Flash@Hebburn Urban Art in the New Century

The publication of Flash@Hebburn, explores the creation of the public art installation Flash@Hebburn featuring light and electricity, by Charles Quick, on the banks of the River Tyne at Hebburn Riverside Park in South Tyneside, which spanned a period of seven and a half years and was inaugurated on March 9th 2009. It extensively documents the testing, making and installing of a public art installation that resembles a technical functional placement, which serves to evoke a largely post-industrial site without resorting to nostalgia, while strongly relating to the community where it is placed. Jonthan Vickery’s essay, Infrastructures: Creating Flash@Hebburn, places the work not only in its context of site and its relation to the audience but also in the development of an art world discourse on new urban arts. This is supported by an interview with the artist by Dr John Wood, Henry Moore Institute which discusses the project as a piece of art work in relationship to other contemporary works the artist and others have carried out

Paper Session II-B - The Launch Processing System of Tomorrow

Preparation and launch operations on the Space Shuttle and its payloads are highly complex. The current Checkout, Control, and Monitor System (CCMS), installed in the mid-1970s to provide prelaunch testing, launch sequencing, and control of the Shuttle, is now approaching the end of its useful life. To meet the increase in launch processing requirements for both the Shuttle and Space Station, NASA has responded to the need to replace this aging system with a new system which incorporates the advantages of modern state-of-the-art real time computers, displays, software, and communications. This effort, known as the Core Electronics System, is being implemented by a NASA/Harris team. The objective is to develop a Generic (or Core) test system, applicable both to Shuttle launch processing and to Space Station integration and test, which will also serve as the basis for future NASA test systems. The Core project will replace the CCMS at KSC and, in parallel, develop and install the Test, Control, and Monitor System (TCMS) for the Space Station. The Core System will serve space exploration well into the twenty-first century. This paper discusses the Core architecture and the benefits it provides to the space community

The valine and lysine residues in the conserved FxVTxK motif are important for the function of phylogenetically distant plant cellulose synthases

Cellulose synthases (CESAs) synthesize the β-1,4-glucan chains that coalesce to form cellulose microfibrils in plant cell walls. In addition to a large cytosolic (catalytic) domain, CESAs have eight predicted transmembrane helices (TMHs). However, analogous to the structure of BcsA, a bacterial cellulose synthase, predicted TMH5 in CESA may instead be an interfacial helix. This would place the conserved FxVTxK motif in the plant cell cytosol where it could function as a substrate-gating loop as occurs in BcsA. To define the functional importance of the CESA region containing FxVTxK, we tested five parallel mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana CESA1 and Physcomitrella patens CESA5 in complementation assays of the relevant cesa mutants. In both organisms, the substitution of the valine or lysine residues in FxVTxK severely affected CESA function. In Arabidopsis roots, both changes were correlated with lower cellulose anisotropy, as revealed by Pontamine Fast Scarlet. Analysis of hypocotyl inner cell wall layers by atomic force microscopy showed that two altered versions of Atcesa1 could rescue cell wall phenotypes observed in the mutant background line. Overall, the data show that the FxVTxK motif is functionally important in two phylogenetically distant plant CESAs. The results show that Physcomitrella provides an efficient model for assessing the effects of engineered CESA mutations affecting primary cell wall synthesis and that diverse testing systems can lead to nuanced insights into CESA structure/function relationships. Although CESA membrane topology needs to be experimentally determined, the results support the possibility that the FxVTxK region functions similarly in CESA and BcsA

Do Public Hospitals Respond to Changes in DRG Price Regulation? The Case of Birth Deliveries in the Italian NHS

We study how changes in Diagnosis-Related Group price regulation affect hospital behaviour in quasi-markets with exclusive provision by public hospitals. Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment, we use a difference-in-differences approach to test whether public hospitals respond to an exogenous change in Diagnosis-Related Group tariffs by increasing C-section rates and/or by upcoding. Controlling for a detailed set of mother characteristics, we find that price changes did not affect the probability of a C-section. We do however find evidence of upcoding: Conditional on the birth delivery method (either a C-section or a vaginal delivery), public hospitals experiencing the largest price change exhibit a higher probability of treating patients coded as complicated. This finding suggests that even public hospitals may be sensitive to market incentives

Endometrial carcinoma, grossing and processing issues: recommendations of the International Society of Gynecologic Pathologists.

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic neoplasm in developed countries; however, updated universal guidelines are currently not available to handle specimens obtained during the surgical treatment of patients affected by this disease. This article presents recommendations on how to gross and submit sections for microscopic examination of hysterectomy specimens and other tissues removed during the surgical management of endometrial cancer such as salpingo-oophorectomy, omentectomy, and lymph node dissection-including sentinel lymph nodes. In addition, the intraoperative assessment of some of these specimens is addressed. These recommendations are based on a review of the literature, grossing manuals from various institutions, and a collaborative effort by a subgroup of the Endometrial Cancer Task Force of the International Society of Gynecological Pathologists. The aim of these recommendations is to standardize the processing of endometrial cancer specimens which is vital for adequate pathological reporting and will ultimately improve our understanding of this disease

Pathologic Prognostic Factors in Endometrial Carcinoma (Other Than Tumor Type and Grade)

Although endometrial carcinoma (EC) is generally considered to have a good prognosis, over 20% of women with EC die of their disease, with a projected increase in both incidence and mortality over the next few decades. The aim of accurate prognostication is to ensure that patients receive optimal treatment and are neither overtreated nor undertreated, thereby improving patient outcomes overall. Patients with EC can be categorized into prognostic risk groups based on clinicopathologic findings. Other than tumor type and grade, groupings and recommended management algorithms may take into account age, body mass index, stage, and presence of lymphovascular space invasion. The molecular classification of EC that has emerged from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) study provides additional, potentially superior, prognostic information to traditional histologic typing and grading. This classifier does not, however, replace clinicopathologic risk assessment based on parameters other than histotype and grade. It is envisaged that molecular and clinicopathologic prognostic grouping systems will work better together than either alone. Thus, while tumor typing and grading may be superseded by a classification based on underlying genomic abnormalities, accurate assessment of other pathologic parameters will continue to be key to patient management. These include those factors related to staging, such as depth of myometrial invasion, cervical, vaginal, serosal surface, adnexal and parametrial invasion, and those independent of stage such as lymphovascular space invasion. Other prognostic parameters will also be discussed. These recommendations were developed from the International Society of Gynecological Pathologists Endometrial Carcinoma project

Intergenerational Effects on the Impacts of Technology Use in Later Life: Insights from an International, Multi-Site Study

As the use of technology becomes further integrated into the daily lives of all persons, including older adults, it is important to investigate how the perceptions and use of technology intersect with intergenerational relationships. Based on the international multi-centered study Technology In Later Life (TILL), this paper emphasizes the perceptions of older adults and the interconnection between technology and intergenerational relationships are integral to social connectedness with others. Participants from rural and urban sites in Canada and the UK (n = 37) completed an online survey and attended a focus group. Descriptive and thematic analyses suggest that older adults are not technologically adverse and leverage intergenerational relationships with family and friends to adjust to new technologies and to remain connected to adult children and grandchildren, especially when there is high geographic separation between them. Participants referenced younger family members as having introduced them to, and having taught them how to use, technologies such as digital devices, computers, and social networking sites. The intergenerational support in the adoption of new technologies has important implications for helping older persons to remain independent and to age in place, in both age-friendly cities and in rural communities. The findings contribute to the growing literature in the fields of gerontology and gerontechnology on intergenerational influences and the impacts of technology use in later life and suggest the flexibility and willingness of older persons to adopt to new technologies as well as the value of intergenerational relationships for overcoming barriers to technology adoption