"Un català mundial": Catalan Nationalism and the Early Works of Roberto Gerhard

The early works of Roberto Gerhard reflect the shifting cultural discourse within Catalan nationalism at the beginning of the twentieth century. As a means of fostering cultural independence from the rest of Spain, Catalan national sentiment gradually switched to the promotion of modernist ideologies, which were previously rejected in the defense and preservation of traditional culture. This paradigm shift in Catalan nationalism manifests in the music of Gerhard. Branded as "un català mundial" (an international Catalan), Gerhard sought to participate in the greater world of modern music. While in Switzerland studying commerce, the young Gerhard switched to the study of music. The events of World War I forced Gerhard, then studying in Germany, to return to Spain. In Barcelona, Gerhard studied with Felipe Pedrell from 1916 to 1921. Gerhard received his earliest musical successes with public performances and publication of a number of his works; however, unconvinced of his abilities, Gerhard traveled to Andalusia in a failed attempt to study with Manuel de Falla. Seeking out a new musical direction, Gerhard once again left Spain. He began his studies with Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna in 1923, following his teacher to Berlin. Gerhard's first atonal works appeared during this period, applying modernist techniques even in his overtly Catalan works. In 1929, he returned to Barcelona, and controversy quickly ensued after an all-Gerhard concert was held to celebrate his homecoming. A debate in the press following the concert took place between the conservative Lluís Millet, whose works conventionally incorporated traditional music, and Gerhard, a disciple of Schoenberg--each arguing for their visions of Catalan music. Gerhard's works from this period reflect an advanced synthesis of Catalan elements and modern music. While Gerhard utilized obvious markers of Catalan national identity (Catalan poetry, traditional music, choral singing, and the sardana), ultimately, what served to foster a stark contrast with the rest of Spain was the universality of his works. His musical activities in composition, research, and criticism echoed the shifting cultural dialogue within Catalonia; however, all was cut short in 1939 as a result of the Spanish Civil War, forcing Gerhard into exile

Inconsistent Divergence of Mitochondrial-DNA in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat

We have recently shown that the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat differ at a frequency of 1 per 62 bases in their nuclear DNA (Hypertension 1992;19:425-427). Given the origin of these strains this level of divergence was unexpected. To investigate the origin of this nuclear divergence we have examined mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA was isolated from SHR and WKY rats, digested with several restriction enzymes, electrophoresed in 1.0% agarose gels, and the fragments visualized with ethidium bromide staining. This approach allowed us to analyze 220 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA. No differences were detected between SHR and WKY rats. Comparison with the King-Holtzman rat strain produced differences at an average of 1 per 52 base pairs. We also examined several SHR and WKY rats from within our colonies and found no differences suggesting intrastrain homogeneity for mitochondrial DNA phenotypes. These data indicate that the SHR and WKY rat share a recent, common maternal ancestor. This result is consistent with the published origins of the SHR and WKY rat strains. Together with the nuclear divergence results, the data suggest that the original Wistar colony from which SHR and WKY rats were derived was probably highly polymorphic for nuclear genes

A national survey of clinical practice for the management of whiplash-associated disorders in UK emergency departments

Objective: To undertake a national survey to determine current practice for the management of whiplash injuries in UK emergency departments (ED). Methods: Postal questionnaire survey. 316 lead consultants from all UK ED with annual new attendances of over 50 000 people were asked to indicate the use of a range of treatments and the frequency with which these treatments were used. Samples of written advice were requested and content analysis was conducted and compared with survey responses. Results: The response rate was 79% (251/316). The intervention most frequently used was verbal advice to exercise, reported by 84% of respondents for most or all cases, and advice against the use of a collar (83%). Other treatments reported as being used frequently were written advice and anti-inflammatory medication. 106 consultants (42%) provided a sample of written materials. Reference to expected recovery and encouragement for early return to activities were included in less than 6%. Nearly 50% of written materials contained information on how to use a soft collar and 61% contained information on solicitors and pursuing a personal injury claim. There were important differences between reported verbal behaviours and written advice. Conclusion: Verbal advice is the primary method for managing whiplash injuries in ED and is usually supplemented by written advice. Within individual hospitals there is a lack of consistency between verbal and written advice. The promotion of personal injury claims is a common feature of written advice. Research is required to develop effective and consistent models of advice

NASA Applications for Computational Electromagnetic Analysis

Computational Electromagnetic Software is used by NASA to analyze the compatibility of systems too large or too complex for testing. Recent advances in software packages and computer capabilities have made it possible to determine the effects of a transmitter inside a launch vehicle fairing, better analyze the environment threats, and perform on-orbit replacements with assured electromagnetic compatibility

A pyrene-appended spiropyran for selective photo-switchable binding of Zn(II): UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy studies of binding and non-covalent attachment to graphene, graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes

PublishedArticleSynthesis of photo-switchable, Zn2+ sensitive hybrid materials was achieved by facile non-covalent functionalization of graphene, graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes with a pyrene-appended spiropyran. Solution phase binding studies, using UV–visible and fluorescence spectroscopy, indicated that the pyrene-spiropyran dyad was highly selective for Zn2+ over a range of potentially competitive cations and that binding occurred with 1:1 stoichiometry and a binding constant of K=1.4×104 mol−1 dm3 at 295 K. Zn2+ binding was promoted by UV irradiation or in darkness and reversed upon irradiation with visible light.Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Lessons Learned from OSIRIS-Rex Autonomous Navigation Using Natural Feature Tracking

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (Osiris-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to launch in September, 2016 to embark on an asteroid sample return mission. It is expected to rendezvous with the asteroid, Bennu, navigate to the surface, collect a sample (July 20), and return the sample to Earth (September 23). The original mission design called for using one of two Flash Lidar units to provide autonomous navigation to the surface. Following Preliminary design and initial development of the Lidars, reliability issues with the hardware and test program prompted the project to begin development of an alternative navigation technique to be used as a backup to the Lidar. At the critical design review, Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) was added to the mission. NFT is an onboard optical navigation system that compares observed images to a set of asteroid terrain models which are rendered in real-time from a catalog stored in memory on the flight computer. Onboard knowledge of the spacecraft state is then updated by a Kalman filter using the measured residuals between the rendered reference images and the actual observed images. The asteroid terrain models used by NFT are built from a shape model generated from observations collected during earlier phases of the mission and include both terrain shape and albedo information about the asteroid surface. As a result, the success of NFT is highly dependent on selecting a set of topographic features that can be both identified during descent as well as reliably rendered using the shape model data available. During development, the OSIRIS-REx team faced significant challenges in developing a process conducive to robust operation. This was especially true for terrain models to be used as the spacecraft gets close to the asteroid and higher fidelity models are required for reliable image correlation. This paper will present some of the challenges and lessons learned from the development of the NFT system which includes not just the flight hardware and software but the development of the terrain models used to generate the onboard rendered images