In vertebrate and invertebrate nonmuscle myosins, light‐ and heavy‐chain phosphorylation regulate myosin assembly into filaments, and interaction with actin. Vertebrate non‐muscle myosins can exist in vitro in three main states, either ‘folded’ (assembly‐blocked) or ‘extended’ (assembly‐competent) monomers, and filaments. Light‐chain phosphorylation regulates the ‘dynamic equilibrium’ between these states. The ability of the myosin to undergo changes in conformation and state of assembly may be an important mechanism in regulating the organization of the cytoskeleton and cell motility.

Most donated organs in the United States come from brain dead donors, while a small percentage come from patients who die in “controlled,” or expected, circumstances, typically after the family or surrogate makes a decision to withdraw life support. The number of organs available for transplant could be substantially if donations were permitted in “uncontrolled” circumstances–that is, from people who die unexpectedly, often outside the hospital. According to projections from the Institute of Medicine, establishing programs permitting “uncontrolled donation after circulatory (...) determination of death,” or uDCDD, throughout the United States has the potential to provide 22,000 more donation opportunities annually. In contrast, U.S. controlled donation after circulatory determination of death, or cDCDD, cases have increased progressively over the past decade from 87 to 848 donors, but currently account for only 10.6 percent of all deceased donors. Following the IOM recommendations, several projects exploring the feasibility of uDCDD were funded by the federal government, including a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration that supported a pilot project in New York City in which the authors of this article participated.A key feature of our protocol, and indeed of many uDCDD protocols, is the initiation of preservation methods such as chest compressions and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation shortly after death in order to perfuse and preserve the donor's organs. Critics of uDCDD argue that the means of determining death deviates from generally ascribed principles. They assert that reinstituting circulation in order to preserve organs has the effect of “undoing” the prior determination of death. The result is that cDCDD is widely accepted and practiced routinely even though it only marginally increases the number of organs available for transplantation, and uDCDD is widely considered unacceptable despite being ethically embraced and proven to significantly increase organ donation opportunities in other countries. This article explores the evolution of this counterintuitive state of affairs and calls for a policy that, in line with the IOM report, allows for both cDCDD and uDCDD protocols. (shrink)

In this paper an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was used to help cars dealers recognize the many characteristics of cars, including manufacturers, their location and classification of cars according to several categories including: Make, Model, Type, Origin, DriveTrain, MSRP, Invoice, EngineSize, Cylinders, Horsepower, MPG_Highway, Weight, Wheelbase, Length. ANN was used in prediction of the number of miles per gallon when the car is driven in the city(MPG_City). The results showed that ANN model was able to predict MPG_City with (...) 97.50 % accuracy. The factor of DriveTrain has the most influence on MPG_City evaluation. Similar studies can be carried out for the evaluation of other characteristics of cars. (shrink)

The objective of this article is to critically examine a school reform effort that has taken hold in New York City over the past seven years. A largely privately funded venture, the New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI), opened hundreds of new small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City starting in 2002. The theory behind opening small schools on a such a large scale has come from market principles of competition and consumer choice. By flooding (...) the market with hundreds of schools, competition for students would, in turn, drive up the quality of the schools. Although support appears to be ubiquitous for the market-based reforms in New York City, this article argues that we need to look critically at reforms like NCSI, especially with the recent failure of market-driven policies to deliver on their promises. Using neoliberalism as a conceptual framework, this article asks two main questions: (a) How do neoliberal school reform policies play out in individual schools? and (b) To what extent do neoliberal policies contribute or detract from educational equity? (shrink)

In 2012, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed capping the size of sugary beverages that could be sold in the city’s restaurants, sporting and entertainment facilities and food carts. After a lawsuit and multiple appeals, the proposal died in June 2014, deemed an unconstitutional overreach. In dissecting the saga of the proposed soda cap, we highlight both the political perils of certain anti-obesity efforts and, more broadly, the challenges to public health when issues of consumer choice and (...) the threat of paternalism are involved. (shrink)

Despite the acknowledged importance of strategic planning in business and other organizations, there are few studies focusing on strategy texts and the related processes of their production and consumption. In this article, we attempt to partially fill this research gap by examining the institutionalized aspects of strategy discourse: what strategy is as genre. Combining textual analysis and analysis of conversation, the article focuses on the official strategy of the City of Lahti in Finland. Our analysis shows how specific communicative (...) purposes and lexico-grammatical features characterize the genre of strategy and how the actual negotiations over strategy text involve particular kinds of intersubjectivity and intertextuality. (shrink)

This book argues that political philosophy is central to early Stoic philosophy, and is deeply tied to the Stoics' conceptions of reason and wisdom. Broad in scope, it explores the Stoics' idea of the cosmic city, their notion of citizen-gods, as well as their account of the law.

Since its origin, the city of Puebla has had representative elements in its public spaces that have survived for a long time, they are ornamental and utilitarian objects which are landmarks of the city. Street furniture is a benchmark of identity too. All elements have legends, they are references that have given identity to streets and avenues. Natural elements also refer to a city’s identity, like trees. But the natural element that defined origin, trace and growth of (...) the city is one of the least visible. In the sixties, the San Francisco River was piped, as a sign of the new modernity, and today it is a boulevard where thousands of cars pass. Thus, bridges and other types of elements that the population still remember, mainly the elderly, have been forgotten. In recent years, some initiatives have emerged to rescue the historical memory of daily life and the revaluation of repre­sentative objects of the city center, such as the Casa Analco Community Museum project, coordinated by the Faculty of Architecture of BUAP in collaboration with residents of the Analco neighborhood. This article discusses both the monuments, their relics, elements of nature that shape the city's identity, as well as the gradual loss of these symbols. (shrink)

Everyday life is a central theme of Hong Kong poetry. Many Hong Kong poets use the quotidian as a starting point for the exploration of history and alternative imaginings. This mundane focus, unlike the colonial dreamscape of Hong Kong as an economic miracle, allows writers to reflect upon Hong Kong as a post-colonial and global space. The Hong Kong writer Natalia Chan examines the complex nature of everyday life within the space of the global and post-colonial city. Chan’s poems (...) deal with the essence of everydayness and use commodities to conjure up the vivacity of the urbanscape of Hong Kong. Unlike the political and economic discourse that is usually used to define Hong Kong, Chan’s work portrays Hong Kong as a city that offers the possibility of daily re-creation against the background of history. In this article, we will examine Chan’s use of the circulation of commodities in the global world and explore the way fashion becomes a point where high and popular culture, private and public domains, and local and global interests clash, negotiate, and fertilize each other. Chan’s works do not conform to the economic and prosperity discourse that has repressed Hong Kong; rather, she guides her readers to re-experience the everydayness of routines, to celebrate alternate ways of understanding the urbanscape, and to open themselves to the potentialities of art and the everyday. (shrink)

The practice of parkour in urban spaces by young people, especially those who call themselves traceurs, illustrates how identities are formed in an ephemeral way by reinterpreting spaces in the city – briefly and without leaving a trace. However, in a sort of paradox, these interventions are registered in the socio-digital spectrum, tokenistically anchoring and incorporating them into conversations and social interactions. This work aims to explain the practice of the sport called parkour as a socio-semiotic phenomenon. We have (...) used some zones of Mexico City as a specific case for our approach. The foregoing leads to the conclusion that the meaning of parkour goes beyond its recreational role and places it as a relevant piece of identity for excluded urban social groups – even though these practices have been appropriated by marketing strategies. Our approach will use a cultural semiotics perspective, as well as direct observations and interviews as research techniques. (shrink)

Explores the interrelationship of mind, self, emotion and the development of moral consciousness in the Nepalese city of Bhaktapur. The author investigates how the citizens have developed moral awareness in the context of cultural life.

This article explores the trends in the implementation of Islamic moderation through aqidah and sharia in Singkawang, as it is considered the most tolerant city in Indonesia based on a research report published in 2019. Using grounded research analysis, the authors found three structured patterns: implementation strategies, implementation processes and implementation patterns. This study shows that these strategies and methods, implemented through a flexible, straightforward and easy-to-implement model are relevant to the fundamental values of Islamic education and offer a (...) means of forming a complete and comprehensive network. These implementation patterns encourage religious communities to develop and maintain healthy social relationships. Hopefully, such implementation patterns can be imitated and modified by policyholders to realise Islam rahmatanlil ‘alamin [as a blessing for all].Contribution: Scholars in the fields may benefit from the findings of the research as it provides a new perspective of the Islamic educational moderation theory grounded from the field research. It argues that the practice of community tolerance, especially by the Muslims, has been based on the good understanding of the theology of Islamic education moderation. Education matters in the process of community peace building and in generating tolerance through the implementation of Islamic moderation values. (shrink)

The city of Kruja dates back to its existence in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the inner city are preserved great historical, cultural, and architectural values that are inherited from generation to generation. In the city interact and coexist three different typologies of dwellings: historic buildings that belong to the XIII, XIV, XV, XIII, XIX centuries (built using the foundations of previous buildings); socialist buildings dating back to the Second World War until 1990; and modern buildings (...) which were built from 1990 onwards. According to the questionnaires, the creation of mathematical models applied to each category will result in contradictory attitudes but also fairy ones based on different percentages. There are underlined 5 quality of life indicators(questions) from a total of 30 questions of the questionnaire, which are involved in mathematical regression and are statistically significant with a significance level p<5% (with a reliability of 95%), which interact for all three categories of buildings. The quality of life indicators: dwelling area, heating mode during winter, level of dwelling improvement, time spent in the dwelling, and monthly electricity payments, are the main actors who will be compared in order to draw conclusions. According to the statistical calculations trend, it is noted that the socialist buildings category does not directly participate in the debate between historic and modern buildings by means of the quality of life indicators (questions). (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic swept through New York City swiftly and with devastating effect. The crisis put enormous pressure on all hospital services, including the clinical ethics consultation team. This report describes the recent experience of the ethics consultants and Columbia University Irving Medical Center during the COVID-19 surge and compares the case load and characteristics to the corresponding period in 2019. By reporting this experience, we hope to supplement the growing body of COVID-19 scientific literature and provide details of (...) the human toll the virus took on our hospitals and communities. We also aim to highlight the role of the clinical ethics consultant as well as areas of policy and law that may need to be addressed in order to be better prepared for a future public health crisis. (shrink)