The umbrella value of caribou management strategies for biodiversity conservation in boreal forests under global change.

Single-species conservation management is often proposed to preserve biodiversity in human-disturbed landscapes. How global change will impact the umbrella value of single-species management strategies remains an open question of critical conservation importance. We assessed the effectiveness of threatened boreal caribou as an umbrella for bird and beetle conservation under global change.

Effects of NO aging on bismuth nanoparticles and bismuth-loaded silica xerogels for iodine capture.

The capture of long-lived radioactive iodine (I) from oxidizing off-gasses produced from reprocessing used nuclear fuel is paramount to human health and environmental safety. Bismuth has been investigated as a viable iodine getter but the phase stability of bismuth-based sorbents in an oxidizing environment have not yet been researched. In the current work, bismuth nanoparticle-based sorbents, as free particles (Bi-NPs) and embedded within silica xerogel monoliths made with a porogen (TEO-5), were exposed to I before and after aging in 1 v/v% NO at 150 °C.

Novel Analysis Method for Beating Cells Videomicroscopy Data: Functional Characterization of Culture Samples.

Cell culture of cardiac tissue analog is becoming increasingly interesting for regenerative medicine (cell therapy and tissue engineering) and is widely used for high throughput cardiotoxicity. As a cost-effective approach to rapidly discard new compounds with high toxicity risks, cardiotoxicity evaluation is firstly done requiring cells/tissue with physiological/pathological characteristics (close to properties). Studying multicellular electrophysiological and contractile properties is needed to assess drug effects.

Integration of ethical considerations into HTA reports: an analysis of integration levels using a systematic review.

Objective: To describe the type and level of ethical integration in published health technology assessment (HTA) reports and systematically identify the ethical approaches utilized.

Methods: A literature search was conducted with the Google™ search engine using the keyword "ethic" between 1 January 2015 and 20 August 2019. Only HTA assessment reports with a section on ethics were retained and classified according to their level of ethical integration: no ethical analysis, ethical issues highlighted, assessments according to legal or social norms, and assessments from a moral or axiological perspective-using a qualitative methodology to distinguish such integration.

How does HTA addresses current social expectations? An international survey.

Objectives: Integration of ethics into technology assessment in healthcare (HTA) reports is directly linked to the need of decision makers to provide rational grounds justifying their social choices. In a decision-making paradigm, facts and values are intertwined and the social role of HTA reports is to provide relevant information to decision makers. Since 2003, numerous surveys and discussions have addressed different aspects of the integration of ethics into HTA.

ETHICS IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW.

Objectives: Integration of ethics into health technology assessment (HTA) remains challenging for HTA practitioners. We conducted a systematic review on social and methodological issues related to ethical analysis in HTA. We examined: (1) reasons for integrating ethics (social needs); (2) obstacles to ethical integration; (3) concepts and processes deployed in ethical evaluation (more specifically value judgments) and critical analyses of formal experimentations of ethical evaluation in HTA.

Framework for the analysis of nanotechnologies' impacts and ethical acceptability: basis of an interdisciplinary approach to assessing novel technologies.

The genetically manipulated organism (GMO) crisis demonstrated that technological development based solely on the law of the marketplace and State protection against serious risks to health and safety is no longer a warrant of ethical acceptability. In the first part of our paper, we critique the implicitly individualist social-acceptance model for State regulation of technology and recommend an interdisciplinary approach for comprehensive analysis of the impacts and ethical acceptability of technologies. In the second part, we present a framework for the analysis of impacts and acceptability, devised-with the goal of supporting the development of specific nanotechnological applications-by a team of researchers from various disciplines.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based strain sensors for a wearable monitoring and biofeedback system for pressure ulcer prevention and rehabilitation.

This paper presents an overview of the functioning principles of CNTs and their electrical and mechanical properties when used as strain sensors and describes a system embodiment for a wearable monitoring and biofeedback platform for use in pressure ulcer prevention and rehabilitation. Two type of CNTs films (multi-layered CNTs film vs purified film) were characterized electrically and mechanically for potential use as source material. The loosely woven CNTs film (multi-layered) showed substantial less sensitivity than the purified CNTs film but had an almost linear response to stress and better mechanical properties.

Fluorescence-based system for measurement of electrophysiological changes in stretched cultured cardiomyocytes.

Acute or sustained stretch of cardiac tissue is known to play a key role in arrhythmogenesis. Using a fluorescence approach, we designed a system measuring calcium transients and transmembrane potential changes in monolayers of cultured cardiomyocytes under uniaxial elongation and electrical stimulation. Cardiac myocytes are seeded on a rectangular PDMS template held and stretched by a motorized linear guide system.

The Social and Ethical Acceptability of NBICs for Purposes of Human Enhancement: Why Does the Debate Remain Mired in Impasse?

The emergence and development of convergent technologies for the purpose of improving human performance, including nanotechnology, biotechnology, information sciences, and cognitive science (NBICs), open up new horizons in the debates and moral arguments that must be engaged by philosophers who hope to take seriously the question of the ethical and social acceptability of these technologies. This article advances an analysis of the factors that contribute to confusion and discord on the topic, in order to help in understanding why arguments that form a part of the debate between transhumanism and humanism result in a philosophical and ethical impasse: 1. The lack of clarity that emerges from the fact that any given argument deployed (arguments based on nature and human nature, dignity, the good life) can serve as the basis for both the positive and the negative evaluation of NBICs.

Moral Arguments in the Debate over Nanotechnologies: Are We Talking Past Each Other?

How are we to understand the fact that the philosophical debate over nanotechnologies has been reduced to a clash of seemingly preprogrammed arguments and counterarguments that paralyzes all rational discussion of the ultimate ethical question of social acceptability in matters of nanotechnological development? With this issue as its starting point, the study reported on here, intended to further comprehension of the issues rather than provide a cause-and-effect explanation, seeks to achieve a rational grasp of what is being said through the appeals made to this or that principle in the range of arguments put forward in publications on the subject. We present the results of the study's analyses in two parts. In the first, we lay out the seven categories of argument that emerged from an analysis of the literature: the arguments based on nature, dignity, the good life, utility, equity, autonomy, and rights.

Sonographic evaluation of venous obstruction in liver transplants.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to identify specific Doppler criteria for portal vein and outflow vein (hepatic veins and inferior vena cava) obstruction in liver transplants.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review was performed of Doppler sonographic studies and angiograms in 94 liver transplant cases (72 whole liver, 22 lobar) with suspected vascular obstruction. The angiograms were classified as normal, occluded, or stenosed on the basis of appearance and elevated pressure gradient.

Sequencing and analysis of 10,967 full-length cDNA clones from Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis reveals post-tetraploidization transcriptome remodeling.

Sequencing of full-insert clones from full-length cDNA libraries from both Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis has been ongoing as part of the Xenopus Gene Collection Initiative. Here we present 10,967 full ORF verified cDNA clones (8049 from X. laevis and 2918 from X.

A mouse atlas of gene expression: large-scale digital gene-expression profiles from precisely defined developing C57BL/6J mouse tissues and cells.

We analyzed 8.55 million LongSAGE tags generated from 72 libraries. Each LongSAGE library was prepared from a different mouse tissue.

Inheritance and dominance of self-incompatibility alleles in polyploid Arabidopsis lyrata.

Natural populations of diploid Arabidopsis lyrata exhibit the sporophytic type of self-incompatibility system characteristic of Brassicaceae, in which complicated dominance interactions among alleles in the diploid parent determine self-recognition phenotypes of both pollen and stigma. The purpose of this study was to investigate how polyploidy affects this already complex system. One tetraploid population (Arabidopsis lyrata ssp kawasakiana from Japan) showed complete self-compatibility and produced viable selfed progeny for at least three generations subsequent to field collection.

In the absence of T cells, natural killer cells protect from mortality due to HSV-1 encephalitis.

The importance of natural killer (NK) cells in the resistance to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), a common infection of immunocompromised patients, is unclear. Previous data on the role of NK cells in murine HSV-1 infection has been contradictory. Adoptive transfer studies suggested that NK cells mediated resistance to HSV-1, but in vivo depletion approaches demonstrated that NK cells were not important.

B cell-deficient mice have increased susceptibility to HSV-1 encephalomyelitis and mortality.

We studied the susceptibility of B cell-deficient mice to encephalomyelitis following intraperitoneal inoculation of HSV-1. B cell-deficient mice developed striking CNS signs including tail atony, clumsy gait and limb paralysis after HSV-1 infection. In addition, B cell-deficient mice had decreased survival (LD50 = 2.

Recombinant CD40L treatment protects allogeneic murine bone marrow transplant recipients from death caused by herpes simplex virus-1 infection.

Posttransplant infection associated with host immune deficiency is the major cause of nonrelapse mortality of human bone marrow transplant recipients. In a new murine model of posttransplant infection, allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients were infected with herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) via intraperitoneal inoculation 12 weeks after transplantation. Allogeneic transplant recipients with graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) had significantly increased mortality from HSV-1 encephalitis, with deficiencies of both specific anti-HSV-1 antibody and total serum IgG2a.

A role for transforming growth factor-beta1 in the increased pneumonitis in murine allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients with graft-versus-host disease after pulmonary herpes simplex virus type 1 infection.

To gain further insights in the pathogenesis of herpesvirus pneumonia in allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients, transplanted mice (B10.BR --> CBA) with graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and control mice (transplanted mice without GVHD and normal CBA mice) were infected intranasally with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). When compared with infected control mice, infected allogeneic transplant recipients with GVHD showed increased periluminal mononuclear cell infiltrates.

Suppression of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)-induced pneumonia in mice by inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS, NOS2).

Intranasal Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection of mice caused pneumonia. Manifestations of the disease included: histological pneumonitis, pulmonary influx of lymphocytes, decreased pulmonary compliance, and decreased survival. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated iNOS induction and the nitrotyrosine antigen in the lungs of infected, but not uninfected mice, suggesting that nitric oxide contributes to the development of pneumonia.

TCR-beta transgenic mice fail to mediate a GVHR due to defects of allorecognition and subsequent IL-2 generation.

All T cells of TCR-beta transgenic mice bear a single TCR-beta chain and consequently the diversity of the TCR may be reduced by as much as one million-fold. Despite this limited diversity, many measures of lymphocyte function in these mice are normal. We have previously demonstrated that lymphoid cells from TCR-beta mice are unable to mediate an intense graft-versus-host response (GVHR).

CpG island mapping of a mouse double-minute chromosome.

The development of double-minute chromosomes (DMs) and subsequent gene amplification are important genomic alterations resulting in increased oncogene expression in a variety of tumors. The molecular mechanisms mediating the development of these acentric extrachromosomal elements have not been completely defined. To elucidate the mechanisms involved in DM formation, we have developed strategies to map amplified circular DM DNA.

Phorbol ester regulation of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase, proliferation, and TcR alpha in a pre-T cell line.

Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) is a template-independent DNA polymerase that is transiently expressed during the normal development of T and B lymphocytes. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) has been reported to induce maturation-like changes, including the loss of TdT, in many leukemic cell lines. We investigated the mechanism of TdT repression by PMA in an early thymocyte-like cell line, RPMI 8402.

Schistosomiasis in an American medical investigator.

A 42-year-old American male researcher contracted schistosomiasis from environmental sources in the course of his observations on human behavior in Upper Egypt. After a long asymptomatic period, he developed various symptoms and Schistosoma haematobium was found in a urine examination. After treatment with Metrifonate, urine examination became negative.

Nonadrenergic inhibitory nervous system in human airways.

Human airways, from the middle of the trachea to the distal bronchi, were studied in vitro for the presence of inhibitory nerves. The tissue was obtained from operations and from recent autopsies. Electrical field stimulation of the tissues demonstrated cholinergic, excitatory nerves and their effect was blocked by atropine.