Galaxy destruction and diffuse light in clusters

Deep images of the Centaurus and Coma clusters reveal two spectacular arcs of diffuse light that stretch for over 100 kpc, yet are just a few kpc wide. At a surface brightness of m_b \sim 27-28th arcsec^-2, the Centaurus arc is the most striking example known of structure in the diffuse light component of a rich galaxy cluster. We use numerical simulations to show that the Centaurus feature can be reproduced by the tidal debris of a spiral galaxy that has been tidally disrupted by the gravitational potential of NGC 4709. The surface brightness and narrow dimensions of the diffuse light suggest that the disk was co-rotating with its orbital path past pericentre. Features this prominent in clusters will be relatively rare, although at fainter surface brightness levels the diffuse light will reveal a wealth of structure. Deeper imaging surveys may be able to trace this feature for several times its presently observed extent and somewhere along the tidal debris, a fraction of the original stellar component of the disk will remain bound, but transformed into a faint spheroidal galaxy. It should be possible to confirm the galactic origin of the Centaurus arc by observing planetary nebulae along its length with redshifts close to that of NGC 4709.Comment: Replaced with version accepted by MNRAS (Dec. 1999): Added missing reference (to pg. 4 & reference list). Section 3 shortened; removed three figures. Now 8 pages long, with 8 figures. Low resolution images included, high resolution version available at http://star-www.dur.ac.uk:80/~calcaneo/cenarc.htm

Visual Information Retrieval in Endoscopic Video Archives

In endoscopic procedures, surgeons work with live video streams from the inside of their subjects. A main source for documentation of procedures are still frames from the video, identified and taken during the surgery. However, with growing demands and technical means, the streams are saved to storage servers and the surgeons need to retrieve parts of the videos on demand. In this submission we present a demo application allowing for video retrieval based on visual features and late fusion, which allows surgeons to re-find shots taken during the procedure.Comment: Paper accepted at the IEEE/ACM 13th International Workshop on Content-Based Multimedia Indexing (CBMI) in Prague (Czech Republic) between 10 and 12 June 201

Conceptualising and measuring consumer-based brand–retailer–channel equity

This paper presents a critical review and synthesis of the extant literature which underscores the complexities of conceptualising and measuring the synergies created by brand, retailer, and channel equity. To this end, the concept of Consumer-based Brand–Retailer–Channel Equity (CBBRCE) is developed. The concept and its measurement are subsequently tested empirically using survey data and structural equation modelling with path-PLS. The results confirm that CBBRCE is created by CBBRC Awareness, Quality and Loyalty. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of CBBRCE, and signals areas for further academic research

Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the role of anticipated negative emotions on channel intention: The case of an embarrassing product

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is successful in predicting consumer intentions for a wide variety of products and behaviors. However, little is known about how effective the TPB is when the behavior under study is embarrassing. To this end, this paper extends the TPB to create a conceptual model to examine the role of anticipated negative emotions on channel intention. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested using survey data on the purchase of Regaine (a hair loss product that is embarrassing to buy) in Boots (a well-known UK multichannel drugstore). The embarrassing nature of Regaine created differences in the importance that emotions played when consumers intend to purchase using face-to-face channels (such as the physical drugstore) as against multichannel options or the internet. The results were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The effectiveness of the TPB was improved. The variance explained (R2to intention) was 0.44% for the total sample, 49% for the drugstore, 58.4% for the internet, and 42.5% for multichannel

Le statut de Rome de la cour pénale internationale et le droit interne d’un pays en situation de conflit armé : le cas de la Colombie

L'incorporation du Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale dans l’ordre juridique d'un État partie représente pour celui-ci un énorme engagement envers la justice, la protection et la garantie des droits fondamentaux de la personne humaine. La situation est particulièrement préoccupante dans le cas de la Colombie où la violation de ces droits fondamentaux a historiquement été notoire au cours du conflit armé interne qui sévit encore dans le pays aujourd’hui. Du fait de la ratification du Statut de Rome par l'État colombien, ce pays a le devoir de privilégier la recherche de la vérité, de la justice, de la réparation intégrale et les garanties de non-répétition pour les victimes du conflit armé. Ce traité international vise à empêcher la mise en place de règles consacrant l'impunité et empêchant de connaître la vérité de faits, comme ce qui a longtemps été le cas dans ce pays et qui a entraîné la prolongation du conflit pendant tant d'années. L'adoption du Statut de Rome par l'État colombien a produit différents effets juridiques dans le droit interne colombien. Certains de ces effets peuvent être observés dans les lois adoptées par le Congrès de la République ainsi que dans les arrêts de la Cour constitutionnelle et de la Cour suprême de justice où s'expriment les obligations internationales de l'État, rattachées au respect du système universel des droits de l'homme. Ce mémoire vise ainsi entre autres à exposer de quelle manière les dispositions sur les amnisties et la Loi Justice et paix rendent inefficace la mise en œuvre législative du Statut de Rome en Colombie.The incorporation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court into the domestic legal system of a State Party constitutes an enormous commitment to justice and the protection and guarantee of fundamental human rights. This situation is especially interesting in Colombia, where the violation of human rights has been historically well-known during the internal armed conflict in which the country has gone through for several years now. Since its ratification of the Rome Statute, Colombia has a duty to search for truth and justice, as well as providing for integral repair and guarantees of non-repetition for the victims of the armed conflict. The treaty does not allow the creation of rules that allow for impunity and prevent knowledge of the truth which can explain that the conflict has persisted for so many years. The implementation of the Rome Statute by Colombia adjustment has produced different legal effects into its legal system. Some of these effects can be observed in certain laws adopted by the Congress of the Republic and in the Constitutional’s Court and the Supreme Court of Justice’s judgements. These laws and judgments have relied on the international obligations of the country contained in human rights treaties and the Statute of Rome. This master thesis exposes, among other things, how the provisions of laws relating to amnesties and the Law Justice and peace make the Rome Statute inefficient in Colombia

Bimodal compensatory tracking and attention

Subjects performed visual and auditory compensatory tracking separately as well as in dual task combination. In a third condition Ss tracked one signal and copied with his other hand the control movement, thus emitting two identical responses to one input. Normalized mean squared error (NMSE) was lowest in single task, highest in bimodal dual task, with copying/tracking NMSE falling somewhere in between. NMSE was also found to vary as a function of input bandwidth, order of control, and input/plant bandwidth and order of control combinations. The error signal in each loop was sampled once every 100 msec and the samples were then compared. The absolute magnitude of the error in one channel at any given instance was found to be independent of the magnitude of the error in the other loop. This relationship held even when the information processing rate was increased by increasing the input bandwidth. The results do not support single-channel, information processing theories of attention. Moreover, they indicate a revision of current undifferentiated capacity models of attention (i.e., Kahneman, 1973; Moray, 1967). It was found that the performance of either one of two concurrently performed tracking tasks was a function of the informational content of the other. This result implies that attentional resources are not allocated freely to the various tasks, but rather, it suggests that the amount of attention allocated to a given task depends and is a weighted function of the concurrent informational content of other, unrelated and distracting, tasks and events. Although, it was fairly evident from the results that subjects could perform continuous tracking tasks simultaneously the observed task interference effects do indicate that the human controller of two, otherwise parallel, multiple single-loop systems does not behave either as a true parallel, or as a serial, information processor. It is suggested that one of the key functions of man's attentional process is the modulation of stimulus information to enable more or less optimal input to more or less permanent structures in the brain. Thus it is argued, a general undifferentiated capacity theory of attention may not be incompatible with current multiprocessor theories of attention, (Allport, Antonis and Reynolds, 1972). Moreover, in view of supportive existing evidence, it is also suggested that one other functional role played by attention is to enable the establishment in memory of an internal representation of task invariant descriptions than can actively be drawn upon (resources) and implemented to reduce the magnitude of task-related information. Hence, the amount of information, or uncertainty, associated with the performance of a given task is conceived to be the magnitude of discrepancy, or mismatch, between expected and actual task dependent events. Within such an undifferentiated capacity framework, it is possible, therefore, to account for time-sharing decrements of performance arising directly from either (1) changes in processing linearity, or (2) response delay, or both of these factors without having to appeal to discrete, serial, human information processing models of attention

Development of a novel NS1 competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the early detection of Zika virus infection

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus that has emerged as a global health threat after the 2015 outbreak in the Americas, where devastating congenital defects were documented. There are currently no vaccines to prevent ZIKV infections nor commercially available clinical diagnostic tests demonstrated to identify ZIKV without cross-reactive interference of related flaviviruses. Early diagnosis is critical when treating symptomatic patients and in preventing ZIKV transmission. In this context, the development of sensitive and accurate diagnostic methods are urgently needed for the detection of ZIKV acute infection. The aim of this study consisted of obtaining monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against denatured monomeric ZIKV Nonstructural protein 1 (ZNS1), a useful diagnostic marker for flavivirus early detection, in order to develop a highly specific and sensitive ZNS1 indirect competitive ELISA (icELISA). The production of hybridomas secreting ZNS1 mAbs was carried out through immunizations with denatured monomeric ZNS1. We selected 1F5 and 6E2 hybridoma clones, which recognized the heat-denatured ZNS1 hexameric form by indirect ELISA. Cross-reaction studies indicated that these mAbs specifically bind to a ZNS1 linear epitope, and that they do not cross-react with the NS1 protein from other related flaviviruses. The 1F5 mAb enabled the development of a sensitive and reproducible icELISA to detect and quantify small amounts of ZNS1 disease marker in heat-denatured human sera. Here, we establish a reliable 1F5 based-icELISA that constitutes a promising diagnostic tool for control strategies and the prevention of ZIKV propagation.Fil: Roldan, Julieta Suyay. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Cassola, Alejandro Carlos. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Castillo, Daniela Susana. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; Argentin

Optimization of recombinant Zika virus NS1 protein secretion from HEK293 cells

Sensitive, accurate and cost-effective diagnostic tests are urgently needed to detect Zika virus (ZIKV) infection. Nonstructural 1 (NS1) glycoprotein is an excellent diagnostic marker since it is released in a hexameric conformation from infected cells into the patient's bloodstream early in the course of the infection. We established a stable rZNS1-His-expression system in HEK293 cells through lentiviral transduction. A novel optimization approach to enhance rZNS1-His protein secretion in the mammalian expression system was accomplished through 50 nM rapamycin incubation followed by serum-free media incubation for 9 days, reaching protein yields of ∼10 mg/l of culture medium. Purified rZNS1-His hexamer was recognized by anti-NS1 antibodies in ZIKV patient's serum, and showed the ability to induce a humoral response in immunized mice. The obtained recombinant protein is a reliable biological tool that can potentially be applied in the development of diagnostic tests to detect ZIKV in infected patients during the acute phase.Fil: Roldan, Julieta Suyay. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Cassola, Alejandro Carlos. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Castillo, Daniela Susana. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; Argentin