Making a difference - the appropriate use of web technology

Much has been written elsewhere about how, different Information Technology tools, can in principle be used by groups or communities to make their web sites more effective for Continued Professional Development. In practice, complex use is not often the case. In particular, three sites were studied in Scotland, which provided web facilities for the over 60s. The sites, and the communities they served, used only simple Information Technology. Nevertheless, they enabled their communities to participate effectively, on the 'right side', of the European population's 'digital divide'

Jet-Induced Emission-Line Nebulosity and Star Formation in the High-Redshift Radio Galaxy 4C41.17

The high redshift radio galaxy 4C41.17 consists of a powerful radio source in which previous work has shown that there is strong evidence for jet-induced star formation along the radio axis. We argue that nuclear photoionization is not responsible for the excitation of the emission line clouds and we construct a jet-cloud interaction model to explain the major features revealed by the data. The interaction of a high-powered jet with a dense cloud in the halo of 4C41.17 produces shock-excited emission-line nebulosity through ~1000 km/s shocks and induces star formation. The CIII to CIV line ratio and the CIV luminosity emanating from the shock, imply that the pre-shock density in the line-emitting cloud is high enough (~1-10 cm^-3) that shock initiated star formation could proceed on a timescale of order a few x 10^6 yrs, well within the estimated dynamical age of the radio source. Broad (FWHM ~ 100 - 1400 km/s) emission lines are attributed to the disturbance of the gas cloud by a partial bow--shock and narrow emission lines (FWHM ~ 500 - 650 km/s) (in particular CIV) arise in precursor emission in relatively low metallicity gas. The implied baryonic mass ~ 8 \times 10^{10} solar masses of the cloud is high and implies that Milky Way size condensations existed in the environments of forming radio galaxies at a redshift of 3.8. Our interpretation of the data provides a physical basis for the alignment of the radio, emission-line and UV continuum images in some of the highest redshift radio galaxies and the analysis presented here may form a basis for the calculation of densities and cloud masses in other high redshift radio galaxies.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; uses astrobib.sty and aaspp4.sty. Better versions of figures available via anonymous from ftp://mso.anu.edu.au:pub/pub/geoff/4C41.1

Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 11

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Diagnosis of atrial situs by transesophageal echocardiography

AbstractIn a prospective investigation, direct visualization of both atrial appendages was attempted during transesophageal echocardiographic studies in 132 patients with congenital heart disease. High quality cross-sectional images delineating the unique morphologic details of both atrial appendages were obtained in every patient. Abnormal cardiac position such as dextrocardia (four patients) or mesocardia (two patients) did not pose any problems for transesophageal assessment of both atrial appendages. Thus, direct diagnosis of atrial situs was possible in every patient. Atrial situs solitus was present in 127 patients studied. Three patients were found to have situs inversus, one had left atrial isomerism and one had right atrial isomerism. No patient with juxtaposed atrial appendages was encountered. All patients had prior subcostal ultrasound scans for assessment of the morphology and relation of the suprarenal abdominal great vessels and the related patterns of hepatic venous drainage.Patients with abnormal atrial situs had correlative high kilovoltage filter beam radiography for assessment of bronchus morphology. The results of situs determination obtained by either method were in agreement.In this series, transesophageal echocardiography allowed the direct and accurate visualization of both atrial appendages and the determination of atrial situs in all patients studied. Transesophageal echocardiography may prove to be the most reliable in vivo technique for determination of atrial situs

The Influence of Water on the Optical Properties of Single-Layer Molybdenum Disulfide

Adsorbed molecules can significantly affect the properties of atomically thin materials. Physisorbed water plays a significant role in altering the optoelectronic properties of single-layer MoS_2, one such 2D film. Here we demonstrate the distinct quenching effect of adsorbed water on the photoluminescence of single-layer MoS_2 through scanning-probe and optical microscopies

Obesity-induced insulin resistance in human skeletal muscle is characterised by defective activation of p42/p44 MAP kinase

Insulin resistance (IR), an impaired cellular, tissue and whole body response to insulin, is a major pathophysiological defect of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Although IR is closely associated with obesity, the identity of the molecular defect(s) underlying obesity-induced IR in skeletal muscle remains controversial; reduced post-receptor signalling of the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) adaptor protein and downstream effectors such as protein kinase B (PKB) have previously been implicated. We examined expression and/or activation of a number of components of the insulin-signalling cascade in skeletal muscle of 22 healthy young men (with body mass index (BMI) range, 20–37 kg/m2). Whole body insulin sensitivity (M value) and body composition was determined by the hyperinsulinaemic (40 mU. min−1.m−2.), euglycaemic clamp and by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) respectively. Skeletal muscle (vastus lateralis) biopsies were taken before and after one hour of hyperinsulinaemia and the muscle insulin signalling proteins examined by western blot and immunoprecipitation assay. There was a strong inverse relationship between M-value and BMI. The most striking abnormality was significantly reduced insulin-induced activation of p42/44 MAP kinase, measured by specific assay, in the volunteers with poor insulin sensitivity. However, there was no relationship between individuals' BMI or M-value and protein expression/phosphorylation of IRS1, PKB, or p42/44 MAP kinase protein, under basal or hyperinsulinaemic conditions. In the few individuals with poor insulin sensitivity but preserved p42/44 MAP kinase activation, other signalling defects were evident. These findings implicate defective p42/44 MAP kinase signalling as a potential contributor to obesity-related IR in a non-diabetic population, although clearly multiple signalling defects underlie obesity associated IR

The Effect of Nicotine on Reproduction and Attachment of Human Gingival Fibroblasts In Vitro

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142127/1/jper0658.pd

Deep Low-Frequency Radio Observations of the NOAO Bootes Field: I. Data Reduction and Catalog Construction

In this article we present deep, high-resolution radio interferometric observations at 153 MHz to complement the extensively studied NOAO Bootes field. We provide a description of the observations, data reduction and source catalog construction. From our single pointing GMRT observation of ~12 hours we obtain a high-resolution (26" x 22") image of ~11.3 square degrees, fully covering the Bootes field region and beyond. The image has a central noise level of ~1.0 mJy/beam, which rises to 2.0-2.5 mJy/beam at the field edge, placing it amongst the deepest ~150 MHz surveys to date. The catalog of 598 extracted sources is estimated to be ~92 percent complete for >10 mJy sources, while the estimated contamination with false detections is <1 percent. The low RMS position uncertainty of 1.24" facilitates accurate matching against catalogs at optical, infrared and other wavelengths. Differential source counts are determined down to <~10 mJy. There is no evidence for flattening of the counts towards lower flux densities as observed in deep radio surveys at higher frequencies, suggesting that our catalog is dominated by the classical radio-loud AGN population that explains the counts at higher flux densities. Combination with available deep 1.4 GHz observations yields an accurate determination of spectral indices for 417 sources down to the lowest 153 MHz flux densities, of which 16 have ultra-steep spectra with spectral indices below -1.3. We confirm that flattening of the median spectral index towards low flux densities also occurs at this frequency. The detection fraction of the radio sources in NIR Ks-band is found to drop with radio spectral index, which is in agreement with the known correlation between spectral index and redshift for brighter radio sources.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication by A&A. Source catalog will be available from CDS soo

The ambivalent shadow of the pre-Wilsonian rise of international law

The generation of American international lawyers who founded the American Society of International Law in 1906 and nurtured the soil for what has been retrospectively called a “moralistic legalistic approach to international relations” remains little studied. A survey of the rise of international legal literature in the U.S. from the mid-19th century to the eve of the Great War serves as a backdrop to the examination of the boosting effect on international law of the Spanish American War in 1898. An examination of the Insular Cases before the US Supreme Court is then accompanied by the analysis of a number of influential factors behind the pre-war rise of international law in the U.S. The work concludes with an examination of the rise of natural law doctrines in international law during the interwar period and the critiques addressed.by the realist founders of the field of “international relations” to the “moralistic legalistic approach to international relation