From Death in the Ice to life in the museum: Absence, affect and mystery in the Arctic

Ever since its disappearance in the mid-19th-century, the fate of the ‘Franklin expedition’ has attracted interest and intrigue. The story has been told and re-told but remained one of ‘mystery’ into the early 21st-century. When the expedition’s two ships were finally located, the narrative shifted with the reappearance of long-absent objects and materials – in turn, posing challenges for museum curators seeking to re-present the story. In this article, we conduct a side-by-side examination of two sites: the 1845 Franklin expedition in the Northwest Passage and the 2017 Death in the Ice exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK. We juxtapose these to consider the forces unleashed by the ships’ absence and their presence-ing first in Victorian times and then in the UK museum space today. By analysing the sites through the concept of ‘absent presence’, the agency of both the material and the immaterial is powerfully highlighted. Via an emphasis on the relation of the absent presence to the sensing bodies of others, we consider the concept as simultaneous and co-constitutive. That is, absence and presence ought to be understood not as objective states, but as becoming-absent and becoming-present: processes that are dependent on curated and embodied sensibilities

The Walk-in Counselling Model of Service Delivery: Who Benefits Most?

The walk-in counselling (WIC) model of service delivery has been found to reduce psychological distress more quickly than a traditional model of service delivery involving a wait list. A question remains, however, as to the relative benefit of the WIC model for different client groups. The present study uses graphical inspection and multilevel modeling to conduct moderator analyses comparing two agencies, one with a WIC clinic and the other with a traditional wait list approach, and their relative impact on psychological distress. Key findings regarding the differential benefits for different types of presenting problems as well as clients at different stages of change are discussed. La recherche montre qu\u27un service de consultation sans rendez-vous réduit la détresse psychologique plus rapidement qu\u27un modèle traditionnel fonctionnant avec liste d\u27attente. Les bénéfices relatifs du modèle de consultation sans rendez-vous pour différentes clientèles demeurent cependant méconnus. Cette étude utilise l\u27inspection de graphiques et la modélisation multiniveau afin de mener une analyse de modération qui compare deux cliniques: sans rendez-vous ou suivant le modèle traditionnel avec liste d\u27attente. L\u27étude examine les impacts relatifs de ces modèles sur la détresse psychologique. Les principaux résultats portent sur les bénéfices différentiels selon les problématiques de santé mentale présentées et selon les stades de changement des usagers

A lunar base reference mission for the phased implementation of bioregenerative life support system components

Previous design efforts of a cost effective and reliable regenerative life support system (RLSS) provided the foundation for the characterization of organisms or 'biological processors' in engineering terms and a methodology was developed for their integration into an engineered ecological LSS in order to minimize the mass flow imbalances between consumers and producers. These techniques for the design and the evaluation of bioregenerative LSS have now been integrated into a lunar base reference mission, emphasizing the phased implementation of components of such a BLSS. In parallel, a designers handbook was compiled from knowledge and experience gained during past design projects to aid in the design and planning of future space missions requiring advanced RLSS technologies. The lunar base reference mission addresses in particular the phased implementation and integration of BLS parts and includes the resulting infrastructure burdens and needs such as mass, power, volume, and structural requirements of the LSS. Also, operational aspects such as manpower requirements and the possible need and application of 'robotics' were addressed

Automated Model Reduction for Complex Systems exhibiting Metastability

We present a novel method for the identification of the most important metastable states of a system with complicated dynamical behavior from time series information. The novel approach represents the effective dynamics of the full system by a Markov jump process between metastable states and the dynamics within each of these metastable states by rather simple stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Its algorithmic realization exploits the concept of hidden Markov models with output behavior given by SDEs. The numerical effort of the method is linear in the length of the given time series and quadratic in terms of the number of metastable states. The performance of the resulting method is illustrated by numerical tests and by application to molecular dynamics time series of a trialanine molecule

Feasible alternatives to green growth

Climate change and increasing income inequality have emerged as twin threats to contemporary standards of living, peace and democracy. These two problems are usually tackled separately in the policy agenda. A new breed of radical proposals have been advanced to manage a fair low-carbon transition. In this spirit, we develop a dynamic macrosimulation model to investigate the long-term effects of three scenarios: green growth, policies for social equity, and degrowth. The green growth scenario, based on technological progress and environmental policies, achieves a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at the cost of increasing income inequality and unemployment. The policies for social equity scenario adds direct labour market interventions that result in an environmental performance similar to green growth while improving social conditions at the cost of increasing public deficit. The degrowth scenario further adds a reduction in consumption and exports, and achieves a greater reduction in emissions and inequality with higher public deficit, despite the introduction of a wealth tax. We argue that new radical social policies can combine social prosperity and low-carbon emissions and are economically and politically feasible

Automatic Monitoring of dairy cows’ lying behaviour using a computer vision system in open barns

Received: January 31st, 2023 ; Accepted: April 9th, 2023 ; Published: April 27th, 2023 ; Correspondence: [email protected] Livestock Farming offers opportunities for automated, continuous monitoring of animals, their productivity, welfare and health. The video-based assessment of animal behaviour is an automated, non-invasive and promising application. The aim of this study is to identify possible parameters in dairy cows’ lying behaviour that are the basis for a holistic computer vision-based system to assess animal health and welfare. Based on expert interviews and a literature review, we define parameters and their optimum in form of gold standards to evaluate lying behaviour automatically. These include quantitative parameters such as daily lying time, lying period length, lying period frequency and qualitative parameters such as extension of the front and hind legs, standing in the lying cubicles, or total lateral position. The lying behaviour is an example within the research context for the development of a computer vision-based tool for automated detection of animal behaviour and appropriate housing design

Biochemical profile of heifers with spontaneous humeral fractures suggest that protein-energy malnutrition could be an important factor in the pathology of this disease.

CAUL Read and Publish Agreement.CASE HISTORY: Serum and liver samples from 35, 2-year-old dairy heifers that had fractured one or both humeri post-calving between July and December 2019 were submitted to a diagnostic laboratory for analysis. Serum samples were analysed for albumin, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), creatinine, Ca, Mg, phosphate, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), and serum Cu concentration. Liver samples were analysed for liver Cu concentration. Data were compared to published reference intervals. Data values for heifers that prior to fracture had grazed fodder beet were also compared to values for those that had grazed pasture. CLINICAL FINDINGS: Sixty-nine percent of heifers with humeral fracture had serum creatinine concentrations below the lower value of the reference range (55-130 µmol/L). In 3/32 (9%) heifers, serum NEFA concentrations were increased above the reference value indicating body fat mobilisation (≥1.2 mmol/L for peri-partum cows) and in 20/35 (57%) heifers BHB serum concentrations were above the reference value indicating subclinical ketosis (≥1.1 mmol/L for peri-partum cows). In 24/35 (69%) heifers, liver Cu concentration was low (≤ 44 µmol/kg) or marginal (45-94 µmol/kg). The concentration of Cu in serum was low (≤ 4.5 µmol/L) in 2/33 (6%) heifers and marginal (4.6-7.9 µmol/L) in 5/33 (15%) heifers. There was moderate positive correlation between the logged concentrations of Cu in paired liver and serum samples, r(31) = 0.43; (95% CI = 0.1-0.79; p = 0.014). One heifer had a serum phosphate concentration below the lower limit of the reference range (< 1.10 mmol/L). For all heifers, the concentrations of albumin, Ca, and Mg in serum were within the reference intervals (23-38 g/L, 2.00-2.60 mmol/L, and 0.49-1.15 mmol/L respectively). Over winter, 15/35 (43%) heifers grazed predominantly pasture, 14/35 (40%) grazed fodder beet and 6/35 (17%) had a mixed diet. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In some of these heifers with humeral fractures, there was evidence for protein and/or energy malnutrition in the form of elevated NEFA and BHB concentrations and low creatinine concentrations in serum. Liver Cu concentrations were also reduced in most affected heifers. However, the absence of a control group means it is not possible to determine if these are risk factors for fracture or features common to all periparturient heifers. Clinical trials and molecular studies are needed to determine the true contribution of Cu and protein-energy metabolism to the pathogenesis of spontaneous humeral fractures in dairy heifers. ABBREVIATIONS: BHB: ß-hydroxybutyrate; NEFA: Non-esterified fatty acids.Publishe

Oral Cytokine Levels Are More Linked to Levels of Plasma and Oral HIV-1 RNA Than to CD4+ T-Cell Counts in People With HIV.

BackgroundWe determined the levels of 11 soluble immune mediators in oral washings of AIDS Clinical Trials Group A5254 participants with varying degrees of plasma viremia and CD4 T-cell counts to characterize the mucosal immune response at different stages of HIV-1 infection.MethodsA5254 was a multicenter, cross-sectional study in people with HIV (PWH) recruited into 4 strata based on CD4 count and levels of plasma viremia: stratum (St) A: CD4 ≤200 cells/mm3, HIV-1 RNA (viral load [VL]) &gt;1000 cps/mL; St B: CD4 ≤200, VL ≤1000; St C: CD4 &gt;200, VL &gt;1000; St D: CD4 &gt;200, VL ≤1000. Oral/throat washings were obtained from all participants. Soluble markers were tested in oral/throat washings using a multibead fluorescent platform and were compared across strata. Linear regression was used to determine the associations between cytokines and HIV-1 in plasma and oral fluid.ResultsSt A participants had higher levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), and interferon gamma (IFNγ) compared with St B and D (P = .02; P &lt; .0001) but were not different from St C. IL-8, IL-10, and IL-12 were elevated in St A compared with the other 3 strata (P = .046; P &lt; .0001). Linear regression demonstrated that oral HIV-1 levels were associated with IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNFα production (R &gt; .40; P &lt; .001) when controlling for CD4 count and opportunistic infections.ConclusionsOur results show that high levels of oral HIV-1, rather than low CD4 counts, were linked to the production of oral immune mediators. Participants with AIDS and uncontrolled viremia demonstrated higher levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory soluble immune mediators compared with participants with lower HIV-1 RNA. The interplay of HIV-1 and these immune mediators could be important in the oral health of PWH