Insights into DNA platination within unusual structural settings

2D [1H, 15N] HSQC NMR spectroscopy has been used to monitor reaction and product formation between [Pt(15NH3)2I2] and nucleic acids possessing irregular topologies and containing site specific phosphorothioate substitution in the phosphodiester backbone. Comparison of the reaction profiles of dimer nucleic acids with and without phosphorothioate substitution is made with their short nucleic acid counterparts containing the key dimer components. Whereas d(GpA) is relatively unreactive towards [Pt(15NH3)2I2], NMR evidence suggests that the tandem sheared mismatch duplex d(GCG3pAGC)2 reacts to form the head-to-tail inter-strand G3-N7-Pt-G3-N7 cross-link. The equivalent phosphorothioate R,S-d(GsA) reacts to form a mono-iodo, mono-sulphur adduct, whereas the tandem sheared mismatch phosphorothioate duplex d(GCGsAG5C)2 (VIs) reacts to form the unusual intra-strand macrochelate [Pt(15NH3)2{d(VIs-G5-N7)},S]2+ in which platinum is attached at both sulphur and G5-N7. Experimental evidence supports the formation of a stabilized mismatch duplex in which platinum is attached to two nitrogen centres in the sequence d(CGCGpTGCG) in contrast to R,S-d(CGCGsT5GCG) for which NMR evidence supports macrochelate-stabilized hairpin loop formation cross-linked at both phosphorothioate sulphur and T5-N

Haptic Wave

We present the Haptic Wave, a device that allows cross-modal mapping of digital audio to the haptic domain, intended for use by audio producers/engineers with visual impairments. We describe a series of participatory design activities adapted to non-sighted users where the act of prototyping facilitates dialog. A series of workshops scoping user needs, and testing a technology mock up and lo-fidelity prototype fed into the design of a final high-spec prototype. The Haptic Wave was tested in the laboratory, then deployed in real world settings in recording studios and audio production facilities. The cross-modal mapping is kinesthetic and allows the direct manipulation of sound without the translation of an existing visual interface. The research gleans insight into working with users with visual impairments, and transforms perspective to think of them as experts in non-visual interfaces for all users. This received the Best Paper Award at CHI 2016, the most prestigious human-computer interaction conference and one of the top-ranked conferences in computer science

Oceanographic influences on the sea ice cover in the Sea of Okhotsk

Sea ice conditions in the Sea of Okhotsk, as determined by satellite images from the electrically scanning microwave radiometer on board Nimbus 5, were analyzed in conjunction with the known oceanography. In particular, the sea ice coverage was compared with the bottom bathymetry and the surface currents, water temperatures, and salinity. It is found that ice forms first in cold, shallow, low salinity waters. Once formed, the ice seems to drift in a direction approximating the Okhotsk-Kuril current system. Two basic patterns of ice edge positioning which persist for significant periods were identified as a rectangular structure and a wedge structure. Each of these is strongly correlated with the bathymetry of the region and with the known current system, suggesting that convective depth and ocean currents play an important role in determining ice patterns

OntoCAT - an integrated programming toolkit for common ontology application tasks

OntoCAT provides high level abstraction for interacting with ontology resources including local ontology files in standard OWL and OBO formats (via OWL API) and public ontology repositories: EBI Ontology Lookup Service (OLS) and NCBO BioPortal. Each resource is wrapped behind easy to learn Java, Bioconductor/R and REST web service commands enabling reuse and integration of ontology software efforts despite variation in technologies

Rethinking Immersion

This presentation proposes that our understanding of immersive audio and how to create immersive sonic experiences might be enriched by looking at how different disciplines have defined “immersive”. We will primarily be drawing on theatre, heritage and gaming. We consider the key facets of immersion that researchers and practitioners working in these disciplines have proposed, and interrogate how insights from these disciplines may give us new and productive ways to think about immersive audio. We propose that reflecting on sound practices by way of these cross-disciplinary insights can give us novel ways of approaching immersive sonic experiences

Rethinking Immersive Audio

Musical experiences are often described as or aspire to be immersive. Immersive audio is seen as an innovative frontier of music, sometimes encompassing other cutting edge technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Dolby Atmos. However, conceptions of immersion remain reductive and simplistic. Through exploring how immersion is conceptualised in other domains, I interrogate the limits of immersive audio, and argue for a model of immersion that critically considers interactivity and participation. This draws on Small’s concept of musicking (1998) and Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of flow (2013). Immersive audio generally means multichannel audio, involving multiple speakers (or rendered through headphones to appear as such). Immersion becomes a technical challenge solved by more or better configured speakers and ever more realistic spatialising algorithms. Historically, discourses dating back to the very earliest days of stereophonic and multichannel audio have often privileged a “sweet spot” for an immobile but attentive listener (Grajeda, 2015). However, I argue that immersion emerges not from being in an idealised listener position but through being an active participant. Immersive experiences are not limited to sound, and within fields including heritage studies, gaming and theatre, experiences are often sold as being immersive. Scholarly literature in these domains interrogates the nature of this immersion and brings forth valuable perspectives. In her discussion of immersive heritage experiences, Kidd (2018) detaches immersion from technology and notes that “any and all heritage might potentially be understood as immersive.” For Kidd, key characteristics of immersive experiences include being “story-led, audience and participation centered, multimodal, multisensory and attuned to its environment.” Discussing immersion in video games, Collins (2013, p. 141) argues that rather than viewing the game as a separate space that players enter and are immersed in - as when one enters a concert hall - immersion emerges from interaction with the game. Van Elferen’s (2016) ALI model for analysing immersion in game music reveals how musical affect, literacy and interaction all play roles. As Bucher (2017) writes, immersion is “less about telling the viewer a story and more about letting the viewer discover the story.” Through exploring varying ideas of immersion we problematise this oft-used phrase and propose a model for immersion that considers interaction, affect and participation. References Bucher, J. 2017. Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles. New York and Oxon: Routledge. Collins, K., 2013. Playing with sound: a theory of interacting with sound and music in video games. MIT press. Csikszentmihalyi, M., 2013. Flow: The psychology of happiness. Random House. Grajeda, T. 2015. “The “Sweet Spot”: The Technology of Stereo and the Field of Auditorship” in Théberge, P., Devine, K., and Everrett, T (eds.) Living Stereo : Histories and Cultures of Multichannel Sound. Bloomsbury Academic. Kidd, J., 2018.” 'Immersive' heritage encounters”. The Museum Review, 3(1). Small, C. 1998. Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Wesleyan University Press. Van Elferen, I. 2016 "Analyzing game musical immersion: the ALI model." in Kamp, M., Summers, T., and Sweeney, M. (eds.) Ludomusicology: approaches to video game music. Equinox

Palladium, platinum, and gold distribution in serpentinite seamounts in the Mariana and Izu-Bonin forearcs: evidence from Leg 125 fluids and serpentinites

Palladium, platinum, and gold were analyzed for 20 interstitial water samples from Leg 125. No Pd or Pt was detected in fluids from serpentinite muds from Conical Seamount in the Mariana forearc, indicating that low-temperature seawater-peridotite interaction does not mobilize these elements into the serpentinizing fluids to levels above 0.10 parts per billion (ppb) in solution. However, Au may be mobilized in high pH solutions. In contrast, fluids from vitric-rich clays on the flanks of the Torishima Seamount in the Izu-Bonin forearc have Pd values of between 4.0 and 11.8 nmol/L, Pt values between 2.3 and 5.0 nmol/L and Au values between 126.9 and 1116.9 pmol/L. The precious metals are mobilized, and possibly adsorbed onto clay mineral surfaces, during diagenesis and burial of the volcanic-rich clays. Desorption during squeezing of the sediments may produce the enhanced precious metal concentrations in the analyzed fluids. The metals are mobilized in the fluids probably as neutral hydroxide, bisulfide, and ammonia complexes. Pt/Pd ratios are between 0.42 and 2.33, which is much lower than many of the potential sources for Pt and Pd but is consistent with the greater solubility of Pd compared with Pt in most natural low-temperature fluids

Palladium, platinum, and gold distribution in serpentinite seamounts in the Mariana and Izu-Bonin forearcs: evidence from Leg 125 fluids and serpentinites

Palladium, platinum, and gold were analyzed for 20 interstitial water samples from Leg 125. No Pd or Pt was detected in fluids from serpentinite muds from Conical Seamount in the Mariana forearc, indicating that low-temperature seawater-peridotite interaction does not mobilize these elements into the serpentinizing fluids to levels above 0.10 parts per billion (ppb) in solution. However, Au may be mobilized in high pH solutions. In contrast, fluids from vitric-rich clays on the flanks of the Torishima Seamount in the Izu-Bonin forearc have Pd values of between 4.0 and 11.8 nmol/L, Pt values between 2.3 and 5.0 nmol/L and Au values between 126.9 and 1116.9 pmol/L. The precious metals are mobilized, and possibly adsorbed onto clay mineral surfaces, during diagenesis and burial of the volcanic-rich clays. Desorption during squeezing of the sediments may produce the enhanced precious metal concentrations in the analyzed fluids. The metals are mobilized in the fluids probably as neutral hydroxide, bisulfide, and ammonia complexes. Pt/Pd ratios are between 0.42 and 2.33, which is much lower than many of the potential sources for Pt and Pd but is consistent with the greater solubility of Pd compared with Pt in most natural low-temperature fluids

Reconstructing thawing quintessence with multiple datasets

In this work we model the quintessence potential in a Taylor series expansion, up to second order, around the present-day value of the scalar field. The field is evolved in a thawing regime assuming zero initial velocity. We use the latest data from the Planck satellite, baryonic acoustic oscillations observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and Supernovae luminosity distance information from Union2.1 to constrain our models parameters, and also include perturbation growth data from the WiggleZ, BOSS and the 6dF surveys. The supernova data provide the strongest individual constraint on the potential parameters. We show that the growth data performance is competitive with the other datasets in constraining the dark energy parameters we introduce. We also conclude that the combined constraints we obtain for our model parameters, when compared to previous works of nearly a decade ago, have shown only modest improvement, even with new growth of structure data added to previously-existent types of data.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures and 1 table. Version 2 with minor changes to match Physical Review D accepted versio