523 research outputs found
Understanding the diverse needs of subtitle users in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
Audiences are increasingly using services such as video on demand and the web to watch television programmes. Broadcasters need to make subtitles available across all these new platforms. These platforms also create new design opportunities for subtitles along with the ability to customise them to an individual's needs. To explore these new opportunities for subtitles we have begun the process of reviewing the guidance for subtitles on television and evaluating the original user research. We have found that existing guidelines have been shaped by a mixture of technical constraints, industry practice and user research, constrained by existing technical standards. This paper provides an overview of the subtitle research at BBC R&D over the past two years. Our research is revealing significant diversity in the needs and preferences of frequent subtitle users, and points to the need for personalisation in the way subtitles are displayed. We are developing a new approach to the authoring and display of subtitles that can respond to the user requirements by adjusting the subtitle layout in the client device
Collaboration Between Content Experts and Assessment Specialists: Using a Validity Argument Framework to Develop a College Mathematics Assessment
Developing a new assessment requires the expertise of both content experts and assessment specialists. Using the example of an assessment developed for Ontario’s Colleges Mathematics Assessment Program (CMAP), this article (1) describes the decisions that must be made in developing a new assessment, (2) explores the complementary contributions of content experts and assessment specialists, and (3) illustrates how the use of a validity argument framework can support collaboration in assessment development. The authors conclude that the validity argument framework facilitated effective collaboration between content experts and assessment specialists, and suggest that this approach may help other collaborators pursue transparent and effective assessment development
Biotransformation of fluorophenyl pyridine carboxylic acids by the model fungus Cunninghamella elegans
1. Fluorine plays a key role in the design of new drugs and recent FDA approvals included two fluorinated drugs, tedizolid phosphate and vorapaxar, both of which contain the fluorophenyl pyridyl moiety. 2. To investigate the likely phase-I (oxidative) metabolic fate of this group, various fluorinated phenyl pyridine carboxylic acids were incubated with the fungus Cunninghamella elegans, which is an established model of mammalian drug metabolism. 3. 19F NMR spectroscopy established the degree of biotransformation, which varied depending on the position of fluorine substitution, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) identified alcohols and hydroxylated carboxylic acids as metabolites. The hydroxylated metabolites were further structurally characterised by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), which demonstrated that hydroxylation occurred on the 4′ position; fluorine in that position blocked the hydroxylation. 4. The fluorophenyl pyridine carboxylic acids were not biotransformed by rat liver microsomes and this was a consequence of inhibitory action, and thus, the fungal model was crucial in obtaining metabolites to establish the mechanism of catabolism
Moment equations for chemical reactions on interstellar dust grains
While most chemical reactions in the interstellar medium take place in the
gas phase, those occurring on the surfaces of dust grains play an essential
role. Chemical models based on rate equations including both gas phase and
grain surface reactions have been used in order to simulate the formation of
chemical complexity in interstellar clouds. For reactions in the gas phase and
on large grains, rate equations, which are highly efficient to simulate, are an
ideal tool. However, for small grains under low flux, the typical number of
atoms or molecules of certain reactive species on a grain may go down to order
one or less. In this case the discrete nature of the opulations of reactive
species as well as the fluctuations become dominant, thus the mean-field
approximation on which the rate equations are based does not apply. Recently, a
master equation approach, that provides a good description of chemical
reactions on interstellar dust grains, was proposed. Here we present a related
approach based on moment equations that can be obtained from the master
equation. These equations describe the time evolution of the moments of the
distribution of the population of the various chemical species on the grain. An
advantage of this approach is the fact that the production rates of molecular
species are expressed directly in terms of these moments. Here we use the
moment equations to calculate the rate of molecular hydrogen formation on small
grains. It is shown that the moment equation approach is efficient in this case
in which only a single reactive specie is involved. The set of equations for
the case of two species is presented and the difficulties in implementing this
approach for complex reaction networks involving multiple species are
discussed.Comment: 12 pages, submitted for publication in A&
The effect of grain size distribution on H formation rate in the interstellar medium
The formation of molecular hydrogen in the interstellar medium takes place on
the surfaces of dust grains. Hydrogen molecules play a role in gas-phase
reactions that produce other molecules, some of which serve as coolants during
gravitational collapse and star formation. Thus, the evaluation of the
roduction rate of hydrogen molecules and its dependence on the physical
conditions in the cloud are of great importance. Interstellar dust grains
exhibit a broad size distribution in which the small grains capture most of the
surface area. Recent studies have shown that the production efficiency strongly
depends on the grain composition and temperature as well as on its size. In
this paper we present a formula which provides the total production rate of
H per unit volume in the cloud, taking into account the grain composition
and temperature as well as the grain size distribution. The formula agrees very
well with the master equation results. It shows that for a physically relevant
range of grain temperatures, the production rate of H is significantly
enhanced due to their broad size distribution.Comment: to appear in MNRA
Physical-chemical modeling of the low-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422
We present detailed gas-phase chemical models for the envelope of the
low-mass star-forming region IRAS 16293-2422. By considering both time- and
space-dependent chemistry, these models are used to study both the physical
structure proposed by Schoier et al. (2002), as well as the chemical evolution
of this region. A new feature of our study is the use of a detailed,
self-consistent radiative transfer model to translate the model abundances into
line strengths and compare them directly with observations of a total of 76
transitions for 18 chemical species, and their isotopes. The model can
reproduce many of the line strengths observed within 50%. The best fit is for
times in the range of 3e3 - 3e4 yrs, and requires only minor modifications to
our model for the high-mass star-forming region AFGL 2591. The ionization rate
for the source may be higher than previously expected -- either due to an
enhanced cosmic-ray ionization rate, or, more probably, to the presence of
X-ray induced ionization from the center. A significant fraction of the CO is
found to desorb in the temperature range of 15-40 K; below this temperature,
\~90% or more of the CO is frozen out. The inability of the model to explain
the HCS+, C2H, and OCS abundances suggests the importance of further laboratory
studies of basic reaction rates. Finally, predictions of the abundances and
spatial distributions of other species which could be observed by future
facilities (e.g., Herschel-HIFI, SOFIA, millimeter arrays) are provided.Comment: 15 pages, 11 Figures, accepted for publication by A&
Biotransformation of fluorophenyl pyridine carboxylic acids by the model fungus Cunninghamella elegans
Applying laboratory thermal desorption data in an interstellar context: sublimation of methanol thin films
Methods by which experimental measurements of thermal desorption can be applied in astrophysical environments have been developed, using the sublimation of solid methanol as an example. The temperature programmed desorption of methanol from graphitic, amorphous silica and polycrystalline gold substrates was compared, with the kinetic parameters of desorption extracted by either a leading edge analysis or by fitting using a stochastic integration method. At low coverages, the desorption shows a substrate-dependent fractional order. However, at higher coverages methanol desorption is zeroth order with kinetic parameters independent of substrate. Using a kinetic model based on the stochastic integration analyses, desorption under astrophysically relevant conditions can be simulated. We find that the chemical and morphological nature of the substrate has relatively little impact on the desorption temperature of solid methanol, and that the substrate independent zeroth-order kinetics can provide a satisfactory model for desorption in astrophysical environments. Uncertainties in the heating rate and the distribution of grain sizes will have the largest influence on the range of desorption temperature. These conclusions are likely to be generally applicable to all species in dust grain ice mantles
Laboratory H2O:CO2 ice desorption data: entrapment dependencies and its parameterization with an extended three-phase model
Ice desorption affects the evolution of the gas-phase chemistry during the
protostellar stage, and also determines the chemical composition of comets
forming in circumstellar disks. From observations, most volatile species are
found in H2O-dominated ices. The aim of this study is first to experimentally
determine how entrapment of volatiles in H2O ice depends on ice thickness,
mixture ratio and heating rate, and second, to introduce an extended
three-phase model (gas, ice surface and ice mantle) to describe ice mixture
desorption with a minimum number of free parameters. Thermal H2O:CO2 ice
desorption is investigated in temperature programmed desorption experiments of
thin (10 - 40 ML) ice mixtures under ultra-high vacuum conditions. Desorption
is simultaneously monitored by mass spectrometry and reflection-absorption
infrared spectroscopy. The H2O:CO2 experiments are complemented with selected
H2O:CO, and H2O:CO2:CO experiments. The results are modeled with rate equations
that connect the gas, ice surface and ice mantle phases through surface
desorption and mantle-surface diffusion. The fraction of trapped CO2 increases
with ice thickness (10 - 32 ML) and H2O:CO2 mixing ratio (5:1 - 10:1), but not
with one order of magnitude different heating rates. The fraction of trapped
CO2 is 44 - 84 % with respect to the initial CO2 content for the investigated
experimental conditions. This is reproduced quantitatively by the extended
three-phase model that is introduced here. The H2O:CO and H2O:CO2:CO
experiments are consistent with the H2O:CO2 desorption trends, suggesting that
the model can be used for other ice species found in the interstellar medium to
significantly improve the parameterization of ice desorption.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, published in A&
Enhanced production of HD and D_2 molecules on small dust grains in diffuse clouds
Motivated by recent observations of deuterated molecules in the interstellar
medium, we examine the production of HD and D molecules on dust grain
surfaces. A mechanism for the enhanced production of these deuterated molecules
is studied. This mechanism applies on grain surfaces on which D atoms stick
more strongly than H atoms, under conditions of low flux and within a suitable
range of temperatures. It is shown that under these conditions the production
rates of HD and D are greatly enhanced (vs. the H production rate)
compared with the expected rates based on the adsorption of gas-phase atomic
abundances of D and H. The enhancement in the formation rate of HD is
comparable with the enhancement due to gas-phase ion-molecule reactions in
diffuse clouds.Comment: This is a preprint of an article accepted for publication in Monthly
Notices of The Royal Astromnomical Societ
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