A voice from the trees: Thomas Kilroy's version of Chekhov's "The Seagull"

Thomas Kilroy's version of Chekhov's The Seagull was first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre on 8 April 1981, directed by its then artistic director, Max Stafford-Clark, and with an illuminating programme note by the literary manager, Rob Ritchie, pinpointing specific comparisons between Russia and Ireland, both societies verging on radical change at the turn of the nineteenth century. At the instigation of an English theatre, an Irish playwright is given an opportunity to use a major European play as a metaphor for his own country's intellectual history. In doing so, Kilroy made a significant turning point in Irish theatre. We could begin to claim international contact, translating key texts into our own speech. But the claim would, initially, stand or fall on Kilroy's appropriation of Chekhov. He succeeded

DCU at MMM 2013 video browser showdown

This paper describes a handheld video browser that in corporates shot boundary detection, key frame extraction, semantic content analysis, key frame browsing, and similarity search

Audio-visual classification video browser

This paper presents our third participation in the Video Browser Showdown. Building on the experience that we gained while participating in this event, we compete in the 2014 showdown with a more advanced browsing system based on incorporating several audio- visual retrieval techniques. This paper provides a short overview of the features and functionality of our new system

Detection of atomic spin labels in a lipid bi-layer using a single-spin nanodiamond probe

Magnetic field fluctuations arising from fundamental spins are ubiquitous in nanoscale biology, and are a rich source of information about the processes that generate them. However, the ability to detect the few spins involved without averaging over large ensembles has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate the detection of gadolinium spin labels in an artificial cell membrane under ambient conditions using a single-spin nanodiamond sensor. Changes in the spin relaxation time of the sensor located in the lipid bilayer were optically detected and found to be sensitive to near-individual proximal gadolinium atomic labels. The detection of such small numbers of spins in a model biological setting, with projected detection times of one second, opens a new pathway for in-situ nanoscale detection of dynamical processes in biology.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Cardio-metabolic risk factors and cortical thickness in a neurologically healthy male population: results from the psychological, social and biological determinants of ill health (pSoBid) study

<p>Introduction: Cardio-metabolic risk factors have been associated with poor physical and mental health. Epidemiological studies have shown peripheral risk markers to be associated with poor cognitive functioning in normal healthy population and in disease. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between cardio-metabolic risk factors and cortical thickness in a neurologically healthy middle aged population-based sample.</p> <p>Methods: T1-weighted MRI was used to create models of the cortex for calculation of regional cortical thickness in 40 adult males (average age = 50.96 years), selected from the PSOBID study. The relationship between cardio-vascular risk markers and cortical thickness across the whole brain, were examined using the general linear models. The relationship with various covariates of interest was explored.</p> <p>Results: Lipid fractions with greater triglyceride content (TAG, VLDL and LDL) were associated with greater cortical thickness pertaining to a number of regions in the brain. Greater C reactive protein (CRP) and Intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) levels were associated with cortical thinning pertaining to perisylvian regions in the left hemisphere. Smoking status and education status were significant covariates in the model.</p> <p>Conclusions: This exploratory study adds to a small body of existing literature increasingly showing a relationship between cardio-metabolic risk markers and regional cortical thickness involving a number of regions in the brain in a neurologically normal middle aged sample. A focused investigation of factors determining the inter-individual variations in regional cortical thickness in the adult brain could provide further clarity in our understanding of the relationship between cardio-metabolic factors and cortical structures.</p&gt

A blood DNA methylation biomarker for predicting short-term risk of cardiovascular events

Background. Recent evidence highlights the epidemiological value of blood DNA methylation (DNAm) as surrogate biomarker for exposure to risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD). DNAm surrogate of exposures predict diseases and longevity better than self-reported or measured exposures in many cases. Consequently, disease prediction models based on blood DNAm surrogates may outperform current state-of-art prediction models. This study aims to develop novel DNAm surrogates for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors and develop a composite biomarker predictive of CVD risk. We compared the prediction performance of our newly developed risk score with the state-of-art DNAm risk scores for cardiovascular diseases, the ‘next-generation’ epigenetic clock DNAmGrimAge, and the prediction model based on traditional risk factors SCORE2. Results. Using data from the EPIC Italy cohort, we derived novel DNAm surrogates for BMI, blood pressure, fasting glucose and insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides, and coagulation biomarkers. We validated them in four independent datasets from Europe and the US. Further, we derived a DNAmCVDscore predictive of the time-to-CVD event as a combination of several DNAm surrogates. ROC curve analyses show that DNAmCVDscore outperforms previously developed DNAm scores for CVD risk and SCORE2 for short-term CVD risk. Interestingly, the performance of DNAmGrimAge and DNAmCVDscore was comparable (slightly lower for DNAmGrimAge, although the differences were not statistically significant). Conclusions. We described novel DNAm surrogates for CVD risk factors useful for future molecular epidemiology research, and we described a blood DNAm-based composite biomarker, DNAmCVDscore, predictive of short-term cardiovascular events. Our results highlight the usefulness of DNAm surrogate biomarkers of risk factors in epigenetic epidemiology to identify high-risk populations. In addition, we provide further evidence on the effectiveness of prediction models based on DNAm surrogates and discuss methodological aspects for further improvements. Finally, our results encourage testing this approach for other NCD diseases by training and developing DNAm surrogates for disease-specific risk factors and exposures