Verlorenvlei vernacular : a structuralist analysis of Sandveld folk architecture

A sample of 41 vernacular houses from the Verloenvlei and Lange Vlei valleys in the Sandveld on the Cape West coast, have been subjected to a structuralist analysis of their form. As elements of human material culture these houses represent the physical objectification of invisible culture. They are the products of a culturally dictated mental process of design, and in their form reflect the successful mediation by their creators of a set of binary oppositions common to all human experience. The mental rules that guide this process of design, and therefore account for the physical form of the object, are called the artifactual competence. Because, as a product of this competence, an artifact has implicit within its form the set of rules that account for its being, it is theoretically possible, through an inductive analysis of artifactual form, to isolate this set of relational rules. The houses in the sample were all carefully recorded and then compared and contrasted. This resulted in the creation of a statement of architectural competence for Verlorenvlei vernacular architecture, based upon which an explanation of its function as an element of human material culture, and a participant in human social relations was attempted

Accuracy, Stability, and Corrective Behavior in a Visuomotor Tracking Task: A Preliminary Study

Visuomotor tracking tasks have been used to elucidate the underlying mechanisms that allow for the coordination of a movement to an environmental event. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between accuracy and stability of tracking performance and the amount of corrective movements that emerge for various coordination patterns in a unimanual visuomotor tracking task. Participants (N = 6) produced rhythmic elbow flexion–extension motions and were required to track an external sinusoidal signal at five different relative phases, 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, and 180°. Differential accuracy and stability were found among the five tracking patterns with the 0° relative phase pattern being the most accurate and stable pattern. Corrective movements were correlated with changes in accuracy only for the 0° relative phase pattern, with more corrections emerging for less accurate performance. The amount of corrective movements decreased as the stability of tracking performance increased for the 0°, 45°, and 135° patterns. For the 90° and 180° tracking patterns, the amount of corrective movements was not correlated with pattern accuracy or pattern stability. The results demonstrate that corrective behaviors are an important motor process in maintaining the stability of stable perception-action coordination patterns, while offering little benefit for unstable perception-action patterns

Enteroendocrine cells-sensory sentinels of the intestinal environment and orchestrators of mucosal immunity

The intestinal epithelium must balance efficient absorption of nutrients with partitioning commensals and pathogens from the bodies’ largest immune system. If this crucial barrier fails, inappropriate immune responses can result in inflammatory bowel disease or chronic infection. Enteroendocrine cells represent 1% of this epithelium and have classically been studied for their detection of nutrients and release of peptide hormones to mediate digestion. Intriguingly, enteroendocrine cells are the key sensors of microbial metabolites, can release cytokines in response to pathogen associated molecules and peptide hormone receptors are expressed on numerous intestinal immune cells; thus enteroendocrine cells are uniquely equipped to be crucial and novel orchestrators of intestinal inflammation. In this review, we introduce enteroendocrine chemosensory roles, summarize studies correlating enteroendocrine perturbations with intestinal inflammation and describe the mechanistic interactions by which enteroendocrine and mucosal immune cells interact during disease; highlighting this immunoendocrine axis as a key aspect of innate immunity

Non-linear PID predictive controller

A new class of nonlinear PID controllers are derived for nonlinear systems using a Nonlinear Generalised Predictive Control (NGPC) approach. First the disturbance decoupling ability of the nonlinear generalised predictive controller is discussed. For a nonlinear system where the disturbance cannot be decoupled, a nonlinear observer is designed to estimate the offset. By selecting the nonlinear gain function in the observer, it is shown that the closed-loop system under optimal generalised predictive control with the nonlinear observer is asymptotically stable. It is pointed out that this composite controller is equivalent to a nonlinear controller with integral action. As a special case, for a nonlinear system with a low relative degree, the proposed nonlinear controller reduces to a nonlinear PI or PID predictive controller, which consists of a nonlinear PI or PID controller and a prediction controller. The design method is illustrated by an example nonlinear mechanical system

Activation of the KATP channel by Mg-nucleotide interaction with SUR1

The mechanism of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel activation by Mg-nucleotides was studied using a mutation (G334D) in the Kir6.2 subunit of the channel that renders KATP channels insensitive to nucleotide inhibition and has no apparent effect on their gating. KATP channels carrying this mutation (Kir6.2-G334D/SUR1 channels) were activated by MgATP and MgADP with an EC50 of 112 and 8 µM, respectively. This activation was largely suppressed by mutation of the Walker A lysines in the nucleotide-binding domains of SUR1: the remaining small (∼10%), slowly developing component of MgATP activation was fully inhibited by the lipid kinase inhibitor LY294002. The EC50 for activation of Kir6.2-G334D/SUR1 currents by MgADP was lower than that for MgATP, and the time course of activation was faster. The poorly hydrolyzable analogue MgATPγS also activated Kir6.2-G334D/SUR1. AMPPCP both failed to activate Kir6.2-G334D/SUR1 and to prevent its activation by MgATP. Maximal stimulatory concentrations of MgATP (10 mM) and MgADP (1 mM) exerted identical effects on the single-channel kinetics: they dramatically elevated the open probability (PO > 0.8), increased the mean open time and the mean burst duration, reduced the frequency and number of interburst closed states, and eliminated the short burst states. By comparing our results with those obtained for wild-type KATP channels, we conclude that the MgADP sensitivity of the wild-type KATP channel can be described quantitatively by a combination of inhibition at Kir6.2 (measured for wild-type channels in the absence of Mg2+) and activation via SUR1 (determined for Kir6.2-G334D/SUR1 channels). However, this is not the case for the effects of MgATP

Identification of an unusual Brucella strain (BO2) from a lung biopsy in a 52 year-old patient with chronic destructive pneumonia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Brucellosis is primarily a zoonotic disease caused by <it>Brucella </it>species. There are currently ten <it>Brucella </it>spp. including the recently identified novel <it>B. inopinata </it>sp. isolated from a wound associated with a breast implant infection. In this study we report on the identification of an unusual <it>Brucella</it>-like strain (BO2) isolated from a lung biopsy in a 52-year-old patient in Australia with a clinical history of chronic destructive pneumonia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Standard biochemical profiles confirmed that the unusual strain was a member of the <it>Brucella </it>genus and the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence was 100% identical to the recently identified <it>B. inopinata </it>sp. nov. (type strain BO1^T). Additional sequence analysis of the <it>recA, omp2a </it>and <it>2b </it>genes; and multiple locus sequence analysis (MLSA) demonstrated that strain BO2 exhibited significant similarity to the <it>B. inopinata </it>sp. compared to any of the other <it>Brucella </it>or <it>Ochrobactrum </it>species. Genotyping based on multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) established that the BO2 and BO1^Tstrains form a distinct phylogenetic cluster separate from the other <it>Brucella </it>spp.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Based on these molecular and microbiological characterizations, we propose that the BO2 strain is a novel lineage of the newly described <it>B. inopinata </it>species.</p

Finishing the finished human chromosome 22 sequence

A combination of approaches was used to close 8 of the 11 gaps in the original sequence of human chromosome 22, and to generate a total 1.018 Mb of new sequence

Pulp, Vol. 3 No. 1

This is the third issue of Pulphttps://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/pulp/1002/thumbnail.jp

Try before you buy: a small business employer (SME) perspective of international student mobility in England

Attracting international students has become a strategic priority for UK immigration policy as well as for British universities. However, research shows that there are emergent intercultural barriers that challenge international students’ carrier aspirations and inhibit their ability to find employment. Also, small business employers (SMEs) are becoming a significant force in the post-Brexit UK economy and integral to creating innovation and employment opportunities. Despite this significance, we do not know what SME owners view the value of international students and how these perceptual discourses shape international student experience and mobility. In response, this research investigates small business employer discourses relating to international student employability. We base our data collection in strategically important North East of England and draw from semi-structured in-depth interviews with small business employers from the region. Our findings discuss their perception of international students as well as universities and discuss how these prevailing discourses influence international students’ employability. We specifically show how socio-cultural dispositions of international students, dominant British employer and market discourses, and universities strategic pursuits interplay and contribute to challenges international students confront within the highly competitive and dynamic higher education environment.Published onlin

The Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research (SEATOR) Partnership: Addressing Data Gaps in Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Shellfish Safety in Southeast Alaska

Many communities in Southeast Alaska harvest shellfish such as mussels and clams as an important part of a subsistence or traditional diet. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) of phytoplankton such as Alexandrium spp. produce toxins that can accumulate in shellfish tissues to concentrations that can pose a hazard for human health. Since 2013, several tribal governments and communities have pooled resources to form the Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research (SEATOR) network, with the goal of minimizing risks to seafood harvest and enhancing food security. SEATOR monitors toxin concentrations in shellfish and collects and consolidates data on environmental variables that may be important predictors of toxin levels such as sea surface temperature and salinity. Data from SEATOR are publicly available and are encouraged to be used for the development and testing of predictive algorithms that could improve seafood risk assessment in Southeast Alaska. To date, more than 1700 shellfish samples have been analyzed for paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) in more than 20 locations, with potentially lethal concentrations observed in blue mussels (Mytilus trossulus) and butter clams (Saxidomus gigantea). Concentrations of PSTs exhibit seasonality in some species, and observations of Alexandrium are correlated to sea surface temperature and salinity; however, concentrations above the threshold of concern have been found in all months, and substantial variation in concentrations of PSTs remain unexplained.Funding: The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Funding for this work was provided by the Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program (Award NA17NMF4270238). Gribble’s e ort was supported by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES029165 and P30ES019776).Ye