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Conversation pieces—small-scale, informal group portraits of family or friends—were produced in large numbers in England from 1730 onward. This article examines the Georgian conversation piece in terms of a social and economic analysis of the patrons' backgrounds and investigates why twentieth-century scholars misconstrued the social significance of those pictures. While certain aspects of the genre, particularly its small scale, seem to embody the values of the middle class, a systematic study of the early English conversation piece reveals that this type of portrait was principally commissioned by the elite of Georgian society to document their elevated status. The interpretation of the conversation piece as an art of the middle class was largely due to the research trend in history of a rising middle class popular in the early twentieth century.

Alternatively activated macrophages (M2 macrophages) promote central nervous system regeneration. Our previous study demonstrated that treatment with peripheral nerve grafts and fibroblast growth factor-1 recruited more M2 macrophages and improved partial functional recovery in spinal cord transected rats. The migration of macrophages is matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) dependent. We used a general inhibitor of MMPs to influence macrophage migration, and we examined the migration of macrophage populations and changes in spinal function. Rat spinal cords were completely transected at T8, and 5 mm of spinal cord was removed (group T). In group R, spinal cord-transected rats received treatment with fibroblast growth factor-1 and peripheral nerve grafts. In group RG, rats received the same treatment as group R with the addition of 200 μM GM6001 (an MMP inhibitor) to the fibrin mix. We found that MMP-9, but not MMP-2, was upregulated in the graft area of rats in group R. Local application of the MMP inhibitor resulted in a reduction in the ratio of arginase-1 (M2 macrophage subset)/inducible nitric oxide synthase-postive cells. When the MMP inhibitor was applied at 8 weeks postoperation, the partial functional recovery observed in group R was lost. This effect was accompanied by a decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in the nerve graft. These results suggested that the arginase-1 positive population in spinal cord transected rats is a migratory cell population rather than the phenotypic conversion of early iNOS+ cells and that the migration of the arginase-1+ population could be regulated locally. Simultaneous application of MMP inhibitors or promotion of MMP activity for spinal cord injury needs to be considered if the coadministered treatment involves M2 recruitment.

PurposeThis paper aims to identify a selection of websites for the study and enjoyment of the visual arts.Design/methodology/approachFrom the hundreds of offerings on the world wide web, the 24 public sites featured in this article are distinguished by the quality of their content, design, and ease of use.FindingsThe best websites are great tools for teachers, students, and interested individuals to explore and learn about the visual arts. Taking advantage of advancing technology, they offer experiences that go far beyond convenient delivery of traditional analog materials.Originality/valueOffers practical suggestions for public and academic librarians on the most useful and usable public websites devoted to the visual arts.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present basic resources and practical strategies for undergraduate art history research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the author's experience as both an art librarian and instructor for a core requirement art history course.FindingsThe plan detailed in this paper covers every step of the research process, from exploring the topic to citing the sources. The resources listed, which include subscription databases as well as public web sites, are deliberately limited to a manageable number. Additional topics include defining the scope of inquiry and making appropriate use of internet resources such as Wikipedia.Originality/valueThe paper provides the academic librarian with clear guidance on basic research resources in art history.

Piezoelectric sensors made of quartz, Pb(Zr,Ti)O 3 , Pb(La,Zr,Ti)O 3 , or Pb(Zr,Ti,Sn)O y have rapidly been developed recently because of the potential applications in devices such as biosensors, accelerometers, pressure sensors, and ultrasonic transducers. However, the development of devices with reduced size but with improved sensitivity is highly important. With this idea, the study aims to develop a lead zironate titanate (PZT) chip as a novel gravimetric biosensor using the resonance feature in biomolecule detection. The PZT thin film characterized by the X-ray diffractometer (XRD) has a perovskite structure. The fabricated PZT sensor was designed with 250 μm × 250 μm-sensing areas of electrodes, determined by the measured impedance at 98.5 MHz frequency. The morphology and cross-section of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show that the thickness of the spin-on PZT layer was about 500 nm and the crystal grain size was less than 50 nm. Moreover, an evaluation circuit consisted of a resonance circuit and a frequency-to-voltage circuit was established to detect bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein. The PZT sensor, combined with evaluation circuit, showed a high sensitivity of 62.8 Hz cm 2 /ng. The detection sensitivity was enhanced by 300 folds than that of traditional quartz crystal microbalance (QCM).

In 2003, when the Slide Libraries at the City College of New York were renamed the Visual Resources Libraries, the majority of faculty and students were still using slides for lectures and classroom presentations. Within three years, almost all have switched to digital images. This article outlines the relatively smooth transition from analog to digital at a public urban college campus, offering practical solutions and strategies on equipment, support, management systems, and digital image collections.

We used a complete spinal cord transection model in which the T8 spinal segment was removed to study the effect of combined treatment of peripheral nerve graft and application of FGF-1 on the glial environment. The combined treatment resulted in reduced astrocytic glial scarring, reactive macrophage gliosis, and inhibitory proteoglycan in the back-degenerated white matter tract. While the macrophage activities in the back-degenerative tract were down-regulated, those in the grafted peripheral nerves and in the distal Wallerian degenerative tracts were not. We concluded that the combined treatment changed the glial environment in the back-degenerative tract, and differentially regulated the macrophage activities in the system, in favor of CNS regeneration.

A urinary microalbumin test is used to detect early signs of kidney damage in people who have a risk of chronic kidney disease, such as those with diabetes or hypertension. In this study, we developed a screen-printed carbon electrode-based immunosensor for the detection of microalbumin in urine. Anti-human albumin antibodies were immobilized on the screen-printed sensor surface by the covalent immobilization method. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive spectroscopical (SEM-EDS) analysis demonstrated that the modification process was well performed. Chronoamperometric (CA) electrochemical measurement technique was employed for the quantitative detection of albumin. The electrochemical measurements performed with some possible interfering compounds normally present in urine (ascorbic acid, uric acid, glucose and creatinine samples) demonstrated a high specificity and selectivity of this immunosensor in albumin detection. Under optimum conditions, the immunosensor can detect urinary albumin in a wide linear range from 10 µg/ml to 300 µg/ml with a detection limit of 9.7 µg/ml. The excellent performance of this immunosensor was confirmed by analyzing microalbumin in urine samples; the results were in good agreement with those obtained by the standard immunoturbidimetric method. The biosensor proposed herein is easy to prepare and can be used for low-cost, rapid, and sensitive screening of microalbuminuria. This approach provides a promising platform for developing clinical point-of-care diagnostic applications.

The increasing computation requirements of multimedia and streaming applications demand high parallel processing capabilities. Hence modern computer architectures focus on integrating more processing cores into a single chip to achieve higher parallelism and processing capability. These processing cores rely on sophisticated on-chip network to communicate among others. Accordingly, this paper provides a novel on-chip network, called Camellia, for integrating lots of cores into a single chip. The proposed Camellia topology, network components, and routing mechanism can provide high bandwidth, low communicating hop counts, and high scalability interconnection network to integrate processors. The organization of Camellia network is proposed. The results of performance analysis and hardware implementation are also provided.

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are glial scar-associated molecules considered axonal regeneration inhibitors and can be digested by chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) to promote axonal regeneration after spinal cord injury (SCI). We previously demonstrated that intrathecal delivery of low-dose ChABC (1 U) in the acute stage of SCI promoted axonal regrowth and functional recovery. In this study, high-dose ChABC (50 U) introduced via intrathecal delivery induced subarachnoid hemorrhage and death within 48 h. However, most SCI patients are treated in the sub-acute or chronic stages, when the dense glial scar has formed and is minimally digested by intrathecal delivery of ChABC at the injury site. The present study investigated whether intraparenchymal delivery of ChABC in the sub-acute stage of complete spinal cord transection would promote axonal outgrowth and improve functional recovery. We observed no functional recovery following the low-dose ChABC (1 U or 5 U) treatments. Furthermore, animals treated with high-dose ChABC (50 U or 100 U) showed decreased CSPGs levels. The extent and area of the lesion were also dramatically decreased after ChABC treatment. The outgrowth of the regenerating axons was significantly increased, and some partially crossed the lesion site in the ChABC-treated groups. In addition, retrograde Fluoro-Gold (FG) labeling showed that the outgrowing axons could cross the lesion site and reach several brain stem nuclei involved in sensory and motor functions. The Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) open field locomotor scores revealed that the ChABC treatment significantly improved functional recovery compared to the control group at eight weeks after treatment. Our study demonstrates that high-dose ChABC treatment in the sub-acute stage of SCI effectively improves glial scar digestion by reducing the lesion size and increasing axonal regrowth to the related functional nuclei, which promotes locomotor recovery. Thus, our results will aid in the treatment of spinal cord injury.

Flip chip package is the most important technology in IC package necessary for scale, velocity and cost by the development of semiconductor technology and the innovation of computer product. It has the advantages of low cost, low interface and small volume in IC package. This paper emphasizes the analysis for underfill encapsulation between the solder ball and chip. The finite element simulation in a three-dimensional inertia-free, incompressible flow is presented. A control volume scheme with a fixed finite element mesh is employed to predict fluid front advancement. The epoxy is used for the underfill material. The injection situation is used for central point, one line, L line and U line injection. The underfill process is used for different parameters (mold temperature, melt temperature, injection pressure, injection time and injection situation). The results show that the injection situation is the most important factor for processing parameters. The result indicates that the L line injection is the best injection situation for underfill encapsulation of flip chip.

This study related to the preparation of chitosan microspheres by means of reacting chitosan with β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and glutaraldehyde by crosslinking reaction in the oil phase, followed by de-oil and purification processes to get the product. Three cement composites, Pure P, C1P1, and C2P1, were prepared by the polymerization of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement in the presence of 0, 50, and 66.7% chitosan/β-TCP microspheres, respectively. The result revealed the chitosan/β-TCP microspheres obtained was in the size range of 50–150 μm. The presence of chitosan/β-TCP microspheres in the prepared composites decreased the ultimate tensile strength, whereas the modulus remained the same as compared with the commercial PMMA bone cement. Addition of chitosan/β-TCP microspheres into commercial PMMA cement significantly improved the handling property of the cement paste—that is, the increased setting time and less stickiness behavior of this paste was beneficial, in manipulation, to the operation and easier fittings to the shape and gap of the bony defect and interface. The decreased curing temperature was also less harmful to the surrounding tissues. From scanning electron micrograph observations, chitosan/β-TCP microspheres can completely mix with bone cement powder and the prepared composites could provide scaffold for osteoblast cells growth and thus improve defects of commercial PMMA bone cement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 3897–3904, 2003

We examined the effects of the phytoestrogen biochanin A on the growth of the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. The results showed that biochanin A treatment induced dose- and time-dependent inhibition on MCF-7 cell growth at concentrations above 20 microg x mL(-1). An examination of treated MCF-7 cell morphology revealed condensation of the chromosome and dehydration of the cytoplasm, suggesting apoptosis as an important factor in biochanin A-related cell growth inhibition. The results also showed that at a concentration of 40 microg x mL(-1), biochanin A decreased the levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase, thus inhibiting the production of nitric oxide, a known second messenger and inducer of apoptosis, and affecting the overall cell protein pattern. No significant difference in superoxide dismutase protein levels were, however detected at concentrations of 40 or 100 microg x mL(-1) of biochanin A. The data suggest that the inhibitory effects of biochanin A on human breast cancer cell growth are linked to inducible nitric oxide synthase and the associated production of nitric oxide.

This study found that fruit shells of shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) are a rich source of the kavalactones dihydro-5,6-dehydrokavain (DDK) and 5,6-dehydrokavain (DK). The fruit shell extraction with hexane resulted in good purity and higher yields of DDK and DK than did chloroform, ethanol, 10% ethanol, methanol or water. Additionally, this study examined the neuroprotective effects of DDK and DK against H2O2-induced cytotoxicity in PC12 cells and the possible molecular mechanisms involved. 16 h after stimulation with 400 μM H2O2, the viability (MTT reduction) of PC12 cells decreased while membrane damage (LDH release) was noticeably increased. However, pretreatment for 6 h with DDK and DK (1 μM, 5 μM, 10 μM and 50 μM) rescued PC12 cells from H2O2-induced cytotoxicity, as evidenced by decreased LDH release and increased cell viability. DDK and DK inhibit the MAPK family member p38, activate AKT, and reduce caspase-3 activity. DDK also reduced the oxidative status in H2O2-treated PC12 cells. Together, our data indicate that the A. zerumbet constituents, DDK and DK, exert a protective effect against oxidative stress-induced PC12 cell death and that the regulation of p-Akt and the p38 MAPK, and of oxidative states may be involved.

The Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with a new chiral α-sulfinylacrylate, which was prepared from MerCO[1R, 2S, 3R)-3- mer capto c amphan-2- o l] at −78°C in the presence of ZnCl2 produced an endo-cycloadduct with 99.4% d.e. in 84% yield.

The Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with a new chiral α-sulfinylacrylate, which was prepared from MerCO[1R, 2S, 3R)-3- mer capto c amphan-2- o l] at −78°C in the presence of ZnCl2 produced an endo-cycloadduct with 99.4% d.e. in 84% yield.

Micrometer-scale piezoelectric PZT sensors for gravimetric applications were developed. The PZT thin films were fabricated with sol-gel PZT and were of 400 times 400 mum2 working area. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, leakage current density analysis, and C-V characterization were employed to evaluate the structure as well as successfulness of the microfabrication process. A resonance measurement circuit, which transformed the resonance frequency signal to a DC level, was built to characterize the gravimetric ability of the PZT sensors. Change of mass on the PZT sensor can be detected by observing the DC shift at the output of the detection circuit.

In order to enhance the biocompatibility and cell affinity of metal nanoparticles for biosensing and drug delivering applications, we prepared the phospholipid derivatives containing disulfide groups to modify silver nanoparticle surfaces. By adding sodium borohydride to reduce both disulfide bonds of the derivatives and silver ions simultaneously, the generated thiol groups can be reacted with newborn silver atoms immediately to generate nanoclusters. The assemblies consisted of either phosphorylcholine (PC) or phosphorylethanolamine (PE) head groups, which made the silver clusters biocompatibile. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and optical absorption spectra assisted in modulating reaction conditions, demonstrating that a surfactant/Ag ratio of 0.4 led to the formation of uniform, well-dispersed spherical particles about 3.8 nm in diameter. X-ray photoelectron spectra and infrared spectra also illustrated the elemental and molecular structures of nanoparticles. The insertion of rhodamine dye into the surfactant layer enabled the nanoparticles to be used as a fluorescent probe. In cell culture tests, the nanoparticles were internalized into platelet or fibroblast cells in a short period of incubation without harming the cells.

Purpose: Electrochemical analysis is a powerful tool for analyzing interfacial reactions as well as composition of analytes. In this study, we made a lowcost, portable, and easy-to-use instrument consists of hardware and software for electrochemical analysis. The cost of our design is 1/1000 fold to compare with commercial systems, and the weight of this device is light for 120 grams. Finally, this study used this portable device to detect human serum albumin (HSA) by cyclic voltammetry analysis employing screenprinted carbon electrode (SPCE). Methods: In this study, we made a portable device which consists of hardware and software in it. The hardware part consists of PCB and electrical elements on the PCB. We used ATXmega32A4 as the microcontroller, and TLC2264ID as OP amplifier. The software part was written by C language and compiled with AVR studio. We used homemade instruments to detect HSA with CV with SPCE. All the solutions were prepared at room temperature(25 2 C)and DI water. The concentration of HSA is 0e450 mg/L. Results: Figure shows the CV response of the detection of HSA. With adsorption of HSA on the electrode, we can observe that the peak current decreases when the concentration of HSA increases. This is due to the adsorption of HSA hinders transfer of electrons between electrode and the solution.

Studies of the dietary phytoestrogen biochanin A on cell proliferation of the cultured estrogen responsive cells human breast carcinoma MCF-7 showed that biochanin A exhibits biphasic regulation on MCF-7 cells. At concentrations of less than 10 microg/mL, cells respond to biochanin A by increasing cell growth and de novo DNA synthesis. The addition of biochanin A at concentrations of greater than 30 microg/mL significantly inhibited cell growth and DNA synthesis in a dose-dependent fashion, resulting in an IC(50) value of 40 microg/mL. The reversibility of these inhibitory effects by biochanin A appears also to be concentration dependent. Cells previously treated with high concentrations (>60 microg/mL) of biochanin A did not regain normal growth after treatment ceased. Biochanin A was cytostatic at low concentrations (

The use of interdigitated electrodes and binding with Cibacron blue F3GA by self-assembly technology, which has high affinity for human serum albumin (HSA), and serves as a receptor for HSA detection, is reported. In preliminary tests, the interdigitated chip measured the impedance of HSA by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and this result indicated the characteristic frequency of impedance change below 1.1 kHz. However, a portable capacitance measurement system made using a standard operational amplifier circuit and AC excitation was applied at 1 kHz. The detection result showed a significant linear correlation between HSA concentration (0.1 to 1 mg/ml) and output voltage. The regression equation was Y 17.91 323.72X with R 2 = 0.999. This reported study has successfully demonstrated that the capacitive sensor has great potential for applications in HSA detection.