4,442 research outputs found
Systems, interactions and macrotheory
A significant proportion of early HCI research was guided by one very clear vision: that the existing theory base in psychology and cognitive science could be developed to yield engineering tools for use in the interdisciplinary context of HCI design. While interface technologies and heuristic methods for behavioral evaluation have rapidly advanced in both capability and breadth of application, progress toward deeper theory has been modest, and some now believe it to be unnecessary. A case is presented for developing new forms of theory, based around generic âsystems of interactors.â An overlapping, layered structure of macro- and microtheories could then serve an explanatory role, and could also bind together contributions from the different disciplines. Novel routes to formalizing and applying such theories provide a host of interesting and tractable problems for future basic research in HCI
A rapid and low-cost DNA extraction method for isolating Escherichia coli DNA from animal stools
The price of commercial DNA extraction methods makes the routine use of polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR) based methods rather costly for scientists in developing countries. A guanidium thiocayante-based DNA extraction method was investigated in this study for the isolation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) DNA from goat, chicken, pig, cow and human stool samples. Two versions of the lysis buffer, with and without _-casein, were tested to alleviate PCR inhibition associated with DNA isolated from stool samples. Results obtained show that, this method using the lysis buffer containing _-casein, produces PCR ready DNA at a fraction of the cost of commercial DNA extraction kits & copy; 2011 Academic Journals
Submerged in the mainstream? A case study of an immigrant learner in a New Zealand primary classroom
Immigrant children from diverse language backgrounds face not only linguistic challenges when enrolled in mainstream English-medium classrooms, but also difficulties adjusting to an unfamiliar learning community. The culture of primary school classrooms in New Zealand typically reflects conventions across three dimensions: interactional, instructional task performance and cognitive-academic development. All three dimensions are underpinned by the culturally specific discourse conventions involved in language socialisation. New learners may be helped by classmates or their teacher to understand and successfully use these conventions, but left on their own they may sink rather than swim. This is a case study of one Taiwanese 11-year old boy, 'John', who entered a New Zealand primary classroom midway through the school year. John's basic conversational ability was sound, but he did not possess the interactive classroom skills needed to operate in the new culture of learning. Selected from a wider study of the classroom, transcript data from audio-recorded excerpts of John's interactions over several months with his teacher and classmates are interpreted from perspectives derived from sociocultural and language socialisation theories. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the extent to which John constructed, or was constrained from constructing meaningful learning experiences, and suggestions for further research and reflection
Simultaneous single-pulse observations of radio pulsars: II. Orthogonal polarization modes in PSR B1133+16
In this paper, we present a study of orthogonal polarization modes in the
radio emission of PSR B1133+16, conducted within the frame of simultaneous,
multi-frequency, single-pulse observations. Simultaneously observing at two
frequencies (1.41 GHz and 4.85 GHz) provides the means to study the bandwidth
of polarization features such as the polarization position angle. We find two
main results. First, that there is a high degree of correlation between the
polarization modes at the two frequencies. Secondly, the modes occur more
equally and the fractional linear polarization decreases towards higher
frequencies. We discuss this frequency evolution and propose propagation
effects in the pulsar magnetosphere as its origin.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 5 pages, 4 figure
Observational Consequences of a Landscape
In this paper we consider the implications of the "landscape" paradigm for
the large scale properties of the universe. The most direct implication of a
rich landscape is that our local universe was born in a tunnelling event from a
neighboring vacuum. This would imply that we live in an open FRW universe with
negative spatial curvature. We argue that the "overshoot" problem, which in
other settings would make it difficult to achieve slow roll inflation, actually
favors such a cosmology.
We consider anthropic bounds on the value of the curvature and on the
parameters of inflation. When supplemented by statistical arguments these
bounds suggest that the number of inflationary efolds is not very much larger
than the observed lower bound. Although not statistically favored, the
likelihood that the number of efolds is close to the bound set by observations
is not negligible. The possible signatures of such a low number of efolds are
briefly described.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures v2: references adde
Regulation of myocardial oxygen delivery in response to graded reductions in hematocrit: Role of K+ channels
This study was designed to identify mechanisms responsible for coronary vasodilation in response to progressive decreases in hematocrit. Isovolemic hemodilution was produced in open-chest, anesthetized swine via concurrent removal of 500 ml of arterial blood and the addition of 500 ml of 37 °C saline or synthetic plasma expander (Hespan, 6% hetastarch in 0.9% sodium chloride). Progressive hemodilution with Hespan resulted in an increase in coronary flow from 0.39 ± 0.05 to 1.63 ± 0.16 ml/min/g (P < 0.001) as hematocrit was reduced from 32 ± 1 to 10 ± 1% (P < 0.001). Overall, coronary flow corresponded with the level of myocardial oxygen consumption, was dependent on arterial pressures ℠~ 60 mmHg, and occurred with little/no change in coronary venous PO2. Anemic coronary vasodilation was unaffected by the inhibition of nitric oxide synthase (l-NAME: 25 mg/kg iv; P = 0.92) or voltage-dependent K+ (K V) channels (4-aminopyridine: 0.3 mg/kg iv; P = 0.52). However, administration of the K ATP channel antagonist (glibenclamide: 3.6 mg/kg iv) resulted in an ~ 40% decrease in coronary blood flow (P < 0.001) as hematocrit was reduced to ~ 10%. These reductions in coronary blood flow corresponded with significant reductions in myocardial oxygen delivery at baseline and throughout isovolemic anemia (P < 0.001). These data indicate that vasodilator factors produced in response to isovolemic hemodilution converge on vascular smooth muscle glibenclamide-sensitive (K ATP) channels to maintain myocardial oxygen delivery and that this response is not dependent on endothelial-derived nitric oxide production or pathways that mediate dilation via K V channels
From vocational training to education: the development of a no-frontiers education policy for Europe?
This article focuses on developments towards an EU educational policy. Education was not included as one of the Community competencies in the Treaty of Rome. The first half of the article analyses the way that the European Court of Justice and the Commission of the European Communities between them managed to develop a series of substantial Community programmes out of Article 128 on vocational training. The second half of the article discusses educational developments in the community following the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty of Amsterdam. Whilst the legal competence of the community now includes education, the author's argument is that the inclusion of an educational competence will not result in further developments to mirror those in the years before the Treaty on Europe</p
Spectral analysis of LMC X-2 with XMM/Newton: unveiling the emission process in the extragalactic Z-source
We present the results of the analysis of an archival observation of LMC X-2
performed with XMM/Newton. The spectra taken by high-precision instruments have
never been analyzed before. We find an X-ray position for the source that is
inconsistent with the one obtained by ROSAT, but in agreement with the Einstein
position and that of the optical counterpart. The correlated spectral and
timing behaviour of the source suggests that the source is probably in the
normal branch of its X-ray color-color diagram. The spectrum of the source can
be fitted with a blackbody with a temperature 1.5 keV plus a disk blackbody at
0.8 keV. Photoelectric absorption from neutral matter has an equivalent
hydrogen column of 4 x 10^{20} cm^{-2}. An emission line, which we identify as
the O VIII Lyman alpha line, is detected, while no feature due to iron is
detected in the spectrum. We argue that the emission of this source can be
straightforwardly interpreted as a sum of the emission from a boundary layer
between the NS and the disc and a blackbody component coming from the disc
itself. Other canonical models that are used to fit Z-sources do not give a
satisfactory fit to the data. The detection of the O VIII emission line (and
the lack of detection of lines in the iron region) can be due to the fact that
the source lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud.Comment: Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Ricci-flat Metrics with U(1) Action and the Dirichlet Boundary-value Problem in Riemannian Quantum Gravity and Isoperimetric Inequalities
The Dirichlet boundary-value problem and isoperimetric inequalities for
positive definite regular solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations are
studied in arbitrary dimensions for the class of metrics with boundaries
admitting a U(1) action. We show that in the case of non-trivial bundles
Taub-Bolt infillings are double-valued whereas Taub-Nut and Eguchi-Hanson
infillings are unique. In the case of trivial bundles, there are two
Schwarzschild infillings in arbitrary dimensions. The condition of whether a
particular type of filling in is possible can be expressed as a limitation on
squashing through a functional dependence on dimension in each case. The case
of the Eguchi-Hanson metric is solved in arbitrary dimension. The Taub-Nut and
the Taub-Bolt are solved in four dimensions and methods for arbitrary dimension
are delineated. For the case of Schwarzschild, analytic formulae for the two
infilling black hole masses in arbitrary dimension have been obtained. This
should facilitate the study of black hole dynamics/thermodynamics in higher
dimensions. We found that all infilling solutions are convex. Thus convexity of
the boundary does not guarantee uniqueness of the infilling. Isoperimetric
inequalities involving the volume of the boundary and the volume of the
infilling solutions are then investigated. In particular, the analogues of
Minkowski's celebrated inequality in flat space are found and discussed
providing insight into the geometric nature of these Ricci-flat spaces.Comment: 40 pages, 3 figure
Rapid Quantification of Molecular Diversity for Selective Database Acquisition
There is an increasing need to expand the structural diversity of the molecules investigated in lead-discovery programs. One way in which this can be achieved is by acquiring external datasets that will enhance an existing database. This paper describes a rapid procedure for the selection of external datasets using a measure of structural diversity that is calculated from sums of pairwise intermolecular structural similarities
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