The N Terminus of Adhesion G Protein–Coupled Receptor GPR126/ ADGRG6 as Allosteric Force Integrator

The adhesion G protein–coupled receptor (aGPCR) GPR126/ADGRG6 plays an important role in several physiological functions, such as myelination or peripheral nerve repair. This renders the receptor an attractive pharmacological target. GPR126 is a mechano-sensor that translates the binding of extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules to its N terminus into a metabotropic intracellular signal. To date, the structural requirements and the character of the forces needed for this ECM-mediated receptor activation are largely unknown. In this study, we provide this information by combining classic second-messenger detection with single-cell atomic force microscopy. We established a monoclonal antibody targeting the N terminus to stimulate GPR126 and compared it to the activation through its known ECM ligands, collagen IV and laminin 211. As each ligand uses a distinct mode of action, the N terminus can be regarded as an allosteric module that can fine-tune receptor activation in a context-specific manner

Greenhouse gas emissions from marine decommissioned hydrocarbon wells: leakage detection, monitoring and mitigation strategies

Highlights • Gas release from wells may counteract efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. • An approach for assessing methane release from marine decommissioned wells. • This gas release largely depends on the presence of shallow gas accumulations. • Methane release from hydrocarbon wells represents a major source in the North Sea. Abstract Hydrocarbon gas emissions from with decommissioned wells are an underreported source of greenhouse gas emissions in oil and gas provinces. The associated emissions may partly counteract efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel infrastructure. We have developed an approach for assessing methane leakage from marine decommissioned wells based on a combination of existing regional industrial seismic and newly acquired hydroacoustic water column imaging data from the Central North Sea. Here, we present hydroacoustic data which show that 28 out of 43 investigated wells release gas from the seafloor into the water column. This gas release largely depends on the presence of shallow gas accumulations and their distance to the wells. The released gas is likely primarily biogenic methane from shallow sources. In the upper 1,000 m below the seabed, gas migration is likely focused along drilling-induced fractures around the borehole or through non-sealing barriers. Combining available direct measurements for methane release from marine decommissioned wells with our leakage analysis suggests that gas release from investigated decommissioned hydrocarbon wells is a major source of methane in the North Sea (0.9-3.7 [95% confidence interval = 0.7-4.2] kt yr−1 of CH4 for 1,792 wells in the UK sector of the Central North Sea). This means hydrocarbon gas emissions associated with marine hydrocarbon wells are not significant for the global greenhouse gas budget, but have to be considered when compiling regional methane budgets

Structural Change and Convergence of Energy Intensity across OECD Countries, 1970-2005

This paper uses new and unique data derived from a consistent framework of national accounts to compute and evaluate energy intensity developments across 18 OECD countries and 50 sectors over the period 1970-2005. We find that across countries energy intensity levels tend to decrease in most Manufacturing sectors. In the Service sector, energy intensity decreases at a relatively slow rate, with diverse trends across sub-sectors. A decomposition analysis reveals that changes in the sectoral composition of the economy explain a considerable and increasing part of aggregate energy intensity dynamics. A convergence analysis reveals that only after 1995 cross-country variation in aggregate energy intensity levels clearly tends to decrease, driven by a strong and robust trend break in Manufacturing and enhanced convergence in Services. Moreover, we find evidence for the hypothesis that across sectors lagging countries are catching-up with leading countries, with rates of convergence that are on average higher in Services than in Manufacturing. Aggregate convergence patterns are almost exclusively caused by convergence of within-sector energy intensity levels, and not by convergence of the sectoral composition of economies. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

"Pictures and Conversations" Redefining the Graphic Novel

Graphic Novel is a rather recent term, it marks distinct qualities of a group of artefacts to allow for differentiation and sales in late-modern (or post-modern) cultural context.  Comics add their particular narrative potential to what the novel has done: they transplant novel-style narrations into image-based stories. In novels their author’s individual way with words, their voice is crucial. It defines the style, perspective, tone – the novel is about how a particular voice is expressed, it is not about the plot of the story as such. Comics are built from graphic representations that mark the distinct individuality of the auteur and/or graphic artist. Their view is expressed in the execution of each image and page design: "its 'graphiation’ – that is, the presence, within the very act of storytelling, of its maker" (Marion 1993 after Baetens 2001b, 146-150).  There are enough comics labelled as graphic novels that are meeting the criteria for other literary genres to introduce differentiated labels: auto/biography, historiography, reports, travel writing, novels, …Even the difference between graphic adaptations of prose novels in difference to auteur comics matters (s. Schmitz-Emans 2013, 397 ff.). We need to invent the Graphic Novel twice. The marketing term is established, now we need to differentiate the academic use to understand and describe better specific literary forms and genres. To restrict “graphic novel” to visually narrated novel-type literature instead of all longer comics is a beginning

"Pictures and Conversations" Redefining the Graphic Novel

Graphic Novel is a rather recent term, it marks distinct qualities of a group of artefacts to allow for differentiation and sales in late-modern (or post-modern) cultural context.  Comics add their particular narrative potential to what the novel has done: they transplant novel-style narrations into image-based stories. In novels their author’s individual way with words, their voice is crucial. It defines the style, perspective, tone – the novel is about how a particular voice is expressed, it is not about the plot of the story as such. Comics are built from graphic representations that mark the distinct individuality of the auteur and/or graphic artist. Their view is expressed in the execution of each image and page design: "its 'graphiation’ – that is, the presence, within the very act of storytelling, of its maker" (Marion 1993 after Baetens 2001b, 146-150).  There are enough comics labelled as graphic novels that are meeting the criteria for other literary genres to introduce differentiated labels: auto/biography, historiography, reports, travel writing, novels, …Even the difference between graphic adaptations of prose novels in difference to auteur comics matters (s. Schmitz-Emans 2013, 397 ff.). We need to invent the Graphic Novel twice. The marketing term is established, now we need to differentiate the academic use to understand and describe better specific literary forms and genres. To restrict “graphic novel” to visually narrated novel-type literature instead of all longer comics is a beginning

Anorthositic lunar regolith breccia Dhofar 1769—Clear indications for repeated mixing of impact melt lithologies

AbstractThe lunar regolith breccia Dhofar 1769, which was found in 2012 as a single 125 g piece in the Zufar desert area of Oman, contains a relatively large, dark‐colored impact melt breccia embedded in a fine‐grained clastic matrix. The internal texture of the fragment indicates the repeated melt breccia formation on the lunar surface, their repeated brecciation, and mixing in second, third, and fourth generations of brecciated rock types. The chemical and mineralogical data reveal the incorporation of a feldspar‐rich subophitic crystalline melt within a feldspar‐rich microporphyritic crystalline melt breccia. This lithic paragenesis itself is embedded within a mafic, crystalline melt breccia. The entire breccia with the three different impact melts has been finally incorporated into the whole rock breccia. The three impact melts are mixtures of different source rocks and impact projectiles, based on the obtained minor and trace element compositions (in particular of Ni and the rare earth elements [REE]) of the impact melt lithologies. For all processes of impact melt formation, additional steps of their brecciation and re‐lithification require a minimum number of seven impact processes.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/50110000165

Will-They-Won't-They: A Very Large Dataset for Stance Detection on Twitter

We present a new challenging stance detection dataset, called Will-They-Won’t-They (WT--WT), which contains 51,284 tweets in English, making it by far the largest available dataset of the type. All the annotations are carried out by experts; therefore, the dataset constitutes a high-quality and reliable benchmark for future research in stance detection. Our experiments with a wide range of recent state-of-the-art stance detection systems show that the dataset poses a strong challenge to existing models in this domain.Keynes Fund, Cambridg

Replication Data for: Anorthositic lunar regolith breccia Dhofar 1769—Clear indications for repeated mixing of impact melt lithologies

Abstract The lunar regolith breccia Dhofar 1769, which was found in 2012 as a single 125 g piece in the Zufar desert area of Oman, contains a relatively large, dark-colored impact melt breccia embedded in a fine-grained clastic matrix. The internal texture of the fragment indicates the repeated melt breccia formation on the lunar surface, their repeated brecciation, and mixing in second, third, and fourth generations of brecciated rock types. The chemical and mineralogical data reveal the incorporation of a feldspar-rich subophitic crystalline melt within a feldspar-rich microporphyritic crystalline melt breccia. This lithic paragenesis itself is embedded within a mafic, crystalline melt breccia. The entire breccia with the three different impact melts has been finally incorporated into the whole rock breccia. The three impact melts are mixtures of different source rocks and impact projectiles, based on the obtained minor and trace element compositions (in particular of Ni and the rare earth elements [REE]) of the impact melt lithologies. For all processes of impact melt formation, additional steps of their brecciation and re-lithification require a minimum number of seven impact processes

Towards Preservation of semantically enriched Architectural Knowledge

Abstract. Preservation of architectural knowledge faces substantial challenges, most notably due the high level of data heterogeneity. On the one hand, lowlevel architectural models include 3D models and point cloud data up to richer building information models (BIM), often residing in isolated data stores with insufficient support for ensuring consistency and managing change. On the other hand, the Web contains vast amounts of information of potential relevance for stakeholders in the architectural field, such as urban planners, architects or building operators. This includes in particular Linked Data, offering structured data about, for instance, energy-efficiency policies, geodata or traffic and environmental information but also valuable knowledge which can be extracted from social media, for instance, about peoples ’ movements in and around buildings or their perception of certain structures. In this paper we provide an overview of our early work towards building a sustainable, semantic long-term archive in the architectural domain. In particular we highlight ongoing activities on semantic enrichment of low-level architectural models towards the curation of a semantic archive of architectural knowledge