Creative Writing through the Arts. Final summary report

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Creative Writing through the Arts. Final full report.

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Dealing with mobility: Understanding access anytime, anywhere

The rapid and accelerating move towards the adoption and use of mobile technologies has increasingly provided people and organisations with the ability to work away from the office and on the move. The new ways of working afforded by these technologies are often characterised in terms of access to information and people ‘anytime, anywhere’. This paper presents a study of mobile workers that highlights different facets of access to remote people and information, and different facets of anytime, anywhere. Four key factors in mobile work are identified from the study: the role of planning, working in ‘dead time’, accessing remote technological and informational resources, and monitoring the activities of remote colleagues. By reflecting on these issues, we can better understand the role of technology and artefact use in mobile work and identify the opportunities for the development of appropriate technological solutions to support mobile workers

CD1d expression demarcates CDX4+ hemogenic mesoderm with definitive hematopoietic potential

To achieve efficient, reproducible differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) towards specific hematopoietic cell-types, a comprehensive understanding of the necessary cell signaling and developmental trajectories involved is required. Previous studies have identified the mesodermal progenitors of extra-embryonic-like and intra-embryonic-like hemogenic endothelium (HE), via stage-specific WNT and ACTIVIN/NODAL, with GYPA/GYPB (CD235a/b) expression serving as a positive selection marker for mesoderm harboring exclusively extra-embryonic-like hemogenic potential. However, a positive mesodermal cell-surface marker with exclusively intra-embryonic-like hemogenic potential has not been identified. Recently, we reported that early mesodermal expression of CDX4 critically regulates definitive HE specification, suggesting that CDX4 may act in a cell-autonomous manner during hematopoietic development. To identify CDX4+ mesoderm, we performed single cell (sc)RNAseq on hPSC-derived mesodermal cultures, revealing CDX

Real-Time and Low-Cost Sensing Technique Based on Photonic Bandgap Structures

This paper was published in OPTICS LETTERS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.002707. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] A technique for the development of low-cost and high-sensitivity photonic biosensing devices is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this technique, a photonic bandgap structure is used as transducer, but its readout is performed by simply using a broadband source, an optical filter, and a power meter, without the need of obtaining the transmission spectrum of the structure; thus, a really low-cost system and real-time results are achieved. Experimental results show that it is possible to detect very low refractive index variations, achieving a detection limit below 2 x 10(-6) refractive index units using this low-cost measuring technique. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America[This work was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN) under contracts TEC2008-06333, JCI-009-5805, and TEC2008-05490. Support by the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia through program PAID-06-09 and the Conselleria d'Educacio through program GV-2010-031 is acknowledged.García Castelló, J.; Toccafondo, V.; Pérez Millán, P.; Sánchez Losilla, N.; Cruz, JL.; Andres, MV.; García-Rupérez, J. (2011). Real-Time and Low-Cost Sensing Technique Based on Photonic Bandgap Structures. Optics Letters. 36(14):2707-2709. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.002707S270727093614Fan, X., White, I. M., Shopova, S. I., Zhu, H., Suter, J. D., & Sun, Y. (2008). Sensitive optical biosensors for unlabeled targets: A review. Analytica Chimica Acta, 620(1-2), 8-26. doi:10.1016/j.aca.2008.05.022Homola, J., Yee, S. S., & Gauglitz, G. (1999). Surface plasmon resonance sensors: review. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 54(1-2), 3-15. doi:10.1016/s0925-4005(98)00321-9Kersey, A. D., Davis, M. A., Patrick, H. J., LeBlanc, M., Koo, K. P., Askins, C. G., … Friebele, E. J. (1997). Fiber grating sensors. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 15(8), 1442-1463. doi:10.1109/50.618377De Vos, K., Bartolozzi, I., Schacht, E., Bienstman, P., & Baets, R. (2007). Silicon-on-Insulator microring resonator for sensitive and label-free biosensing. Optics Express, 15(12), 7610. doi:10.1364/oe.15.007610Iqbal, M., Gleeson, M. A., Spaugh, B., Tybor, F., Gunn, W. G., Hochberg, M., … Gunn, L. C. (2010). Label-Free Biosensor Arrays Based on Silicon Ring Resonators and High-Speed Optical Scanning Instrumentation. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 16(3), 654-661. doi:10.1109/jstqe.2009.2032510Xu, D.-X., Vachon, M., Densmore, A., Ma, R., Delâge, A., Janz, S., … Schmid, J. H. (2010). Label-free biosensor array based on silicon-on-insulator ring resonators addressed using a WDM approach. Optics Letters, 35(16), 2771. doi:10.1364/ol.35.002771Skivesen, N., Têtu, A., Kristensen, M., Kjems, J., Frandsen, L. H., & Borel, P. I. (2007). Photonic-crystal waveguide biosensor. Optics Express, 15(6), 3169. doi:10.1364/oe.15.003169Lee, M. R., & Fauchet, P. M. (2007). Nanoscale microcavity sensor for single particle detection. Optics Letters, 32(22), 3284. doi:10.1364/ol.32.003284García-Rupérez, J., Toccafondo, V., Bañuls, M. J., Castelló, J. G., Griol, A., Peransi-Llopis, S., & Maquieira, Á. (2010). Label-free antibody detection using band edge fringes in SOI planar photonic crystal waveguides in the slow-light regime. Optics Express, 18(23), 24276. doi:10.1364/oe.18.024276Toccafondo, V., García-Rupérez, J., Bañuls, M. J., Griol, A., Castelló, J. G., Peransi-Llopis, S., & Maquieira, A. (2010). Single-strand DNA detection using a planar photonic-crystal-waveguide-based sensor. Optics Letters, 35(21), 3673. doi:10.1364/ol.35.003673Luff, B. J., Wilson, R., Schiffrin, D. J., Harris, R. D., & Wilkinson, J. S. (1996). Integrated-optical directional coupler biosensor. Optics Letters, 21(8), 618. doi:10.1364/ol.21.000618Sepúlveda, B., Río, J. S. del, Moreno, M., Blanco, F. J., Mayora, K., Domínguez, C., & Lechuga, L. M. (2006). Optical biosensor microsystems based on the integration of highly sensitive Mach–Zehnder interferometer devices. Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, 8(7), S561-S566. doi:10.1088/1464-4258/8/7/s41Densmore, A., Vachon, M., Xu, D.-X., Janz, S., Ma, R., Li, Y.-H., … Schmid, J. H. (2009). Silicon photonic wire biosensor array for multiplexed real-time and label-free molecular detection. Optics Letters, 34(23), 3598. doi:10.1364/ol.34.003598Povinelli, M. L., Johnson, S. G., & Joannopoulos, J. D. (2005). Slow-light, band-edge waveguides for tunable time delays. Optics Express, 13(18), 7145. doi:10.1364/opex.13.007145Garcia, J., Sanchis, P., Martinez, A., & Marti, J. (2008). 1D periodic structures for slow-wave induced non-linearity enhancement. Optics Express, 16(5), 3146. doi:10.1364/oe.16.003146Pérez-Millán, P., Torres-Peiró, S., Cruz, J. L., & Andrés, M. V. (2008). Fabrication of chirped fiber Bragg gratings by simple combination of stretching movements. Optical Fiber Technology, 14(1), 49-53. doi:10.1016/j.yofte.2007.07.00

A simple mooring modification reduces impacts on seagrass meadows

AbstractMoorings can have a detrimental impact on seagrass, fragmenting the meadows, resulting in the habitat degradation. To reduce contact of the moorings with the seabed we attached small floats along the chain of a traditional swing mooring and monitored the ecological impacts of this modified mooring, with reference to a standard swing mooring, in a seagrass meadow under high tidal influence. After three years, seagrass density surrounding the modified mooring was over twice as high as that of the standard mooring, with blade length surrounding the modified mooring also found to exceed that of the standard mooring. Seagrass-associated epifaunal species richness was twice as high surrounding the modified mooring compared to the standard mooring. Sediment composition was considerably finer at the modified mooring, indicative of increased disturbance surrounding the standard mooring. A simple modification to existing swing moorings can mitigate some of the impacts of moorings on seagrass meadows, whilst accommodating for tidal fluctuations. The scale of the differences observed between the mooring types demonstrates the susceptibility of seagrass meadows to damage from swing moorings. Given the ecological importance of these habitats, it is crucial that action is taken to reduce further degradation, such as that demonstrated here.</jats:p

Unlocking the role of a genital herpesvirus, otarine herpesvirus 1, in California sea lion cervical cancer

This research was funded by the Geoffrey Hughes Research Fellowship and The Marine Mammal Center.Urogenital carcinoma in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) is the most common cancer of marine mammals. Primary tumors occur in the cervix, vagina, penis, or prepuce and aggressively metastasize resulting in death. This cancer has been strongly associated with a sexually transmitted herpesvirus, otarine herpesvirus 1 (OtHV1), but the virus has been detected in genital tracts of sea lions without cancer and a causative link has not been established. To determine if OtHV1 has a role in causing urogenital carcinoma we sequenced the viral genome, quantified viral load from cervical tissue from sea lions with (n = 95) and without (n = 163) urogenital carcinoma, and measured viral mRNA expression using in situ mRNA hybridization (Basescope®) to quantify and identify the location of OtHV1 mRNA expression. Of the 95 sea lions diagnosed with urogenital carcinoma, 100% were qPCR positive for OtHV1, and 36% of the sea lions with a normal cervix were positive for the virus. The non-cancer OtHV1 positive cases had significantly lower viral loads in their cervix compared to the cervices from sea lions with urogenital carcinoma. The OtHV1 genome had several genes similar to the known oncogenes, and RNA in situ hybridization demonstrated high OtHV1 mRNA expression within the carcinoma lesions but not in normal cervical epithelium. The high viral loads, high mRNA expression of OtHV1 in the cervical tumors, and the presence of suspected OtHV1 oncogenes support the hypothesis that OtHV1 plays a significant role in the development of sea lion urogenital carcinoma.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe