Herding cats: observing live coding in the wild

After a momentous decade of live coding activities, this paper seeks to explore the practice with the aim of situating it in the history of contemporary arts and music. The article introduces several key points of investigation in live coding research and discusses some examples of how live coding practitioners engage with these points in their system design and performances. In the light of the extremely diverse manifestations of live coding activities, the problem of defining the practice is discussed, and the question raised whether live coding will actually be necessary as an independent category

Systematic review of nutritional interventions for people admitted to hospital for alcohol withdrawal

Aim: The aim of this review is to describe the nature of nutritional interventions for people admitted to hospital for alcohol withdrawal reported in the scientific literature and the health outcomes achieved. Methods: The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42017081884). The following databases were systematically searched following the PRISMA protocol: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science. Eligible studies were those published in English, in a hospital inpatient setting with the primary reason for admission being alcohol withdrawal. Studies of patient populations with the diagnosis of pancreatitis or liver cirrhosis were excluded. Studies were screened for eligibility, and data were extracted and descriptively analysed. Identified articles were assessed using the Quality Criteria Checklist for Primary Research produced by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Results: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Given the heterogeneity of studies, only a descriptive analysis of interventions could be achieved. Nutrition interventions included supplementation with thiamine, multivitamins, amino acids, antioxidant compounds, probiotics, magnesium or were educational interventions. Outcome measures included memory function, biochemical and anthropometrical indices, withdrawal symptoms, bowel flora levels and nutrition knowledge. However, the overall body of evidence was limited, particularly as there was a wide variation in participant age, study designs and duration of interventions. Conclusions: A wide range of nutrition interventions were identified, mostly involving nutrient supplements ameliorating inadequacies. Future research might also consider total dietary interventions as well as studies on the perspectives of people undergoing alcohol withdrawal

Performance of the HgCdTe detector for MOSFIRE, an imager and multi-object spectrometer for Keck Observatory

MOSFIRE is a new multi-object near-infrared spectrometer for the Keck 1 telescope with a spectral resolving power of R~3500 for a 0.7″ slit (2.9 pixels). The detector is a substrate-removed 2K × 2K HAWAII 2-RG HgCdTe array from Teledyne Imaging Sensors with a cut-off wavelength of 2.5 μm and an operational temperature of 77K. Spectroscopy of faint objects sets the requirement for low dark current and low noise. MOSFIRE is also an infrared camera with a 6.9′ field of view projected onto the detector with 0.18″ pixel sampling. Broad-band imaging drives the requirement for 32-channel readout and MOSFIREs fast camera optics implies the need for a very at detector. In this paper we report the final performance of the detector selected for MOSFIRE. The array is operated using the SIDECAR ASIC chip inside the MOSFIRE dewar and v2.3 of the HxRG software. Dark current plus instrument background is measured at <0.008 ē s^(−1) pixel^−1 on average. Multiple Correlated Double Sampling (MCDS) and Up-The-Ramp (UTR) sampling are both available. A read noise of <5ē rms is achieved with MCDS 16 and the lowest noise of 3ē rms occurs for 64 samples. Charge persistence depends on exposure level and shows a large gradient across this detector. However, the decay time constant is always ~660 seconds. Linearity and stability are also discussed

The Effects of Prior Caffeine Ingestion on Respiratory and Cardiovascular Responses During Submaximal Exercise in Trained and Untrained Women

Introduction: Caffeine consumption prior to exercise has been shown to produce beneficial effects during subsequent exercise in trained men. These benefits include decreased RPE, reduced respiratory exchange ratio (RER), and decreased oxygen deficit. While these effects have been demonstrated in men, little work has been done to evaluate the effects of prior caffeine ingestion on exercise responses in untrained women. Methods: Twelve women (6 trained, 6 untrained) completed two submaximal bouts of cycling, at 60% of maximal HR, 45 min after consuming either caffeine (3 mg/kg) or a placebo. During these bouts, RPE, RER, VO2, and HR were measured, and oxygen deficit was calculated post-exercise. Data were analyzed using a mixed model ANOVA with two independent groups, trained and untrained, and two caffeine conditions repeated across participants. Results: Caffeine was found to significantly decrease RER values during exercise (F(1,10)=22.62, p\u3c0.01) across groups with caffeine being responsible for about 69% (η2=0.69) of the change in RER. Although not significant, all participants reported lower RPE values during exercise after caffeine ingestion (F(1,10)=4.42, p=0.06), caffeine being responsible for about 31% (η2=0.306) of the change seen in RPE. Caffeine was not found to have a significant effect on VO2 (F(1,10)=2.00, p=0.19) or HR (F(1,10)=2.40, p=0.15) during exercise, or on measures of oxygen deficit (F(1,10)=0.48, p=0.51); however, the trained group did have a significantly higher oxygen deficit than the untrained group (F(1,10)=5.35, p=.04). There were no significant interactions between the caffeine treatment and group for any dependent variable. Conclusion: These results indicate that ingesting caffeine 45 min prior to exercise can lead to increased fat oxidation and lowered RPE without affecting VO2 or HR during submaximal exercise

Spectropolarimetry of the H-alpha line in Herbig Ae/Be stars

Using the HiVIS spectropolarimeter built for the Haleakala 3.7m AEOS telescope, we have obtained a large number of high precision spectropolarimetrc observations (284) of Herbig AeBe stars collected over 53 nights totaling more than 300 hours of observing. Our sample of five HAeBe stars: AB Aurigae, MWC480, MWC120, MWC158 and HD58647, all show systematic variations in the linear polarization amplitude and direction as a function of time and wavelength near the H-alpha line. In all our stars, the H-alpha line profiles show evidence of an intervening disk or outflowing wind, evidenced by strong emission with an absorptive component. The linear polarization varies by 0.2% to 1.5% with the change typically centered in the absorptive part of the line profile. These observations are inconsistent with a simple disk-scattering model or a depolarization model which produce polarization changes centered on the emmissive core. We speculate that polarized absorption via optical pumping of the intervening gas may be the cause.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Identifying Young Brown Dwarfs Using Gravity-Sensitive Spectral Features

We report the initial results of the Brown Dwarf Spectroscopic Survey Gravity Project, to study gravity sensitive features as indicators of youth in brown dwarfs. Low-resolution (R~2000) J-band and optical (R~1000) observations using NIRSPEC and LRIS at the W.M. Keck Observatory reveal transitions of TiO, VO, K I, Na I, Cs I, Rb I, CaH, and FeH. By comparing these features in late-type giants and in old field dwarfs we show that they are sensitive to the gravity (g = GM/R^2) of the object. Using low-gravity spectral signatures as age indicators, we observed and analyzed J-band and optical spectra of two young brown dwarfs, G 196-3B (20-300 Myr) and KPNO Tau-4 (1-2 Myr), and two possible low mass brown dwarfs in the sigma Orionis cluster (3-7 Myr). We report the identification of the phi bands of TiO near 1.24 microns and the A-X band of VO near 1.18 microns together with extremely weak J-band lines of K I in KPNO-Tau4. This is the first detection of TiO and VO in the J-band in a sub-stellar mass object. The optical spectrum of KPNO-Tau4 exhibits weak K I and Na I lines, weak absorption by CaH, and strong VO bands, also signatures of a lower gravity atmosphere. G 196-3B shows absorption features in both wavelength regions like those of KPNO-Tau4 suggesting that its age and mass are at the lower end of published estimates. Whereas sigma Ori 51 appears to be consistent with a young sub-stellar object, sigma Ori 47 shows signatures of high gravity most closely resembling an old L1.5/L0, and can not be a member of the sigma Orionis cluster.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the January 10, 2004 issue of the Astrophysical Journa