But a walking shadow: designing, performing and learning on the virtual stage

Representing elements of reality within a medium, or taking aspects from one medium and placing them in another is an act of remediation. The process of this act, however, is largely taken for granted. Despite the fact that available information enables a qualitative assessment of the history of multimedia and their influences on different fields of knowledge, there are still some areas that require more focused research attention. For example, the relationship between media evolution and new developments in scenographic practice is currently under investigation. This article explores the issue of immediacy as a condition of modern theatre in the context of digital reality. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that recent technologies present to contemporary practitioners and theatre design educators, creating a lot of scope to break with conventions. Here, we present two case studies that look into technology-mediated learning about scenography through the employment of novel computer visualization techniques. The first case study is concerned with new ways of researching and learning about theatre through creative exploration of design artefacts. The second case study investigates the role of the Immersive Virtual World Second Life™ (SL) in effective teaching of scenography, and in creating and experiencing theatrical performances

Preparation and Characterization of Homogeneous YBCO Single Crystals with Doping Level near the SC-AFM Boundary

High-purity and homogeneous YBa2Cu3Oy single crystals with carrier doping level near the AFM-SC boundary have been obtained in the oxygen content range between y = 6.340 and 6.370. The crystals are ortho-II phase at room temperature and undergo the orthorhombic to tetragonal transition at about 140_Degree_C. They show sharp superconducting transitions, with Tc between 4 and 20 K. Tc changes by 0.8 K when the oxygen content y is changed by 0.001, and is also sensitive to annealing conditions near room temperature, due to the dependence of doping on oxygen ordering correlation lengths. Crystals with oxygen content y lower than 6.345 are non-superconducting.Comment: 6 page

d-alpha Correlation functions and collective motion in Xe+Au collisions at E/A=50 MeV

The interplay of the effects of geometry and collective motion on d-$\alpha$ correlation functions is investigated for central Xe+Au collisions at E/A=50 MeV. The data cannot be explained without collective motion, which could be partly along the beam axis. A semi-quantitative description of the data can be obtained using a Monte-Carlo model, where thermal emission is superimposed on collective motion. Both the emission volume and the competition between the thermal and collective motion influence significantly the shape of the correlation function, motivating new strategies for extending intensity interferometry studies to massive particles.Comment: Accepted for publication on Physics Letters

Extinction transition in bacterial colonies under forced convection

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

The Identification of Pats1, a Novel Gene Locus Required for Cytokinesis in Dictyostelium discoideum

Here, we describe the identification and characterization of the cytokinesis-deficient mutant cell line 17HG5, which was generated in a restriction enzyme–mediated integration mutagenesis screen designed to isolate genes required for cytokinesis in Dictyostelium discoideum. Phenotypic characterization of the 17HG5 cell line revealed no apparent defects in the global functionality of the actomyosin cytoskeleton except for the observed cytokinesis defect when grown in suspension culture. Plasmid rescue was used to identify the disrupted gene locus (pats1; protein associated with the transduction of signal 1) that caused the cytokinesis defect. Disruption of the pats1 locus was recreated through homologous recombination in several independent cell lines, each recapitulating the cytokinesis-defective phenotype and thereby confirming that this gene locus is important for proper cytokinesis. Sequence data obtained by analysis of the genomic region flanking the inserted restriction enzyme–mediated integration plasmid revealed an 8892-bp genomic open reading frame encoding a 2964-amino-acid protein. The putative pats1 protein contains 3 regulatory domains (RI-phosphatase, RII-GTP–binding, R-III protein kinase), 13 leucine-rich repeats, and 8 WD-40 repeats. These regulatory domains coupled with the protein–protein interacting domains suggest that pats1 is involved in signal transduction during cytokinesis in Dictyostelium

Contributions of Gene Marking to Cell and Gene Therapies

The first human genetic modification studies used replication-incompetent integrating vector vectors to introduce marker genes into T lymphocytes and subsequently into hematopoietic stem cells. Such studies have provided numerous insights into the biology of hematopoiesis and immune reconstitution and contributed to clinical development of gene and cell therapies. Tracking of hematopoietic reconstitution and analysis of the origin of residual malignant disease after hematopoietic transplantation has been possible via gene marking. Introduction of selectable marker genes has enabled preselection of specific T-cell populations for tumor and viral immunotherapy and reduced the threat of graft-versus-host disease, improving the survival of patients after allogeneic marrow transplantation. Marking studies in humans, murine xenografts, and large animals have helped optimize conditions for gene transfer into CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors, contributing to the achievement of gene transfer efficiencies sufficient for clinical benefit in several serious genetic diseases such as X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency and adrenoleukodystropy. When adverse events linked to insertional mutagenesis arose in clinical gene therapy trials for inherited immunodeficiencies, additional animal studies using gene-marking vectors have greatly increased our understanding of genotoxicity. The knowledge gained from these studies is being translated into new vector designs and clinical protocols, which we hope will continue to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and safety of these promising therapeutic approaches