The design of a high performance sailing centre

This treatise addresses the architectural challenge of designing a High Performance Centre (HPC), serving South African Sailing (SAS), to be located in Port Elizabeth’s harbour. Designing a facility which caters speciffically to the functional requirements of sailing racing and recreation will cater to the needs of SAS, whilst upgrading the state of Port Elizabeth’s oceanic recreational facilities, thereby boosting the local tourism sector by establishing Port Elizabeth as South Africa’s watersport capital. The current status of the harbour as an area undergoing a redevelopment from a heavy industrial focus to a recreational and commercial waterfront provides the opportunity for an architectural intervention which spearheads this shift, whilst addressing the postindustrial landscape which remains. A study of the nature of the sport of sailing is conducted in order to determine the requirements of facilities catering for sailing racing and recreation, and to supplement an investigation of the typology of the HPC which, through the study of precedents, clarifies its specific nature and characteristics. This results in the development of a set of site selection criteria, which inform the best possible location for such an intervention within the harbour. In depth contextual analysis is conducted in order to determine role of the harbour within PE’s urban, ecological and historical fabrics, from which the current development plans of the Nelson Mandela Bay Development Agency and Transnet are outlined so as to understand the direction in which the future of the PE harbour is headed, and to align an architectural response with this vision. This analysis sets up a number of contextual constraints and informants which, with the aid of phenomenological concepts of place-making and materiality, the principles architectural responses to post-industrial landscapes, and the nature of the relationship between architecture and water, guide the design process, ensuring an appropriate response to the site

Adaptation and diversification of bacterial communities to pesticide contaminants in on-farm biopurification systems via mobile genetic elements

Bakterien spielen eine bedeutende Rolle in der Ökologie indem sie Schadstoffe abbauen, die sie als Kohlenstoffquelle zum Überleben nutzen, leisten sie einen wesentlichen Beitrag bei der ‚Reinigung’ von Gebieten, die durch Einwirkung des Menschen mit Schadstoffen belastet sind. Wir gingen davon aus, dass die Anpassung der Bakterien an neuartige Schadstoffe vor allem über katabolische Gene stattfindet, die sich oft auf Plasmiden wie IncP-1, IncP-7 und IncP-9 befinden. Um sogenannte ‘hot spots’ von Bakteriengemeinschaften, die diese katabolischen Plasmide beherbergen, erkennen zu können, bestand der erste Schritt darin, die Verbreitung der Plasmide zu verstehen und vorherzusagen. Ein Screening verschiedener Umwelthabitate zeigte, dass u.a. Bioreinigungssysteme, die auf landwirtschaftlichen Höfen für die Reinigung von Pestizid-belasteten Abwässern durch biologischen Abbau und Absorption eingesetzt werden, ‚hot spots‘ von Plasmiden mit katabolischen Genen sind, da IncP-1, IncP-7 und IncP-9 Plasmiden in hoher Abundanz nachgewiesen wurden. Eine Reihe von molekularbiologischen Methoden – Detektion durch PCR Southern Blot-Hybridisierung, denaturierende Gradienten-Gelelektrophorese (DGGE), Klonierung-Sequenzierung oder Pyrosequenzierung von Amplikons (16S rRNA-Genfragmente, trfA) wurden genutzt, um DNA aus der Gesamtgemeinschaft oder Plasmid-DNA zu analysieren und so die Antwort der Bakteriengemeinschaften auf Pestizide zu charakterisieren und dahinterzukommen, wie sich das Ausmaß der Verunreinigung auf die Verbreitung und Diversität mobiler genetischer Elemente (MGE) wie Plasmide auswirkt. Um den Einfluss hoher Pestizid-Konzentrationen auf die relative Abundanz von spezifischen bakteriellen Populationen und Plasmiden, die vermutlich Abbau-Gene tragen, zu erforschen, wurde ein Mikrokosmos mit Material aus einem Bioreinigungssystem – mit und ohne Linuron – etabliert und zu drei Zeitpunkten analysiert. Darüber hinaus wurden erstmalig während einer vollen landwirtschaftlichen Saison die Auswirkungen verschiedener Pestizide auf die Verbreitung und Diversität von MGE und Veränderungen der Bakteriengemeinschaften in einem farmeigenen Bioreinigungssystem untersucht und interessante Ergebnisse gewonnen. Ein Anstieg in der Pestizid-Exposition im Bioreinigungssystem ging einher mit einer größeren Abundanz und größeren Fluktuationen in der Diversität von MGE, vor allem von IncP-1 Plasmiden, die durch einen weiten Wirtsbereich charakterisiert sind und die häufig katabolische Genen tragen. Mit Hilfe der exogenen Plasmid-Isolierung, einer kultivierungsunabhängigen Technik, wurden mehrere IncP-1 und IncP-9 Plasmide aus dem Bioreinigungssystem in Pseudomonas putida-Rezeptor-Zellen überführt, wodurch eine genauere Plasmid-Analyse durch Sequenzierung ermöglicht wird (Auswertung ist noch nicht abgeschlossen). Die auf dem 16S rRNA-Gen basierenden Analysen machten deutlich, dass bestimmte Bakteriengruppen im Bioreinigungssystem auf eine Verunreinigung mit Pestiziden reagieren, so nahm die Abundanz der Betaproteobacteria und der Gammaproteobacteria zu, während andere Gruppen, z.B. Firmicutes und Bacteriodetes, in einem derartig verunreinigten Umfeld einen selektiven Nachteil hatten. Durch den genutzten polyphasischen Ansatz konnte in dieser Arbeit die Dynamik und Plastizität von bakteriellen Gemeinschaften in Bioreinigungssystem bei Pestizid-Exposition gezeigt werden und mögliche am Abbau beteiligte Taxa und Plasmide identifiziert werden.Bacteria play important ecological roles and through biodegradation processes, using the pollutants as carbon source to survive, they are fundamental in "cleaning" environments contaminated by anthropogenic activities. We assumed that the main pathways for bacterial adaptation to new contaminants are catabolic genes carried often on plasmids such as IncP-1, IncP-7 and IncP-9 plasmids. To identify "hot spot" environments containing bacterial communities carrying these catabolic plasmids the first step was to understand and predict plasmid dissemination and their functions. A screening of different environments revealed that biopurification systems (BPS), used for the treatment of pesticide contaminated waste water at farms through biodegradation and sorption processes, were "hot spots" of plasmids potentially carrying catabolic genes as high abundances of IncP-1, IncP-7 and IncP-9 plasmids were detected. A suite of different molecular biology tools such as PCR-Southern blot hybridization based detection, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), clone library and pyrosequencing were applied to analyze total community (TC) DNA or plasmid DNA aiming to unravel the response of bacterial communities to pesticides and to reveal how the degree of pollution influences the abundance and diversity of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids. In order to investigate the influence of high pesticide concentrations on the relative abundance of specific bacterial populations and plasmids likely carrying degradative genes, a microcosm with BPS material spiked with linuron or not was established and monitored over the time. Moreover, for the first time the effects of different pesticides on the abundance and diversity of MGEs and shifts of bacterial communities in an on-farm BPS were investigated over an entire agricultural season. Interesting results were obtained. An increase in pesticide contamination in BPS was associated with an increase of abundance and fluctuations in the diversity of MGEs specifically of IncP-1 plasmids, very "promiscuous" broad-host-range (BHR) often carrying catabolic genes. Through exogenous plasmid isolation, a cultivation-independent technique, several of IncP-1 and IncP-9 plasmids were captured from BPS into Pseudomonas putida recipient cells, allowing a deeper plasmid analysis by sequencing (still in progress). The 16S rRNA gene-based analyses revealed that particular bacterial groups in BPS are responding to pesticides contamination, such as Betaproteobacteria which increased in abundance, while other groups such as Firmicutes and Bacteriodetes had a selective disadvantage in such a polluted environment. Through the methodologies applied in the present work, the dynamics and plasticity of bacterial communities of BPS in response to pesticide exposure was revealed and taxa and plasmids potentially involved in the biodegradation process were identified

Cidades em ruínas:: a história a contrapelo em Inferno provisório, de Luiz Ruffato

Em uma época dominada por termos como “localismo” e “globalização”, que denotam a importância conferida na contemporaneidade ao espaço, ainda haveria sentido em dedicar-se à escritura de uma obra que visa acompanhar os últimos cinquenta anos da história brasileira, em uma perspectiva que, à primeira vista, parece privilegiar justamente um olhar centrado nos paradigmas temporais da modernidade? Essa é uma das questões que o presente artigo sobre o projeto literário Inferno provisório, de Luiz Ruffato, ensaia responder. Ao valer-me das preposições de Walter Benjamin sobre o conceito de história, investigo os caminhos percorridos por Ruffato na tentativa de compreender o Brasil pelo ponto de vista do proletariado sem, no entanto, abrir mão, da inovação ficcional

Old stories, New plays: developing a new work for the stage, inspired by the formative tale ‘LittleLittle RedRed CapCap’

This thesis analyses the process involved in crafting a new play for the stage inspired by a formative tale. $Red$ (2013) is a play driven by an artistic desire to write a coming of age story whilst simultaneously critiquing the formative tales of childhood. Issues explored within the script are those of: gender imbalance, abuse of power and female repression. Furthermore, it seeks to explore the approach taken when attempting to write a coherent play for the stage. Formed and grounded in the critical teachings of playwright’s Edgar, Waters and Smiley. $Red$ took inspiration from Grimm’s version of $Little$ $Red$ $Cap$. This paper explores the new play which seeks to violate the very conventions of such tales. The play involves a soldier from a seemingly ordinary world, arriving injured in a non-naturalistic dark world of fairytale. The characters in $Red$ drive the plot forward by breaking the conventions of the stock characters found in the formative tale. The play relies upon familiarity. It places itself within the tradition of other female playwrights who have taken oppressive themes found in formative tales and critiqued them. Hence, $Red$ is a new play worthy of the contemporary stage

A malandragem como resistência e negociação:: Silviano Santiago e Sérgio Sant´Anna

Qual o espaço da malandragem em nossa literatura atual? É possível encontrarmos vestígios de um traço de nossa cultura aparentemente datado e, em especial, circunscrito à cidade do Rio de Janeiro? O presente artigo investiga as possibilidades de cruzamento entre literatura brasileira contemporânea e malandragem tendo como objeto o romance Stella Manhattan, de Silviano Santiago e o conto “As cartas não mentem jamais”, de Sérgio Sant’Anna. Longe de buscar um discurso nostálgico ou salvador, sigo a trilha desses autores que, sem perderem de vista o cenário contemporâneo, trazem para seus textos marcas de uma identidade local

Réquiem para as margens

Uma das constantes da obra de Bernardo Carvalho, por certo, é a investigação do passado compreendido como lacunar, em que a memória pessoal torna-se terreno inseguro e incapaz de oferecer uma imagem unificadora dos diversos relatos dos personagens. Em O filho da mãe, o autor cria personagens atravessados pela história de guerras que constitui a União Soviética, que, mais tarde, infligiu às repúblicas independentes não somente a miséria e a morte, mas a marca indelével de ser o “outro”, o não-desejado, o que deve ser apagado da memória e do território da velha Rússia.Carvalho propõe desde o princípio da leitura novas formas de se lidar com a memória e o esquecimento para que, quem sabe, esses sujeitos à margem consigam sobreviver por mais um dia, no intervalo entre a lembrança de quem são e a tentativa de apagar suas próprias identidades para seguir em frente.O presente artigo investiga, por um lado, os diversos conflitos entre os planos históricos e ficcionais e a forma como são dispostos no romance; a própria ficção trabalha com o sentido de deslizamento das categorias de memória e esquecimento para construir um espaço libertário em que certos personagens tendem a escapar de definições essencialistas. Por outro lado, entre as ruínas da São Petersburgo recriada por Carvalho, é possível explorar os caminhos entre a cidade e os afetos dos protagonistas homossexuais, ambos órfãos de qualquer forma de pertencimento.One of the constants of Bernardo Carvalho’s works is the investigation of the past understood as incomplete and where the individual’s memories become an insecure field unable to offer an unified image of the various reports of the characters. In O filho da mãe, the author creates characters crossed by the history of Soviet Union wars, including the misery and death inflicted to the independent republics. More important, those characters have the indelible mark of being the “other”, which should be vanished from past and territory of old Russia.Carvalho proposes new ways of dealing with memory and forgetting, so maybe these individuals can survive for another day, in the range between the memory of who they are and attempt to erase their own identities to move on.On one hand, the present article investigates the conflicts between fiction and history, and how the fiction works constantly changing the categories of memory and forgetting to build a space where certain characters tend to escape from essentialist definitions. On the other hand, among the ruins of Carvalho’s St. Peterburg, it is possible to explore the paths between the city and the homosexual protagonists. Both of them, orphans of any sense of belonging

Anpassung und Diversifizierung der bakteriellen Gemeinschaften auf Pestizidverunreinigungen in On-Farm-Bio-Reinigung-Systeme über mobile genetische Elemente

A screening of different environments revealed that biopurification systems (BPS), used for the treatment of pesticide contaminated waste water at farms through biodegradation and sorption processes, were "hot spots" of plasmids potentially carrying catabolic genes such as as IncP-1, IncP-7 and IncP-9 plasmids. For the first time the effects of different pesticides on the abundance and diversity of MGEs and shifts of bacterial communities in an on-farm BPS were investigated over an entire agricultural season. Through exogenous plasmid isolation, a cultivation-independent technique, several of IncP-1 and IncP-9 plasmids were captured from BPS into Pseudomonas putida recipient cells, allowing a deeper plasmid analysis by sequencing. The 16S rRNA gene-based analyses revealed that particular bacterial groups in BPS are responding to pesticides contamination, such as Betaproteobacteria which increased in abundance, while other groups such as Firmicutes and Bacteriodetes had a selective disadvantage in such a polluted environment. Through the methodologies applied in the present work, the dynamics and plasticity of bacterial communities of BPS in response to pesticide exposure was revealed and taxa and plasmids potentially involved in the biodegradation process were identified.Ein Screening verschiedener Umwelthabitate zeigte, dass u.a. Bioreinigungssysteme, die auf landwirtschaftlichen Höfen für die Reinigung von Pestizid-belasteten Abwässern durch biologischen Abbau und Absorption eingesetzt werden, ‚hot spots‘ von Plasmiden mit katabolischen Genen sind, da IncP-1, IncP-7 und IncP-9 Plasmiden in hoher Abundanz nachgewiesen wurden. Eine Reihe von molekularbiologischen Methoden wurden genutzt, um DNA aus der Gesamtgemeinschaft oder Plasmid-DNA zu analysieren und so die Antwort der Bakteriengemeinschaften auf Pestizide zu charakterisieren und dahinterzukommen, wie sich das Ausmaß der Verunreinigung auf die Verbreitung und Diversität mobiler genetischer Elemente (MGE) wie Plasmide auswirkt. Darüber hinaus wurden erstmalig während einer vollen landwirtschaftlichen Saison die Auswirkungen verschiedener Pestizide auf die Verbreitung und Diversität von MGE und Veränderungen der Bakteriengemeinschaften in einem farmeigenen Bioreinigungssystem untersucht und interessante Ergebnisse gewonnen. Mit Hilfe der exogenen Plasmid-Isolierung, einer kultivierungsunabhängigen Technik, wurden mehrere IncP-1 und IncP-9 Plasmide aus dem Bioreinigungssystem in Pseudomonas putida-Rezeptor-Zellen überführt. Die auf dem 16S rRNA-Gen basierenden Analysen machten deutlich, dass bestimmte Bakteriengruppen im Bioreinigungssystem auf eine Verunreinigung mit Pestiziden reagieren, so nahm die Abundanz der Betaproteobacteria und der Gammaproteobacteria zu, während andere Gruppen, z.B. Firmicutes und Bacteriodetes, in einem derartig verunreinigten Umfeld einen selektiven Nachteil hatten. Durch den genutzten polyphasischen Ansatz konnte in dieser Arbeit die Dynamik und Plastizität von bakteriellen Gemeinschaften in Bioreinigungssystem bei Pestizid-Exposition gezeigt werden und mögliche am Abbau beteiligte Taxa und Plasmide identifiziert werden

Uncertainties on the νμ\nu_{\mu}/νe\nu_{e}, νˉμ\bar{\nu}_{\mu}/νˉe\bar{\nu}_{e} and νe\nu_{e}/νˉe\bar{\nu}_{e} cross-section ratio from the modelling of nuclear effects and their impact on neutrino oscillation experiments

Recent studies have demonstrated non-trivial behaviours in the cross-section extrapolation from $\nu_{\mu}$ ($\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$) to $\nu_{e}$ ($\bar{\nu}_{e}$) interactions on nuclear targets in the charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) regime. In this article, the potential for mis-modeling of $\nu_{\mu}$/$\nu_{e}$, $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$/$\bar{\nu}_{e}$ and $\nu_{e}$/$\bar{\nu}_{e}$ cross-section ratios due to nuclear effects is quantified by considering the model spread within the full kinematic phase space for CCQE interactions. Its impact is then propagated to a simulated experimental configuration based on the Hyper-K experiment, which is dominated by CCQE interactions. Although a relatively large discrepancy between theoretical models is confirmed for forward lepton angles at neutrino energies below 300 MeV and for a new region of phase space at lepton angles above $100^{\circ}$, both regions are demonstrated to contribute a very small portion of the Hyper-K (or T2K) flux integrated cross section. Overall, a systematic uncertainty on the oscillated flux-averaged $\nu_{e}$/$\bar{\nu}_{e}$ cross-section ratio is estimated to be $\sim$2%. A similar study was also conducted for the proposed lower-energy ESS$\nu$SB experiment configuration, where the resulting uncertainty was found to be larger.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Fixed abstract misformating on arxiv pag

Molecular processes underlying synergistic linuron mineralization in a triple-species bacterial consortium biofilm revealed by differential transcriptomics

The proteobacteria Variovorax sp. WDL1, Comamonas testosteroni WDL7, and Hyphomicrobium sulfonivorans WDL6 compose a triple-species consortium that synergistically degrades and grows on the phenylurea herbicide linuron. To acquire a better insight into the interactions between the consortium members and the underlying molecular mechanisms, we compared the transcriptomes of the key biodegrading strains WDL7 and WDL1 grown as biofilms in either isolation or consortium conditions by differential RNAseq analysis. Differentially expressed pathways and cellular systems were inferred using the network-based algorithm PheNetic. Coculturing affected mainly metabolism in WDL1. Significantly enhanced expression of hylA encoding linuron hydrolase was observed. Moreover, differential expression of several pathways involved in carbohydrate, amino acid, nitrogen, and sulfur metabolism was observed indicating that WDL1 gains carbon and energy from linuron indirectly by consuming excretion products from WDL7 and/or WDL6. Moreover, in consortium conditions, WDL1 showed a pronounced stress response and overexpression of cell to cell interaction systems such as quorum sensing, contact-dependent inhibition, and Type VI secretion. Since the latter two systems can mediate interference competition, it prompts the question if synergistic linuron degradation is the result of true adaptive cooperation or rather a facultative interaction between bacteria that coincidentally occupy complementary metabolic niches