Curate and storyspace: an ontology and web-based environment for describing curatorial narratives

Existing metadata schemes and content management systems used by museums focus on describing the heritage objects that the museum holds in its collection. These are used to manage and describe individual heritage objects according to properties such as artist, date and preservation requirements. Curatorial narratives, such as physical or online exhibitions tell a story that spans across heritage objects and have a meaning that does not necessarily reside in the individual heritage objects themselves. Here we present curate, an ontology for describing curatorial narratives. This draws on structuralist accounts that distinguish the narrative from the story and plot, and also a detailed analysis of two museum exhibitions and the curatorial processes that contributed to them. Storyspace, our web based interface and API to the ontology, is being used by curatorial staff in two museums to model curatorial narratives and the processes through which they are constructed

Long-Term Reward Patterns Contribute to Personal Goals at Work Among Finnish Managers

The research addresses the impact of long-term reward patterns on contents of personal work goals among young Finnish managers (N = 747). Reward patterns were formed on the basis of perceived and objective career rewards (i.e., career stability and promotions) across four measurements (years 2006 –2012). Goals were measured in 2012 and classified into categories of competence, progression, well-being, job change, job security, organization, and financial goals. The factor mixture analysis identified a three-class solution as the best model of reward patterns: High rewards (77%); Increasing rewards (17%); and Reducing rewards (7%). Participants with Reducing rewards reported more progression, well-being, job change and financial goals than participants with High rewards as well as fewer competence and organizational goals than participants with Increasing rewards. Workplace resources can be in a key role in facilitating goals towards building competence and organizational performance

Epithermal Neutron Beam Interference with Cardiac Pacemakers

Peer reviewe

Mechanisms of polyamine catabolism-induced acute pancreatitis

Abstract Acute pancreatitis is an autodigestive disease, in which the pancreatic tissue is damaged by the digestive enzymes produced by the acinar cells. Among the tissues in the mammalian body, pancreas has the highest concentration of the natural polyamine, spermidine. We have found that pancreas is very sensitive to acute decreases in the concentrations of the higher polyamines, spermidine and spermine. Activation of polyamine catabolism in transgenic rats overexpressing SSAT (spermidine/spermine-N 1 -acetyltransferase) in the pancreas leads to rapid depletion of these polyamines and to acute necrotizing pancreatitis. Replacement of the natural polyamines with methylated polyamine analogues before the induction of acute pancreatitis prevents the development of the disease. As premature trypsinogen activation is a common, early event leading to tissue injury in acute pancreatitis in human and in experimental animal models, we studied its role in polyamine catabolism-induced pancreatitis. Cathepsin B, a lysosomal hydrolase mediating trypsinogen activation, was activated just 2 h after induction of SSAT. Pre-treatment of the rats with bismethylspermine prevented pancreatic cathepsin B activation. Analysis of tissue ultrastructure by transmission electron microscopy revealed early dilatation of rough endoplasmic reticulum, probable disturbance of zymogen packaging, appearance of autophagosomes and later disruption of intracellular membranes and organelles. Based on these results, we suggest that rapid eradication of polyamines from cellular structures leads to premature zymogen activation and autodigestion of acinar cells

The stellar content of low redshift radio galaxies from near-infrared spectroscopy

We present medium spectral resolution near-infrared (NIR) HK-band spectra for 8 low redshift (z<0.06) radio galaxies to study the NIR stellar properties of their host galaxies. As a homogeneous comparison sample, we used 9 inactive elliptical galaxies that were observed with similar resolution and wavelength range. The aim of the study is to compare the NIR spectral properties of radio galaxies to those of inactive early-type galaxies and, furthermore, produce the first NIR HK-band spectra for low redshift radio galaxies. For both samples spectral indices of several diagnostic absorption features, SiI(1.589microns), CO(1.619microns), NaI(2.207microns), CaI(2.263microns), CO(>2.29microns), were measured. To characterize the age of the populations, the measured EWs of the absorption features were fitted with the corresponding theoretical evolutionary curves of the EWs calculated by the stellar synthesis model. On average, EW(CO 2.29) of radio galaxies is somewhat greater than that of inactive ellipticals. Most likely, EW(CO 2.29) is not significantly affected by dilution, and thus indicating that elliptical galaxies containing AGN are in a different stage in their evolution than inactive ellipticals. This is also supported by comparing other NIR features, such as CaI and NaI, with each other. Absorption features are consistent with the intermediate age stellar population, suggesting that host galaxies contain both an old and intermediate age components. It is consistent with previous optical spectroscopy studies which have shown evidence on the intermediate age (~2 Gyr) stellar population of radio galaxies, and also in some of the early-type galaxies. The existence of intermediate age population is a link between the star formation episode, possibly induced by interaction or merging event, and the triggering of the nuclear activity.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Using auxiliary data to rationalize smartphone-based pre-harvest forest mensuration

Accurate mensuration of forest stands for pre-harvest planning will pose high costs if carried out by a professional forester as an on-site evaluation. The costs could be reduced if a person with limited mensuration expertise could collect the required data using a smartphone-based system such as TRESTIMA (R) Forest Inventory System. Without prior information, the field sample with sufficient number of measurement points over the whole stand should be selected, so that the entire variation will be covered. We present and test a rational framework based on selecting the sampling locations according to auxiliary data. As auxiliary variables, we use various spatial data sources indicating forests' structural or spectral variation, as well as previously predicted inventory variables. We construct two variants of sampling schemes based on the local pivotal method, weighted by the auxiliary data, and compare the results to simple random sampling (SRS) with corresponding sample sizes. According to our findings, the benefits of auxiliary data depend on the considered stand, species and timber assortment. The use of auxiliary data leads generally to improved results and up to three times higher efficiency (i.e. lower variance) as compared with SRS. We conclude that the framework of applying auxiliary data has high capabilities in rationalizing the sampling efforts with little drawbacks, consequently providing potential to improve the results with similar sample size and possibility to use of non-specialists for the pre-harvest inventory.Peer reviewe

NFI plots as complementary reference data in forest inventory based on airborne laser scanning and aerial photography in Finland

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Impacts of winter feeding of reindeer on vegetation and soil in the sub-Arctic: insights from a feeding experiment

The overall impacts of winter feeding, including the effects of both forage and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), were studied in an experiment in the Hammastunturi herding cooperative (68&#x00B0;N), Finland, with 300 reindeer in a sub-xeric heath forest (35 ha) during March/April 2009 and 2010. The feeding practices on the 50 plots were: (1) feeding with grass silage+hay with leftovers cleared in the spring; (2) feeding with grass silage+hay with leftovers not cleared; and (3) feeding with pellets. In addition, (4) unfenced and (5) fenced control plots were included, on which the reindeer were not fed. No invasive plant species introduced through grass silage+hay were observed on the plots. The coverage of Deschampsia flexuosa increased on grass silage+hay plots after the first winter, and both coverage and height of the grass increased after the second winter. The coverage of Dicranum sp. and Pleurozium schreberi was lower on plots where reindeer were fed with grass silage (leftover silage not cleared) vs. controls. Some dwarf shrubs, e.g., Calluna vulgaris, showed a similar response after the second winter. The N content of Empetrum nigrum was higher on grass silage plots (leftover silage not cleared) after the first winter vs. controls. After two winters, the N content of both E. nigrum and Vaccinium myrtillus was increased. Of the soil variables studied, C/N decreased on grass silage+hay plots vs. fenced controls. We conclude that even a moderate level of feeding may cause changes that can lead to a gradual shift from nutrient-poor heath forest towards a more nutrient-rich type

Assessing the Nature of Lipid Raft Membranes

The paradigm of biological membranes has recently gone through a major update. Instead of being fluid and homogeneous, recent studies suggest that membranes are characterized by transient domains with varying fluidity. In particular, a number of experimental studies have revealed the existence of highly ordered lateral domains rich in sphingomyelin and cholesterol (CHOL). These domains, called functional lipid rafts, have been suggested to take part in a variety of dynamic cellular processes such as membrane trafficking, signal transduction, and regulation of the activity of membrane proteins. However, despite the proposed importance of these domains, their properties, and even the precise nature of the lipid phases, have remained open issues mainly because the associated short time and length scales have posed a major challenge to experiments. In this work, we employ extensive atom-scale simulations to elucidate the properties of ternary raft mixtures with CHOL, palmitoylsphingomyelin (PSM), and palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine. We simulate two bilayers of 1,024 lipids for 100 ns in the liquid-ordered phase and one system of the same size in the liquid-disordered phase. The studies provide evidence that the presence of PSM and CHOL in raft-like membranes leads to strongly packed and rigid bilayers. We also find that the simulated raft bilayers are characterized by nanoscale lateral heterogeneity, though the slow lateral diffusion renders the interpretation of the observed lateral heterogeneity more difficult. The findings reveal aspects of the role of favored (specific) lipid–lipid interactions within rafts and clarify the prominent role of CHOL in altering the properties of the membrane locally in its neighborhood. Also, we show that the presence of PSM and CHOL in rafts leads to intriguing lateral pressure profiles that are distinctly different from corresponding profiles in nonraft-like membranes. The results propose that the functioning of certain classes of membrane proteins is regulated by changes in the lateral pressure profile, which can be altered by a change in lipid content