Producing place atmospheres digitally: Architecture, digital visualisations practices and the experience economy

Computer generated images have become the common means for architects and developers to visualise and market future urban developments. This article examines within the context of the experience economy how these digital images aim to evoke and manipulate specific place atmospheres to emphasize the experiential qualities of new buildings and urban environments. In particular, we argue that CGIs are far from ‘just’ glossy representations but are a new form of visualising the urban that captures and markets particular embodied sensations. Drawing on a two year qualitative study of architects’ practices that worked on the Msheireb project, a large scale redevelopment project in Doha (Qatar), we examine how digital visualisation technology enables the virtual engineering of sensory experiences using a wide range of graphic effects. We show how these CGIs are laboriously materialised in order to depict and present specific sensory, embodied regimes and affective experiences to appeal to clients and consumers. Such development has two key implications. Firstly, we demonstrate the importance of digital technologies in framing the ‘expressive infrastructure’ (Thrift 2012) of the experience economy. Secondly, we argue that although the Msheireb CGIs open up a field of negotiation between producers and the Qatari client, and work quite hard at being culturally specific, they ultimately draw “on a Westnocentric literary and sensory palette” (Tolia-Kelly 2006) that highlights the continuing influence of colonial sensibilities in supposedly postcolonial urban processes.This research was funded by the ESRC (RES-062-23-0223)

Architectural atmospheres: affect and agency of mobile digital images in the material transformation of the urban landscape in Doha

This paper explores how the hybrid making of Computer Generated Images on the Msheireb urban redevelopment project in Doha may be understood as a distributed and networked craft practice within the discipline of architecture and design, which is effecting the material transformation of the urban landscape and everyday urban life in Doha. We suggest that the evocation of ‘atmosphere’ through the digitalised production of these images mobilises ideas and aspirations for the construction of a ‘new kind of place’ and urban lifestyle, both as an imaginary and a reality, in the Islamic and Arab context, and that, as crafted images, CGIs should be seen as objects with social agency which are central to the construction of the project as a technological and social reality during its production phases as well as to its translation into the social reality of built form and urban life

Mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle contraction and the basis for pharmacologic treatment of smooth muscle disorders

The smooth muscle cell directly drives the contraction of the vascular wall and hence regulates the size of the blood vessel lumen. We review here the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which agonists, therapeutics, and diseases regulate contractility of the vascular smooth muscle cell and we place this within the context of whole body function. We also discuss the implications for personalized medicine and highlight specific potential target molecules that may provide opportunities for the future development of new therapeutics to regulate vascular function.Accepted manuscrip

Molecular immunophenotyping of lungs and spleens in naive and vaccinated chickens early after pulmonary avian influenza A (H9N2) virus infection

In a respiratory-infection-model with the avian influenza A H9N2 virus we studied lung and splenic immune reactions in chickens using a recently developed 5K chicken immuno-microarray. Groups of chickens were either mock-immunized (referred to as non-immune), vaccinated with inactivated viral antigen only (immune) or with viral antigen in a water-in-oil (W/O) immunopotentiator (immune potentiated). Three weeks after vaccination all animals were given a respiratory infection. Immune potentiated birds developed inhibitory antiviral antibodies, showed minimal lung histopathology and no detectable viral sequences, while non-immune animals showed microscopic immunopathology and detectable virus. Immune birds, receiving antigen in saline only, showed minimal microscopic histopathology, and intermediate levels of virus detection. These classical features in the different groups were mirrored by overlapping or specific mRNA gene expression profiles in lungs and spleen using microarray analysis. To our knowledge this is the first study demonstrating pneumonia-associated lung pathology of the low pathogenic avian influenza H9N2 virus. Our data provide insights into the molecular interaction of this virus with its natural host when naive or primed by vaccination

RSK Activation of Translation Factor eIF4B Drives Abnormal Increases of Laminin γ2 and MYC Protein during Neoplastic Progression to Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Overexpression of the basement membrane protein Laminin γ2 (Lamγ2) is a feature of many epidermal and oral dysplasias and all invasive squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). This abnormality has potential value as an immunohistochemical biomarker of premalignancy but its mechanism has remained unknown. We recently reported that Lamγ2 overexpression in culture is the result of deregulated translation controls and depends on the MAPK-RSK signaling cascade. Here we identify eIF4B as the RSK downstream effector responsible for elevated Lamγ2 as well as MYC protein in neoplastic epithelial cells. Premalignant dysplastic keratinocytes, SCC cells, and keratinocytes expressing the E6 oncoprotein of human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 displayed MAPK-RSK and mTOR-S6K1 activation and overexpressed Lamγ2 and MYC in culture. Immunohistochemical staining of oral dysplasias and SCCs for distinct, RSK- and S6K1-specific S6 phosphorylation events revealed that their respective upstream pathways become hyperactive at the same time during neoplastic progression. However, pharmacologic kinase inhibitor studies in culture revealed that Lamγ2 and MYC overexpression depends on MAPK-RSK activity, independent of PI3K-mTOR-S6K1. eIF4B knockdown reduced Lamγ2 and MYC protein expression, consistent with the known requirement for eIF4B to translate mRNAs with long, complex 5′ untranslated regions (5′-UTRs). Accordingly, expression of a luciferase reporter construct preceded by the Lamγ2 5′-UTR proved to be RSK-dependent and mTOR-independent. These results demonstrate that RSK activation of eIF4B is causally linked to elevated Lamγ2 and MYC protein levels during neoplastic progression to invasive SCC. These findings have potential clinical significance for identifying premalignant lesions and for developing targeted drugs to treat SCC

A special irreducible matrix representation of the real Clifford algebra C(3,1)

4x4 Dirac (gamma) matrices (irreducible matrix representations of the Clifford algebras C(3,1), C(1,3), C(4,0)) are an essential part of many calculations in quantum physics. Although the final physical results do not depend on the applied representation of the Dirac matrices (e.g. due to the invariance of traces of products of Dirac matrices), the appropriate choice of the representation used may facilitate the analysis. The present paper introduces a particularly symmetric real representation of 4x4 Dirac matrices (Majorana representation) which may prove useful in the future. As a byproduct, a compact formula for (transformed) Pauli matrices is found. The consideration is based on the role played by isoclinic 2-planes in the geometry of the real Clifford algebra C(3,0) which provide an invariant geometric frame for it. It can be generalized to larger Clifford algebras.Comment: 23 pages LaTeX, to appear in the J. Math. Phys. (v2: appendix B on Pauli matrices and references are added, minor other changes

Ileocecal reservoir reconstruction after total mesorectal excision: functional results of the long-term follow-up

Background: The aim of this study is to obtain functional results of the long-term follow-up after TME and ileocecal interposition as rectal replacement. Methods: The study included patients operated on between March 1993 and August 1997 who received an ileocecal interposition as rectal replacement. Follow-up was carried out 3 and 5 years postoperatively. For statistical analysis, the paired t-test, rank test (Wilcoxon), and chi-square or Fisher's exact test were applied; level of significance, P<0.05. Results: Forty-four patients were included in the studies. Of these, five were not available and four patients could not be evaluated (dementia 1, radiation proctitis 1, fistula 1, pouchitis 1). Seventeen patients died during the observation period; 12 died of the disease. Recurrence of the disorder occurred in 2 of 35 patients (5.7%); 26 and 18 patients, 3 and 5 years postoperatively, respectively remained in the study. At 5 years, 78% of the patients were continent; mean stool frequency was 2.5±1.6 per day. Conclusions: Functional results and subjective assessment of ileocecal interposition were constant at 3 and 5 years postoperatively. If construction of a colonic J-pouch is not possible due to lack of colonic length, especially after prior colonic resections, the ileocecal interpositional reservoir may offer an alternative to rectal replacemen