Firm Partner Denise Stiffarm Assumes the Role of Firm Managing Partner from Gerry Johnson, a Founding Partner Who Will Continue His Legal Practice with the Firm.

Fr. Lawrence Farley explains why Orthodox Christians prostrate in front of icons of saints.

Salem, OR — Legislation recently introduced in Oregon would significantly increase civil penalties for safety violations that contribute to worker injuries and deaths.

Washington — Physical assaults on health care workers in hospitals could lead to federal penalties and up to 20 years of jail time, under new bipartisan legislation.

302 Culver Street is a popular dining destination located in the heart of downtown Saugatuck

Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) display unique mechanical properties, including low cellular stiffness in contrast to differentiated cells, which are stiffer. We have previously shown that mESCs lacking the clathrin heavy chain (Cltc), an essential component for clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME), display a loss of pluripotency and an enhanced expression of differentiation markers. However, it is not known whether physical properties such as cellular stiffness also change upon loss of Cltc, similar to what is seen in differentiated cells, and if so, how these altered properties specifically impact pluripotency. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM), we demonstrate that mESCs lacking Cltc display higher Young's modulus, indicative of greater cellular stiffness, compared with WT mESCs. The increase in stiffness was accompanied by the presence of actin stress fibers and accumulation of the inactive, phosphorylated, actin-binding protein cofilin. Treatment of Cltc knockdown mESCs with actin polymerization inhibitors resulted in a decrease in the Young's modulus to values similar to those obtained with WT mESCs. However, a rescue in the expression profile of pluripotency factors was not obtained. Additionally, whereas WT mouse embryonic fibroblasts could be reprogrammed to a state of pluripotency, this was inhibited in the absence of Cltc. This indicates that the presence of active CME is essential for the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. Additionally, whereas physical properties may serve as a simple readout of the cellular state, they may not always faithfully recapitulate the underlying molecular fate.

Title: 2 Cases Suggest Stem Cell Transplant Might Ease 'Stiff Person' Syndrome
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2014 4:36:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2014 12:00:00 AM

Arterial stiffness increases blood pressure via an update in insulin resistance but not via an increase in body fat, a paper published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine concludes.

Newly minted makers of alcoholic beverages put up spirited fight in a market ruled by legacy corporations

Designers from across the country share their One Zero Eight and khadi collaborative experience 

In Nandurbar district, 70 per cent of the population is tribal and the region has consistently ranked among the lowest in Maharashtra's Human Development Index.

Dynamic boron-oxygen networks are key to the new material’s unusual properties

LONDON: Fifty Labour Party parliamentarians have told the new Labour leader Keir Starmer that his recent statement on Indian Occupied Kashmir after a meeting with Labour Friends of India is...

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Germany has spent the last 5 years making solar power a mainstream business. It is poised to spend the next 10 years doing the same for offshore wind — and sh

The present invention generally pertains to multilayer film including four or more discrete layers. The films contain two external layers, an internal stiffening layer and an internal shrink layer. The external layers include linear low density polyethylene resin, the stiffening layer includes polypropylene or a high density polyethylene and the shrink layer includes low density polyethylene. The multilayer films of the present invention have a gloss of at least 62% at 45 degrees, together with a 2% secant tensile modulus greater than 400 MPa.

A translocation-simulating loading apparatus for the gear grinding machine with the shaped grinding wheel is provided. The apparatus includes a load-receiving test piece disposed on the gear grinding machine with the shaped grinding wheel and a load-exerting component for use in loading simulation. The gear grinding machine enables linear movements along the X, Y, and Z axes, a rotary movement around the Y axis, a rotary movement C around the Z axis, and a rotary movement A around the X axis. An angle α is formed between the axis L of a ball seat of the load-exerting component and the X axis direction of a Y axis component and an angle formed between the normal line of a load receiving face a and the X direction of the coordinate system of the machine tool is α. A detection method for static stiffness distribution is provided.

A mounting structure 10 having improved stiffness characteristics. The mounting structure 10 includes a pillar 14 which forms a portion of a vehicle body 12 and which operatively supports a vehicle door which is selectively attached to the pillar 14 by hinges 16. The structure 10 includes a pair of “closed-loop” beads which are formed around hinges 16, and which increase the stiffness characteristics of the pillar 14 and of the vehicle door.

A board comprised of a wood structure having a first surface, a second surface, a first lateral edge, a second lateral edge and opposing ends. Sound attenuating elements embedded within the wood structure and stiffening elements positioned within the wood structure to coincide with the location of floor joist to which the board will be secured. The boards further forming a ceiling/floor structure by laying a single set of the boards adjacent to each other and securing them to the floor joists.

A method of mechanically treating alloy metal surgical needles to improve bending strength is disclosed. The needles are curved and reverse-curved in this method to improve bending strength.

A deployable pedestrian protection lower leg stiffen apparatus includes a left and a right linear actuator mountable adjacent to respective left and right forward frame members of a vehicle and a lower leg stiffener attached to and movable by the actuators. The actuators are extendable along respective deployment axes extending forward and downward relative to the vehicle to move the stiffener between a retracted position rearward of a forward surface of a front bumper beam and above a ground clearance plane and a deployed position forward of the retracted position and below the ground clearance plane. The actuators have rotational joints defining a horizontal pivot axis about which at least the forward portions of the piston may rotate upward along with the stiffener to prevent damage to the system if it strikes a road obstacle.

A wheelchair cushion comprises a dual stiffness fluid. A cushion also comprises an ability to adjust fluid volume.

Rutgers University-New Brunswick engineers have created flexible, lightweight 4D printed materials with potential applications in morphing airplane or drone wings, soft robotics and tiny implantable biomedical devices.

Work from home ergonomics tips for coronavirus quarantine.

Arcangelo Iannuzzi
Oct 1, 2004; 27:2506-2508
Brief Reports

The triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C) estimates atherogenic small, dense low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and predicts arterial stiffness and hard cardiovascular events in adults. Whether TG/HDL-C predicts intermediate noninvasive end points (arterial stiffness) in youth is not known.

This study is the first to document stiffer vessels in youth with higher cardiovascular risk factor–adjusted TG/HDL-C, with the effect especially strong in obese subjects. Evaluating TG/HDL-C may be helpful in identifying young subjects at risk for obesity-related atherosclerosis. (Read the full article)

Elevated blood pressure (BP) has long-term influence on the atherosclerotic process. The relative predictive ability of the standard BP definition endorsed by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and the recently proposed 2 simplified definitions has not been studied.

Simplified pediatric BP tables predict risk of high adult arterial stiffness as well as the complex table does. These simple screening tools could be used for identifying pediatric subjects at risk and for intervening to improve adult cardiovascular outcomes. (Read the full article)

LONDON: Fifty Labour Party parliamentarians have told the new Labour leader Keir Starmer that his recent statement on Indian Occupied Kashmir after a meeting with Labour Friends of India is...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

LONDON: Fifty Labour Party parliamentarians have told the new Labour leader Keir Starmer that his recent statement on Indian Occupied Kashmir after a meeting with Labour Friends of India is...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare neurologic disorder characterized by progressively worsening rigidity and spasms of the axial and limb muscles. Dyspnea has been recently recognized as a common symptom in SPS,¹ and life-threatening respiratory crises have been occasionally reported and suspected to be responsible for sudden death in these patients.^2,3 The pathophysiologic mechanisms of these respiratory manifestations remain unclear. Some authors have hypothesized that rigidity and/or spasm of the muscles of the trunk could prevent normal rib cage movements and excursion of the diaphragm.¹

Rock is a material that is affected by wear, and the curvature of the asperities on a rock joint surface increases with the degree of wear after shearing. Based on the Greenwood and Williamson (GW) model, a new model considering the change of asperity curvature is proposed to explain the wear behaviour of rock joints. First, the shear stiffness formula for a joint surface is derived when the asperity curvature is constant, which shows that the shear stiffness increases with increase of asperity curvature. According to the Mohr–Coulomb criterion, the yield position of a single asperity under normal force and tangential friction force is discussed. Then, the critical normal force for a single asperity at a specific friction coefficient is obtained, which shows that the normal force corresponds to the curvature radius of the asperity. A rough surface model with multi-level curvature radius is proposed. With increase of normal force, the higher-order asperities gradually fail and the curvature radius become larger. A specific pressure value excites a specific radius of curvature, and the larger the pressure, the larger the radius of curvature. The relation between the normal force and the curvature radius is proposed and a shear stiffness formula considering the change of curvature radius of the asperity is derived. The proposed model is verified on the basis of the published experimental results. The calculation results of the proposed model can reflect the test results well: for a given joint surface, with increase in normal force the joint surface gradually becomes smooth; for different joint surfaces, with increase in roughness, the joint surface is more easily smoothed.

Companies must balance costs of staying shut against concerns for staff safety

A new review article, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, finds that mucosal cells are 'stiffer' in older patients due to more protein fibers, allowing coronavirus to multiply more easily.

'Here's the story on Jeb,' Trump said of the former Florida governor on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' program. 'He's a stiff who you wouldn't hire in private enterprise, okay? This is a stiff.'

Indian men's hockey team take on world champions Belgium in their second round of the FIH Pro League in Bhubaneswar.

The Indian men's hockey team will take on Australia in two matches in the FIH Hockey Pro League at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

Online Resource

Interview with Gary F. Mitchell, MD, author of Aortic Stiffness, Blood Pressure Progression, and Incident Hypertension