345 research outputs found
Art, Creativity and Automation. From Charters to Shared 3D Visualization Practices
In this study, we introduce the themes of the Special Issue on Art, Creativity and Automation. Sharing 3D Visualization Practices in Archaeology, and present the most important outcomes of a roundtable session involving prominent researchers in the field, organized by the authors during the Archon Winter School in February 2020. By assessing the diversity of research aims, artistic projects, creative practices and technology used in the contributions to the Special Issue, and drawing on the thoughts and perspectives generated during the roundtable discussion, we seek to identify shared challenges within the community of visualizers which could ultimately pave the way to shared practices. In this light, we assess whether established charters and guidelines are still relevant in a now matured digital archaeology, where visualization techniques have attained a central position in archaeological knowledge production. Although parts of the guidelines have become common practice, the remainder did not keep up with the fast pace of development of digital practice and its current fundamental role in archaeology, and as a result some of the guidelines risk becoming obstructive in archaeological creative practice.Material Culture Studie
Finite-temperature relativistic Landau problem and the relativistic quantum Hall effect
This paper presents a study of the free energy and particle density of the
relativistic Landau problem, and their relevance to the quantum Hall effect. We
study first the zero temperature Casimir energy and fermion number for Dirac
fields in a 2+1-dimensional Minkowski space-time, in the presence of a uniform
magnetic field perpendicular to the spatial manifold. Then, we go to the
finite-temperature problem, with a chemical potential, introduced as a uniform
zero component of the gauge potential. By performing a Lorentz boost, we obtain
Hall's conductivity in the case of crossed electric and magnetic fields.Comment: Final version, to appear in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and
Genera
Human Cytomegalovirus: detection of congenital and perinatal infection in Argentina
BACKGROUND: Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the most commonly found agents of congenital infections. Primary maternal infection is associated with risk of symptomatic congenital diseases, and high morbidity is frequently associated with very low birth weight. Neonates with asymptomatic infection develop various sequelae during infancy. This is the first Argentine study performed in neonates with congenital and postnatal HCMV infection. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique with different pairs of primers, to detect cytomegalovirus isolated in tissue cultures and directly in urine and dried blood spot (DBS) specimens. Results were compared with IgM detection. METHODS: The study was performed between 1999 and 2001 on routine samples in the Laboratory. A total of 61 urine and 56 serum samples were selected from 61 newborns/infants, 33 patients whose samples were analyzed during the first two to three weeks of life were considered congenital infections; the remaining 28 patients whose samples were taken later than the third week were grouped as perinatal infections, although only in 4 the perinatal transmission of infection was determined unequivocally Cytomegalovirus diagnosis was made by isolating the virus from urine samples in human foreskin fibroblast cells. Three different primer pairs directed to IE, LA and gB genes were used for the HCMV PCR assay in viral isolates. Subsequently, PCR and nested PCR (nPCR) assays with gB primers were performed directly in urine and in 11 samples of dried blood spot (DBS) on Guthrie Card, these results were then compared with serology. RESULTS: The main clinical manifestations of the 33 patients with congenital infection were purpura, jaundice, hepatomegaly and anaemia. Three patients presented low birth weight as single symptom, 10, intracranial calcifications, and 2, kidney failure. In the 28 patients grouped as with perinatal infection, anaemia, hepatosplenomegaly and enzymatic alteration were predominant, and 4 patients were HIV positive. The primers used to amplify the gB region had a PCR positivity rate of 100%, whereas those that amplified IE and LA regions had a PCR positivity rate of 54% and 61% respectively, in CMV isolates. Amplification by PCR of urine samples (with no previous DNA extraction), using primers for the gB region, detected 34/61 positive samples. Out of the 33 samples from patients with congenital infection, 24 (73%) were positive. When nPCR was used in these samples, all were positive, whereas in the remaining 28 patients, two negative cases were found. Cytomegalovirus DNA detection in 11 samples was also carried out in DBS: 7 DBS samples were positive and 4 were negative. CONCLUSIONS: Primers directed to the gB fragment region were the best choice for the detection of CMV DNA in positive isolates. In congenital infections, direct PCR in urine was positive in a high percentage (73%) of samples; however, in patients grouped as with perinatal infection only 36% of the cases were positive. With n-PCR, total sample positivity reached 97%. PCR technique performed in DBS allowed identifying congenital infection in four patients and to be confirmed in 3. These results show the value of nPCR for the detection of all cases of CMV infection. The assay offers the advantage that it may be performed within the normal working day and provides reliable results in a much shorter time frame than that required for either traditional tissue culture or the shell-viral assay
Guia del automovilista desde Malaga a las provincias de Andalucia y Madrid : region andaluza: planos
Copia Digital : Diputación de Málaga. Biblioteca Cánovas del Castillo, 201
Bronze and Iron Age salt production on the Italian Tyrrhenian coast:An overview
A synthesis of the current knowledge of the so-called Italian giacimenti a olle d’impasto rossiccio (reddish jar potsherd deposits) is presented. These sites are common along the Tyrrhenian side of Central Italy and are usually interpreted as salt-production sites, because of parallels with similar European specialised sites. In the latter, salt was obtained by boiling a brine in special disposable pottery, a technique known as briquetage. However, the analogies are not straightforward and alternative hypotheses, e.g. fish-processing, and a more complex intertwined economy have also been put forward. To solve the interpretation issues, we advocate to use a multidisciplinary approach involving quantification of the ceramics encountered, establishment of their morphological and functional typologies, and physico/chemical analyses to identify their use
TA treatment of depression : a hermeneutic single-case efficacy design study - 'Sara'
This study is the first of a series of three, and represents
an Italian systematic replication of previous UK findings
(Widdowson 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013) that
investigated the effectiveness of a recently manualised
transactional analysis treatment for depression with
British clients, using Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy
Design (HSCED). The various stages of HSCED as a
systematic case study research method are described,
as a quasi-judicial method to sift case evidence in which
researchers construct opposing arguments around
quantitative and qualitative multiple source evidences
and judges evaluate these for and against propositions
to conclude whether the client changed substantially over
the course of therapy and that the outcome was
attributable to the therapy. The therapist in this case was
a white Italian woman with 10 years clinical experience
and the client, Sara, was a 62-year old white Italian
woman with moderate depression and three recent
bereavements, who attended sixteen sessions of
transactional analysis therapy. The diagnosis is based on
the new DSM-5 criteria that allow differentiation between
Depression and Bereavement. The conclusion of the
judges was that this was a good-outcome case: the client
improved early over the course of the therapy, reported
positive experience of therapy and maintained the
improvement at the end of the follow-up
Hacia un Catálogo Colectivo de Publicaciones Periodicas del Area Agropecuria: realidad y prospectiva
A brief history and development of presents stages made for the compilation of the Collective Catalogue Serials Agricultural Area (CCPPAA). Detailed assessments, changes and adjustments applied. Stock of what is done and acted exposed some prospects for the future
Pp65 antigenemia, plasma real-time PCR and DBS test in symptomatic and asymptomatic cytomegalovirus congenitally infected newborns
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many congenitally cytomegalovirus-infected (cCMV) neonates are at risk for severe consequences, even if they are asymptomatic at birth. The assessment of the viral load in neonatal blood could help in identifying the babies at risk of sequelae.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the present study, we elaborated the results obtained on blood samples collected in the first two weeks of life from 22 symptomatic and 48 asymptomatic newborns with cCMV diagnosed through urine testing. We evaluated the performances of two quantitative methods (pp65 antigenemia test and plasma Real-time PCR) and the semi-quantitative results of dried blood sample (DBS) test in the aim of identifying a valid method for measuring viral load.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Plasma qPCR and DBS tests were positive in 100% of cases, antigenemia in 81%. Only the latter test gave quantitatively different results in symptomatic versus asymptomatic children. qPCR values of 10<sup>3 </sup>copies/ml were found in 52% of newborn. "Strong" DBS test positivity cases had higher median values of both pp65 positive PBL and DNA copies/ml than cases with a "weak" positivity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>As expected antigenemia test was less sensitive than molecular tests and DBS test performed better on samples with higher rates of pp65 positive PBL and higher numbers of DNA copies/ml. The prognostic significance of the results of these tests will be evaluated on completion of the ongoing collection of follow-up data of these children.</p
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