Taking into account sensory knowledge: the case of geo-techologies for children with visual impairments

This paper argues for designing geo-technologies supporting non-visual sensory knowledge. Sensory knowledge refers to the implicit and explicit knowledge guiding our uses of our senses to understand the world. To support our argument, we build on an 18 months field-study on geography classes for primary school children with visual impairments. Our findings show (1) a paradox in the use of non-visual sensory knowledge: described as fundamental to the geography curriculum, it is mostly kept out of school; (2) that accessible geo-technologies in the literature mainly focus on substituting vision with another modality, rather than enabling teachers to build on children's experiences; (3) the importance of the hearing sense in learning about space. We then introduce a probe, a wrist-worn device enabling children to record audio cues during field-trips. By giving importance to children's hearing skills, it modified existing practices and actors' opinions on non-visual sensory knowledge. We conclude by reflecting on design implications, and the role of technologies in valuing diverse ways of understanding the world

Metabolic Turnover of Synaptic Proteins: Kinetics, Interdependencies and Implications for Synaptic Maintenance

Chemical synapses contain multitudes of proteins, which in common with all proteins, have finite lifetimes and therefore need to be continuously replaced. Given the huge numbers of synaptic connections typical neurons form, the demand to maintain the protein contents of these connections might be expected to place considerable metabolic demands on each neuron. Moreover, synaptic proteostasis might differ according to distance from global protein synthesis sites, the availability of distributed protein synthesis facilities, trafficking rates and synaptic protein dynamics. To date, the turnover kinetics of synaptic proteins have not been studied or analyzed systematically, and thus metabolic demands or the aforementioned relationships remain largely unknown. In the current study we used dynamic Stable Isotope Labeling with Amino acids in Cell culture (SILAC), mass spectrometry (MS), Fluorescent Non-Canonical Amino acid Tagging (FUNCAT), quantitative immunohistochemistry and bioinformatics to systematically measure the metabolic half-lives of hundreds of synaptic proteins, examine how these depend on their pre/postsynaptic affiliation or their association with particular molecular complexes, and assess the metabolic load of synaptic proteostasis. We found that nearly all synaptic proteins identified here exhibited half-lifetimes in the range of 2-5 days. Unexpectedly, metabolic turnover rates were not significantly different for presynaptic and postsynaptic proteins, or for proteins for which mRNAs are consistently found in dendrites. Some functionally or structurally related proteins exhibited very similar turnover rates, indicating that their biogenesis and degradation might be coupled, a possibility further supported by bioinformatics-based analyses. The relatively low turnover rates measured here (∼0.7% of synaptic protein content per hour) are in good agreement with imaging-based studies of synaptic protein trafficking, yet indicate that the metabolic load synaptic protein turnover places on individual neurons is very substantial

Production control and optimisation in a group of coal preparation plants

Sieć powiązań pomiędzy grupą producentów węgla energetycznego i odbiorców produktów handlowych umożliwia wariantową konfigurację planów produkcyjnych poszczególnych kopalń dla wybranych odbiorców tak, aby spełnić warunki ogólnej umowy. Parametrami sterującymi w takim systemie są gęstości rozdziału w poszczególnych procesach wzbogacania oraz proporcje składników tworzących mieszanki energetyczne. Optymalizacja systemu polega na takim doborze parametrów rozdziału, aby maksymalizować efekty produkcyjne według przyjętego kryterium ekonomicznego (np. wartości lub ilości poszczególnych produktów). Przedstawiono zastosowanie modeli symulacyjnych układów technologicznych, sieci powiązań oraz ekonomicznych kryteriów produkcji do analizy całego systemu. Wyniki symulacji wskazują na możliwość uzyskania dodatkowych efektów ekonomicznych w wysokości od kilku do kilkunastu procent w stosunku do zwykle osiąganych w praktyce.A simulation analysis of production of several coal preparation plants for several clients of steam coal blends and clients of coal concentrates has been presented. The aim of simulation was to find the best combination of washed and unwashed fine coal in each plant and best proportion of products sent to each client. The criterion of optimization was the maximum overall tonnage of concentrates of required quality at the constant overall tonnage of the blend. The parameters of the simulation model for each plant were: tonnage of raw fines, washability characteristic, separation density of the fines washing process, desired ash contents in the blend and in concentrates. The simulation analysis showed the extreme character of the production process and demonstrated that it is possible to find the optimum way of production which can result in increase of the concentrate tonnage by 10-18%

Innovative Adaptive Control of Material Fatigue Test Machines Using an MCS Controller

The paper presents some issues related to the control of fatigue test machines based on W(t) parameter taking into account the simultaneous interaction of stress and strain. This parameter is defined as a product of these values. Such a research method represents a new approach in fatigue testing with an innovative control system. Because of the W(t) function characteristics, the system presents nonlinear behavior and there is a significant deterioration of the control quality and the controlled signal significantly differs from the reference signal waveform. This problem can be solved by introducing a nonlinear block into the feedback loop. Fatigue tests have been carried out for sinusoidal and randomized reference signal waveforms. These tests have proved that the controlled signal follows reference values with an appropriate control quality

Organization of Presynaptic Autophagy-Related Processes

Brain synapses pose special challenges on the quality control of their protein machineries as they are far away from the neuronal soma, display a high potential for plastic adaptation and have a high energy demand to fulfill their physiological tasks. This applies in particular to the presynaptic part where neurotransmitter is released from synaptic vesicles, which in turn have to be recycled and refilled in a complex membrane trafficking cycle. Pathways to remove outdated and damaged proteins include the ubiquitin-proteasome system acting in the cytoplasm as well as membrane-associated endolysosomal and the autophagy systems. Here we focus on the latter systems and review what is known about the spatial organization of autophagy and endolysomal processes within the presynapse. We provide an inventory of which components of these degradative systems were found to be present in presynaptic boutons and where they might be anchored to the presynaptic apparatus. We identify three presynaptic structures reported to interact with known constituents of membrane-based protein-degradation pathways and therefore may serve as docking stations. These are (i) scaffolding proteins of the cytomatrix at the active zone, such as Bassoon or Clarinet, (ii) the endocytic machinery localized mainly at the peri-active zone, and (iii) synaptic vesicles. Finally, we sketch scenarios, how presynaptic autophagic cargos are tagged and recruited and which cellular mechanisms may govern membrane-associated protein turnover in the presynapse

A new Approach to define Landmarks for Point-based Warping in Brain Imaging

. An accurate comparison of inter-individual 3D image datasets of brains requires warping techniques to reduce geometric variations. In this study we use a point-based method of warping with weighted sums of displacement vectors, which is extended by an optimization process. To improve the practicability of 3D warping, we investigate fast automatic procedures for determining landmarks. The combined approach was tested on 3D autoradiographs of brains of Mongolian gerbils. The landmark-generator is based on Monte-Carlo-techniques to detect corresponding reference points at edges of anatomical structures. The warping function is distance-weighted with landmark -specific weighting factors. These weighting factors are optimized by a computational evolution strategy. Within this optimization process the quality of warping is quantified by the sum of spatial differences of manually predefined registration points (registration error). The described approach combines a highly suita..