Barbara Einhorn: Living in Berlin

s.l.: Macdonald and Company, 1986. 45 p

The role of a facilitated online workspace component of a community of practice: knowledge building and value creation for NASA

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of an online workspace component of a community in the work of a community of practice. Much has been studied revealing the importance of communities of practice to organizations, project success, and knowledge management and some of these same successes hold true for virtual communities of practice. Study participants were 75 Education and Public Outreach community members of NASA\u27s Science Mission Directorate Earth Forum. In this mixed methods study, online workspace metrics were used to track participation and a survey completed by 21 members was used to quantify participation. For a more detailed analysis, 15 community members (5 highly active users, 5 average users, and 5 infrequent users) selected based on survey responses, were interviewed. Finally, survey data was gathered from 7 online facilitators to understand their role in the community. Data collected from these 21 community members and 5 facilitating members suggest that highly active users (logging into the workspace daily), were more likely to have transformative experiences, co-create knowledge, feel ownership of community knowledge, have extended opportunities for community exchange, and find new forms of evaluation. Average users shared some similar characteristics with both the highly active members and infrequent users, representing a group in transition as they become more engaged and active in the online workspace. Inactive users viewed the workspace as having little value, being difficult to navigate, being mainly for gaining basic information about events and community news, and as another demand on their time. Results show the online workspace component of the Earth Science Education and Outreach Forum is playing an important and emerging role for this community by supporting knowledge building and knowledge sharing, and growing in value for those that utilizing it more frequently. The evidence suggests that with increased participation or usage comes increased value to the participant and the organization. This research illustrates the possible change in mindset held by participating community members when it comes to the nature of co-location. Additionally, it may be of particular importance in exploring changes in the community members\u27 feelings of connection and belonging

The Isolation and Purification of a Fluorescent Compound from Pseudomonas

Fluorescence in certain land snails has been found to arise from a bacteria carried by the snails. The bacteria, a genus of Pseudomonas, produce a pigment complex in iron-deficient media. The pigment complex consists of both fluorescent and non-fluorescent pigments. One of the fluorescent compounds was isolated and purified by paper chromatography using several different solvent systems. Absorption and fluorescent spectra of the compound at a number of pH values were measured and the changes with pH of both the intensity and the color of the fluorescence were observed. The purified compound was ninhydrin negative but after acid hydrolysis several amino acids were identified and were thought to occur in peptide bonds. The amino acids identified were: serine, glutamic acids, aspartic acid, cystine, threonine, lysine, and alanine. A comparison with other fluorescent compounds isolated from the Pseudomonas pigment complex showed the compound to be one which had not been previously isolated. Suggestions on a more efficient method of purification and precautions necessary during isolation are given

The Isolation and Purification of a Fluorescent Compound from Pseudomonas

Fluorescence in certain land snails has been found to arise from a bacteria carried by the snails. The bacteria, a genus of Pseudomonas, produce a pigment complex in iron-deficient media. The pigment complex consists of both fluorescent and non-fluorescent pigments. One of the fluorescent compounds was isolated and purified by paper chromatography using several different solvent systems. Absorption and fluorescent spectra of the compound at a number of pH values were measured and the changes with pH of both the intensity and the color of the fluorescence were observed. The purified compound was ninhydrin negative but after acid hydrolysis several amino acids were identified and were thought to occur in peptide bonds. The amino acids identified were: serine, glutamic acids, aspartic acid, cystine, threonine, lysine, and alanine. A comparison with other fluorescent compounds isolated from the Pseudomonas pigment complex showed the compound to be one which had not been previously isolated. Suggestions on a more efficient method of purification and precautions necessary during isolation are given

'Chief creator of Modern Wales'. The neglected legacy of Percy Thomas

The architecture of Percy Thomas, and the practice he founded (Percy Thomas Partnership), are neglected aspects of the development of twentieth century Wales. Twice president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and awarded its Gold Medal, the architect’s work remains largely undocumented and unanalysed. This paper begins to address that deficiency. It argues that by virtue of its breadth and nature the practice’s work both responded to and helped shape perceptions of Wales as a modernising nation-state. In so doing, it identified itself with, and benefited from, a political project which assumed hegemonic status in Wales in the inter-war period and beyond. Yet the practice was not simply responding to clients’ requirements, as is illustrated by the process of designing the administrative block for the National Folk Museum at St Fagan’s in the 1960s. This reveals the contribution the architects made to reinterpreting modernity, amidst competing conceptions of Welsh identity and futures for the nation

Oestradiol and sex hormone-binding globulin in premenopausal and post-menopausal meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans

Endogenous oestradiol is strongly associated with breast cancer risk but its determinants are poorly understood. To test the hypothesis that vegetarians have lower plasma oestradiol and higher sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) than meat-eaters we assayed samples from 640 premenopausal women (153 meat-eaters, 382 vegetarians, 105 vegans) and 457 post-menopausal women (223 meat-eaters, 196 vegetarians, 38 vegans). Vegetarians and vegans had lower mean body mass indices (BMI) and lower plasma cholesterol concentrations than meat-eaters, but there were no statistically significant differences between meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in pre- or post-menopausal plasma concentrations of oestradiol or SHBG. Before adjusting for BMI there were small differences in the direction expected, with the vegetarians and vegans having higher SHBG and lower oestradiol (more noticeable amongst post-menopausal women) than the meat-eaters. These small differences were essentially eliminated by adjusting for BMI. Thus this study implies that the relatively low BMI of vegetarians and vegans does cause small changes in SHBG and in post-menopausal oestradiol, but that the composition of vegetarian diets may not have any additional effects on these hormones

Accuracy Analysis of the Measurement of Centre of Gravity and Moment of Inertia with a Swing

Floating devices under wave and current loads are typically designed based on numerical methods followed by a validation with experimental investigations. This allows an independent check due to the comparison of two different modelling approaches based on different assumptions. At an early stage of the project, numerical simulations are based on theoretical (ideal) values of the centre of gravity (CG) and moment of inertia (MI). The building process of a scaled model results very often in a requested simplification of certain parts, which can influence the CG and also the MI of the scaled model. Knowing those discrepancies allows us to improve the comparability of both approaches but the measurement of those values is connected with either a higher uncertainty or a high level of effort. A significant improvement of such measurements can be reached by the deployment of a specific experimental set-up. This paper presents the classification of the newly designed swing with a high accuracy inertial inclinometer, which was verified by the marker-based motion capturing system. The achieved experiences are useful for the future use of the set-up as well as similar investigations. The comparison with the theoretical values for the swing as well as an example model showed very good agreements and a high accuracy of few millimetres for the CG and an error smaller 1% for MI