How Did an Indiana Librarian End Up in Italy Anyway?

I’m sometimes asked if I have Italian ancestry. The answer is no, not a bit. And yet for the last ten years or so I seem to have immersed myself in all things Italian when previously all I knew about Italy was from my two years of high school Latin, from my love of cooking, and from being involved in music since age six! In 1994 I decided to start taking Italian, and I have been sitting in on one class or another since then. As a result of that, I’ve led two Globus tours to Italy

Kualitas Semen Cair Babi Duroc dalam Pengencer Durasperm yang Disuplementasi Air Buah Lontar dan Sari Tebu

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh suplementasi air buah lontar (AbL) dan sari tebu (ST) dalam pengencer  durasperm terhadap kualitas semen cair babi duroc. Semen berasal dari tiga ekor babi jantan Duroc berumur dewasa yaitu  2-3 tahun dan dikoleksi dengan menggunakan glove hand method dua kali seminggu. Semen dievaluasi secara makroskopis dan mikroskopis, semen yang berkualitas baik dibagi menjadi tiga bagian dan dikenakan perlakuan: durasperm (PO), durasperm + AbL (P1), durasperm + ST (P2), selanjutnya disimpan dalam kotak Styrofoam bersuhu 18o - 20 oC. Pengamatan dilakukan setiap delapan jam sekali. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis menggunakan Analisis of Variance (ANOVA) dengan menggunakan program SPSS 20. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa persentase motilitas pada jam ke 64 menunjukan P1 40% lebih tinggi (P<0,05) daripada P2 (35.00±1.82) dan P0 (27.50±2.88). P1 memiliki persentase viabilitas spermatozoa 50.94±0.79 lebih tinggi (P<0,05) daripada P2 (45.50±1.94) dan P0 (37.75±3.48). P1 memiliki MPU 52.92±0.61 lebih tinggi dengan P2 (47.38±1.47) dan P0 (40.49±3.47). Abnormalitas dan pH tidak ada perbedaan nyata (P?0,05). Disimpulkan bahwa pengencer suplementasi air buah lontar (P1) efektif untuk mempertahankan motilitas, viabilitas, Abnormalitas, MPU dan menjaga pH tetap stabil

Electrostatic considerations affecting the calculated HOMO-LUMO gap in protein molecules.

A detailed study of energy differences between the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO-LUMO gaps) in protein systems and water clusters is presented. Recent work questioning the applicability of Kohn-Sham density-functional theory to proteins and large water clusters (E. Rudberg, J. Phys.: Condens. Mat. 2012, 24, 072202) has demonstrated vanishing HOMO-LUMO gaps for these systems, which is generally attributed to the treatment of exchange in the functional used. The present work shows that the vanishing gap is, in fact, an electrostatic artefact of the method used to prepare the system. Practical solutions for ensuring the gap is maintained when the system size is increased are demonstrated. This work has important implications for the use of large-scale density-functional theory in biomolecular systems, particularly in the simulation of photoemission, optical absorption and electronic transport, all of which depend critically on differences between energies of molecular orbitals.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Many-body position operator in lattice fermionic systems with periodic boundary conditions

A total position operator $X$ in the position representation is derived for lattice fermionic systems with periodic boundary conditions. The operator is shown to be Hermitian, the generator of translations in momentum space, and its time derivative is shown to correspond to the total current operator in a periodic system. The operator is such that its moments can be calculated up to any order. To demonstrate its utility finite size scaling is applied to the Brinkman-Rice transition as well as metallic and insulating Gutzwiller wavefunctions.Comment: to appear in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General (reference will be added later

Space Station Freedom data management system growth and evolution report

The Information Sciences Division at the NASA Ames Research Center has completed a 6-month study of portions of the Space Station Freedom Data Management System (DMS). This study looked at the present capabilities and future growth potential of the DMS, and the results are documented in this report. Issues have been raised that were discussed with the appropriate Johnson Space Center (JSC) management and Work Package-2 contractor organizations. Areas requiring additional study have been identified and suggestions for long-term upgrades have been proposed. This activity has allowed the Ames personnel to develop a rapport with the JSC civil service and contractor teams that does permit an independent check and balance technique for the DMS

Linear-scaling density-functional simulations of charged point defects in Al2O3 using hierarchical sparse matrix algebra

We present calculations of formation energies of defects in an ionic solid (Al(2)O(3)) extrapolated to the dilute limit, corresponding to a simulation cell of infinite size. The large-scale calculations required for this extrapolation are enabled by developments in the approach to parallel sparse matrix algebra operations, which are central to linear-scaling density-functional theory calculations. The computational cost of manipulating sparse matrices, whose sizes are determined by the large number of basis functions present, is greatly improved with this new approach. We present details of the sparse algebra scheme implemented in the ONETEP code using hierarchical sparsity patterns, and demonstrate its use in calculations on a wide range of systems, involving thousands of atoms on hundreds to thousands of parallel processes

“It’s like my life but more, and better!” - Playing with the Cathaby Shark Girls: MMORPGs, young people and fantasy-based social play

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 A B Academic Publishers.Digital technology has opened up a range of new on-line leisure spaces for young people. Despite their popularity, on-line games and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games in particular are still a comparatively under-researched area in the fields of both Education and more broadly Youth Studies. Drawing on a Five year ethnographic study, this paper considers the ways that young people use the virtual spaces offered by MMORPGs. This paper suggests that MMORPGs represent significant arenas within which young people act out a range of social narratives through gaming. It argues that MMORPG have become important fantasy spaces which offer young people possibilities to engage in what were formally material practices. Although this form of play is grounded in the everyday it also extends material practices and offers new and unique forms of symbolic experimentation, thus I argue that game-play narratives cannot be divorced from the everyday lives of their participants

Intermediate and high peri-operative cardiac enzyme release following isolated coronary artery bypass surgery are independently associated with higher one-year mortality

BACKGROUND: The relationship between cardiac enzyme (CE) release following coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and medium term outcome is unclear. We sought to determine the relationship between post-operative CE release and one-year survival following isolated CABG. METHODS: Over three years 3,024 consecutive patients underwent isolated CABG. Patient characteristics were prospectively recorded in a cardiac surgical database. CE release, taken as the highest single measurement recorded in the first 24 hours post-op, was abstracted from an electronic archive. All cause mortality was taken from a national registry of deaths. RESULTS: Data were complete for 2,860 (94.6%) patients. CK-MB isoenzyme (reference range 5–24 U/l) was recorded in 2,568 (89.8%), total CK in 292 (10.2%). CE release three or more times the upper limit of the reference range (ULR) were recorded in 498 (17.4%) patients, 163 (5.7%) patients had CE more than six times ULR. There were 122 deaths (4.3%). Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that CE release 3–6 times ULR (adjusted HR 2.1 [95% CI: 1.6 to 2.6], p = 0.002) and CE release six or more times the ULR (adjusted HR 5.0 [95% CI: 4.5 to 5.4], p < 0.001) were independently associated with increased one-year mortality. CONCLUSION: Cardiac enzyme release following CABG is associated with increased one-year all-cause mortality. The definition of peri-operative myocardial infarction following CABG should include elevation of CK-MB three or more times the upper limit of normal