Balancing Requirements of Decision and Action

This article deals with decision-making processes about new development aims in Free/Open Source software (FOSS) projects. It focuses on the question how community driven projects manage to not only make decisions but also implement them successfully. Following the approach of Nils Brunsson, the requirements of (rational) decision-making and action are somewhat antagonistic: On the one hand, rationality of decision-making implies extensive evaluation of alternatives and arguments that can lead to an uncertainty as to which of the alternative will be chosen. On the other hand, a good basis for collective action is established when uncertainty is reduced and consistent expectations exist as to what kind of action will be performed. Corroborating on an empirical analysis of a decision-making process and interviews conducted with FOSS developers, three mechanisms of ending a discussion are identified. The paper concludes evaluating to what extent each of these mechanisms serves the requirements for decision-making and action

Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change : challenges and perspectives

The understorey harbours a substantial part of vascular plant diversity in temperate forests and plays an important functional role, affecting ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and overstorey regeneration. Global change, however, is putting these understorey communities on trajectories of change, potentially altering and reducing their functioning in the future. Developing mitigation strategies to safeguard the diversity and functioning of temperate forests in the future is challenging and requires improved predictive capacity. Process-based models that predict understorey community composition over time, based on first principles of ecology, have the potential to guide mitigation endeavours but such approaches are rare. Here, we review fourteen understorey modelling approaches that have been proposed during the last three decades. We evaluate their inclusion of mechanisms that are required to predict the impact of global change on understorey communities. We conclude that none of the currently existing models fully accounts for all processes that we deem important based on empirical and experimental evidence. Based on this review, we contend new models are needed to project the complex impacts of global change on forest understoreys. Plant functional traits should be central to such future model developments, as they drive community assembly processes and provide valuable information on the functioning of the understorey. Given the important role of the overstorey, a coupling of understorey models to overstorey models will be essential to predict the impact of global change on understorey composition and structure, and how it will affect the functioning of temperate forests in the future

P-221 Working with hospices to ensure patients' digital legacy wishes are adhered to

The Digital Legacy Association (DLA) was launched at last year’s Hospice UK conference. Their work is focused on raising awareness and improving processes in areas relating to death and the internet. Over the last 12 months the DLA have published a free framework, developed training workshops, launched a free hospice inpatient resource, run ‘pop-up’ events, organised a Digital Legacy conference, carried out different forms of research and campaigned highlighting that end of life and bereavement in relation to the internet and electronic devices is an area requiring thought, governance and change. The DLA spend a lot of time working with hospices, CCGs, charities and trusts. The outcome is improved knowledge and skillsets applied at an organisational and/or at an individual level. The diffusion of the DLAs information occurs by supporting professionals through a variety of different channels. In turn this helps professionals to better support patients and their families. The DLA’s work often revolves around conversations and campaigning. Their recent work for Velindre NHS Trust, Aneurin Bevan UHB & Byw Nawr included building a TalkCPR awareness website. The goal of the TalkCPR campaign is to help increase dialogue around CPR and DNACPR within Wales. The TalkCPR campaign was recently nominated for a NHS Wales award. This paper will document the DLA’s journey over the last year, explain how they use creativity to address end-of-life and document how they plan to support every UK hospice over the course of 2017

Twin-Arginine translocation-Arresting protein regions contact TatA and TatB

Tat systems translocate folded proteins across biological membranes of prokaryotes and plant plastids. TatBC complexes recognize N-Terminal Tat signal peptides that contain a sequence motif with two conserved arginines (RR-Motif), and transport takes place after a recruitment of TatA. Unfolded Tat substrate domains lower translocation efficiency and too long linkers lead to translocation arrest. To identify the components that interact with transported proteins during their passage through the translocon, we used a Tat substrate that arrests translocation at a long unfolded linker region, and we chose in vivo site-Directed photo cross-Linking to specifically detect the interactions of this linker region. For comparison, we included the interactions of the signal peptide and of the folded domain at the C-Terminus of this construct. The data show that the linker contacts only two, structurally similar Tat components, namely TatA and TatB. These contacts depend on the recognition of the Tat-Specific signal peptide. Only when membrane translocation of the globular domain was allowed - i.e., in the absence of the linker - we observed the same TatAB-Contacts also to the globular domain. The data thus suggest that mature protein domains are translocated through a TatAB environment

Phonon-mediated vs. Coulombic Back-Action in Quantum Dot circuits

Quantum point contacts (QPCs) are commonly employed to capacitively detect the charge state of coupled quantum dots (QD). An indirect back-action of a biased QPC onto a double QD laterally defined in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure is observed. Energy is emitted by non-equilibrium charge carriers in the leads of the biased QPC. Part of this energy is absorbed by the double QD where it causes charge fluctuations that can be observed under certain conditions in its stability diagram. By investigating the spectrum of the absorbed energy, we identify both acoustic phonons and Coulomb interaction being involved in the back-action, depending on the geometry and coupling constants

Magnetically Induced Currents in [n]Cycloparaphenylenes, n=6-11

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