Rhizomatic Time and Temporal Poetics in American Beauty

This essay deals with the temporality of film through an examination of narrative, structure and image in Sam Mendes’ film American Beauty (2000), referring to both Gilles Deleuze and Henri Bergson‘s work on time. I argue that the repetition of formal elements (images, settings, colours, shapes, and textures) creates a kind of internal rhyme that is suggested appeals to human aesthetic rhythmic sensibilities and invites the spectators imaginative interplay. This temporal pattern speaks of a particularly human rhythmic design, and provides an escape from the ‘standardised, context free, homogeneous’ clock time ‘that structures and times our daily lives’.</jats:p

Porites superfusa mortality and recovery from a bleaching event at Palmyra Atoll, USA.

BackgroundThe demography of a coral colony is not a binary trajectory of life and death. Based on the flexibility afforded by colonial organization, most reef-building corals employ a variety of dynamic survival strategies, including growth and shrinkage. The demographic flexibility affects coral size, shape and reproductive output, among other factors. It is thus critical to quantify the relative importance of key dynamics of recruitment, mortality, growth and shrinkage in changing the overall cover of coral on a reef.MethodsUsing fixed photographic quadrats, we tracked the patterns of change in the cover of one common central Pacific coral, Porites superfusa, before and after the 2009 ENSO event.ResultsCoral colonies suffered both whole and partial colony mortality, although larger colonies were more likely to survive. In subsequent years, recruitment of new colonies and regrowth of surviving colonies both contributed to the modest recovery of P. superfusa.DiscussionThis study is unique in its quantitative comparisons of coral recruitment versus regrowth during periods of areal expansion. Our data suggest that recovery is not limited simply to the long pathway of settlement, recruitment and early growth of new colonies but is accelerated by means of regrowth of already established colonies having suffered partial mortality

Incidence of lesions on Fungiidae corals in the eastern Red Sea is related to water temperature and coastal pollution

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Environmental Research 98 (2014): 29-38, doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2014.04.002.As sea surface temperatures rise and the global human population increases, large-scale field observations of marine organism health and water quality are increasingly necessary. We investigated the health of corals from the family Fungiidae using visual observations in relation to water quality and microbial biogeochemistry parameters along 1300 km of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. At large scales, incidence of lesions caused by unidentified etiology showed consistent signs, increasing significantly from the northern to southern coast and positively correlated to annual mean seawater temperatures. Lesion abundance also increased to a maximum of 96% near the populous city of Jeddah. The presence of lesioned corals in the region surrounding Jeddah was strongly correlated with elevated concentrations of ammonium and changes in microbial communities that are linked to decreased water quality. This study suggests that both high seawater temperatures and nutrient pollution may play an indirect role in the formation of lesions on corals.This research was supported by Award No. USA 00002 to K. Hughen by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and a WHOI Ocean Life Institute postdoctoral scholar fellowship to A. Apprill

Glutamate, N-acetyl aspartate and psychotic symptoms in chronic ketamine users

Rationale: Ketamine, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, induces acute effects resembling the positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. Chronic use has been suggested to lead to persistent schizophrenia-like neurobiological changes. Objectives: This study aims to test the hypothesis that chronic ketamine users have changes in brain neurochemistry and increased subthreshold psychotic symptoms compared to matched poly-drug users. Methods: Fifteen ketamine users and 13 poly-drug users were included in the study. Psychopathology was assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental State. Creatine-scaled glutamate (Glu/Cr), glutamate + glutamine (Glu + Gln/Cr) and N-acetyl aspartate (NAA/Cr) were measured in three brain regions—anterior cingulate, left thalamus and left medial temporal cortex using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Results: Chronic ketamine users had higher levels of subthreshold psychotic symptoms (p < 0.005, Cohen’s d = 1.48) and lower thalamic NAA/Cr (p < 0.01, d = 1.17) compared to non-users. There were no differences in medial temporal cortex or anterior cingulate NAA/Cr or in Glu/Cr or Glu + Gln/Cr in any brain region between the two groups. In chronic ketamine users, CAARMS severity of abnormal perceptions was directly correlated with anterior cingulate Glu/Cr (p < 0.05, r = 0.61—uncorrected), but NAA/Cr was not related to any measures of psychopathology. Conclusions: The finding of lower thalamic NAA/Cr in chronic ketamine users may be secondary to the effects of ketamine use compared to other drugs of abuse and resembles previous reports in individuals at genetic or clinical risk of schizophrenia

Increased alternate splicing of Htr2c in a mouse model for Prader-Willi syndrome leads disruption of 5HT(2C) receptor mediated appetite

Alternate splicing of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) 2C receptor (5-HT2CR) pre-RNA is negatively regulated by the small nucleolar RNA, Snord115, loss of which is observed in nearly all individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a multigenic disorder characterised by hyperphagia and obesity. Given the role of the 5-HT2CR in the regulation of ingestive behaviour we investigated the pathophysiological implications of Snord115 deficiency on 5-HT2CR regulated appetite in a genotypically relevant PWS mouse model (PWS-IC). Specifically, we demonstrate that loss of Snord115 expression is associated with increased levels of hypothalamic truncated 5-HT2CR pre-mRNA. The 5-HT2CR promotes appetite suppression via engagement of the central melanocortin system. Pro-opiomelancortin (Pomc) mRNA levels within the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARC) were reduced in PWS-IC mice. We then went on to assess the functional consequences of these molecular changes, demonstrating that PWS-IC mice are unresponsive to an anorectic doses of a 5-HT2CR agonist and that this is associated with attenuated activation of POMC neurons within the ARC. These data provide new insight into the significance of Htr2c pre-mRNA processing to the physiological regulation of appetite and potentially the pathological manifestation of hyperphagia in PWS. Furthermore, these findings have translational relevance for individuals with PWS who may seek to control appetite with another 5-HT2CR agonist, the new obesity treatment lorcaserin

Development of Word Perception and Problem Solving Strategies

This study examines the nature of children’s word perception, focusing on both the developmental changes in the perceptual process itself (in terms of the ability to decenter) and the role these changes play in determining choice of strategy in a problem solving situation (anagrams). It also demonstrates the importance of individual differences (in spatial ability) as a source of information about developmental processes and changes in perception and cognition. Eight, eleven, and fourteen year-olds solve anagrams of various types and took several aptitude tests. The results give support to Piaget’s formulation of perceptual development and demonstrate the role of both perceptual development and individual aptitude differences in children’s problem solving strategies

Automatic Radiometric Normalization of Multitemporal Satellite Imagery

The linear scale invariance of the multivariate alteration detection (MAD) transformation is used to obtain invariant pixels for automatic relative radiometric normalization of time series of multispectral data. Normalization by means of ordinary least squares regression method is compared with normalization using orthogonal regression. The procedure is applied to Landsat TM images over Nevada, Landsat ETM+ images over Morocco, and SPOT HRV images over Kenya. Results from this new automatic, combined MAD/orthogonal regression method, based on statistical analysis of test pixels not used in the actual normalization, compare favorably with results from normalization from manually obtained time-invariant features. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The revival and success of Britain’s second application for membership of the European Community, 1968-71

PhDOn 19 December 1967, France formally imposed a veto on British entry to the European Community. The Labour government of Harold Wilson had applied for membership of the Community in May of that year, but the French, in accordance with the views of their President, Charles de Gaulle, implacably opposed enlargement negotiations. Yet just three and a half years later, in June 1971, accession negotiations between Britain and the Community recorded agreement on the critical issues, thereby removing the major diplomatic obstacles to British membership. Why this turnaround in fortunes occurred, and what contribution the governments of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath made to it, are the questions at the heart of this thesis. In its analysis of these historic events, this thesis provides numerous new findings. It re-interprets British actions in relation to the controversial ‘Soames affair’ of February 1969. It demonstrates the impact of The Hague summit upon the cost of British membership, and shows how this influenced internal debate about the case for joining the Community. Fresh light is shed upon the critical phase of the accession negotiations between January and June 1971, both in regard to Pompidou’s actions and motivations, and the role of the May 1971 Heath-Pompidou summit in the successful outcome. The thesis is based primarily upon British governmental sources held at the National Archives. The private papers of key participants have also been consulted, as well as parliamentary debates, political diaries, memoirs, and newspapers. In addition, the papers for the presidency of Georges Pompidou, deposited at the Archives Nationales, are employed to illuminate French actions at the two pivotal moments of the accession negotiations: the impasse of March 1971; and the Heath-Pompidou summit two months later