Premature termination of the transmission of immunity in the runted mouse.

Hybrid mice undergoing a graft-versus-host reaction showed a decreased ability to gain a passive immunity by the passage of fed antibody across the gut to the circulation. `Cut-off', the cessation of uptake of antibody from the gut, occurs in normal mice at the age of 15–17 days. In runted mice, cut-off was virtually completed at age 11 days

Poetry in design

This paper describes an attempt to use poetry in design as an access door to experience cultural elements and embed them in the design of meaningful aesthetic interactions. Not only do poems tell a story, but their language and the way they play with the subtleties of that language also tell us a lot about cultural values, feelings, beliefs and judgments. This approach is exemplified by reporting on an educational activity carried out in the "Cultural Sensitivity" module of the Master’s Degree Program in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). By illustrating and discussing actual implemented students’ projects, a conceptual framework for employing poetry in design is provided

Haptic beats : designing for rich haptic interaction in a music controller

This paper describes the design of Haptic Beats, a tangible interface that addresses two functionalities in music control: volume change and affective shuffle through playlists and songs. Through reflections on the iterative design process we discuss how to design for rich haptic interaction. By layering different types of haptic feed forward modules, we developed an interface with rich haptic interaction. Haptic Beats enables users to fully attune to a continuous loop of action and feed forward, triggering them to use cognitive, emotional as well as perceptual-motor skills by addressing their tactile sense. The prototype demonstrates how haptics could enrich future products and support aesthetic interaction

Determining the absolute abundance of dinoflagellate cysts in recent marine sediments : the Lycopdium marker-grain method put to the test

Absolute abundances (concentrations) of dinoflagellate cysts are often determined through the addition of Lycopodium clavatum marker-grains as a spike to a sample before palynological processing. An inter-laboratory calibration exercise was set up in order to test the comparability of results obtained in different laboratories, each using its own preparation method. Each of the 23 laboratories received the same amount of homogenized splits of four Quaternary sediment samples. The samples originate from different localities and consisted of a variety of lithologies. Dinoflagellate cysts were extracted and counted, and relative and absolute abundances were calculated. The relative abundances proved to be fairly reproducible, notwithstanding a need for taxonomic calibration. By contrast, excessive loss of Lycopodium spores during sample preparation resulted in non-reproducibility of absolute abundances. Use of oxidation, KOH, warm acids, acetolysis, mesh sizes larger than 15 µm and long ultrasonication (> 1 min) must be avoided to determine reproducible absolute abundances. The results of this work therefore indicate that the dinoflagellate cyst worker should make a choice between using the proposed standard method which circumvents critical steps, adding Lycopodium tablets at the end of the preparation and using an alternative method

Challenging industry conceptions with provotypes

Design researchers have an important role to play when engaged with user-driven design projects in industry. Design researchers can craft ethnographic material to facilitate transfers of user-knowledge to industry, and demonstrate how this material can be used in the design of new products and services. However, ethnographic findings can reveal issues that are in tension with conceptions of the project members from industry. Instead of brushing these tensions aside, we propose provotyping (provocative prototyping) as an approach to constructively build on them as a resource for change. Provotypes are ethnographically rooted, technically working, robust artefacts that deliberately challenge stakeholder conceptions by reifying and exposing tensions that surround a field of organisational interest. \ud \ud The daily and local experience of provotypes aims to stir dialectical processes of reflection on how conceptions currently are, and fuel the front end of a development process by speculating how conceptions could be different. In this article we start by making explicit the relation between provotypes, practices of critical design and organisational sense-making. We then illustrate, through a multi-stakeholder project concerning the field of indoor climate, how provotypes facilitate transfers of user knowledge to industry, and how they contribute to the development of new products and services. We end by framing the role of the design researcher and discuss the politics that are inherent to design provocations

Inhibited coarsening of a sprayformed and extruded hypereutectic aluminium-silicon alloy in the semi-solid state

The microstructural evolution of a sprayformed and extruded hypereutectic aluminium-30% silicon-5% copper-2% magnesium alloy heated into the semi-solid state has been investigated. Liquid is formed initially by a quaternary eutectic reaction and then by a ternary melt reaction. These reactions occur relatively quickly. However, the binary Al-Si eutectic melt reaction takes a significant time – around several hours depending on the temperature. The coarsening rate constants (K) for the growth of the silicon particles are approximately 3 to 4 orders of magnitude lower than those for the majority of metal sprayformed alloys. This may be associated with difficulties in addition or removal of atoms from the low index silicon facets. Where growth does occur, agglomeration of silicon particles may play a large role, especially at higher liquid contents. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) gives evidence of agglomeration, and furthermore shows that high angle silicon-silicon boundaries are not wetted with liquid