Museums and Children: A Design Guide

The goals of this applied research project were to identify important issues and related design implications through the study of children\u27s museums. Research methods included case studies, literature reviews, and interviews with national experts. The analysis generated design principles applicable to many museum types and similar environments such as zoos, aquaria and visitor\u27s centers. This project was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.https://dc.uwm.edu/caupr_mono/1017/thumbnail.jp

Origins Space Telescope: trades and decisions leading to the baseline mission concept

International audienceThe Origins Space Telescope will trace the history of our origins from the time dust and heavy elements permanently altered the cosmic landscape to present-day life. How did galaxies evolve from the earliest galactic systems to those found in the universe today? How do habitable planets form? How common are life-bearing worlds? We describe how Origins was designed to answer these alluring questions. We discuss the key decisions taken by the Origins mission concept study team, the rationale for those choices, and how they led through an exploratory design process to the Origins baseline mission concept. To understand the concept solution space, we studied two distinct mission concepts and descoped the second concept, aiming to maximize science per dollar and hit a self-imposed cost target. We report on the study approach and describe the concept evolution. The resulting baseline design includes a 5.9-m diameter telescope cryocooled to 4.5 K and equipped with three scientific instruments. The chosen architecture is similar to that of the Spitzer Space Telescope and requires very few deployments after launch. The cryo-thermal system design leverages James Webb Space Telescope technology and experience

Alternating temperatures affect life table parameters of Phytoseiulus persimilis, Neoseiulus californicus (Acari: Phytoseiidae) and their prey Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Increasing energy costs force glasshouse growers to switch to energy saving strategies. In the temperature integration approach, considerable daily temperature variations are allowed, which not only have an important influence on plant growth but also on the development rate of arthropods in the crop. Therefore, we examined the influence of two constant temperature regimes (15 A degrees C/15 A degrees C and 20 A degrees C/20 A degrees C) and one alternating temperature regime (20 A degrees C/5 A degrees C, with an average of 15 A degrees C) on life table parameters of Phytoseiulus persimilis and Neoseiulus californicus and their target pest, the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae at a 16:8 (L:D) h photoperiod and 65 +/- A 5 % RH. For females of both predatory mites the alternating temperature regime resulted in a 25-30 % shorter developmental time as compared to the corresponding mean constant temperature regime of 15 A degrees C/15 A degrees C. The immature development of female spider mites was prolonged for 7 days at 15 A degrees C/15 A degrees C as compared to 20 A degrees C/5 A degrees C. With a daytime temperature of 20 A degrees C, no differences in lifetime fecundity were observed between a nighttime temperature of 20 and 5 A degrees C for P. persimilis and T. urticae. The two latter species did show a higher lifetime fecundity at 20 A degrees C/5 A degrees C than at 15 A degrees C/15 A degrees C, and their daily fecundity at the alternating regime was about 30 % higher than at the corresponding mean constant temperature. P. persimilis and T. urticae showed no differences in sex ratio between the three temperature regimes, whereas the proportion of N. californicus females at 15 A degrees C/15 A degrees C (54.2 %) was significantly lower than that at 20 A degrees C/5 A degrees C (69.4 %) and 20 A degrees C/20 A degrees C (67.2 %). Intrinsic rates of increase were higher at the alternating temperature than at the corresponding mean constant temperature for both pest and predators. Our results indicate that thermal responses of the studied phytoseiid predators to alternating temperature regimes used in energy saving strategies in glasshouse crops may have consequences for their efficacy in biological control programs

Common variants at the MHC locus and at chromosome 16q24.1 predispose to Barrett's esophagus

Barrett's esophagus is an increasingly common disease that is strongly associated with reflux of stomach acid and usually a hiatus hernia, and it strongly predisposes to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), a tumor with a very poor prognosis. We report the first genome-wide association study on Barrett's esophagus, comprising 1,852 UK cases and 5,172 UK controls in the discovery stage and 5,986 cases and 12,825 controls in the replication stage. Variants at two loci were associated with disease risk: chromosome 6p21, rs9257809 (P combined = 4.09 × 10-9; odds ratio (OR) = 1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) =1.13-1.28), within the major histocompatibility complex locus, and chromosome 16q24, rs9936833 (P combined = 2.74 × 10-10; OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.10-1.19), for which the closest protein-coding gene is FOXF1, which is implicated in esophageal development and structure. We found evidence that many common variants of small effect contribute to genetic susceptibility to Barrett's esophagus and that SNP alleles predisposing to obesity also increase risk for Barrett's esophagus. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved