The impact of Nintendo’s "for men" advertising campaign on a potential female market

In order to emphasize the maturation of their hand-held console and increase its appeal to an adult market, Nintendo's UK advertising campaign for the Game Boy Advance SP drew explicitly upon 'lad' culture and a tongue-in-cheek appropriation of cologne advertising. In this campaign, the lead and most prominent promotional advert for the device used an image of the Game Boy with the tagline "For Men". This paper outlines why Nintendo's decision to present the Game Boy as a male accessory prompted exploration into its potential impact on the female market. Much of the emerging research field examining female participation in game cultures had at that point tended to focus its attention on exploring the experiences of different female groups with a variety of software titles and its associated communities. In contrast, this paper addresses participants' perceptions of the gaming industry and its relevance to them as a (potential) consumer by taking a hardware device as its focus. This was achieved by conducting a series of focus groups, with a range of both experienced and inexperienced female game players, during which participants were asked to engage with the hand-held device and experience both its single and networked game-play capabilities with the game Legend of Zelda. The findings address participants' awareness and views on the extent to which gaming is coded male and its ramifications for their participation in game cultures

Tuning a fuzzy controller using quadratic response surfaces

Response surface methodology, an alternative method to traditional tuning of a fuzzy controller, is described. An example based on a simulated inverted pendulum 'plant' shows that with (only) 15 trial runs, the controller can be calibrated using a quadratic form to approximate the response surface

Negotiating the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement

Difficult and sensitive issues will command the attention of US and Korean officials as they negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). The United States will have to put long-standing US barriers to Korean exports of textiles, apparel, and steel on the table and resolve problems with South Korean access to the US visa waiver program. In turn, South Korea will have to open new opportunities for US goods and services, including autos, beef, and rice. Such a deal will pose a stiff political challenge for Korean officials. However, they will be under pressure in any event to reform their farm programs--either in the context of a final deal in the WTO talks or in response to Chinese initiatives in the region, which Korea will need to match. Both Korea and the United States also have important foreign policy interests in the FTA, particularly enhanced security on the Korean peninsula. South Korea would like the FTA to promote the policy of constructive engagement with North Korea, which the former has been pursuing by extending trade preferences to goods produced in the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea. However, such a request would put the entire negotiation in jeopardy since the US Congress would reject preferences for the North Korean regime.

Time to peak effect of aspirin-induced platelet inhibition and ex vivo effects of desmopressin: An observational study

Objective: To investigate time to maximal platelet inhibition after an oral loading dose of ASA. The effect of ex vivo reversal platelet inhibition by desmopressin (DDAVP) was also studied. Methods: Ten healthy volunteers were given a 300 mg ASA-tablet. Blood was sampled at 0, 15, 30, 60, 120 and 180 minutes. DDAVP was added to the samples taken at 120 minutes. Samples were analysed with a Multiplate® platelet aggregometer (MEA) using arachidonic acid (AA), collagen and thrombin aggregation agonists. Results: Platelet inhibition was observed in the sample activated by AA at 15 minutes but not until 120 minutes in the samples activated by collagen. No platelet inhibition was seen in the samples activated by thrombin. The median time to maximal AA-induced platelet inhibition of <30 U was 30 (interquartile range 15-90) minutes. Ex vivo DDAVP did not reverse platelet inhibition. Subgroup analysis did not show any gender differences. Conclusions: ASA induces a strong platelet inhibition within 30 minutes of oral ingestion, with no gender differences. Ex vivo DDAVP did not reverse ASA’s platelet inhibition

Positionen zur Mathematikausbildung von Ingenieuren

In den vom Gottlob-Frege-Zentrum initiierten Workshops Mathematik für Ingenieure werden regelmäßig Ideen und Erfahrungen zur Stärkung und Modernisierung der Mathematikausbildung ausgetauscht. Die folgenden Positionen sind nicht neu, harren aber immer noch einer erfolgreichen Umsetzung. Sie sollen den vielfältigen Bemühungen Nachdruck verleihen und das Bündnis aller Betroffenen organisieren

Untersuchungen zu Außenmembranproteinen von Umweltchlamydien

Außenmembranproteine der obligat intrazellulären Chlamydien spielen, neben der Stabilisierung und der Differenzierung der Zelle im zweiphasigen Entwicklungszyklus, auch bei der Anheftung an die Wirtszellen, der Aufnahme von Nährstoffen und der Abgabe von Stoffwechselendprodukten eine wichtige Rolle. Erste Genomanalysen zeigten wesentliche Unterschiede bezüglich codierter Außenmembranproteine, die auf eine unterschiedliche Zusammensetzung der äußeren Membran der Chlamydiaceae und der Umweltchlamydien Simkania negevensis, Waddlia chondrophila und Parachlamydia acanthamoebae hinweisen (Collingro, Tischler et al. 2011). Hauptbestandteile der Außenmembran der Chlamydiaceae, wie das Porin “Major outer membrane protein“ (MOMP), die polymorphen Membranproteine (Pmps) und die cysteinreichen Proteine OmcA und OmcB, konnten nur teilweise in den Genomen dieser Umweltchlamydien identifiziert werden. Daher war das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit, die Genomvorhersagen durch eine proteomische Analyse der Außenmembranproteine dieser drei Umweltchlamydien zu bestätigen und darüber hinaus zu ergänzen. Hierfür wurden die Elementarkörperchen (EBs) mittels Ultrazentrifugation über einen Dichtegradienten aufgereinigt, die Außenmembranproteine mit drei verschiedenen Methoden aus den EBs extrahiert und die im Gel verdauten Proteine massenspektrometrisch analysiert. Für S. negevensis konnten - in Übereinstimmung mit in silico-Vorhersagen - in den massenspektrometrischen Messungen der Außenmembranproteinfraktionen weder OmcA noch OmcB identifiziert werden. Als Hauptbestandteil der Außenmembran von S. negevensis wurden hingegen 35 MOMP-ähnliche Proteine identifiziert. Weiters wurden mehrere Kopien des Autotransporters PmpD, sowie zahlreiche uncharakterisierte Proteine in der Außenmembranfraktion gefunden, die es gilt weiter zu analysieren, um ihre Funktion beispielsweise bei Infektionen oder im Entwicklungszyklus zu klären. Der geringe Cysteingehalt der MOMP-ähnlichen Proteine und der insgesamt gefundenen Proteine weist darauf hin, dass der Mechanismus zur Stabilisierung der Außenmembran bei S. negevensis grundlegend anders sein muss. Diese Ergebnisse konnten durch ein Stabilitätsexperiment verdeutlicht werden, in dem die Stabilität von S. negevensis im Gegensatz zu Chlamydiaceae (Hackstadt, Todd et al. 1985) durch die Behandlung mit Dithiothreitol (DTT), das Disulfidbrücken reduziert, nicht beeinträchtigt wurde. Zusätzlich zur Charakterisierung der Außenmembran wurden auch spezifische Antikörper gegen aufgereinigte S. negevensis und P. acanthamoebae EBs hergestellt. Diese Antikörper können für weitergehende Untersuchungen herangezogen werden, um immunodominante Außenmembranproteine zu identifizieren. Letztlich konnte durch diese Arbeit erstmals ein Einblick in die Zusammensetzung der Proteine in der Außenmembran von S. negevensis EBs gemacht werden, die als Grundlage für die weitere Charakterisierung von Struktur und Funktion dieser Proteine herangezogen werden kann.Outer membrane proteins of the obligate intracellular chlamydiae play a key role for cell integrity and differentiation during the biphasic developmental cycle, and furthermore, are important for adhesion to the host cells, uptake of nutrients and removal of metabolic waste products. Recently published genome sequences of members of the environmental chlamydiae Simkania negevensis, Waddlia chondrophila and Parachlamydia acanthamoebae showed fundamental differences in the composition of the outer membrane (Collingro, Tischler et al. 2011). Although these organisms share several of the main components of the outer membrane of members of the Chlamydiaceae, e.g. the major outer membrane protein (MOMP), the polymorphic membrane proteins (Pmps) and the cysteine-rich proteins OmcA and OmcB, genes encoding some of these key components were also absent in certain members of the analyzed environmental chlamydiae. The main objective of this research project was the investigation of the outer membrane proteins of these three environmental chlamydiae to complement and validate the in silico analysis using a proteomic approach. For this purpose, elementary bodies (EBs) of all three organisms were purified via density gradient centrifugation, followed by an extraction of the outer membrane proteins using three different methods and an analysis of the in-gel digested proteins via mass spectrometry. For S. negevensis, outer membrane proteins identified by mass spectrometry matched the in silico predictions. For example, 35 MOMP-like proteins were identified, while OmcA and OmcB were not. We also detected all copies of the autotransporter PmpD encoded in the genome. Additional many uncharacterized proteins in the outer membrane fraction were found, which should be further analyzed, to figure out their possible function in infections or in the developmental cycle. The MOMP-like proteins were highly abundant and contained (like all other found proteins) a low content of cysteines, indicating a different mechanism for stabilizing the outer membrane in S. negevensis. This was further verified by a stability assay, where S. negevensis EBs did not show decreased infectivity rates after treatment with the disulfide-reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT), in contrast to the influence of DTT on Chlamydiaceae (Hackstadt, Todd et al. 1985). In addition specific antibodies against purified EBs of S. negevensis and P. acanthamoebae were produced, which will help to find immunodominant proteins. This work provides a first insight in the composition of expressed proteins in the outer membrane of S. negevensis EBs and is therefore useful as a basis for further analysis of the function and structure of these proteins