4,417 research outputs found
Exploding lakes in Vanuatu - "Surtseyan-style" eruptions witnessed on Ambae Island
After a long silence, Lake Vui on Ambae Island burst into spectacular life on the 28th of November 2005, disrupting the lives of 10 000 inhabitants on this sleepy tropical island in the SW Pacific. "Surtseyan- style" explosions burst through the Island's summit lake waters forming a new tuff-cone and threatening to form deadly lahars or volcanic floods. Such eruptions are rarely well observed, and these fleeting opportunities provide a chance to match volcanic processes with rock-sequences found commonly in the geologic recor
Use of HPC to Analyze Changes in Gene Expression during Fruit Fly Spermiogenesis
In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, JAK/STAT signaling during spermiogenesis is known to play a crucial role in the maintenance of stem cells of the testis. Recent studies in our lab have shown that activation of the JAK/STAT pathway in somatic cyst cells is also required for the later stages of spermiogenesis like individualization.
The main goal of this project is to characterize the events downstream of JAK/STAT signaling in spermiogenesis and more specifically to determine the mechanism by which JAK/STAT activation regulates individualization, a later stage in spermiogenesis where 64 individual spermatids are formed from a 64-interconnected spermatid bundle.
This study has compared transcriptional profiles of testes in which JAK/STAT signaling has been genetically arrested prior to individualization to testes from wild type flies using RNA-seq methods
Community Emergency Management During the 2005 Ambae Eruption, Vanuatu, SW Pacific.
No abstract availabl
Competition and bistability of longitudinal modes in a Raman laser
A model for Raman lasers including several longitudinal modes is analyzed. Depending on the choice of the parameters the system can exhibit single-mode emission, wide bistability domains, and self-pulsing. The latter is often characterized by two frequencies, which are clearly related to single-mode and multimode instabilities, in agreement with the interpretation of earlier experimental results
Evaluation of Prototypes and the Problem of Possible Futures
There is a blind spot in HCI’s evaluation methodology: we rarely consider the implications of the fact that a prototype can never be fully evaluated in a study. A prototype under study exists firmly in the present world, in the circumstances created in the study, but its real context of use is a partially unknown future state of affairs. This present–future gap is implicit in any evaluation of prototypes, be they usability tests, controlled experiments, or field trials. A carelessly designed evaluation may inadvertently evaluate the wrong futures, contexts, or user groups, thereby leading to false conclusions and expensive design failures. The essay analyses evaluation methodology from this perspective, illuminating how to mitigate the present–future gap.Peer reviewe
What Brown saw and you can too
A discussion is given of Robert Brown's original observations of particles
ejected by pollen of the plant \textit{Clarkia pulchella} undergoing what is
now called Brownian motion. We consider the nature of those particles, and how
he misinterpreted the Airy disc of the smallest particles to be universal
organic building blocks. Relevant qualitative and quantitative investigations
with a modern microscope and with a "homemade" single lens microscope similar
to Brown's, are presented.Comment: 14.1 pages, 11 figures, to be published in the American Journal of
Physics. This differs from the previous version only in the web site referred
to in reference 3. Today, this Brownian motion web site was launched, and
http://physerver.hamilton.edu/Research/Brownian/index.html, is now correc
Giant Alcohol: A Worthy Opponent for the Children of the Band of Hope
From its foundation in 1847, the temperance organisation the Band of Hope addressed its young members as consumers, victims, and agents. In the first two roles they encountered the effects of drink of necessity, but in the third role they were encouraged to seek it out, attempting to influence individuals and wider society against 'Giant Alcohol'.
With an estimated membership of half the school-age population by the early twentieth century, well over three million, the Band of Hope also acted more directly to influence policy, and encouraged young people to consider issues of policy and politics. With its wide range of activities and material to educate, entertain and empower millions of children, and its radical view of the place of the child, the Band of Hope not only mobilised its child members to lobby for legal change, including prohibition, but took an active part in pointing out the cost of alcohol to society, particularly during the 14-18 war. The organisation began to decline post 1918, and this paper focuses on the address made to children by the Band of Hope in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at a time when its innovative view of children as able to understand and influence policy decisions reflected developments in the construction of childhood. This article draws on the archive of the British National Temperance League, over 50,000 items located in the Livesey Collection, University of Central Lancashire
Supporting the design of an ambient assisted living system using virtual reality prototypes
APEX, a framework for prototyping ubiquitous environments, is used to design an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) system to enhance a care home for older people. The environment allows participants in the design process to experience the proposed design and enables developers to explore the design by rapidly developing alternatives. APEX provided the means to explore alternative designs through a virtual environment. It provides a mediating representation (a boundary object) allowing users to be involved in the design process. A group of residents in a city-based care home were involved in the design. The paper describes the design process and lessons learnt for the design of AAL systems.EPSRC - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EP/G059063/1)Jose C. Campos acknowledges support by the FCT – Fundação para a CiĂŞncia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project UID/EEA/50014/2013. JosĂ© LuĂs Silva acknowledges
support from project PEST-OE/EEI/LA0009/2015. Michael Harrison was also funded by EPSRC research grant EP/G059063/1: CHI+MED (Computer–Human Interaction for Medical Devices)
Solidity of viscous liquids. V. Long-wavelength dominance of the dynamics
This paper is the fifth in a series exploring the physical consequences of
the solidity of glass-forming liquids. Paper IV proposed a model where the
density field is described by a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation of the
nonconserved type with rates in space of the form . The
model assumes that where is the average intermolecular
distance; this inequality expresses a long-wavelength dominance of the dynamics
which implies that the Hamiltonian (free energy) to a good approximation may be
taken to be ultralocal. In the present paper we argue that this is the simplest
model consistent with the following three experimental facts: 1) Viscous
liquids approaching the glass transition do not develop long-range order; 2)
The glass has lower compressibility than the liquid; 3) The alpha process
involves several decades of relaxation times shorter than the mean relaxation
time. The paper proceeds to list six further experimental facts characterizing
equilibrium viscous liquid dynamics and shows that these are readily understood
in terms of the model; some are direct consequences, others are quite natural
when viewed in light of the model
Cerium dioxide, a Jekyll and Hyde nanomaterial, can increase basal and decrease elevated inflammation and oxidative stress
It was hypothesized that the catalyst nanoceria can increase oxidative
stress/inflammation from the basal state and reduce it from the elevated state .
Nanoceria are cleared by macrophages. To test the hypothesis, M0 (non-polarized),
M1- (classically activated, pro-inflammatory), and M2-like (alternatively activated,
regulatory phenotype) RAW 264.7 macrophages were nanoceria exposed. Responses
were quantified by arginase activity, IL-1Ăź level, cell oxygen consumption rate (OCR),
the glycolysis stress test (GST), morphology determined by light microscopy,
macrophage phenotype marker expression and morphology using a novel three
dimensional immunohistochemical method, and RT-qPCR. Nanoceria blocked
arginase and IL-1Ăź effects, increased M0 cell OCR and GST toward the M2 phenotype
and altered multiple M1- and M2-like cell endpoints toward the M0 level. M1-like cells
had greater volume and less circularity/roundness, and the M2-like cells had greater
volume than M0 macrophages. Nanoceria converted M1- and M2-like cells toward M0
morphology. The results are overall consistent with the hypothesis
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