Photochemical delivery of nitric oxide.

There remains considerable interest in developing methods for the targeted delivery of nitric oxide and other small molecule bioregulators such as carbon monoxide to physiological targets. One such strategy is to use a "caged" NO that is "uncaged" by excitation with light. Such photochemical methods convey certain key advantages such as the ability to control the timing, location and dosage of delivery, but also have some important disadvantages, such as the relatively poor penetration of the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths often necessary for the uncaging process. Presented here is an overview of ongoing studies in the author's laboratory exploring new photochemical NO precursors including those with nanomaterial antennas designed to enhance the effectiveness of these precursors with longer excitation wavelengths

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education

Optimal stopping and hard terminal constraints applied to a missile guidance problem

This paper describes two new types of deterministic optimal stopping control problems: optimal stopping control with hard terminal constraints only and optimal stopping control with both minimum control effort And hard termind constraints. Both problems are initially formulated in continuous-time (a discretetime formulation is given towards the end of the paper) and soIutions given via dynamic programming. A numeric solution to the continuous-time dynamic programming equations is then briefly discussed. The optimal stopping with terminal constraints problem in continuous-time is a natural description of a particular type of missile guidance problem. This missile guidance appiication is introduced and the presented solutions used in missile engagements against targets

ERP analysis of cognitive sequencing : a left-anterior negativity related to structural transformation processing

A major objective of cognitive neuroscience is to identify those neurocomputational processes that may be shared by multiple cognitive functions vs those that are highly specifc. This problem of identifying general vs specialized functions is of particular interest in the domain of language processing. Within this domain, event related brain potential (ERP) studies have demonstrated a left anterior negativity (LAN) in a range 300 to 700 ms, associated with syntactic processing, often linked to grammatical function words. These words have little or no semantic content, but rather play a role in encoding syntactic structure required for parsing. In the current study we test the hypothesis that the LAN reflects the operation of a more general sequence processing capability in which special symbols encode structural information that, when combined with past elements in the sequence, allows the prediction of successor elements. We recorded ERPs during a non-linguistic sequencing task that required subjects (nà10) to process special symbols possessing the functional property defined above. When compared to ERPs in a control condition, function symbol processing elicits a left anterior negative shift between with temporal and spatial characteristics quite similar to the LAN described during function word processing in language, supporting our hypothesis. These results are discussed in the context of related studies of syntactic and cognitive sequence processing

Developmental Stages of Perception and Language Acquisition in a Perceptually Grounded Robot

The objective of this research is to develop a system for language learning based on a minimum of pre-wired language-specific functionality, that is compatible with observations of perceptual and language capabilities in the human developmental trajectory. In the proposed system, meaning (in terms of descriptions of events and spatial relations) is extracted from video images based on detection of position, motion, physical contact and their parameters. Mapping of sentence form to meaning is performed by learning grammatical constructions that are retrieved from a construction inventory based on the constellation of closed class items uniquely identifying the target sentence structure. The resulting system displays robust acquisition behavior that reproduces certain observations from developmental studies, with very modest “innate” language specificity

Thiyl radicals are co-products of dinitrosyl iron complex (DNIC) formation.

Thiyl radicals are detected by EPR as co-products of dinitrosyl iron complex (DNIC) formation. In demonstrating that DNIC formation generates RS˙ in a NO rich environment, these results provide a novel route for S-nitroso thiol formation

Development of crystallographic surfaces for modelling interactions

This thesis addresses two separate problems - an investigation of the interaction of probe molecules with crystalline rutile and an investigation of the environment of group IA and IIA elements in organometallic compounds. Ab-initio Hartree-Fock calculations have been performed, aimed at investigating the interactions between the ionic surface of a crystal and an adsorbate molecule. Titanium dioxide, a material important for catalysis, electronic components and pigments, was chosen as the substrate, with carbon monoxide as the probe molecule. The calculations were carried out using the Crystal92 program, for the (110) surface of the Rutile polymorph of TiO(_2), employing a slab with a thickness of 5 atomic layers. The calculations investigated two orientations of the CO molecule with the molecular axis perpendicular to the surface. Results are reported showing contour diagrams for slices through the energy hypersurface parallel and perpendicular to the surface of the substrate. In order to facilitate the work described above, a program 'Builder2' was developed. This provides a convenient means for generating models of slabs of material from crystal structure data. Part of the development of Builder2 was to devise computer code to decompose standard Space Group symbols into the underlying symmetry matrices. The code for Builder2 is proprietary to Oxford Materials Ltd. and forms part of a commercial product. The environment of group IA and IIA elements in crystalline materials has not been the subject of any reported investigation. These elements, and organic ligands associated with them, play a significant role in biological systems. Around 16,000 atomic environments were extracted from the Cambridge Crystallographic Database to provide an up-to-date analysis of actual environments. The results are presented as histograms and tables, and suggestions are made for future extension of the analyses