143 research outputs found

    Cavitation-induced fusion : proof of concept

    Get PDF
    Cavitation-induced fusion (also known as bubble fusion or sonofusion) has been a topic of much debate and controversy and is generally (albeit incorrectly) perceived as unworkable. In this paper we present the theoretical foundations of cavitation-induced fusion and summarize the experimental results of the research conducted in the past 20 years. Based on the systematic study of all available data we conclude that the cavitation-induced fusion is feasible, doable, and can be used for commercial power generation. In this talk we present the results of our own research including neutron detection in singlebubble and multi-bubble experiments. We further demonstrate prototype 100kW commercial generator and discuss R&D necessary to achieve break-even energy production

    Compassionate containment? Balancing technical safety and therapy in the design of psychiatric wards

    Get PDF
    This paper contributes to the international literature examining design of inpatient settings for mental health care. Theoretically, it elaborates the connections between conceptual frameworks from different strands of literature relating to therapeutic landscapes, social control and the social construction of risk. It does so through a discussion of the substantive example of research to evaluate the design of a purpose built inpatient psychiatric health care facility, opened in 2010 as part of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Findings are reported from interviews or discussion groups with staff, patients and their family and friends. This paper demonstrates a strong, and often critical awareness among members of staff and other participants about how responsibilities for risk governance of ‘persons’ are exercised through ‘technical safety’ measures and the implications for therapeutic settings. Our participants often emphasised how responsibility for technical safety was being invested in the physical infrastructure of certain ‘places’ within the hospital where risks are seen to be ‘located’. This illuminates how the spatial dimensions of social constructions of risk are incorporated into understandings about therapeutic landscapes. There were also more subtle implications, partly relating to ‘Panopticist’ theories about how the institution uses technical safety to supervise its own mechanisms, through the observation of staff behaviour as well as patients and visitors. Furthermore, staff seemed to feel that in relying on technical safety measures they were, to a degree, divesting themselves of human responsibility for risks they are required to manage. However, their critical assessment showed their concerns about how this might conflict with a more therapeutic approach and they contemplated ways that they might be able to engage more effectively with patients without the imposition of technical safety measures. These findings advance our thinking about the construction of therapeutic landscapes in theory and in practice

    Neptune to the Common-wealth of England (1652): the republican Britannia and the continuity of interests

    Get PDF
    In the seventeenth century, John Kerrigan reminds us, “models of empire did not always turn on monarchy”. In this essay, I trace a vision of “Neptune’s empire” shared by royalists and republicans, binding English national interest to British overseas expansion. I take as my text a poem entitled “Neptune to the Common-wealth of England”, prefixed to Marchamont Nedham’s 1652 English translation of Mare Clausum (1635), John Selden’s response to Mare Liberum (1609) by Hugo Grotius. This minor work is read alongside some equally obscure and more familiar texts in order to point up the ways in which it speaks to persistent cultural and political interests. I trace the afterlife of this verse, its critical reception and its unique status as a fragment that exemplifies the crossover between colonial republic and imperial monarchy at a crucial moment in British history, a moment that, with Brexit, remains resonant

    Epigenetic targeting of Hedgehog pathway transcriptional output through BET bromodomain inhibition

    Get PDF
    Hedgehog signaling drives oncogenesis in several cancers and strategies targeting this pathway have been developed, most notably through inhibition of Smoothened. However, resistance to Smoothened inhibitors occurs via genetic changes of Smoothened or other downstream Hedgehog components. Here, we overcome these resistance mechanisms by modulating GLI transcription via inhibition of BET bromodomain proteins. We show the BET bromodomain protein, BRD4, regulates GLI transcription downstream of SMO and SUFU and chromatin immunoprecipitation studies reveal BRD4 directly occupies GLI1 and GLI2 promoters, with a substantial decrease in engagement of these sites upon treatment with JQ1, a small molecule inhibitor targeting BRD4. Globally, genes associated with medulloblastoma-specific GLI1 binding sites are downregulated in response to JQ1 treatment, supporting direct regulation of GLI activity by BRD4. Notably, patient- and GEMM-derived Hedgehog-driven tumors (basal cell carcinoma, medulloblastoma and atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor) respond to JQ1 even when harboring genetic lesions rendering them resistant to Smoothened antagonists

    Travel Writing and Rivers

    Get PDF
    • 

    corecore