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Although numerous recent studies have shown the importance of polymeric microfibrous extracellular matrices (ECMs) in maintaining cell behaviors and functions, the mechanistic nexus between ECMs and intracellular activities is largely unknown. Nevertheless, this knowledge will be critical in understanding and treating diseases with ECM remodeling. Therefore, we present our findings that ECM microstructures could regulate intracellular amino acid levels in liver cells mechanistically through integrin β1. Amino acids were studied because they are the fundamental blocks for protein synthesis and metabolism, two vital functions of liver cells. Two ECM conditions, flat and microfibrous, were prepared and studied. In addition to characterizing cell growth, albumin production, urea synthesis, and cytochrome p450 activity, we found that the microfibrous ECM generally upregulated the intracellular amino acid levels. Further explorations showed that cells on the flat substrate expressed more integrin β1 than cells on the microfibers. Moreover, after partially blocking integrin β1 in cells on the flat substrate, the intracellular amino acid levels were restored, strongly supporting integrin β1 as the linking mechanism. This is the first study to report that a non-biological polymer matrix could regulate intracellular amino acid patterns through integrin. The results will help with future therapy development for liver diseases with ECM changes (e.g., fibrosis).

There is increasing recognition of the long-lasting effects of tsunamis on human populations. This is particularly notable along tectonically active coastlines with repeated inundations occurring over thousands of years. Given the often high death tolls reported from historical events though it is remarkable that so few human skeletal remains have been found in the numerous palaeotsunami deposits studied to date. The 1929 discovery of the Aitape Skull in northern Papua New Guinea and its inferred late Pleistocene age played an important role in discussions about the origins of humans in Australasia for over 25 years until it was more reliably radiocarbon dated to around 6000 years old. However, no similar attention has been given to reassessing the deposit in which it was found-a coastal mangrove swamp inundated by water from a shallow sea. With the benefit of knowledge gained from studies of the 1998 tsunami in the same area, we conclude that the skull was laid down in a tsunami deposit and as such may represent the oldest known tsunami victim in the world. These findings raise the question of whether other coastal archaeological sites with human skeletal remains would benefit from a re-assessment of their geological context.

To assess the genetic and archaeological evidence for the migration of modern humans out of Africa to the circum-Pacific region and compare the migration patterns with Late Pleistocene and Holocene changes in sea level and climate. Southern and eastern Asia, Australia, and Oceania. Review of the literature and detailed compilations of data on early human settlements, sea level, and climate change. The expansion of modern humans out of Africa, following a coastal route into southern Asia, was initially thwarted by a series of large and abrupt environmental changes. A period of relatively stable climate and sea level from c. 45,000 yr bp to 40,000 yr bp supported a rapid coastal expansion of modern humans throughout much of Southeast Asia, enabling them to reach the coasts of northeast Russia and Japan by 38,000-37,000 yr bp. Further northwards, migrations were delayed by cold northern climates, which began to deteriorate rapidly after 33,000 yr bp. Human migrations along the coast of the Bering Sea into the New World appear to have occurred much later, c. 14,000 yr bp, probably by people from central Asia who were better adapted to cold northern climates. Cold, dry climates and rapidly changing sea levels leading into and out of the Last Glacial Maximum inhibited coastal settlement, and many of the sites occupied prior to 33,000 yr bp were abandoned. After 16,000 yr bp, the sea-level rise slowed enough to permit coastal ecosystems to develop and coasts to be re-colonized, but abrupt changes in climate and sea level inhibited this development until after 12,000 yr bp. Between 12,000 yr bp and 7000 yr bp there was a dramatic increase in reef and estuary/lagoon ecosystems, concurrent with a major expansion of coastal settlements. This early Holocene increase in coastal environments and the concomitant expansion of human coastal-resource exploitation were followed by corresponding declines in both phenomena in the mid-Holocene, c. 6000-4000 yr bp. This decline in coastal resources is linked to the drop in sea level throughout the Pacific, which may have caused the widespread population dislocations that ultimately led to the human expansion throughout Oceania. Climate and sea-level changes played a central role in the peopling of the circum-Pacific region.

This lively, provocative text presents a new way to understand friendship. Professor John Terrell argues that the ability to make friends is an evolved human trait not unlike our ability to walk upright on two legs or our capacity for speech and complex abstract reasoning. Terrell charts how this trait has evolved by investigating two unique functions of the human brain: the ability to remake the outside world to suit our collective needs, and our capacity to escape into our own inner thoughts and imagine how things might and ought to be. The text is richly illustrated and written in an engaging style, and will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers interested in anthropology, evolutionary and cognitive science, and psychology more broadly.

This book frames our biological and psychological capacity to make friends as an evolved ability, comparing friendship to other evolved traits of human beings such as walking upright on two legs, having opposable thumbs and a prominent chin, and possessing the capacity for speech and complex abstract reasoning. Professor John Terrell investigates how the human brain has evolved to perform two functions essential to friendship that, at first glance, appear to be at odds with one another: remaking the outside world to suit our collective needs, and escaping into our own inner thoughts and imagining how things might and ought to be. We must all deal with our species' hereditary legacy-that we are social animals who need to include others in our lives for our biological and psychological survival. Yet we are also able to exercise the cognitive freedom to detach from the adaptive realities and demands of life. These thought patterns have important consequences for how we understand aggression and cooperation. Terrell claims that conflict is best understood in terms of friendship-as challenges that emerge when we are forced to reconcile the inner, private worlds of our imaginations with the experienced realities of our daily lives and each other.

While it is suspected that some ages were misreported during the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, an analysis examining age data quality has not been conducted. The study objective was to examine age heaping and terminal digit preference as indicators for quality of age data collected in the Sierra Leone Ebola Database (SLED). Age data quality for adult patients was analyzed within SLED for the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever (VHF) database and the laboratory testing dataset by calculating Whipple´s index and Myers´s blended index, stratified by sex and region. Age data quality was low in both the VHF database (Whipple´s index for the 5-year range, 229.2) and the laboratory testing dataset (Whipple´s index for the 5-year range, 236.4). Age was reported more accurately in the Western Area and least accurately in the Eastern Province. Age data for females were less accurate than for males. Age data quality was low in adult patients during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, which may reduce its use as an identifying or stratifying variable. These findings inform future analyses using this database and describe a phenomenon that has relevance in data collection methods and analyses for future outbreaks in developing countries.

With a constantly growing number of drugs being submitted for and denied by FDA review, the development of new methodologies for in vitro analyses has become a critical research topic. The study of drug metabolism and toxicity in liver cells using traditional cell culture substrates, such as culture flasks, is insufficient to capture what occurs in vivo. This phenomenon inspired a variety of techniques for culturing cells in three dimensional matrices that recreate the in vivo physical environment. By electrospinning microfiber scaffolds, cells can be cultured on 3D surfaces and characterized to better understand how a 3D extracellular matrix (ECM) modifies cell behavior. Early research in mechanobiology established that the ECM regulates cell behaviors such as motility, proliferation, and apoptosis. However, there is a lack of research that investigates cellular changes on a metabolic level and how these changes are signaled by the ECM to the cell. The integrins, a family of transmembrane proteins, are known to mechanotransduce information regarding the ECM to the cell. This dissertation addresses how integrins and their conformations are responsible for mediating changes in ECM to changes in cell behavior. Alterations to the ECM can even modify post-translational modifications of integrins to promote certain behaviors such as cell metastasis. Separately, 3D-printing and microfluidics have coevolved for the development of low-volume cell culture systems that mimic in vivo blood flow, nutrient provision, and waste removal. The versatility of 3D printing applications, from tissue engineering to aerospace applications, inspired the development of a chemical functionalization method for improving the hydrophobicity of polyamide materials. In this dissertation the applications of functionalized polyamide for the retention of hydrophobic species are demonstrated for solid-phase extraction, drug-delivery, and enzyme immobilization for the automated detection of glucose.

Using standard industrial engineering techniques, process flow maps, Ishikawa diagrams, and plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles, key quality indicators affecting the admission process were prospectively collected and validated against the ICU database.

The global reference list of 100 core health indicators is a standard set of indicators published by the World Health Organization in 2015. We reviewed core health indicators in the public domain and in-country for Sierra Leone, the African continent and globally. Review objectives included assessing available sources, accessibility and feasibility of obtaining data and informing efforts to monitor program progress. Our search strategy was guided by feasibility considerations targeting mainly national household surveys in Sierra Leone and topic-specific and health statistics reports published annually by WHO. We also included national, regional and worldwide health indicator estimates published with open access in the literature and compared them with cumulative annual indicators from the weekly national epidemiological bulletin distributed by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation. We obtained 70 indicators for Sierra Leone from Internet sources and 2 (maternal mortality and malaria incidence) from the national bulletin. Of the 70 indicators, 14 (20%) were modified versions of WHO indicators and provided uncertainty intervals. Maternal mortality showed considerable differences between 2 international sources for 2015 and the most recent national bulletin. We were able to obtain the majority of core indicators for Sierra Leone. Some indicators were similar but not identical, uncertainty intervals were limited and estimates differed for the same year between sources. Current efforts to improve health and mortality surveillance in Sierra Leone will improve availability and quality of reporting in the future. A centralized core indicator reporting website should be considered.