229 research outputs found
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Phil Davis: the process of acting
Phil Davis has had a distinguished career, receiving widespread acclaim for his âinvisibleâ acting. This article illuminates Davisâ approach to acting via a transcribed interview conducted at the âActing on Televisionâ symposium at the University of Reading in 2016. This material is framed by a contextualising introduction that proposes that John Flausâ concept of lamprotes is useful for understanding Davisâ acting. The interview is structured by four case studies exploring Davisâ work across a range of medium/genre contexts: feature film Vera Drake, docudrama The Curse of Steptoe, drama serial adaptation Bleak House and crime drama Sherlock
Land conversion in Amazonia and Northern South America : influences on regional hydrology and ecosystem response
Thesis (Ph. D. in the Field of Hydrology)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, February 2013."February 2013." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-358).A numerical model of the terrestrial biosphere (Ecosystem Demography Model) is compbined with an atmospheric model (Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System) to investigate how land conversion in the Amazon and Northern South America have changed the hydrology of the region, and to see if those changes are significant enough to produce an ecological response. Two numerical realizations of the structure and composition of terrestrial vegetation are used as boundary conditions in a simulation of the regional land surface and atmosphere. One realization seeks to capture the present day vegetation condition that includes human deforestation and land-conversion, the other is an estimate of the potential structure and composition of the region without human influence. Model output is assessed for consistent and significant differences in hydrometeorology. Locations that show compelling differences are taken as case studies. The seasonal biases in precipitation at these locations are then used to create perturbations to long-term climate datasets. These perturbations then drive long-term simulations of dynamic vegetation to see if the climate consistent with a potential regional vegetation could elicit a change in the vegetation equilibrium at the site. Results show that South American land conversion has had consistent impacts on the regional patterning of precipitation. At some locations, changes in precipitation are persistent and constitute a significant fraction of total precipitation. Land-conversion has decreased mean continental evaporation and increased mean moisture convergence. Case study simulations of long term vegetation dynamic indicate that a hydrologic climate consistent with regional potential vegetation can indeed have significant influence on ecosystem structure and composition, particularly in water limited growth conditions.by Ryan Gary Knox.Ph.D.in the Field of Hydrolog
A Photometrically and Morphologically Variable Infrared Nebula in L483
We present narrow and broad K-band observations of the Class 0/I source IRAS
18148-0440 that span 17 years. The infrared nebula associated with this
protostar in the L483 dark cloud is both morphologically and photometrically
variable on a time scale of only a few months. This nebula appears to be an
infrared analogue to other well-known optically visible variable nebulae
associated with young stars, such as Hubble's Variable Nebula. Along with
Cepheus A, this is one of the first large variable nebulae to be found that is
only visible in the infrared. The variability of this nebula is most likely due
to changing illumination of the cloud rather than any motion of the structure
in the nebula. Both morphological and photometric changes are observed on a
time scale only a few times longer than the light crossing time of the nebula,
suggesting very rapid intrinsic changes in the illumination of the nebula. Our
narrow-band observations also found that H_2 knots are found nearly twice as
far to the east of the source as to its west, and that H_2 emission extends
farther east of the source than the previously known CO outflow.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
Computationally-guided development of a chelated NHC-P iridium(I) complex for the directed hydrogen isotope exchange of aryl sulfones
Herein we report the rational, computationally-guided design of an iridium(I) catalyst system capable of enabling directed hy-drogen isotope exchange (HIE) with the challenging sulfone directing group. Substrate binding energy was used as a parame-ter to guide rational ligand design via an in-silico catalyst screen, resulting in a lead series of chelated iridium(I) NHC-phosphine complexes. Subsequent preparative studies show that the optimal catalyst system displays high levels of activity in HIE, and we demonstrate the labeling of a broad scope of substituted aryl sulfones. We also show that the activity of the cata-lyst is maintained at low pressures of deuterium gas, and apply these conditions to tritium radiolabeling, including the expedi-ent synthesis of a tritium-labeled drug molecule
Forecasting in dynamic factor models using Bayesian model averaging
This paper considers the problem of forecasting in dynamic factor models using Bayesian model averaging. Theoretical justifications for averaging across models, as opposed to selecting a single model, are given. Practical methods for implementing Bayesian model averaging with factor models are described. These methods involve algorithms which simulate from the space defined by all possible models. We discuss how these simulation algorithms can also be used to select the model with the highest marginal likelihood (or highest value of an information criterion) in an efficient manner. We apply these methods to the problem of forecasting GDP and inflation using quarterly U.S. data on 162 time series. For both GDP and inflation, we find that the models which contain factors do out-forecast an AR(p), but only by a relatively small amount and only at short horizons. We attribute these findings to the presence of structural instability and the fact that lags of dependent variable seem to contain most of the information relevant for forecasting. Relative to the small forecasting gains provided by including factors, the gains provided by using Bayesian model averaging over forecasting methods based on a single model are appreciable
Progress on the CO2 Removal and Compression System
The Carbon Dioxide Removal and Compression System (CRCS) is designed to perform both the Carbon Dioxide(CO2) removal and compress CO2 for further processing. The CRCS was designed as a lower power requirement option to the one currently being used on the International Space Station (ISS). This paper describes the final design, fabrication, assembly, and testing of the integrated CRCS. Initial results indicated that the spiral heaters used did not yield uniform heating within both the adsorption and compression beds. In addition, the heaters for the compression bed were insufficient and an additional HVAC jacket was employed to provide heat to the bed
A Fungal World: Could the Gut Mycobiome Be Involved in Neurological Disease?
The human microbiome has received decades of attention from scientific and medical research communities. The human gastrointestinal tract is host to immense populations of microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, archaea, and fungi (the gut microbiota). High-throughput sequencing and computational advancements provide unprecedented ability to investigate the structure and function of microbial communities associated with the human body in health and disease. Most research to date has largely focused on elucidating the bacterial component of the human gut microbiota. Study of the gut âmycobiota,â which refers to the diverse array of fungal species, is a relatively new and rapidly progressing field. Though omnipresent, the number and abundance of fungi occupying the human gut is orders of magnitude smaller than that of bacteria. Recent insights however, have suggested that the gut mycobiota may be intricately linked to health and disease. Evaluation of the gut mycobiota has shown that not only are the fungal communities altered in disease, but they also play a role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and influencing systemic immunity. In addition, it is now widely accepted that host-fungi and bacteria-fungi associations are critical to host health. While research of the gut mycobiota in health and disease is on the rise, little research has been performed in the context of neuroimmune and neurodegenerative conditions. Gut microbiota dysbiosis (specifically bacteria and archaea) have been reported in neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Alzheimer's, among others. Given the widely accepted bacteria-fungi associations and paucity of mycobiota-specific studies in neurological disease, this review discusses the potential role fungi may play in multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. Herein, we provide an overview of recent advances in gut mycobiome research and discuss the plausible role of both intestinal and non-intestinal fungi in the context of neuroimmune and neurodegenerative conditions
Florida-Friendly Landscapingâą Guidelines for Community Associations: Considerations for Selecting a Landscape Contractor and Writing an Effective Landscaping Contract
This document is intended to provide guidance to entities such as HOA community associations when developing a contract and hiring a landscape maintenance company to perform contracted service
Catastrophic photometric redshift errors: weak lensing survey requirements
We study the sensitivity of weak lensing surveys to the effects of
catastrophic redshift errors - cases where the true redshift is misestimated by
a significant amount. To compute the biases in cosmological parameters, we
adopt an efficient linearized analysis where the redshift errors are directly
related to shifts in the weak lensing convergence power spectra. We estimate
the number Nspec of unbiased spectroscopic redshifts needed to determine the
catastrophic error rate well enough that biases in cosmological parameters are
below statistical errors of weak lensing tomography. While the straightforward
estimate of Nspec is ~10^6 we find that using only the photometric redshifts
with z<=2.5 leads to a drastic reduction in Nspec to ~30,000 while negligibly
increasing statistical errors in dark energy parameters. Therefore, the size of
spectroscopic survey needed to control catastrophic errors is similar to that
previously deemed necessary to constrain the core of the z_s-z_p distribution.
We also study the efficacy of the recent proposal to measure redshift errors by
cross-correlation between the photo-z and spectroscopic samples. We find that
this method requires ~10% a priori knowledge of the bias and stochasticity of
the outlier population, and is also easily confounded by lensing magnification
bias. The cross-correlation method is therefore unlikely to supplant the need
for a complete spectroscopic redshift survey of the source population.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Building Capacity within Extension to Address Animal Agriculture in a Changing Climate
The Animal Agriculture in a Changing Climate project was formed to build capacity among Extension professionals and other livestock advisors to address climate change issues. We offer a case study of how a small team can build national capacity for new topics. We used a coordinated multiregional approach to leverage national efforts applied to locally relevant climatology, production systems, and climate issues. Key insights on overcoming challenges centered on (a) engaging audiences with local, historical trends and agricultural impacts, (b) beginning with adaptation, rather than mitigation of climate change, and (c) providing strategies for effectively communicating science during controversy. Program participants found the project valuable and substantially increased their ability and motivation to apply climate science
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