Flexi-Focus Lens: PDMS Variable Focal Length Lens

The design of a variable focal length, or flexi-focus, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) lens incorporating a light emitting diode (LED) source is intended for future use on board commercial aircraft. Specifically, the design is intended for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, serving as a personal reading light for the passengers seated in the cabin. Most current reading lights on board aircraft are rigid, incandescent, and have very limited freedom in terms of adjusting the emitted light. Incandescent lamps are also inefficient with respect to energy consumption and light output as well as a high heat output. In an economy of increasing demand for cost efficiency, environmentally friendly solutions, and user friendly devices, this lighting configuration is a hindrance in its application. The Flexi-Focus LED light system will remedy this problem by allowing the passenger the freedom to refocus the light from broad flood lighting to precise spot lighting, adequate for reading. A table of user needs can be seen in Table I of Appendix F. This system involves a variable-focal length lens fabricated with PDMS, incorporated with an LED, which has the ability to flex into a range of convex surfaces when the pressure in an airtight chamber behind it is increased, thus enabling optimization for a broad range of applications. The focal length of the lens is a function of the refractive index of the lens material and the radius of curvature created by the deflection. With a known refractive index for the material, the light can be made to focus at specific distances. In the application of interest for this project, this enables the area illuminated by the LED to vary

Polymer Models of Topological Insulators

Physic

Temporal patterns in radar-observed convective cell development during the 2016 monsoon onset

Monsoon onset is highly variable year‐to‐year and difficult to predict. Here, Doppler radar data shed light on convective development in the days and weeks around the 2016 monsoon onset at multiple sites across India. We consider this convective development with relation to large‐scale dynamic and thermodynamic changes associated with onset

You Took The Sweet From Sweetheart

[Verse 1] What wonderful pals you and I used to be just as happy and free as the birds in the tree I carried your books to school ev’ry day it was never December ‘twas always May But now you tell me not to hope and that is why I say. [Chorus] There is no warmth in the sunshine The flowers have faded away The days are all dark there’s no song from the lark The world is all work and no play Life is so dull and so bitter I feel like a failure a quitter I’ve been yours from the start When you said we must part You took the sweet from sweetheart. [Verse 2] I’ve met lots of girls since those days back at school those dear days when we both learned the good golden rule But of all the girls that I have known you’re the only girl I wanted for my own What hard luck the world will agree to find your heart was stone. [Chorus

Human monoclonal antibodies against NS1 protein protect against lethal West Nile virus infection

Envelope protein-targeted vaccines for flaviviruses are limited by concerns of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of infections. Nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) provides an alternative vaccine target that avoids this risk since this protein is absent from the virion. Beyond its intracellular role in virus replication, extracellular forms of NS1 function in immune modulation and are recognized by host-derived antibodies. The rational design of NS1-based vaccines requires an extensive understanding of the antigenic sites on NS1, especially those targeted by protective antibodies. Here, we isolated human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) from individuals previously naturally infected with WNV, mapped their epitopes using structure-guided mutagenesis, and evaluated their efficac

Does gender matter? A cross-national investigation of primary class-room discipline.

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupFewer than 15% of primary school teachers in both Germany and the UK are male. With the on-going international debate about educational performance highlighting the widening gender achievement gap between girl and boy pupils, the demand for more male teachers has become prevalent in educational discourse. Concerns have frequently been raised about the underachievement of boys, with claims that the lack of male ‘role models’ in schools has an adverse effect on boys’ academic motivation and engagement. Although previous research has examined ‘teaching’ as institutional talk, men’s linguistic behaviour in the classroom remains largely ignored, especially in regard to enacting discipline. Using empirical spoken data collected from four primary school classrooms in both the UK and in Germany, this paper examines the linguistic discipline strategies of eight male and eight female teachers using Interactional Sociolinguistics to address the question, does teacher gender matter?Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Early Neolithic Pits at Principal Place, Shoreditch, London Borough of Hackney

A group of four pits excavated in the upper Walbrook valley at Principal Place, Shoreditch by MOLA in 2015 produced the largest assemblage of Early Neolithic Bowl pottery recovered to date from the City of London and its immediate surrounds. The Neolithic pits had been fortuitously preserved within part of the northern extramural Roman cemetery of Londinium and conjoining sherds of Bowl pottery were also recovered from the fill of an isolated late Roman cremation. A range of analyses showed that the vessels – comprising essentially Plain Bowl with some Decorated Bowl, the latter incorporating Peterborough Ware traits – were probably locally made and had been used to process dairy products and to stew beef and mutton (though not pork). Radiocarbon dating of the lipids absorbed within the vessel walls – employing a novel technique developed at the University of Bristol – suggest that the pottery was being used in the mid-fourth millennium cal BC. The pits also contained small assemblages of struck flint, fauna (some burnt) and archaeobotanical remains (some intrusive) and may have been filled using material drawn from a long-vanished ‘pre-pit’ source, possibly a midden; they presumably represent episodic activity on the part of semi-sedentary Neolithic communities