Tension and compression fatigue response of unnotched 3D braided composites

The unnotched compression and tension fatigue response of a 3-D braided composite was measured. Both gross compressive stress and tensile stress were plotted against cycles to failure to evaluate the fatigue life of these materials. Damage initiation and growth was monitored visually and by tracking compliance change during cycle loading. The intent was to establish by what means the strength of a 3-D architecture will start to degrade, at what point will it degrade beyond an acceptable level, and how this material will typically fail

Soft thought (in architecture and choreography)

This article is an introduction to and exploration of the concept of ‘soft thought’. What we want to propose through the definition of this concept is an aesthetic of digital code that does not necessarily presuppose a relation with the generative aspects of coding, nor with its sensorial perception and evaluation. Numbers do not have to produce something, and do not need to be transduced into colours and sounds, in order to be considered as aesthetic objects. Starting from this assumption, our main aim will be to reconnect the numerical aesthetic of code with a more ‘abstract’ kind of feeling, the feeling of numbers indirectly felt as conceptual contagions’, that are ‘conceptually felt but not directly sensed. The following pages will be dedicated to the explication and exemplification of this particular mode of feeling, and to its possible definition as ‘soft thought’

La misura del desiderio: corpi danza movimento nell’era digitale

Intervista a Stamatia Portanova, che espone gli esiti della sua ricerca, in cui ha indagato il rapporto tra le nuove tecnologie e la danza, per mostrare come le più recenti sperimentazioni delle tecnologie digitali dischiudano nuovi orizzonti in campo coreografico

Rhythm in Economic Space

The question of rhythm is a social, a cultural, and a political question. How to find a rhythm? And, more importantly, how can the economy find a rhythm, without tending towards the mastering of chaos and the prediction of unexpected events

In and out of Wonderland: a criti/chromatic stroll across postdigital culture

The contemporary info-proliferation is taking the ideal of a solid technological rationalism to its extreme point: the depletion of all bodies into ’informational cuts’, orderable bits and pieces of data fabric. The present contribution will discuss this process of datafication, trying to avoid any polarization along the ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ dualism, and any consequent excess of enthusiasm or critique. For this purpose, the essay will take the form of a stroll across post-digital culture, alternatively under the effects of a ‘red and a blue pill’ as the two main points of view already exemplified, in 1999, by Morpheus in the famous sci-fi movie The Matrix. To these two points of view, respectively identifiable as digital critique (going down the deep rabbit hole, and seeing that computers are playing today a leading role in what Gilles Deleuze and Fèlix Guattari have called ’capitalist schizophrenia’), or digital potential (remaining in a world of numeric dreams, a world populated not only by humans but also by bots, autonomous computer programs that are becoming increasingly able not only to post, but also to understand content and interact with people and, most importantly, to take aesth/ethical decisions), a yellow one will be added, which can be recognized as that of ‘hacker culture’, at the same time suggesting that, instead of a dialectical contraposition between two different perceptual and cognitive modalities, post-digital culture can be more easily discussed through a multiplication of possible perspective

Grades 4-5 Volume and Capacity

This is a science lesson for grades four through five on volume and capacity. Through this lesson, students will be able to understand what capacity and volume are and how to measure them, as well as how to distinguish which one they are measuring. The lesson is tiered in three levels based on ability. Within each tier the student will complete a shape contract where they choose tasks based on interest and ability

Putting Identity on Hold: Motion Capture and the Mystery of a Disappearing Blackness

The movement of black bodies has often been captured by motion-tracking/sensing technologies in different contexts and situations, from animation cinema to facial recognition, from art to police preemptive profiling. As often argued by critical and media theorists, digital technologies of this kind operate an interesting ambiguous datafication of the black body, by filtering data along a subtle and shifting border between the invisibility of the captured body and the visibility of its movement. This article will discuss the motion capture of Savion Glover’s tap dance performance for the animation movie Happy Feet. Applying an interdisciplinary perspective given by the encounter between dance and movement studies, philosophy and cultural studies, the article tries to move the discussion beyond the simple critique of digital technologies as neutralizing forms of representation, and beyond the theoretical and practical attempts to preserve a ‘lived-in’ and ‘body-specific’ experience of the racially identifiable body. Instead, a different theoretical perspective is given, through which the motion capture apparatus can be defined as a differential marker, a machine that allows for an ‘immediated calculation’ of movement and race. Amplifying the humanly and digitally limited understanding of experience as data elaboration (datum as object of perception and knowledge), and putting data in relation to feelings, it is possible to understand the digital capture as a way to preserve movement, its singularity or its ‘datum of difference’, from a universal sameness of movements without bodies

Modulatory effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate in Staphylococcus aureus toxin production genes transcription

Mestrado em Tecnologias Clínico-LaboratoriaisA resistência antimicrobiana de agentes patogénicos como o Staphylococcus aureus resistente à meticilina (MRSA) é uma enorme preocupação de saúde pública a nível mundial. Atualmente, várias abordagens de combate a estes microrganismos estão a ser desenvolvidas, incluindo a utilização de compostos com potencial terapêutico como as catequinas do chá verde. A epigalocatequina-3-galato (EGCG) é a catequina do chá com maior relevância clínica, apresentando um forte poder anti-inflamatório, antioxidante, anticancerígeno, antimicrobiano e demonstrando sinergismo com diversos antibióticos. A exposição a EGCG afeta a transcrição de vários genes em S. aureus, incluindo genes relacionados com fatores de virulência, como hlgA, hlgB que codificam subunidades hemolisantes gama A e B, respetivamente e hly, que codifica um precursor de alfa-hemolisina. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os efeitos da exposição ao EGCG nos padrões de transcrição de hlgA, hlgB e hly em estirpes de S. aureus com fenótipos de resistência divergentes. Foram utilizadas estirpes com diferentes origens, perfis de resistência, e sinergismo da EGCG com vários antibióticos. Os níveis transcricionais dos genes selecionados foram determinados por extração do RNA, conversão em cDNA e quantificação por qRT-PCR utilizando primers específicos, seguidas de tratamento estatístico. A análise de resultados demonstra que fenótipos de resistência divergentes estão associados a expressões transcricionais diferentes: mais elevadas nas estirpes nosocomiais que comensais, e mais reduzidos após exposição. Também se observou que hly teve maior expressão transcricional pré-exposição. Os dados analisados sugerem uma correlação entre a modulação epigenética e a expressão de fatores de virulência. Este estudo permite assim acumular evidências que sugerem que o EGCG pode ser uma nova opção terapêutica no combate à resistência a antibióticos.ABSTRACT - Antimicrobial resistance of pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major public health concern worldwide. Currently, several approaches are being developed to fight against these microorganisms, including the use of compounds with therapeutic potential such as green tea catechins. Epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG) is the most abundant catechin in tea and the most medically relevant, with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-carcinogenic properties, high antimicrobial potential, and reported synergism with several antibiotics. It has been shown that EGCG exposure alters the transcription of numerous genes in S. aureus, including genes implicated in toxins, such as hlgA, hlgB which encode the gamma haemolysing subunits A and B, respectively, and hly, which encodes for an alpha-hemolysin-precursor. In this study, we aimed to assess the effects of EGCG exposure in the transcriptional patterns of hlgA, hlgB, and hly in S. aureus strains with divergent resistance phenotypes. Transcriptional levels of selected genes were determined, by bacterial RNA extraction, conversion into cDNA, and quantification by qRT-PCR, followed by statistical treatment. Overall, our results show that divergent resistance phenotypes are associated with differential transcriptional expressions of the studied genes: upregulation in nosocomial strains, when compared to commensal ones, and downregulation after exposure to EGCG, although the patterns were different in hlgA and hlgB/hly. Also, hly had higher transcriptional expression before exposure to EGCG than the other two analyzed genes. Data suggests a correlation between epigenetic modulation and the expression of virulence factors namely hemolysins. This study increases scientific knowledge and has allowed the production of accumulating evidence to suggest that EGCG could be a novel therapeutic option in the fight against antibiotic resistance.N/

Strengths of balloon films with flaws and repairs

The effects of manufacture flaws and repairs in high altitude scientific balloons was examined. A right circular cylinder was used to induce a biaxial tension-tension stress field in the polyethlene film used to manufacture these balloons. A preliminary investigation of the effect that cylinder geometry has on stress rate as a function of inflation rate was conducted. The ultimate goal was to rank, by order of degrading effects, the flaws and repairs commonly found in current high altitude balloons