The Identity Objection to the future-like-ours argument.

Some critics of Don Marquis's 'future-like-ours' anti-abortion argument launch what has been called the Identity Objection. The upshot of this objection is that under a psychological theory of personal identity, a non-sentient fetus lacks precisely what Marquis believes gives it a right to life - a future like ours. However, Eric Vogelstein, in a recent article, has argued that under this theory of personal identity a non-sentient fetus, in fact, has a future like ours, which he believes dissolves the Identity Objection.

The "Penis Police": Lesbian and Feminist Spaces, Trans Women, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System.

I provide a textual analysis to show how lesbians determine gender in sexualized spaces. As members work toward recognition, agentic embodiment, and the safeguarding of lesbian spaces, how do members differently determine gender for insiders and outsiders in order to preserve a particular kind of feminism? I show how public narratives of gender, essentialism, and heterosexuality circulate in some lesbian spaces as members use the "penis police" to maintain exclusionary feminism. I expand upon the concept of determining gender to move beyond questions about how gender is socially recognized to an analysis of how gender attribution challenges/maintains the sex/gender/sexuality system.

Micro Structure of Injection Molding Machine Mold Clamping Mechanism: Design and Motion Simulation.

With the advent of intelligence, more and more machines and devices involve the creation of complex structures. In the intelligent manufacturing industries, moldings including injection molding, blow molding, compression molding and others play critical roles in manufacturing the highly precise parts required for building intelligent machines (such as computers, cell phones, robots, etc.).

Mechanical Properties of Composite Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering.

Tissue engineering provides solutions that require medicine to restore damaged tissues or even complete organs. This discipline combines biologically active scaffolds, cells and molecules; being the addition of nanoparticles into the scaffolds, one of the techniques that is attracting more interest these days. In this work, Hydroxyapatite Nanorods (HA) were added to the network of Gelatin hydrogel (GE), and the particular properties resulting from their interaction were studied.

A geostatistical state-space model of animal densities for stream networks.

Population dynamics are often correlated in space and time due to correlations in environmental drivers as well as synchrony induced by individual dispersal. Many statistical analyses of populations ignore potential autocorrelations and assume that survey methods (distance and time between samples) eliminate these correlations, allowing samples to be treated independently. If these assumptions are incorrect, results and therefore inference may be biased and uncertainty underestimated.

The development and use of a spatially explicit model for river otters to evaluate environmental hazards: a case study on the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) faces a legacy of radionuclide and metal contamination from industrial processes that occurred throughout the site. Northern river otters (Lontra canadensis) are appropriate receptors for studying the effects of long-term, low-level contamination because they are long-lived, higher trophic level organisms susceptible to accumulating high levels of pollutants. The purpose of this study was to use latrine surveys to examine patterns of wetland latrine usage; explicitly model northern river otter resource selection on the landscape level; and utilize the model results within an ecological risk assessment (ERA) framework to assess potential effects of metals and radiocesium (Cs) on the population for the SRS as a case study.

Co@Pd core-shell nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen-doped porous carbon as dual functional electrocatalysts for both oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions.

Developing efficient bi-functional electrocatalysts for both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for producing hydrogen and utilizing hydrogen effectively to promote electrochemical energy storage in proton membrane exchange fuel cells (PEMFCs). Herein, we report Co@Pd core-shell nanoparticles encapsulated in porous carbon derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework 67 (ZIF-67) for both ORR and HER. The controlled pyrolysis of ZIF-67 can lead to the formation of Co nanoparticles encapsulated in nitrogen-doped porous carbon (Co NC), which subsequently underwent galvanic replacement with NaPdCl to form Co@Pd core-shell nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen-doped porous carbon (Co@Pd NC).

Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF)/Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposites for Energy Storage and Conversion.

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/Polyacrilonitrile (PAN)/Multiwalled nanotubes functionalized COOH (MWNT-COOH) nanocomposites with different contents of MWNTs were fabricated by using electrospinning and solution cast methods. The interaction of the MWNTs with the polymer blend was confirmed by a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy study. The dispersion of the MWNTs in the polymer blend was studied by scanning electron microscopy.

Design and synthesis study of the thermo-sensitive poly (N-vinylpyrrolidone-b- N, N-diethylacrylamide).

The reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization method was adopted here to prepare a series of thermo-sensitive copolymers, poly (N,N-diethyl- acrylamide-b-N-vinylpyrrolidone). Their structures, molecular weight distribution and temperature sensitivity performances were characterized by the nuclear magnetic resonance (HNMR), the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and the fluorescence spectrophotometer, respectively. It has been identified that the synthesis reaction of the block copolymer was living polymerization.

Author Correction: Concise N-doped Carbon Nanosheets/Vanadium Nitride Nanoparticles Materials via Intercalative Polymerization for Supercapacitors.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Self-regulation in chemical and bio-engineering materials for intelligent systems.

Herein, the authors review the self-regulation system secured by well-designed hybrid materials, composites, and complex system. As a broad concept, the self-regulated material/system has been defined in a wide research field and proven to be of great interest for use in a biomedical system, mechanical system, physical system, as the fact of something such as an organisation regulating itself without intervention from external perturbation. Here, they focus on the most recent discoveries of self-regulation phenomenon and progress in utilising the self-regulation design.

Concise N-doped Carbon Nanosheets/Vanadium Nitride Nanoparticles Materials via Intercalative Polymerization for Supercapacitors.

N-doped carbon nanosheets/vanadium nitride nanoparticles (N-CNS/VNNPs) are synthesized via a novel method combining surface-initiated in-situ intercalative polymerization and thermal-treatment process in NH/N atmosphere. The pH value of the synthesis system plays a critical role in constructing the structure and enhancing electrochemical performance for N-CNS/VNNPs, which are characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, and XPS, and measured by electrochemical station, respectively. The results show that N-CNS/VNNPs materials consist of 2D N-doped carbon nanosheets and 0D VN nanoparticles.

Structural and Kinetic Visualization of the Protein Corona on Bioceramic Nanoparticles.

Bioceramic nanoparticles exhibit excellent features that enable them to function as an ideal material for hard tissue engineering. However, to fully understand their behavior, it is of crucial importance to understand their behavior within the fluids of the human body. To achieve this goal, we have studied the interaction between hydroxyapatite nanorods (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA).

Towards Integrating Distributed Energy Resources and Storage Devices in Smart Grid.

Internet of Things (IoT) provides a generic infrastructure for different applications to integrate information communication techniques with physical components to achieve automatic data collection, transmission, exchange, and computation. The smart grid, as one of typical applications supported by IoT, denoted as a re-engineering and a modernization of the traditional power grid, aims to provide reliable, secure, and efficient energy transmission and distribution to consumers. How to effectively integrate distributed (renewable) energy resources and storage devices to satisfy the energy service requirements of users, while minimizing the power generation and transmission cost, remains a highly pressing challenge in the smart grid.

Trophic position and dietary breadth of bats revealed by nitrogen isotopic composition of amino acids.

Bats perform important ecosystem services, but it remains difficult to quantify their dietary strategies and trophic position (TP) in situ. We conducted measurements of nitrogen isotopes of individual amino acids (δ N) and bulk-tissue carbon (δ C) and nitrogen (δ N) isotopes for nine bat species from different feeding guilds (nectarivory, frugivory, sanguivory, piscivory, carnivory, and insectivory). Our objective was to assess the precision of δ N-based estimates of TP relative to other approaches.

Yeast-template synthesized Fe-doped cerium oxide hollow microspheres for visible photodegradation of acid orange 7.

Fe-doped cerium oxide (CeO) hollow microspheres were successfully synthesized by a simple co-precipitation route using yeast asa bio-template and nitrate as the oxide precursor. The products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N adsorption-desorption isotherms and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It was found that the products had a well-defined ellipsoidal morphology and the size of the hollow microspheres was about 1.

Methylmercury bioaccumulation in an urban estuary: Delaware River USA.

Spatial variation in mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation in urban coastal watersheds reflects complex interactions between Hg sources, land use, and environmental gradients. We examined MeHg concentrations in fauna from the Delaware River estuary, and related these measurements to environmental parameters and human impacts on the waterway. The sampling sites followed a north to south gradient of increasing salinity, decreasing urban influence, and increasing marsh cover.

Synthesis of PEGylated polyglutamic acid peptide dendrimer and its application in dissolving thrombus.

Nattokinase (NK) has been used as a new generation thrombolytic drug, due to its high safety, low cost and low side effects. However, it is sensitive to external environment and may lose the enzyme activity easily. Peptide dendrimer possesses functional groups on its surface, adjustable sizes, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity, which could be used as ideal carrier for drug protection and delivery.

Water demand forecasting: review of soft computing methods.

Demand forecasting plays a vital role in resource management for governments and private companies. Considering the scarcity of water and its inherent constraints, demand management and forecasting in this domain are critically important. Several soft computing techniques have been developed over the last few decades for water demand forecasting.

Using Simulation and Case Studies Combined to Improve Student Knowledge: A Retrospective Study.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine effects of high-fidelity simulation and computerized case studies in an advanced medical-surgical course.

Background: The challenges of coordinating clinical education and desire to utilize innovative methods of teaching were the impetus for course design.

Method: A retrospective review compared HESITM specialty exam scores for groups of the newer and former course design.

In vivo characterization of an Hfq protein encoded by the Bacillus anthracis virulence plasmid pXO1.

Background: Bacterial Hfq proteins post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression, primarily by mediating the interaction between sRNAs (small RNAs) and their target mRNAs. The role of Hfq-based regulation has been well defined in Gram-negative bacteria, but comparatively less is known about the impact of Hfq proteins in Gram-positive species. The Gram-positive pathogen Bacillus anthracis (causative agent of anthrax) is distinct in that it expresses three homologs of Hfq: Hfq1 and Hfq2 from the chromosome, and Hfq3 from the pXO1 virulence plasmid.

Increased secretion of exopolysaccharide and virulence potential of a mucoid variant of Salmonella enterica serovar Montevideo under environmental stress.

During an investigation to increase the recovery of Salmonella enterica from Oregano, an increased expression of exopolysaccharide was induced in Salmonella serovar Montevideo. The atypical mucoid (SAL242S) and the non-mucoid (SAL242) strains of Montevideo were compared and characterized using various methods. Serotyping analysis demonstrated that both strains are the same serovar Montevideo.

Co-delivery of zinc and 5-aminosalicylic acid from alginate/N-succinyl-chitosan blend microspheres for synergistic therapy of colitis.

The present study developed novel zinc ion cross-linked alginate/N-succinyl-chitosan (NSC) blend microspheres (MS) for co-delivery of zinc and 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) for synergistic therapy of colitis. Physicochemical characterization of blend MS was assessed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). In vitro release studies demonstrated that blend MS has a pH-dependent release property.

A New Neighborhood Every Fall: Aging in Place in a College Town.

Older adults who live in residential neighborhoods adjacent to college and university campuses have a unique experience that makes them vulnerable to marginalization and displacement. As these neighborhoods become increasingly dominated by college students living in rental properties, older adults find themselves in the minority in a neighborhood where they have lived for many years. In addition, these neighborhoods are attractive to universities, city governments, and private companies for their development potential, which can result in gentrification.

Utility of two modified-live virus canine distemper vaccines in wild-caught fishers (Martes pennanti).

Background: Canine distemper virus (CDV) infects families in the order Carnivora. As a preventive measure, vaccinations against CDV are frequently given to mustelids in captive environments.

Objectives: Our objectives were to compare the utility between two modified-live virus canine distemper vaccines (MLV CDV's), Fervac-D® (no longer manufactured) and Galaxy-D® (now manufactured by MSD Animal Health as part of a multivalent vaccine), in developing an immune response in wild-caught fishers.