Yet, clinical applications of tannic acid have been limited owing to its poor lipid solubility, low bioavailability, off-taste, and short half-life. To overcome such obstacles, novel drug delivery systems have been employed to deliver tannic acid with the aim of improving its applications and/or efficacy against cancer cells. Among these drug delivery systems are several types of organic and metallic nanoparticles. In this review, the authors focus on the molecular mechanisms of tannic acid in tuning several neoplastic diseases as well as novel drug delivery systems that can be used for its clinical applications with an attempt to provide a systemic reference to promote the development of tannic acid as a cheap drug and/or drug delivery system in cancer management.
Google classroom can work in unidirectional process as it can serve the teachers’ strategies and styles on one hand and students’ perception, understanding, and effective participation in different ...classroom skills on the other hand. The ac-ceptance of Google classroom is affected by different factors. Some of them are still not clearly specified and discussed in previous research; therefore, they need further investigation. Based on the previous assumption, this study is an attempt to examine the factors that affect the students’ acceptance of Google classroom at Al Buraimi University College (BUC) in Oman. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was adopted to formulate the hypotheses of the current study. The data was collected through an online questionnaire with 337 respondents. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) approach was used to assess both the measurement and structural models. The results of the study prove that both the perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) positively influence the behavioral intention, which in turn influence the actual usage of Google classrooms. This study helps the decision makers of the higher educational institutions to have a better understanding of the effectiveness of us-ing Google classroom by their students. It is assumed that it helps in measuring the level of students’ acceptance to the previously mentioned technology.
Sentiment analysis (SA) has become one of the most active and progressively popular areas in information retrieval and text mining due to the expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW). SA deals with the ...computational treatment or the classification of user’s sentiments, opinions and emotions hidden within the text. Aspect extraction is the most vital and extensively explored phase of SA to carry out the classification of sentiments in precise manners. During the last decade, enormous number of research has focused on identifying and extracting aspects. Therefore, in this survey, a comprehensive overview has been attempted for different aspect extraction techniques and approaches. These techniques have been categorized in accordance with the adopted approach. Despite being a traditional survey, a comprehensive comparative analysis is conducted among different approaches of aspect extraction, which not only elaborates the performance of any technique but also guides the reader to compare the accuracy with other state-of-the-art and most recent approaches.
In this paper, organic‐based capacitive and resistive humidity sensors, starting from the fundamental working principles, designs, and characterization, are reviewed. The prevalent adoptions of ...recent technology in the fabrication of the organic humidity sensors are also discussed. This paper is envisioned to serve as a complete reference guide for researchers who are looking forward to developing a more reliable, economical, and effective humidity sensor using organic/polymeric materials.
Here, organic‐based capacitive and resistive humidity sensors, starting from the fundamental working principles, designs, and characterization, are reviewed.
CONTEXT Solid organ transplant recipients have elevated cancer risk due to immunosuppression and oncogenic viral infections. Because most prior research has concerned kidney recipients, large studies ...that include recipients of differing organs can inform cancer etiology. OBJECTIVE To describe the overall pattern of cancer following solid organ transplantion. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cohort study using linked data on solid organ transplant recipients from the US Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (1987-2008) and 13 state and regional cancer registries. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and excess absolute risks (EARs) assessing relative and absolute cancer risk in transplant recipients compared with the general population. RESULTS The registry linkages yielded data on 175 732 solid organ transplants (58.4% for kidney, 21.6% for liver, 10.0% for heart, and 4.0% for lung). The overall cancer risk was elevated with 10 656 cases and an incidence of 1375 per 100 000 person-years (SIR, 2.10 95% CI, 2.06-2.14; EAR, 719.3 95% CI, 693.3-745.6 per 100 000 person-years). Risk was increased for 32 different malignancies, some related to known infections (eg, anal cancer, Kaposi sarcoma) and others unrelated (eg, melanoma, thyroid and lip cancers). The most common malignancies with elevated risk were non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 1504; incidence: 194.0 per 100 000 person-years; SIR, 7.54 95% CI, 7.17-7.93; EAR, 168.3 95% CI, 158.6-178.4 per 100 000 person-years) and cancers of the lung (n = 1344; incidence: 173.4 per 100 000 person-years; SIR, 1.97 95% CI, 1.86-2.08; EAR, 85.3 95% CI, 76.2-94.8 per 100 000 person-years), liver (n = 930; incidence: 120.0 per 100 000 person-years; SIR, 11.56 95% CI, 10.83-12.33; EAR, 109.6 95% CI, 102.0-117.6 per 100 000 person-years), and kidney (n = 752; incidence: 97.0 per 100 000 person-years; SIR, 4.65 95% CI, 4.32-4.99; EAR, 76.1 95% CI, 69.3-83.3 per 100 000 person-years). Lung cancer risk was most elevated in lung recipients (SIR, 6.13 95% CI, 5.18-7.21) but also increased among other recipients (kidney: SIR, 1.46 95% CI, 1.34-1.59; liver: SIR, 1.95 95% CI, 1.74-2.19; and heart: SIR, 2.67 95% CI, 2.40-2.95). Liver cancer risk was elevated only among liver recipients (SIR, 43.83 95% CI, 40.90-46.91), who manifested exceptional risk in the first 6 months (SIR, 508.97 95% CI, 474.16-545.66) and a 2-fold excess risk for 10 to 15 years thereafter (SIR, 2.22 95% CI, 1.57-3.04). Among kidney recipients, kidney cancer risk was elevated (SIR, 6.66 95% CI, 6.12-7.23) and bimodal in onset time. Kidney cancer risk also was increased in liver recipients (SIR, 1.80 95% CI, 1.40-2.29) and heart recipients (SIR, 2.90 95% CI, 2.32-3.59). CONCLUSION Compared with the general population, recipients of a kidney, liver, heart, or lung transplant have an increased risk for diverse infection-related and unrelated cancers.
In this brief, designs of two millimeter wave (mmWave) reconfigurable multi band low noise amplifiers (LNA) are presented targeted for fifth generation (5G) communications. A reconfigurable tunable ...load based on electrical and magnetic tuning is proposed to cover three mmWave frequency bands for 5G, i.e., 24 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz. Two LNA structures are designed and fabricated using 45nm CMOS SOI technology. The first toplogy (LNA1) is composed of a single input wideband matching circuit to cover frequency operations from 24 GHz to 40 GHz. On the other hand, second topology (LNA2) uses three separate narrowband match inputs, one for each frequency band, with combined output. Design methodology of passive and active devices is presented towards compact integration of LNAs for systems such as, phased arrays. Ground plane and its impact on the performance parameters is also discussed in this brief. Measurement results show a wideband noise figure (NF) ranging from 3.8 dB to 4.9 dB and gain of 8.5 dB to 12.5 dB for LNA1 at different bands. Similarly, LNA2 exhibits NF of 4.5 dB to 5.5 dB and gain of 9.5 dB to 15.5 dB across all bands. Total area (including pads) of LNA1 and LNA2 are 0.316 mm2 and 0.695 mm 2 , respectively.