It’s all about you: immersive theatre and social networking

Since the millennium, immersive theatre has developed and emerged into the mainstream, with companies like Punchdrunk enjoying immense popular success. This shift in the theatre world has corresponded to significant changes in technology. Alongside the advent of Google and the entrance of video gaming into public consciousness, the popularity of social networking has proved such that it has quickly become an intrinsic part of many people’s everyday lives. Currently almost a billion people, one-seventh of the world’s population, log into Facebook daily, and that figure is rising. As the time spent on social media escalates, it inevitably impacts on how we think, behave and communicate, with effects reaching far beyond the self to every corner of our lives, theatre included. Building on theories recently presented by neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, this paper considers the relationship between social networking and mind change in theatre audiences. In particular, it focuses on how changing patterns in our communication and relationships with others, and in our construction of identity and sense of self, have brought about corresponding changes in what we want as audience members, and in the context of supply and demand, have responded to and shaped immersive theatre

The cyber simulation terrain: Towards an open source cyber effects simulation ontology

Cyber resilience is characterised by an ability to understand and adapt to changing network conditions, including cyber attacks. Cyber resilience may be characterised by an effects-based approach to missions or processes. One of the fundamental preconditions underpinning cyber resilience is an accurate representation of current network and machine states and what missions they are supporting. This research outlines the need for an ontological network representation, drawing on existing literature and implementations in the domain. This work then introduces an open-source ontological representation for modelling cyber assets for the purposes of Computer Network Defence. This representation encompasses computers, network connectivity, users, software, vulnerabilities and exploits and aims for interoperability with related representations in common use. The utility of this work is highlighted against a functional use-case depicting a realistic operational network and mission. Finally, a future research direction is defined

Cholangitis and Budd Chiari Syndrome as Complications of Simple Cystic Liver Disease

We report the case of a 63 year old woman who developed the complications of cholangitis and Budd Chiari syndrome secondary to polycystic disease of the liver. The two complications were not present simultaneously, and both resolved after decompression of the liver cysts

Cell-Type-Specific Cytokinin Distribution within the Arabidopsis Primary Root Apex

Cytokinins (CKs) play a crucial role in many physiological and developmental processes at the levels of individual plant components (cells, tissues, and organs) and by coordinating activities across these parts. High-resolution measurements of intracellular CKs in different plant tissues can therefore provide insights into their metabolism and mode of action. Here, we applied fluorescence-activated cell sorting of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-marked cell types, combined with solid-phase microextraction and an ultra-high-sensitivity mass spectrometry (MS) method for analysis of CK biosynthesis and homeostasis at cellular resolution. This method was validated by series of control experiments, establishing that protoplast isolation and cell sorting procedures did not greatly alter endogenous CK levels. The MS-based method facilitated the quantification of all the well known CK isoprenoid metabolites in four different transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana lines expressing GFP in specific cell populations within the primary root apex. Our results revealed the presence of a CK gradient within the Arabidopsis root tip, with a concentration maximum in the lateral root cap, columella, columella initials, and quiescent center cells. This distribution, when compared with previously published auxin gradients, implies that the well known antagonistic interactions between the two hormone groups are cell type specific

Food insecurity: Its prevalence and relationship to fruit and vegetable consumption

Background Food insecurity in UK households is a substantial and growing concern. The present study identified those at risk of food insecurity and explored the relationship between food security and fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods Data were examined from the Food and You survey (2016) for a large representative sample (n = 3118) living in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A ‘Food Security Score’ and a ‘Food Changes Score’ (relating to financially driven changes to food habits) were compiled and relationships with fruit and vegetable consumption were examined. Results The prevalence of marginal, low and very low food security was 12.6%, 5.4% and 2.8%, respectively. Significant correlations were observed between food security and fruit and vegetable consumption. Food security and food changes, independently, were significant predictors for fruit and vegetable consumption. With every unit increment in the Food Security Score (i.e., more food insecure), an 11% decrease in the odds of being a high fruit and vegetable consumer was evident. Likewise, the odds of being a high fruit and vegetable consumer decreases by 5% with every increment in the financially driven Food Changes Score. Conclusions A notable proportion (more than one‐fifth) experienced marginal, low or very low food security. Food insecurity and financially driven food changes were accompanied by decreases in the odds of being a high fruit and vegetable consumer. Findings underline the potential consequences of food insecurity, and point to further work aiming to examine other dietary implications, as well as strategies to mitigate against food insecurity and its detriment

Likelihood for generally coarsened observations from multi-state or counting process models

We consider first the mixed discrete-continuous scheme of observation in multistate models; this is a classical pattern in epidemiology because very often clinical status is assessed at discrete visit times while times of death or other events are observed exactly. A heuristic likelihood can be written for such models, at least for Markov models; however, a formal proof is not easy and has not been given yet. We present a general class of possibly non-Markov multistate models which can be represented naturally as multivariate counting processes. We give a rigorous derivation of the likelihood based on applying Jacod's formula for the full likelihood and taking conditional expectation for the observed likelihood. A local description of the likelihood allows us to extend the result to a more general coarsening observation scheme proposed by Commenges & G\'egout-Petit. The approach is illustrated by considering models for dementia, institutionalization and death

Managing BRCA Mutation Carriers in China: Reply

published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 31 May 201