Experimental archeology and serious games: challenges of inhabiting virtual heritage

Experimental archaeology has long yielded valuable insights into the tools and techniques that featured in past peoples’ relationship with the material world around them. However, experimental archaeology has, hitherto, confined itself to rigid, empirical and quantitative questions. This paper applies principles of experimental archaeology and serious gaming tools in the reconstructions of a British Iron Age Roundhouse. The paper explains a number of experiments conducted to look for quantitative differences in movement in virtual vs material environments using both “virtual” studio reconstruction as well as material reconstruction. The data from these experiments was then analysed to look for differences in movement which could be attributed to artefacts and/or environments. The paper explains the structure of the experiments, how the data was generated, what theories may make sense of the data, what conclusions have been drawn and how serious gaming tools can support the creation of new experimental heritage environments

A giant mystery in giant cell myocarditis: navigating diagnosis, immunosuppression, and mechanical circulatory support.

Giant cell myocarditis is a rare but often devastating diagnosis. Advances in cardiac imaging and mechanical circulatory support have led to earlier and more frequent diagnoses and successful management. This disease state has wide variation in acuity of presentation, and consequently, optimal treatment ranging from intensity and type of immunosuppression to mechanical circulatory support is not well defined. The following case describes the management of a patient with an unusual presentation of giant cell myocarditis over a 10 year course of advanced heart failure therapies and immunomodulatory support. This case highlights emerging concepts in the management of giant cell myocarditis including sub-acute presentations, challenges in diagnosis, and treatment modalities in the modern era

Current Perspective on the Location and Function of Gamma- Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) and its Metabolic Partners in the Kidney.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter located in the mammalian central nervous system, which binds to GABAA and GABAB receptors to mediate its neurological effects. In addition to its role in the CNS, an increasing number of publications have suggested that GABA might also play a role in the regulation of renal function. All three enzymes associated with GABA metabolism; glutamic acid decarboxylase, GABA ?-oxoglutarate transaminase (GABA-T) and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) have been localised to the kidney providing the necessary machinery for localised GABA synthesis and metabolism. Moreover GABA receptors have been localised to both tubular and vascular structures in the kidney, and GABA is excreted in urine (~3 ?M) in humans. Despite the collective evidence describing the presence of a GABA system in the kidney, the precise function of such a system requires further clarification. Here we provide an overview of the current renal GABA literature and provide novel data that indicates GABA can act at contractile pericyte cells located along vasa recta capillaries in the renal medulla to potentially regulate medullary blood flow

Lack of nicotinic supersensitivity in frog sympathetic neurones following denervation.

The sensitivity of bull-frog sympathetic neurones to nicotinic, cholinergic agonists has been studied in both normal (control) and surgically denervated ganglia. Using gross extracellular recording, the sensitivity to acetylcholine (ACh) increased 18-fold following denervation, while that to carbachol (CCh) was unchanged. Normal ganglia showed a similar sensitivity increase after inhibition of cholinesterase. This suggests that the rise in ACh sensitivity is due to reduced cholinesterase activity, not to true supersensitivity. There was no significant difference in resting membrane potential or input resistance between normal and denervated neurones. Neurones denervated for 7-50 days showed no significant change in sensitivity to ACh or CCh applied iontophoretically at a distance of 10 micron from the cell surface. In control ganglia, localized iontophoretic application of ACh revealed an uneven distribution of sensitivity which is attributed to the localization of receptors to synaptic areas. Fourteen days after denervation, the geometric mean sensitivity to focally applied ACh was not significantly different from that found in control ganglia. The variation in sensitivity to focally applied ACh at randomly chosen sites on denervated neurones was as great as that found in control ganglia. It is concluded that denervation does not cause frog sympathetic neurones to become supersensitive to ACh. The apparent increase in nicotinic ACh sensitivity observed using extracellular recording from whole ganglia is due not to a change in the number or distribution of ACh receptors, but to a decrease in cholinesterase activity

Krill-feeding behaviour in a chinstrap penguin compared to fish-eating in Magellanic penguins: a pilot study.

Inferring feeding activities from undulations in diving depth profiles is widespread in studies of foraging marine predators. This idea, however, has rarely been tested because of practical difficulties in obtaining an independent estimate of feeding activities at a time scale corresponding to depth changes within a dive. In this study we attempted to relate depth profile undulations and feeding activities during diving in a single Chinstrap Penguin Pygoscelis antarctica, by simultaneously using a conventional time-depth recorder and a recently developed beak-angle sensor. Although failure in device attachments meant that data were obtained successfully from just a part of a single foraging trip, our preliminary results show a linear relationship between the number of depth wiggles and the number of underwater beakopening events during a dive, suggesting that the relative feeding intensity of each dive could be represented by depth-profile data. Underwater beak-opening patterns of this krill-feeding penguin species are compared with recent data from three fish- and squid-feeding Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus

Vacuum-UV negative photoion spectroscopy of CH3F, CH3Cl and CH3Br

Using tunable vacuum-UV radiation from a synchrotron, negative ions are detected by quadrupolar mass spectrometry following photoexcitation of three gaseous halogenated methanes CH$_3$X (X = F,Cl,Br). The anions X$^-$, H$^-$, CX$^-$, CHX$^-$ and CH$_2$X$^-$ are observed, and their ion yields recorded in the range 8-35 eV. The anions show a linear dependence of signal with pressure, showing that they arise from unimolecular ion-pair dissociation, generically described as AB + h$v$ $\rightarrow$ A$^-$ + B$^+$ (+ neutrals). Absolute cross sections for ion-pair formation are obtained by calibrating the signal intensities with those of F$^-$ from both SF$_6$ and CF$_4$. The cross sections for formation of X$^-$ + CH$_3$$^+$ are much greater than for formation of CH$_2$X$^-$ + H$^+$. In common with many quadrupoles, the spectra of $m$/$z$ 1 (H$^-$) anions show contributions from all anions, and only for CH$_3$Br is it possible to perform the necessary subtraction to obtain the true H$^-$ spectrum. The anion cross sections are normalised to vacuum-UV absorption cross sections to obtain quantum yields for their production. The appearance energies of X$^-$ and CH$_2$X$^-$ are used to calculate upper limits to 298 K bond dissociation energies for D$^o$ (H$_3$C-X) and D$^o$ (XH$_2$C-H) which are consistent with literature values. The spectra suggest that most of the anions are formed indirectly by crossing of Rydberg states of the parent molecule onto an ion-pair continuum. The one exception is the lowest-energy peak of F$^-$ from CH$_3$F at 13.4 eV, where its width and lack of structure suggest it may correspond to a direct ion-pair transition

Simulating the Impact of Strategy Development Frameworks on Transportation Infrastructure System Performance

This paper develops, through a simulation model, a deeper understanding of the relationship between transportation infrastructure strategy development frameworks and system performance. A strategy development framework for transportation can be characterized by the infrastructure ownership structures, cross-modal and cross-sectoral linkages, revenue sources, resource allocation decision-making processes, and geographic scales of the organizations responsible for making infrastructure investments. Taking the dimensions of a strategy development framework as inputs, the model simulates investments in an infrastructure network over time—in this paper, the national intercity roadway network of Portugal. The results demonstrate the value of using simulation models of complex transportation systems to inform the decisions of not only planners but also of stakeholders who design strategy development frameworks. Such a tool is particularly important given the ongoing reorganizations of the Portuguese transportation sector, including increasing reliance on concession agreements, highway tolls, and sub-national government participation

Technology-Enabled Strategy Development Alternatives for Surface Transportation

This paper examines strategy development processes in surface transportation systems. In the U.S., transportation organizations typically develop strategy through a formal planning process; however, planning is not the only approach for developing strategy. Other approaches include, for example, negotiation, visioning, learning, and consensus-building. Regardless of the particular approach or combination of approaches, strategy development processes have several elements in common. We identify four such elements of particular importance in surface transportation – revenue sources, information sources, temporal scales, and spatial scales – and analyze the impact that advancements in transportation technology have had on each element. While new technologies (e.g. Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS) have been applied extensively to improve transportation operations, they have not been used to enable innovative strategy development processes. By understanding more fully the relationships between strategy and technology, organizations may consider adoption of innovative strategy development processes, such as improvements to the planning process or alternatives to planning altogether

Multimodal infrastructure Investment Decision Making: An Institutional and Funding Perspective

This paper presents a case analysis of multimodalism in transportation investment decision making as it relates to other policy decisions, including infrastructure ownership structures, geographic scales, and revenue sources. This allows a more complete understanding of multimodalism’s benefits, drawbacks, and opportunities. Private infrastructure developers are more likely to evaluate and select investments in a multimodal fashion than either the public sector or public-private partnerships. Decentralized, municipal decision making tends to reduce barriers to multimodalism, although with reduced capacity for large-scale project implementation. Experience suggests that the source of transportation revenues is a less important influence on multimodalism than the organizations collecting them