Out of the musical box

The present paper explores the correlations of music and architecture through a design studio project carried out by second year students of the Architecture programme at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom. In addition the paper looks into some of the most representative architects and composers who have materialized this connectivity between space and music. Last but not least this appraisal intends to illustrate how the students’ creative process and spatial understanding may be influenced by introducing music as an analogue to understand architecture

Rare fruits conservation: the case for public participation

Poster presented at 2nd International Symposium on Underutilised Plant Species: Crops for the Future - Beyond Food Security. Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) 27 Jun - 1 Jul 201

Bio-Electrochemical Sensor for Fast Analysis of Assimilable Organic Carbon in Seawater

A Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) based biosensor for the determination of Assimilable Organic Carbon (AOC) inseawater was developed by establishing an anodophilic marine biofilm on the surface of an electrode poised at +250mV (vs Ag/AgCl) rather than the traditionally used potentials of about -300 mV. A linear correlation (R2>0.99)between electrochemical signals (peak current) and acetate concentration ranging 10 to 55 μM was achieved.Usingthe positive anodic potential enabled the rapid establishment of the electrochemically active anodophilic biomasswithin a period of less than 8 days, a higher sensitivity (0.017 mA/μM acetate added) and a lower detection limit (2.5μM acetate, 0.16 mg O2/L of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)) compared to the negative anodic potential. Further,it was shown that this bio-electrochemical AOC sensor could tolerate the presence of low concentrations ofdissolved oxygen. The established potentiostat controlled MFC biosensor could be used for the purpose of onlinewater quality monitoring for seawater desalination plants prone to biofouling of RO membranes

Deformation of the Fermi surface in the extended Hubbard model

The deformation of the Fermi surface induced by Coulomb interactions is investigated in the t-t'-Hubbard model. The interplay of the local U and extended V interactions is analyzed. It is found that exchange interactions V enhance small anisotropies producing deformations of the Fermi surface which break the point group symmetry of the square lattice at the Van Hove filling. This Pomeranchuck instability competes with ferromagnetism and is suppressed at a critical value of U(V). The interaction V renormalizes the t' parameter to smaller values what favours nesting. It also induces changes on the topology of the Fermi surface which can go from hole to electron-like what may explain recent ARPES experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 4 ps figure

Comparative population genetics of mimetic Heliconius butterflies in an endangered habitat; Brazil's Atlantic Forest

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Brazil's Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot endangered by severe habitat degradation and fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation is expected to reduce dispersal among habitat patches resulting in increased genetic differentiation among populations. Here we examined genetic diversity and differentiation among populations of two <it>Heliconius </it>butterfly species in the northern portion of Brazil's Atlantic Forest to estimate the potential impact of habitat fragmentation on population connectivity in butterflies with home-range behavior.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We generated microsatellite, AFLP and mtDNA sequence data for 136 <it>Heliconius erato </it>specimens from eight collecting locations and 146 <it>H. melpomene </it>specimens from seven locations. Population genetic analyses of the data revealed high levels of genetic diversity in <it>H. erato </it>relative to <it>H. melpomene</it>, widespread genetic differentiation among populations of both species, and no evidence for isolation-by-distance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the extensive habitat fragmentation along Brazil's Atlantic Forest has reduced dispersal of <it>Heliconius </it>butterflies among neighboring habitat patches. The results also lend support to the observation that fine-scale population genetic structure may be common in <it>Heliconius</it>. If such population structure also exists independent of human activity, and has been common over the evolutionary history of <it>Heliconius </it>butterflies, it may have contributed to the evolution of wing pattern diversity in the genus.</p

Cortisol/Cortisone Levels and Quality of Life in Individuals with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH).

Individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension experience debilitating symptoms and psychological distress which may influence their cortisol regulation. We describe associations between diurnal salivary cortisol/cortisone levels and quality of life in adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Findings suggest potential clinical utility of cortisol/cortisone assessment as applied to a pulmonary arterial hypertension population

Clinical and economic burden associated with cardiovascular events among patients with hyperlipidemia: a retrospective cohort study

Onur Başer (MEF Author)Background: Annual direct costs for cardiovascular (CV) diseases in the United States are approximately $195.6 billion, with many high-risk patients remaining at risk for major cardiovascular events (CVE). This study evaluated the direct clinical and economic burden associated with new CVE up to 3 years post-event among patients with hyperlipidemia. Methods: Hyperlipidemic patients with a primary inpatient claim for new CVE (myocardial infarction, unstable angina, ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack, coronary artery bypass graft, percutaneous coronary intervention and heart failure) were identified using IMS LifeLink PharMetrics Plus data from January 1, 2006 through June 30, 2012. Patients were stratified by CV risk into history of CVE, modified coronary heart disease risk equivalent, moderate-and low-risk cohorts. Of the eligible patients, propensity score matched 243,640 patients with or without new CVE were included to compare healthcare resource utilization and direct costs ranging from the acute (1-month) phase through 3 years post-CVE date (follow-up period). Results: Myocardial infarction was the most common CVE in all the risk cohorts. During the acute phase, among patients with new CVE, the average incremental inpatient length of stay and incremental costs ranged from 4.4-6.2 days and$25,666-$30,321, respectively. Acute-phase incremental costs accounted for 61-75 % of first-year costs, but incremental costs also remained high during years 2 and 3 post-CVE. Conclusions: Among hyperlipidemic patients with new CVE, healthcare utilization and costs incurred were significantly higher than for those without CVE during the acute phase, and remained higher up to 3 years post-event, across all risk cohorts.WOS:000368239100003Scopus - Affiliation ID: 60105072PMID: 26769473Science Citation Index ExpandedQ3ArticleUluslararası işbirliği ile yapılan - EVETOcak2016YÖK - 2015-1

An objective based classification of aggregation techniques for wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks have gained immense popularity in recent years due to their ever increasing capabilities and wide range of critical applications. A huge body of research efforts has been dedicated to find ways to utilize limited resources of these sensor nodes in an efficient manner. One of the common ways to minimize energy consumption has been aggregation of input data. We note that every aggregation technique has an improvement objective to achieve with respect to the output it produces. Each technique is designed to achieve some target e.g. reduce data size, minimize transmission energy, enhance accuracy etc. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of aggregation techniques that can be used in distributed manner to improve lifetime and energy conservation of wireless sensor networks. Main contribution of this work is proposal of a novel classification of such techniques based on the type of improvement they offer when applied to WSNs. Due to the existence of a myriad of definitions of aggregation, we first review the meaning of term aggregation that can be applied to WSN. The concept is then associated with the proposed classes. Each class of techniques is divided into a number of subclasses and a brief literature review of related work in WSN for each of these is also presented

A robust approach to differentiate human monocyte-derived microglia from peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Microglia are implicated in most neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we present a robust and efficient protocol to differentiate monocyte-derived microglia-like cells (MDMi) from whole blood. The protocol consists of three parts. The first part will describe two methods for PBMC isolation. This will be followed by MDMi differentiation, and lastly, the characterization of MDMi by immunocytochemistry. MDMi can be used to investigate microglial-related responses in various age-related neurodegenerative diseases and can be applied to drug testing on a personalized basis. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Quek et al