New aesthetic, new anxieties

The New Aesthetic was a design concept and netculture phenomenon launched into the world by London designer James Bridle in 2011. It continues to attract the attention of media art, and throw up associations to a variety of situated practices, including speculative design, net criticism, hacking, free and open source software development, locative media, sustainable hardware and so on. In this book we consider the New Aesthetic: as an opportunity to rethink the relations between these contexts in the emergent episteme of computationality. There is a desperate need to confront the political pressures of neoliberalism manifested in these infrastructures. Indeed, these are risky, dangerous and problematic times; a period when critique should thrive. But here we need to forge new alliances, invent and discover problems of the common that nevertheless do not eliminate the fundamental differences in this ecology of practices. In this book, perhaps provocatively, we believe a great deal could be learned from the development of the New Aesthetic not only as a mood, but as a topic and fix for collective feeling, that temporarily mobilizes networks. Is it possible to sustain and capture these atmospheres of debate and discussion beyond knee-jerk reactions and opportunistic self-promotion? These are crucial questions that the New Aesthetic invites us to consider, if only to keep a critical network culture in place

Polarization Response in InAs Quantum Dots: Theoretical Correlation between Composition and Electronic Properties

III-V growth and surface conditions strongly influence the physical structure and resulting optical properties of self-assembled quantum dots (QDs). Beyond the design of a desired active optical wavelength, the polarization response of QDs is of particular interest for optical communications and quantum information science. Previous theoretical studies based on a pure InAs QD model failed to reproduce experimentally observed polarization properties. In this work, multi-million atom simulations are performed to understand the correlation between chemical composition and polarization properties of QDs. A systematic analysis of QD structural parameters leads us to propose a two layer composition model, mimicking In segregation and In-Ga intermixing effects. This model, consistent with mostly accepted compositional findings, allows to accurately fit the experimental PL spectra. The detailed study of QD morphology parameters presented here serves as a tool for using growth dynamics to engineer the strain field inside and around the QD structures, allowing tuning of the polarization response.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in IOP Nanotechnology journa

Agricultura urbana: um estudo de caso do Projeto Hortas Cariocas em Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro

Apesar da existência da AU desde os primórdios da formação dos centros urbanos, estando presente até hoje nas práticas cotidianas de parte da sociedade, ela é uma atividade econômica ignorada por grande parte dos habitantes urbanos e passa a largo dos estudos acadêmicos relacionados às cidades. Este trabalho tem como objetivo disseminar a importância da agricultura urbana dentro de um planejamento urbano integrado e subsidiar a formulação de políticas públicas específicas em AU. Foi realizada a caracterização do Projeto Hortas Cariocas e um estudo de caso da Unidade de Produção em Manguinhos com a avaliação dos impactos sociais, econômicos e ecológicos gerados nesta comunidade.A avaliação dos impactos em Manguinhos pelo PHC demostrou a abrangência do projeto nos diferentes aspectos relacionados à qualidade de vida e à sustentabilidade urbana. Vale ressaltar que a viabilização do projeto em Manguinhos só foi possível devido à participação dos moradores da comunidade desde o início de sua implementação e da boa relação entre o gestor do projeto e os beneficiários. Além disso, a adesão do PHC por práticas agroecológicas de produção e a não utilização de agroquímicos é fundamental para o desenvolvimento e estímulo a uma agricultura menos impactante ao meio ambiente e à saúde das pessoas. Assim, percebe-se a importância da AU como elemento que deve ser incluído durante o processo de planejamento urbano das cidades, uma vez que constitui de uma prática multifuncional que promove o processo de sustentabilidade econômica, social e ecológica

A theoretical study of the response of vascular tumours to different types of chemotherapy

In this paper we formulate and explore a mathematical model to study continuous infusion of a vascular tumour with isolated and combined blood-borne chemotherapies. The mathematical model comprises a system of nonlinear partial differential equations that describe the evolution of the healthy (host) cells, the tumour cells and the tumour vasculature, coupled with distribution of a generic angiogenic stimulant (TAF) and blood-borne oxygen. A novel aspect of our model is the presence of blood-borne chemotherapeutic drugs which target different aspects of tumour growth (cf. proliferating cells, the angiogenic stimulant or the tumour vasculature). We run exhaustive numerical simulations in order to compare vascular tumour growth before and following therapy. Our results suggest that continuous exposure to anti-proliferative drug will result in the vascular tumour being cleared, becoming growth-arrested or growing at a reduced rate, the outcome depending on the drug’s potency and its rate of uptake. When the angiogenic stimulant or the tumour vasculature are targeted by the therapy, tumour elimination can not occur: at best vascular growth is retarded and the tumour reverts to an avascular form. Application of a combined treatment that destroys the vasculature and the TAF, yields results that resemble those achieved following successful treatment with anti-TAF or anti-vascular therapy. In contrast, combining anti-proliferative therapy with anti-TAF or antivascular therapy can eliminate the vascular tumour. In conclusion, our results suggest that tumour growth and the time of tumour clearance are highly sensitive to the specific combinations of anti-proliferative, anti-TAF and anti-vascular drugs

A Cloud Based Data Integration Framework

Virtual enterprise (VE) relies on resource sharing and collaboration across geographically dispersed and dynamically allied businesses in order to better respond to market opportunities. It is generally considered that effective data integration and management is crucial to realise the value of VE. This paper describes a cloud-based data integration framework that can be used for supporting VE to discover, explore and respond more emerging business opportunities that require instant and easy resource access and flexible on-demand development in a customer-centric approach. Motivated by a case study discussing power incident management in the Spanish Electricity System, an effective on-demand application is also implemented to demonstrate how to use this framework to solve real world problems

Chemsex, Anxiety and Depression Among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who have Sex with Men Living with HIV

Funding Research did not receive any specific funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The significance of hazardous chemicals in wastewater treatment works effluents

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Science of The Total Environment. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.The advent of increasingly stringent and wider ranging European Union legislation relating to water and the environment has required regulators to assess compliance risk and to respond by formulating appropriate pollution control measures. To support this process the UK Water Industry has completed a national Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP), to monitor over 160 wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) for 70 determinands. Final effluent concentrations of zinc, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene), “penta” congeners (BDEs) 47 and 99, tributyltin, triclosan, erythromycin, oxytetracycline, ibuprofen, propranolol, fluoxetine, diclofenac, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethinyl estradiol exceeded existing or proposed Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) in over 50% of WwTWs. Dilution by receiving water might ensure compliance with EQSs for these chemicals, apart from the BDEs. However, in some cases there will be insufficient dilution to ensure compliance and additional management options may be required

Foucault, eticidad y doble presencia: tipología en torno al cuidado de sí y del/a otro/a en mujeres académicas

This article describes the results of a qualitative research on the representa­tions around self-care and care of the other that are observed when examining the discourse of women scholars from a state in south-central Mexico. They respond simultaneously to educa­tion require sustained efforts for the construction of autonomous ethos, especially by female scholars, who live a tension between their work and family life. Among the factors that have an incidence in the double presence is an androcentric ethics. We focus on the dimension of self-care and care of the other due to its implications for the construction of the ethos of women scholars, which seem to generate dichotomies between “both cares”. Based on a Foucauldian approach —as well as on our findings— we developed a typology, with which we intend to make a contribution to research on the double presence of women. The three types that we define are: 1) bifurcated with normalized response, 2) guilt-ridden bifurcated and 3) autonomous.Se presentan los resultados de una investigación de carácter cualitativo sobre las representaciones en torno al cuidado de sí y el cuidado del/a otro/a que se observan al examinar el discurso de mujeres académicas de un estado del centro-sur de México que viven una doble presencia: en instituciones de educación superior y en sus hogares. Partimos de la constatación de que las políticas actuales que se aplican en la educación superior obligan a la realización de esfuerzos sostenidos para la construcción de ethos autónomos, especialmente por parte de las mujeres académicas en virtud de las tensiones que viven en su vida laboral y familiar. Consideramos que entre los factores que tienen incidencia en la doble presencia se encuentra una eticidad androcéntrica. Nos enfocamos en la dimensión del cuidado de sí y del cuidado del/a otro/a por sus implicaciones en la construcción del ethos de las mujeres académicas, mismas que parecieran generar dicotomías entre “ambos cuidados”. Con base en planteamientos de Foucault —así como en nuestros hallazgos— elaboramos una tipología con la que pretendemos hacer una contribución a las investigaciones sobre la doble presencia de las mujeres. Los tres tipos que definimos son: 1) bifurcada con respuesta normalizada, 2) bifurcada culpígena y 3) autónoma

Outbreak of Sporotrichosis, Western Australia

A cluster of sporotrichosis cases occurred in the Busselton-Margaret River region of Western Australia from 2000 to 2003. Epidemiologic investigation and mycologic culture for Sporothrix schenckii implicated hay initially distributed through a commercial hay supplier as the source of the outbreak. Declining infection rates have occurred after various community measures were instigated