3,323 research outputs found
High-Tech Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam : An Actor Network Analysis
The agriculture and horticulture sector in the Netherlands is one of the most productive in the world. Although the sector is one of the most advanced and intense agricultural production systems worldwide, it faces challenges, such as climate change and environmental and social unsustainability of industrial production. To overcome these challenges, alternative food production initiatives have emerged, especially in large cities such as Amsterdam. Some initiatives involve producing food in the urban environment, supported by new technologies and practices, so-called high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA). These initiatives make cultivation of plants inside and on top of buildings possible and increase green spaces in urban areas. The emerging agricultural technologies are creating new business environments that are shape d by technology developers (e.g., suppliers of horticultural light emitting diodes (LED) and control environment systems) and developers of alternative food production practices (e.g., HTUA start-ups). However, research shows that the uptake of these technological innovations in urban planning processes is problematic. Therefore, this research analyzes the barriers that local government planners and HTUA developers are facing in the embedding of HTUA in urban planning processes, using the city of Amsterdam as a case study. This study draws on actor-network theory (ANT) to analyze the interactions between planners, technologies, technology developers and developers of alternative food production practices. Several concepts of ANT are integrated into a multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP) to create a new theoretical framework that can explain how interactions between technologies and planning actors transform the incumbent social\u2013technical regime. The configuration of interactions between social and material entities in technology development and adoption processes in Amsterdam is analyzed through the lens of this theoretical framework. The data in this study were gathered by tracing actors and their connections by using ethnographic research methods. In the course of the integration of new technologies into urban planning practices, gaps between technologies, technology developers, and planning actors have been identified. The results of this study show a lacking connection between planning actors and technology developers, although planning actors do interact with developers of alternative food production practices. These interactions are influenced by agency of artefacts such as visualizations of the future projects. The paper concludes that for the utilization of emerging technologies for sustainability transition of cities, the existing gap between technology developers and planning actors needs to be bridged through the integration of technology development visions in urban agendas and planning processe
Endotracheal tube-induced sore throat pain and inflammation is coupled to the release of mitochondrial DNA
In the absence of infection, the pathophysiology of endotracheal tube-induced sore throat pain is unclear. Activated neutrophils release elastase, reactive oxygen species, and inflammatory cytokines known to contribute to neuropathic pain. Sterile tissue injury can cause the release of damage-associated molecular patterns such as mitochondrial DNA that promote neutrophil activation. We hypothesized that endotracheal tube-induced sore throat pain is linked to mitochondrial DNA-mediated neutrophil inflammation. A nonrandomized prospective survey for sore throat pain was conducted in 31 patients who required short-term intubation and had no evidence of upper airway infection. Patterns of neutrophil abundance, activation, and mitochondrial DNA levels were analyzed in tracheal lavage fluid following intubation and prior to extubation. Thirteen of 31 patients reported sore throat pain. Sore throat patients had high neutrophilia with elevated adhesion molecule and TLR9 expression and constitutive reactive oxygen species generation. Tracheal lavage fluid from sore throat patients accumulated mitochondrial DNA and stimulated neutrophils to release mediators associated with pain in a TLR9- and DNAse-dependent fashion. Endotracheal tube-induced sore throat is linked to the release of mitochondrial DNA and can drive TLR9-mediated inflammatory responses by neutrophils reported to cause pain. Mitigating the effects of cell-free mitochondrial DNA may prove beneficial for the prevention of endotracheal tube-mediated sore throat pain
Circular Semiclassical String solutions on Confining AdS/CFT Backgrounds
We study multiwrapped circular string pulsating in the radial direction of
AdS black hole. We compute the energy of this string as a function of a large
quantum number n. One then could associate it with energy and a quantum number
of states in the dual finite temperature {\cal N}=4 SYM theory as well as three
dimensional pure gauge theory. We observe that the n dependence of the energy
has a universal form. We have also considered pulsating string in the
background of the near-extremal D4-brane solution. Circular pulsating membrane
in M-theory on AdS_7\times S^4 has also been studied.Comment: 14 pages, latex, v2: typos corrected, refs. adde
Nuclear classical dynamics of H in intense laser field
In the first part of this paper, the different distinguishable pathways and
regions of the single and sequential double ionization are determined and
discussed. It is shown that there are two distinguishable pathways for the
single ionization and four distinct pathways for the sequential double
ionization. It is also shown that there are two and three different regions of
space which are related to the single and double ionization respectively. In
the second part of the paper, the time dependent Schr\"{o}dinger and Newton
equations are solved simultaneously for the electrons and the nuclei of H
respectively. The electrons and nuclei dynamics are separated on the base of
the adiabatic approximation. The soft-core potential is used to model the
electrostatic interaction between the electrons and the nuclei. A variety of
wavelengths (390 nm, 532 nm and 780 nm) and intensities (
and ) of the ultrashort intense laser
pulses with a sinus second order envelope function are used. The behaviour of
the time dependent classical nuclear dynamics in the absence and present of the
laser field are investigated and compared. In the absence of the laser field,
there are three distinct sections for the nuclear dynamics on the electronic
ground state energy curve. The bond hardening phenomenon does not appear in
this classical nuclear dynamics simulation.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure
Thermal instability in ionized plasma
We study magnetothermal instability in the ionized plasmas including the
effects of Ohmic, ambipolar and Hall diffusion. Magnetic field in the single
fluid approximation does not allow transverse thermal condensations, however,
non-ideal effects highly diminish the stabilizing role of the magnetic field in
thermally unstable plasmas. Therefore, enhanced growth rate of thermal
condensation modes in the presence of the diffusion mechanisms speed up the
rate of structure formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Molecular weight effects on chain pull-out fracture of reinforced polymeric interfaces
Using Brownian dynamics, we simulate the fracture of polymer interfaces
reinforced by diblock connector chains. We find that for short chains the
interface fracture toughness depends linearly on the degree of polymerization
of the connector chains, while for longer chains the dependence becomes
. Based on the geometry of initial chain configuration, we propose a
scaling argument that accounts for both short and long chain limits and
crossover between them.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Orbiting Membranes in M-theory on AdS_7 x S^4 Background
We study classical solutions describing rotating and boosted membranes on
AdS_7 x S^4 background in M-theory. We find the dependence of the energy on the
spin and R-charge of these solutions. In the flat space limit we get E ~
S^{2/3}, while for AdS at leading order E-S grows as S^{1/3}. The membranes on
AdS_4 x S^7 background have briefly been studied as well.Comment: 13 pages, latex, v2: a note and refs. added, some typos correcte
On Effective Superpotentials and Compactification to Three Dimensions
We study four dimensional N=2 SO/SP supersymmetric gauge theory on R^3\times
S^1 deformed by a tree level superpotential. We will show that the exact
superpotential can be obtained by making use of the Lax matrix of the
corresponding integrable model which is the periodic Toda lattice. The
connection between vacua of SO(2N) and SO(2kN-2k+2) can also be seen in this
framework. Similar analysis can also be applied for SO(2N+1) and SP(2N).Comment: 18 pages, latex file, v2: typos corrected, refs adde
Formation of Small-Scale Condensations in the Molecular Clouds via Thermal Instability
A systematic study of the linear thermal instability of a self-gravitating
magnetic molecular cloud is carried out for the case when the unperturbed
background is subject to local expansion or contraction. We consider the
ambipolar diffusion, or ion-neutral friction on the perturbed states. In this
way, we obtain a non-dimensional characteristic equation that reduces to the
prior characteristic equation in the non-gravitating stationary background. By
parametric manipulation of this characteristic equation, we conclude that there
are, not only oblate condensation forming solutions, but also prolate solutions
according to local expansion or contraction of the background. We obtain the
conditions for existence of the Field lengths that thermal instability in the
molecular clouds can occur. If these conditions establish, small-scale
condensations in the form of spherical, oblate, or prolate may be produced via
thermal instability.Comment: 16 page, accepted by Ap&S
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