Excavations at Dun Ardtreck, Skye, in 1964 and 1965

Dun Ardtreck stands on the west coast of Skye, on a rock knoll with a sheer cliff. It is a small D-shaped drystone strong-hold surrounded by an outer wall and could be one of a small group which had the high broch hollow wall but were not circular towers, termed semi brochs by the writer. The circumstantial evidence for the wall having originally been high is strong, although it is badly ruined now; however, the possibility that the wall was never more than of modest height cannot be completely ruled out. Construction was probably in the first or second centuries AD (Phase 1) and was followed by two distinct phases of occupation. Phase 2 was inside the higher-walled structure where there may have been a wooden roundhouse with a raised floor, although direct evidence is lacking; a central fireplace was not found. A fierce fire put an end to this occupation, the wall was pulled down and an iron door-handle left lying in the passage. A small Roman jar, possibly intact, had already arrived on the site. The ruins were re-occupied in Phase 3 after a ramp had been built against the entrance passage to make access easier. Roman material was inside this ramp and in the secondary deposits and, though it and the native pottery suggested that occupation did not continue beyond the third or fourth centuries, a sherd of E ware on top of this layer implies that it went on at least until AD 500, a conclusion supported by a piece of pumice from about AD 400. Some of the Roman material is unusual for an Atlantic site and there may be special reasons for its presence

Some excavations on the line of the Antonine Wall, 1994-2001

The results of over 30 separate excavations and watching briefs along the line of the Antonine Wall are presented. The alignment and character of the frontier works and fort defences were clarified in several places. New information was obtained regarding a possible enclosure on the north side of theWall near Auchendavy

UI Dark Patterns and Where to Find Them A Study on Mobile Applications and User Perception

A Dark Pattern (DP) is an interface maliciously crafted to deceive users into performing actions they did not mean to do. In this work, we analyze Dark Patterns in 240 popular mobile apps and conduct an online experiment with 589 users on how they perceive Dark Patterns in such apps. The results of the analysis show that 95% of the analyzed apps contain one or more forms of Dark Patterns and, on average, popular applications include at least seven different types of deceiving interfaces. The online experiment shows that most users do not recognize Dark Patterns, but can perform better in recognizing malicious designs if informed on the issue. We discuss the impact of our work and what measures could be applied to alleviate the issue

Self-assembled nanoreactors

Contains fulltext : 34415.pdf ( ) (Open Access

Near-infrared-emissive polymersomes: Self-assembled soft matter for in vivo optical imaging

We demonstrate that synthetic soft materials can extend the utility of natural vesicles, from predominantly hydrophilic reservoirs to functional colloidal carriers that facilitate the biomedical application of large aqueous-insoluble compounds. Near-infrared (NIR)-emissive polymersomes (50-nm- to 50-μm-diameter polymer vesicles) were generated through cooperative self assembly of amphiphilic diblock copolymers and conjugated multi(porphyrin)-based NIR fluorophores (NIRFs). When compared with natural vesicles comprised of phospholipids, polymersomes were uniquely capable of incorporating and uniformly distributing numerous large hydrophobic NIRFs exclusively in their lamellar membranes. Within these sequestered compartments, long polymer chains regulate the mean fluorophore–fluorophore interspatial separation as well as the fluorophore-localized electronic environment. Porphyrin-based NIRFs manifest photophysical properties within the polymersomal matrix akin to those established for these high-emission dipole strength fluorophores in organic solvents, thereby yielding uniquely emissive vesicles. Furthermore, the total fluorescence emanating from the assemblies gives rise to a localized optical signal of sufficient intensity to penetrate through the dense tumor tissue of a live animal. Robust NIR-emissive polymersomes thus define a soft matter platform with exceptional potential to facilitate deep-tissue fluorescence-based imaging for in vivo diagnostic and drug-delivery applications