Microstructured single- and double-layered sensor devices based on p-type hydrogen-terminated nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films and/or n-type ZnO nanorods (NRs) have been obtained via a facile microwave-plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition process or a hydrothermal growth procedure. The morphology and crystal structure of the synthesized materials was analysed with scanning electron mic...

BACKGROUND Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are the leading cause of premature death and disability in the Pacific. In 2011, Pacific Forum Leaders declared "a human, social and economic crisis" due to the significant and growing burden of NCDs in the region. In 2013, Pacific Health Ministers' commitment to 'whole of government' strategy prompted calls for the development of a robust, sustainable...

Drosophila melanogaster kinesin-14 Ncd cross-links parallel microtubules at the spindle poles and antiparallel microtubules within the spindle midzone to play roles in bipolar spindle assembly and proper chromosome distribution. As observed for Saccharomyces cerevisiae kinesin-14 Kar3Vik1 and Kar3Cik1, Ncd binds adjacent microtubule protofilaments in a novel microtubule binding configuration an...

OBJECTIVE Previous studies have revealed the association of lead (Pb) exposure with obesity. DNA methylation alteration has been suggested to be one of the regulatory mechanisms of obesity. We aimed to explore whether Pb exposure is related with weight gain and DNA methylation alteration. METHODS Male adult 8 week Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups: the normal chow diet (NCD); the NCD+0.0...

OBJECTIVE To compare the outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries who underwent bariatric surgery within 18 months before and after implementation of the national coverage determination (NCD) for bariatric surgery. DESIGN Analysis of the University HealthSystem Consortium database from October 1, 2004, through September 31, 2007. SETTING A total of 102 academic medical centers and approximately 1...

During Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis, spindle assembly occurs without centrosomes and relies on signals from chromosomes. Beaven et al. (2017. J. Cell. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201704120) show that 14-3-3 proteins bind and inhibit a key microtubule motor, Ncd, during oogenesis, but Aurora B releases Ncd inhibition near chromosomes, allowing Ncd to work in the right time and place.

Using a variety of proliferating cell types, it was shown that the surface of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) provides a permissive substrate for cell adhesion and development without the need of complex chemical functionalization prior to cell seeding. In an extensive series of experiments we found that, unlike proliferating cells, post-mitotic primary neurons do not adhere to bare NCD surfaces ...

A causal graph G(V, E) specifies causal relationships among the random variables representing the vertices of the graph V . The relationships are specified by the directed edges E ; an edge Vi ! Vj implies that Vi 2 V is a direct parental cause for the effect Vj 2 V . With some abuse of notation, we will denote the random variable associated with a node V 2 V by V itself. We will denote the par...

Motivated by applications in computational advertising and systems biology, we consider the problem of identifying the best out of several possible soft interventions at a source node V in an acyclic causal directed graph, to maximize the expected value of a target node Y (located downstream of V ). Our setting imposes a fixed total budget for sampling under various interventions, along with co...

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper examines the relationship between non-collateralized debt (NCD) and health behaviors. The results reveal that households whose members tend to lead less healthy lifestyles are more likely to hold NCD. Obesity of either spouse is associated with about 7 percentage point increase in the probability of holding NCD. Similarly, wife’s smoking is a...