Count three for wear able computers

This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the IEE Eurowearable 2003 Conference, and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at the IET Digital Library. A revised version of this paper was also published in Electronics Systems and Software, also subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is also available at the IET Digital Library.A description of 'ubiquitous computer' is presented. Ubiquitous computers imply portable computers embedded into everyday objects, which would replace personal computers. Ubiquitous computers can be mapped into a three-tier scheme, differentiated by processor performance and flexibility of function. The power consumption of mobile devices is one of the most important design considerations. The size of a wearable system is often a design limitation

Signatures of four-particle correlations associated with exciton-carrier interactions in coherent spectroscopy on bulk GaAs

Transient four-wave mixing studies of bulk GaAs under conditions of broad bandwidth excitation of primarily interband transitions have enabled four-particle correlations tied to degenerate (exciton-exciton) and nondegenerate (exciton-carrier) interactions to be studied. Real two-dimensional Fourier-transform spectroscopy (2DFTS) spectra reveal a complex response at the heavy-hole exciton emission energy that varies with the absorption energy, ranging from dispersive on the diagonal, through absorptive for low-energy interband transitions to dispersive with the opposite sign for interband transitions high above band gap. Simulations using a multilevel model augmented by many-body effects provide excellent agreement with the 2DFTS experiments and indicate that excitation-induced dephasing (EID) and excitation-induced shift (EIS) affect degenerate and nondegenerate interactions equivalently, with stronger exciton-carrier coupling relative to exciton-exciton coupling by approximately an order of magnitude. These simulations also indicate that EID effects are three times stronger than EIS in contributing to the coherent response of the semiconductor

Being an Early-Career CMS Academic in the Context of Insecurity and ‘Excellence’: The Dialectics of Resistance and Compliance

Drawing on a dialectical approach to resistance, we conceptualise the latter as a multifaceted, pervasive and contradictory phenomenon. This enables us to examine the predicament in which early-career Critical Management Studies academics find themselves in the current times of academic insecurity and ‘excellence’, as gleaned through this group’s understandings of themselves as resisters and participants in the complex and contradictory forces constituting their field. We draw on 24 semi-structured interviews to map our participants’ accounts of themselves as resisters in terms of different approaches to tensions and contradictions between, on the one hand, the interviewees’ Critical Management Studies alignment and, on the other, the ethos of business school neoliberalism. Emerging from this analysis are three contingent and interlinked narratives of resistance and identity – diplomatic, combative and idealistic – each of which encapsulates a particular mode (negotiation, struggle, and laying one’s own path) of engaging with the relationship between Critical Management Studies and the business school ethos. The three narratives show how early-career Critical Management Studies academics not only use existing tensions, contradictions, overlaps and alliances between these positions to resist and comply with selected forces within each, but also contribute to the (re-)making of such overlaps, alliances, tensions and contradictions. Through this reworking of what it means to be both Critical Management Studies scholars and business school academics, we argue, early-career Critical Management Studies academics can be seen as active resisters and re-constituters of their complex field

Where are the Baryons?

New, high resolution, large-scale, cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulations of a standard cold dark matter model (with a cosmological constant) are utilized to predict the distribution of baryons at the present and at moderate redshift. It is found that the average temperature of baryons is an increasing function of time, with most of the baryons at the present time having a temperature in the range 10^{5-7} K. Thus, not only is the universe dominated by dark matter, but more than one half of the normal matter is yet to be detected. Detection of this warm/hot gas poses an observational challenge, requiring sensitive EUV and X-ray satellites. Signatures include a soft, cosmic X-ray background, apparent warm components in hot clusters due to both intrinsic warm intra-cluster gas and warm inter-cluster gas projected onto clusters along the line of sight, absorption lines in X-ray and UV quasar spectra [e.g., O VI (1032,1038)A lines, OVII 574 eV line], strong emission lines (e.g., O VIII 653 eV line) and low redshift, broad, low column density \lya absorption lines. We estimate that approximately 1/4 of the extragalactic soft X-ray background (SXRB) (at 0.7 keV) arises from the warm/hot gas, half of it coming from $z<0.65$ and three-quarters from $z<1.00$, so the source regions should be identifiable on deep optical images.Comment: ApJ in press, revised (fig 3 is in jpg). Whole paper including fig3.ps can be obtained at "http://astro.princeton.edu/~cen/PAPERS_TO_APPEAR/64

Clinical spirocercosis in a dog in the UK

A 2-year-old female neutered crossbreed dog was presented for evaluation of a 3-day history of haematemesis, melaena and hyporexia. The dog had been imported from a rescue centre in Hungary 4 months prior to presentation. Abdominal CT revealed the presence of a 3 cm×3 cm×4 cm diameter heterogenous intraluminal mass lesion in the gastric cardia, surrounding the ostium of the cardia and continuous with the distal oesophagus. The mass lesion was subsequently surgically resected. Histopathology of the gastric mass lesion was consistent with a Spirocerca lupi granuloma. The patient unfortunately developed a pyothorax and suffered cardiopulmonary arrest resulting in death 2 days postoperatively. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported case of clinical spirocercosis reported in a dog in the UK

Strain tuning of nematicity and superconductivity in single crystals of FeSe

Strain is a powerful experimental tool to explore new electronic states and understand unconventional superconductivity. Here, we investigate the effect of uniaxial strain on the nematic and superconducting phase of single crystal FeSe using magnetotransport measurements. We find that the resistivity response to the strain is strongly temperature dependent and it correlates with the sign change in the Hall coefficient being driven by scattering, coupling with the lattice and multiband phenomena. Band-structure calculations suggest that under strain the electron pockets develop a large in-plane anisotropy as compared with the hole pocket. Magnetotransport studies at low temperatures indicate that the mobility of the dominant carriers increases with tensile strain. Close to the critical temperature, all resistivity curves at constant strain cross in a single point, indicating a universal critical exponent linked to a strain-induced phase transition. Our results indicate that the superconducting state is enhanced under compressive strain and suppressed under tensile strain, in agreement with the trends observed in FeSe thin films and overdoped pnictides, whereas the nematic phase seems to be affected in the opposite way by the uniaxial strain. By comparing the enhanced superconductivity under strain of different systems, our results suggest that strain on its own cannot account for the enhanced high Tc superconductivity of FeSe systems

Reflections on a degree initiative: the UK's Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers enter the University of Birmingham

This paper provides an opportunity to share experiences and perceptions of the first 5 years of a degree programme for professional dancers. A partnership developed in the mid-1990s between the UK's Birmingham Royal Ballet and the University of Birmingham, Westhill (now School of Education), to provide a part-time, post-experience, flexible study programme for full-time Company dancers. This is the first 'company customised' higher education programme to dovetail studies around rehearsal, performance and touring schedules. Methodology is based on a narrative by the author, informed by ongoing internal and external evaluations, in-depth interviews with dancers and Company managers, documentation and secondary sources. Outcomes indicate that the programme has made a positive difference to the Company, to the dancers and to the wider education and dance/arts world

Surgical valvulotomy for tricuspid valve stenosis in a dog

A 2 year 4 month old female neutered Labrador retriever was presented for evaluation right sided congestive heart failure. Echocardiographic examination revealed tricuspid valve dysplasia with only two small orifices in the valve resulting in severe tricuspid stenosis. The dog underwent a right fifth lateral intercostal thoracotomy and surgical tricuspid valvulotomy, under cardiopulmonary bypass. The stenosis was relieved by dividing the valve leaflets between the two orifices with continuation to the commissures, creating a ‘bi-leaflet’ valve. The dog made a good recovery initially with echocardiography at 48 hours after surgery showing a reduction in tricuspid valve E and A wave velocities and pressure half time (from 230 ms to to 65 ms). She was discharged five days after surgery with spironolactone, benazepril, pimobendan and clopidogrel. The dog was re-presented two days later having collapsed, with pyrexia, facial swelling and pitting edema on the ventral neck and intermandibular region. Investigations did not reveal an underlying cause and the clinical signs resolved with supportive therapy. Two years after surgery the dog was free of clinical signs with normal exercise tolerance and only mild tricuspid regurgitation on echocardiography, with discontinuation of all medications

Large-scale discovery of enhancers from human heart tissue.

Development and function of the human heart depend on the dynamic control of tissue-specific gene expression by distant-acting transcriptional enhancers. To generate an accurate genome-wide map of human heart enhancers, we used an epigenomic enhancer discovery approach and identified ∼6,200 candidate enhancer sequences directly from fetal and adult human heart tissue. Consistent with their predicted function, these elements were markedly enriched near genes implicated in heart development, function and disease. To further validate their in vivo enhancer activity, we tested 65 of these human sequences in a transgenic mouse enhancer assay and observed that 43 (66%) drove reproducible reporter gene expression in the heart. These results support the discovery of a genome-wide set of noncoding sequences highly enriched in human heart enhancers that is likely to facilitate downstream studies of the role of enhancers in development and pathological conditions of the heart