'We’re just gonna scribble it': The affective and social work of destruction in children’s art-making with different semiotic resources

In this paper I explore children’s destruction of their artwork as it occurs on paper or digitally via the interactive whiteboard (IWB). Social semiotics offers a theoretical lens for understanding children’s acts of destruction as meaningful and how different semiotic resources shape the meaning-making involved in destruction differently. To explore this further, I consider two episodes of art-making: firstly, an episode of child-parent art-making that ended in the five year old child scribbling over a drawing on paper with a black crayon, and secondly, an episode of a five year old child using touch to cover over the drawing she had made on the classroom IWB during free-flow activity time. A comparison between these two episodes is used to explore how digital and paper-based semiotic resources may impact differently on the experience of destruction and the affective and relational work that it can achieve

Human health risk assessment: A case study involving heavy metal soil contamination after the flooding of the river Meuse during the winter of 1993-1994.

At the end of December 1993 and also at the end of January 1995, the river Meuse, one of the major rivers in Europe, flooded and river banks were inundated. We investigated the possible health risks of exposure to heavy metal concentrations in river bank soils resulting from the flooding of the river Meuse at the end of 1993. Soil and deposit samples and corresponding aerable and fodder crops were collected and analyzed for heavy metals. Although the soils of the floodplain of the river Meuse appeared severely polluted mainly by Cd and Zn, the heavy metal concentrations in the crops grown on these soils were within background ranges. Incidentally, the legal standard for Cd as endorsed by the Commodities Act was exceeded in wheat crops. The main exposure pathways for the general population were through the consumption of food crops grown on the river banks and through the direct ingestion of contaminated soils. For estimating potential human exposure in relation to soil pollution, we used a multiple pathway exposure model. For estimating the actual risk, we determined metal contents of vegetables grown in six experimental gardens. From this study, it can be concluded that there is a potential health risk for the river bank inhabitants as a consequence of Pb and Cd contaminations of the floodplain soils of the river Meuse, which are frequently inundated (averaged flooding frequency once every 2 years)

Identifying and quantifying heterogeneity in high content analysis: Application of heterogeneity indices to drug discovery

One of the greatest challenges in biomedical research, drug discovery and diagnostics is understanding how seemingly identical cells can respond differently to perturbagens including drugs for disease treatment. Although heterogeneity has become an accepted characteristic of a population of cells, in drug discovery it is not routinely evaluated or reported. The standard practice for cell-based, high content assays has been to assume a normal distribution and to report a well-to-well average value with a standard deviation. To address this important issue we sought to define a method that could be readily implemented to identify, quantify and characterize heterogeneity in cellular and small organism assays to guide decisions during drug discovery and experimental cell/tissue profiling. Our study revealed that heterogeneity can be effectively identified and quantified with three indices that indicate diversity, non-normality and percent outliers. The indices were evaluated using the induction and inhibition of STAT3 activation in five cell lines where the systems response including sample preparation and instrument performance were well characterized and controlled. These heterogeneity indices provide a standardized method that can easily be integrated into small and large scale screening or profiling projects to guide interpretation of the biology, as well as the development of therapeutics and diagnostics. Understanding the heterogeneity in the response to perturbagens will become a critical factor in designing strategies for the development of therapeutics including targeted polypharmacology. © 2014 Gough et al

Local Thermometry of Neutral Modes on the Quantum Hall Edge

A system of electrons in two dimensions and strong magnetic fields can be tuned to create a gapped 2D system with one dimensional channels along the edge. Interactions among these edge modes can lead to independent transport of charge and heat, even in opposite directions. Measuring the chirality and transport properties of these charge and heat modes can reveal otherwise hidden structure in the edge. Here, we heat the outer edge of such a quantum Hall system using a quantum point contact. By placing quantum dots upstream and downstream along the edge of the heater, we can measure both the chemical potential and temperature of that edge to study charge and heat transport, respectively. We find that charge is transported exclusively downstream, but heat can be transported upstream when the edge has additional structure related to fractional quantum Hall physics.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figure

Fractional quantum Hall effect in a quantum point contact at filling fraction 5/2

Recent theories suggest that the excitations of certain quantum Hall states may have exotic braiding statistics which could be used to build topological quantum gates. This has prompted an experimental push to study such states using confined geometries where the statistics can be tested. We study the transport properties of quantum point contacts (QPCs) fabricated on a GaAs/AlGaAs two dimensional electron gas that exhibits well-developed fractional quantum Hall effect, including at bulk filling fraction 5/2. We find that a plateau at effective QPC filling factor 5/2 is identifiable in point contacts with lithographic widths of 1.2 microns and 0.8 microns, but not 0.5 microns. We study the temperature and dc-current-bias dependence of the 5/2 plateau in the QPC, as well as neighboring fractional and integer plateaus in the QPC while keeping the bulk at filling factor 3. Transport near QPC filling factor 5/2 is consistent with a picture of chiral Luttinger liquid edge-states with inter-edge tunneling, suggesting that an incompressible state at 5/2 forms in this confined geometry

Estimating equations for biomarker based exposure estimation under non-steady-state conditions

Unrealistic steady-state assumptions are often used to estimate toxicant exposure rates from biomarkers. A biomarker may instead be modeled as a weighted sum of historical time-varying exposures. Estimating equations are derived for a zero-inflated gamma distribution for daily exposures with a known exposure frequency. Simulation studies suggest that the estimating equations can provide accurate estimates of exposure magnitude at any reasonable sample size, and reasonable estimates of the exposure variance at larger sample sizes

Prenatal Methylmercury Exposure and Developmental Outcomes: Review of the Evidence and Discussion of Future Directions

I conducted a review of the published literature to assess the strength of the evidence for an association between prenatal exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) and subsequent child development. I identified 12 studies on this subject published since 1980. Of these, 3 were longitudinal studies—2 conducted in the Seychelle Islands, and 1 in the Faroe Islands. Nine were cross-sectional studies conducted in different countries where seafood, a source of MeHg, constituted a major part of the diet. The ages of the children studied ranged from 2 weeks to 12 years. The results of the longitudinal studies were contradictory. Researchers in the Faroe Islands identified an association between MeHg exposure and developmental effects, whereas those in the Seychelle Islands identified no such association. This inconsistency was mirrored in the results of the cross-sectional studies where there were some positive and some negative findings. It was concluded that it was not possible from currently available data to determine whether there is an association between prenatal MeHg exposure and adverse developmental effects in children. In advance of future research, consideration should be given to resolving the uncertainties surrounding exposure assessment and outcome measurement, as both elements varied between studies. It was suggested that questions of exposure assessment would benefit from the application of an expert review process. Outcome assessment would benefit from the development of theoretically based measures of specific aspects of cognitive functioning to replace the relatively crude measures of attainment and IQ currently employed in most studies. This would assist in the development of classic longitudinal studies by allowing repeated assessment over the full age range and providing data that are more readily interpretable and comparable between studies

Family coordination in families who have a child with autism spectrum disorder

Little is known about the interactions of families where there is a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study applies the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) to explore both its applicability to this population as well as to assess resources and areas of deficit in these families. The sample consisted of 68 families with a child with ASD, and 43 families with a typically developing (TD) child. With respect to the global score for family coordination there were several negative correlations: the more severe the symptoms (based on the child’s ADOS score), the more family coordination was dysfunctional. This correlation was particularly high when parents had to play together with the child. In the parts in which only one of the parents played actively with the child, while the other was simply present, some families did achieve scores in the functional range, despite the child’s symptom severity. The outcomes are discussed in terms of their clinical implications both for assessment and for interventio

Dispersing the Mists: An Experimental History of Medicine Study into the Quality of Volatile Inhalations

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final publication is available from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers at https://doi.org/10.1089/jamp.2016.1357.Background: Dr. Nelson's Improved Inhaler was first marketed with an advertisement in The Lancet in 1865. Revolutionary at the time for its ease of use and patient-friendliness, the inhaler is still in use for self-treatment by many all over the world. On the occasion of its 150th anniversary, this study reports an experimental historical medicine approach to identify evidence for the quality of vapor inhalers. Methods: Through accessing reviews of the device's use by the contemporary medical establishment, it was established that Dr. Nelson's Inhaler enjoyed a reputation of quality and efficacy among reputable physicians generating empirical evidence of clinical performance. There was a general absence of product performance tests during this period. Therefore, modern inhalation performance testing was applied to test the aerosol delivery performance for Friars' Balsam, and its key chemical constituent, benzoic acid (BA). Results: A respirable dose of 59.9 ± 9.0 μg of BA was aerosolized in a 10 minutes period from a dose of 3.3 mL Friars' Balsam (equivalent to 35.1 ± 0.2 mg of BA) in 375 mL of steaming water using the glass twin stage impinger at a flow rate of 60 L·min−1. The respirable dose from a standardized aqueous BA inhalation formulation increased from 115.9 ± 10.6 to 200.2 ± 19.9 μg by increasing the simulated inhalation period from 5 to 10 minutes. When tested with a simulated inhalation maneuver (500 mL tidal volume, 13 minutes−1 respiration rate, 1:2 inspiratory:expiratory ratio) a respirable dose of 112.8 ± 40.3 μg was produced. Conclusions: This work has highlighted the potential for aerosol drug delivery using steam inhalers that are popular with patients. Physicians should therefore be aware of the potential for lung dosing with irritants when patients self-medicate using the Nelson Inhaler with vaporizing formulations such as Friars' Balsam.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The CatWISE Preliminary Catalog: Motions from WISE and NEOWISE Data

CatWISE is a program to catalog sources selected from combined WISE and NEOWISE all-sky survey data at 3.4 and 4.6 μm (W1 and W2). The CatWISE Preliminary Catalog consists of 900,849,014 sources measured in data collected from 2010 to 2016. This data set represents four times as many exposures and spans over 10 times as large a time baseline as that used for the AllWISE Catalog. CatWISE adapts AllWISE software to measure the sources in coadded images created from six-month subsets of these data, each representing one coverage of the inertial sky, or epoch. The catalog includes the measured motion of sources in eight epochs over the 6.5 yr span of the data. From comparison to Spitzer, signal-to-noise ratio = 5 limits in magnitudes in the Vega system are W1 = 17.67 and W2 = 16.47, compared to W1 = 16.96 and W2 = 16.02 for AllWISE. From comparison to Gaia, CatWISE positions have typical accuracies of 50 mas for stars at W1 = 10 mag and 275 mas for stars at W1 = 15.5 mag. Proper motions have typical accuracies of 10 mas yr⁻¹ and 30 mas yr⁻¹ for stars with these brightnesses, an order of magnitude better than from AllWISE. The catalog is available in the WISE/NEOWISE Enhanced and Contributed Products area of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive