Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan

The bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990s shook the very foundation of the post-war economic 'miracle' and marked the beginning of a gradual shift in the environmental consciousness of the Japanese. Yet, it by no means removed consumption from the pivotal position it occupied within Japanese society. Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan argues that consumption in Japan today is no longer simply a component of everyday economic activities, but rather a reflection of a society guided by the 'logic of late capitalism'. The volume pins down the contradictory nature of the setting in which consuming occurs in Japan today: the veneration of material comfort and convenience on the one hand, and the new rhetoric of recycling and energy conservation on the other. Theoretical insights developed as part of an art-historical enquiry, such as notions of socially engaged art and its critique, offer a new paradigm for investigating this dilemma. By combining case studies analysing the production and consumption of contemporary art with ethnographic material related to ordinary commodities and shopping, this volume provides a novel, transdisciplinary approach to exploring how a 'society of consumers' operates in post-bubble Japan and how contemporary life is a 'consuming project'

酸素還元活性を有するカーボンアロイ触媒の原子レベル設計

電気通信大学201

The TAO Project: Intelligent wheelchairs for the handicapped

Abstract An R&D project to build a series of intelligent autonomous wheelchairs is discussed. A standardized autonomy management system that can be installed on commercially available well-engineered power chairs has been developed and tested. A behavior-based approach was used to establish sufficient on-board autonomy at minimal cost and material usage, while achieving high efficiency, maximum safety, Iransparency in appearance, and extendability. So far, the add-on system has been installed and tried on two power wheelchair models. Initial results are highly encouraging. Introduction In recent years, with the concept of applying robots to service tasks [Gomi, 92] and with the accelerated rate of aging of the population being reported in many post-industrial countries, demand for more robotic assistive systems for people with physical ailments or loss of mental control is expected to increase. This is a seemingly major application area of service robots in the near future. For the past five years, we have been developing a range of autonomous mobile robots and their software using the behavior-based approach [Brooks, 86] [Gomi, 96a]. In Cartesian robotics, on which most conventional intelligent robotics approaches are based, planning for the generation of motion sequence and calculation of kinematics and dynamics for each planned motion occupy the center of both theoretical interest and practice. By adopting a behavior-based approach, I felt, wheelchairs which can operate daily in complex real-world environments with increased performance in efficiency, safety, and flexibility, and greatly reduced computational requirements can be built at less cost. In addition, improvements in the robustness and graceful degradation characteristics were expected. In the summer of 1995, an autonomy management system for a commercially available Canadian-made power wheelchair was successfully designed and implemented. The system looks after both longitudinal (forward and backward) and angular (left and right) movements of the chair as well limited vocal interactions with the user. The results were exhibited in August 1995 at the Intelligent Wheelchair Even

Gibberellin Signaling in Plants – The Extended Version

The plant hormone gibberellin (GA) controls major aspects of plant growth such as germination, elongation growth, flower development, and flowering time. In recent years, a number of studies have revealed less apparent roles for GA in a surprisingly broad set of developmental as well as cell biological processes. The identification of GA receptor proteins on the one end of the signaling cascade, DELLA proteins as central repressors of the pathway and transcription regulators such as the phytochrome interacting factors and the GATA-type transcription factors GNC and CGA1/GNL on the current other end of the signaling cascade have extended our knowledge about how GA and DELLAs regulate a diverse set of plant responses

Landscape influence on small-scale water temperature variations in a moorland catchment

Acknowledgements Iain Malcolm and staff at Marine Scotland (Pitlochry) are thanked for the provision of data from the AWS. Finally, the two anonymous reviewers are greatly acknowledged for their constructive comments.Peer reviewedPostprin

Regulation of DELLA proteins by post-translational modifications

[EN] DELLA proteins are the negative regulators of the gibberellin (GA) signaling pathway. GAs have a pervasive effect on plant physiology, influencing processes that span the entire life cycle of the plant. All the information encoded by GAs, either environmental or developmental in origin, is canalized through DELLAs, which modulate the activity of many transcription factors and transcriptional regulators. GAs unlock the signaling pathway by triggering DELLA polyubiquitination and degradation by the 26S proteasome. Recent reports indicate, however, that there are other pathways that trigger DELLA polyubiquitination and degradation independently of GAs. Moreover, results gathered during recent years indicate that other post-translational modifications (PTMs), namely phosphorylation, SUMOylation and glycosylation, modulate DELLA function. The convergence of several PTMs in DELLA therefore highlights the strict regulation to which these proteins are subject. In this review, we summarize these discoveries and discuss DELLA PTMs from an evolutionary perspective and examine the possibilities these and other post-translational regulations offer to improve DELLA-dependent agronomic traits.The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2019-109925GB-I00 to D.A.) and the European Union (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-746396 to A.S.-M.). We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Blanco-Touriñán, N.; Serrano-Mislata, A.; Alabadí Diego, D. (2020). Regulation of DELLA proteins by post-translational modifications. Plant and Cell Physiology. 61(11):1891-1901. https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcaa113S18911901611

The challenges of running magnetic resonance imaging services in the tertiary health centers of Nigeria

The field of diagnostic radiology has emerged and expanded to become an integral part of healthcare worldwide. Nigeria, as a country is keeping pace with the global trend. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is now becoming standard clinical care in many tertiary health centers of Nigeria. The technique has great advantages and some setbacks in a country likeNigeria. Here, we review some of the challenges involved in the practice of MRI, including recommendations on the way forwardfor overall advancementof MRI services in the country.Method: Literature search were done using keywords described above on Medline, PubMed, HINARI and Advanced Google search. Relevant articles were pooled and information wasextracted and appropriately referenced. Books and Journal hardcopies were also obtained from the Library of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. These were referenced accordingly. Results: The introduction of MRI as a radiological modality in Nigeria revolutionized the field of medicine. MRI gives different, reliable, safer and superior information when compared with Xrays (radiography) and computed tomography (CT) scans especially as regards soft tissue differentiation. The foremost challenges of MRI in Nigeria are; high economic cost, poor power supply issues and technical maintenance. Conclusion: We recommend a multi stakeholder approach in areas of procurement, installation, training and maintenance of MRI machine. The national health insurance scheme and other hospital based welfare schemes should be expanded to significantly accommodate high cost investigations like the MRI