Maintenance of transposon-free regions throughout vertebrate evolution

Background: We recently reported the existence of large numbers of regions up to 80 kb long that lack transposon insertions in the human, mouse and opossum genomes. These regions are significantly associated with loci involved in developmental and transcriptional regulation

Perception of soundscapes : an interdisciplinary approach

This paper takes an overall view of findings from the Positive Soundscape Project, a large inter-disciplinary soundscapes study. Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) have found that soundscape perception is influenced by cognitive effects such as the meaning of a soundscape and its components, and how information is conveyed by a soundscape, for example on the behaviour of people within the soundscape. Three significant clusters were found in the language people use to describe soundscapes: sound sources, sound descriptors and soundscape descriptors. Results from listening tests and soundwalks have been integrated to show that the two principal dimensions of soundscape emotional response seem to be calmness and vibrancy. Further, vibrancy seems to have two aspects: organisation of sounds and changes over time. The possible application of the results to soundscape assessment and design are briefly discussed

Designing touch-enabled electronic flight bags in SAR helicopter operations

In order to benefit from potential reduced operational costs and crew workload airlines are increasingly interested in touchscreen-based Electronic Flight Bags (EFB). This paper focuses on the specific domain of Search and Rescue (SAR) Helicopters. A first set of results aiming to explore and understand potential benefits and challenges of an EFB in a SAR environment will be presented. A review of related work, operational observations and interviews with pilots were conducted to understand and specify the use context. Digital Human Modelling (DHM) software was used to determine physical constraints of an EFB in this type of flight deck. A scenario was developed which will be used in future to define features, content and functionality that a SAR pilot may wish to see in an EFB. Developed initial interface design guidelines are presented

Ballistic protective properties of material representative of English civil war buff-coats and clothing

One type of clothing system used in the English Civil War, more common amongst cavalrymen than infantrymen, was the linen shirt, wool waistcoat and buff-coat. Ballistic testing was conducted to estimate the velocity at which 50% of 12-bore lead spherical projectiles (V50) would be expected to perforate this clothing system when mounted on gelatine (a tissue simulant used in wound ballistic studies). An estimated six-shot V50 for the clothing system was calculated as 102 m/s. The distance at which the projectile would have decelerated from the muzzle of the weapon to this velocity in free flight was triple the recognised effective range of weapons of the era suggesting that the clothing system would provide limited protection for the wearer. The estimated V50 was also compared with recorded bounce-and-roll data; this suggested that the clothing system could provide some protection to the wearer from ricochets. Finally, potential wounding behind the clothing system was investigated; the results compared favourably with seventeenth century medical writings

Developing standard pedestrian-equivalent factors: passenger car–equivalent approach for dealing with pedestrian diversity

Similar to vehicular traffic, pedestrians, despite having diverse capabilities and body sizes, can be classified as heterogeneous. The use of vehicular traffic resolves the diversity issue with a conversion of heterogeneous vehicle flow into an equivalent flow with the use of passenger car–equivalent (PCE) factors. Analysis of pedestrian flow has yet to incorporate pedestrian diversity analysis implicitly into the design of pedestrian facilities, although some form of adjustment has been suggested. This paper introduces the concept of PCE-type factors for mixed pedestrian traffic called standard pedestrian-equivalent (SPE) factors. Estimates of SPE factors are made relative to the average commuter. The equivalent total travel time approach for PCE estimation was adapted to consider the effects of the differences in physical and operational characteristics of pedestrians, particularly walking speed and body size. Microsimulation of pedestrians was employed to evaluate hypothetical pedestrian proportions so as to generate corresponding flow relationships. Walking speeds and body sizes were varied across different flow conditions, walkway widths, and proportions of other pedestrian types. The first part of this paper explores how the two pedestrian characteristics (walking speed and body size) influence estimated SPE factors. The second part is a case study in which field-collected data illustrate SPE factors calculated for older adults, obese pedestrians, and their combination. An application of SPE factors demonstrates the robustness of the methodology in bridging the gap between pedestrian compositions and planning practice

ENCODE whole-genome data in the UCSC Genome Browser

The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project is an international consortium of investigators funded to analyze the human genome with the goal of producing a comprehensive catalog of functional elements. The ENCODE Data Coordination Center at The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) is the primary repository for experimental results generated by ENCODE investigators. These results are captured in the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics database and download server for visualization and data mining via the UCSC Genome Browser and companion tools (Rhead et al. The UCSC Genome Browser Database: update 2010, in this issue). The ENCODE web portal at UCSC (http://encodeproject.org or http://genome.ucsc.edu/ENCODE) provides information about the ENCODE data and convenient links for access

Design Practice and ‘Designing for All’

Accepted for publicationIt is essential that all designers with responsibility for the human-machine interface have access to information on the anthropometry and capabilities of the whole population of people who may wish to interact with the design in question. Current databases used by designers typically present only very limited information concerning people who are older and/or disabled. Furthermore, tables of data are known to be largely ineffective and designers prefer to see visualisations of design data. In order to establish the current situation regarding design in relation to the needs of older and disabled people, existing products, procedures and systems were investigated. The objective was to identify current practice and the needs of designers whilst attempting to ‘design for all’. This paper will report on the findings from these interviews to date, which will ultimately lead to a requirements specification to aid design for the needs of older and disabled people