Who has been tampering with these pianos?: The surrealist writings of Montagu O’Reilly (Wayne Andrews).

This article makes a case for Wayne Andrews as a neglected and original voice in American surrealism. The article begins by examining his periodical La revue de l'élite (1930-33) (later La revue intime and Demain) as evidence of his early interest in European avant-gardism. Next, it offers close readings of the short stories he wrote under the nom de plume “Montagu O'Reilly.” Within overtly surrealist narratives, these stories conceal a series of encounters between a sickly European high culture, characterised by consumptive girls, imperilled aristocrats, failing pianos and a vigorous American materialism, represented by thrusting bankers, ostentatious socialites, gleaming technologies. They provide a novel twist on some of the familiar tropes of surrealism, but also reveal something of how its revolutionary vision was subtly undermined during its transatlantic passage. In particular, the article discusses Andrews/O’Reilly’s fascination with the outmoded and the uncanny and how they are modified through their staged encounters with American wealth. It concludes with a discussion of Andrews' later works, including his unfinished history of surrealism, The Surrealist Parade (1988)

PRASCAL: a pataphysical programming language

This paper introduces PRASCAL, a programming language that distorts traditional PASCAL using pataphysical principles. The aim of the language is to stimulate creativity and to embed playfulness in computer systems. A wider aim is to reach towards a less severe, more human, form of logic. Pataphysics was a concept elaborated by the French writer and poet Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) in a series of plays and novels, as well as through his own life. It is defined as the science of imaginary solutions and the science of the laws governing exceptions and contradictions. PRASCAL applies this concept through mechanisms such as patadata and Uboolean logic to arrive at a language which is always exceptional and particular

Audio only computer games – Papa Sangre

This article attempts to analyse the audio-only game Papa Sangre. It discusses the background to the analysis and the history of of audio-only games, before concentrating upon Papa Sangre itself. It locates the game within the survival horror genre and explores how the gameplay operates from both a technical and player's point of view. It then locates the analysis within a field of film and game sound analysis, considering how audio-only games differ from videogames. It outlines several theoretical approaches to the typology of videogame sound, before proposing a hybrid approach that is more appropriate to audio-only games. It applies this to the sound world of Papa Sangre and analyses some captured gameplay. The essay concludes by suggesting a relationship between Papa Sangre and musical performance and composition

A randomised controlled trial and cost-consequence analysis of traditional and digital foot orthoses supply chains in a National Health Service setting : application to feet at risk of diabetic plantar ulceration

Background: Diabetic foot ulceration is a considerable cost to the NHS and foot orthotic provision is a core strategy for the management of the people with diabetes and a moderate to high risk of foot ulceration. The traditional process to produce a custom-made foot orthotic device is to use manual casting of foot shape and physical moulding of orthoses materials. Parts of this process can be undertaken using digital tools rather than manual processes with potential advantages. The aim of this trial was to provide the first comparison of a traditional orthoses supply chain to a digital supply chain over a 6 month period. The trial used plantar pressure, health status, and health service time and cost data to compare the two supply chains. Methods: 57 participants with diabetes were randomly allocated to each supply chain. Plantar pressure data and health status (EQ5D, ICECAP) was assessed at point of supply and at sixmonths. The costs for orthoses and clinical services accessed by participants were assessed over the 6 months of the trial. Primary outcomes were: reduction in peak plantar pressure at the site of highest pressure, assessed for non-inferiority to current care. Secondary outcomes were: reduction in plantar pressure at foot regions identified as at risk (>200kPa), costconsequence analysis (supply chain, clinician time, service use) and health status. Results: At point of supply pressure reduction for the digital supply chain was non-inferior to a predefined margin and superior (p<0.1) to the traditional supply chain, but both supply chains were inferior to the margin after six months. Custom-made orthoses significantly reduced pressure for at risk regions compared to a flat control (traditional -13.85%, digital -20.52%). The digital supply chain was more expensive (+£13.17) and required more clinician time (+35minutes). There were no significant differences in health status or service use between supply chains. Conclusions: Custom made foot orthoses reduce pressure as expected. Given some assumptions about the cost models we used, the supply chain process adopted to produce the orthoses seems to have marginal impact on overall costs and health status. Trial Registration: retrospectively registered on ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN10978940, 04/11/2015). Key Words: Foot Orthotic, Biomechanics, Diabetes, Plantar Pressure, Cost, Health Economics, Supply Chai

The multiple ionospheric probe Auroral ionospheric report

Multiple impedance and resonance probe payload for ionospheric property observation in Nike- Apache rocke

A sandpile model with tokamak-like enhanced confinement phenomenology

Confinement phenomenology characteristic of magnetically confined plasmas emerges naturally from a simple sandpile algorithm when the parameter controlling redistribution scalelength is varied. Close analogues are found for enhanced confinement, edge pedestals, and edge localised modes (ELMs), and for the qualitative correlations between them. These results suggest that tokamak observations of avalanching transport are deeply linked to the existence of enhanced confinement and ELMs.Comment: Manuscript is revtex (latex) 1 file, 7 postscript figures Revised version is final version accepted for publication in PRL Revisions are mino

The business school in the Anthropocene: parasite logic and pataphysical reasoning for a working earth

We have entered the Anthropocene: a new geological epoch in which human activities, led by business interests, have inexorably compromised the Earth System. The current failure to provide a comprehensive and systematic response to this transition does not result from a lack of reason but is instead the manifestation of a generalized crisis in communication. Drawing from the work of Serres, we analyze how the roots of this crisis lie with the 'parasite logic', which has prevented reasoned responses to the Anthropocene. To work through this crisis, it is necessary to adopt different forms of reasoning and imagination to reshape the rational basis of management education. We propose to do it through pataphysics, a science subjecting dominant modes of rationality to a divergent thinking of the absurd and proposing playful forms of reasoning. Pataphysics provides a mechanism for developing 'imaginary solutions' to the current situation, that can disrupt anthropocentric forms of reason and reasoning, and further serve to slow down the endless cycles of inclusion and exclusion that arise from parasite logic. Finally, we propose slow design as an example of an 'imaginary solution' that comes from this process of conceptual and practical deacceleration

Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans

Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits

Mutant Mice With Calcium-Sensing Receptor Activation Have Hyperglycemia That Is Rectified by Calcilytic Therapy

The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is a family C G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that plays a pivotal role in extracellular calcium homeostasis. The CaSR is also highly expressed in pancreatic islet α- and β-cells that secrete glucagon and insulin, respectively. To determine whether the CaSR may influence systemic glucose homeostasis, we characterized a mouse model with a germline gain-of-function CaSR mutation, Leu723Gln, referred to as Nuclear flecks (Nuf). Heterozygous- (CasrNuf/+) and homozygous-affected (CasrNuf/Nuf) mice were shown to have hypocalcemia in association with impaired glucose tolerance and insulin secretion. Oral administration of a CaSR antagonist compound, known as a calcilytic, rectified the glucose intolerance and hypoinsulinemia of CasrNuf/+ mice, and ameliorated glucose intolerance in CasrNuf/Nuf mice. Ex vivo studies showed CasrNuf/+ and CasrNuf/Nuf mice to have reduced pancreatic islet mass and β-cell proliferation. Electrophysiological analysis of isolated CasrNuf/Nuf islets showed CaSR activation to increase the basal electrical activity of β-cells independently of effects on the activity of the ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channel. CasrNuf/Nuf mice also had impaired glucose-mediated suppression of glucagon secretion, which was associated with increased numbers of α-cells and a higher α-cell proliferation rate. Moreover, CasrNuf/Nuf islet electrophysiology demonstrated an impairment of α-cell membrane depolarization in association with attenuated α-cell basal KATP channel activity. These studies indicate that the CaSR activation impairs glucose tolerance by a combination of α- and β-cell defects and also influences pancreatic islet mass. Moreover, our findings highlight a potential application of targeted CaSR compounds for modulating glucose metabolism

Everyday Diplomacy: UKUSA Intelligence Cooperation and Geopolitical Assemblages

This article offers an alternative to civilizational thinking in geopolitics and international relations predicated on assemblage theory. Building on literature in political geography and elsewhere about everyday practices that produce state effects, this article theorizes the existence of transnational geopolitical assemblages that incorporate foreign policy apparatuses of multiple states. Everyday material and discursive circulations make up these assemblages, serving as conduits of affect that produce an emergent agency. To demonstrate this claim, I outline a genealogy of the UKUSA alliance, an assemblage of intelligence communities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I then trace the circulation of materialities and affects—at the scales of individual subjects, technological systems of mediation, and transnational processes of foreign policy formation. In doing so, I offer a bottom-up process of assemblage that produces the emergent phenomena that proponents of civilizational thinking mistakenly attribute to macroscaled factors, such as culture