Enacting polyphony: An interview with Florian Thalhofer

Florian Thalhofer is a documentary filmmaker and the inventor of Korsakow, a software to create a new form of film and a principle to create a new kind of story. Florian’s system allows video makers to create nonlinear and interactive films and to tell stories through a number of links generated by keywords. Thalhofer’s Korsakow films include Planet Galata and The Other Fun Stuff. Starting from a SNU (Smallest Narrative Units, as he calls them) his film are polyphonic representations of our world. Florian gave a keynote at the first i-Docs Symposium in 2011, and has been an active and deeply committed member of the i-Docs community ever since

Schiff und Schrift: Zum Verhältnis zwischen Literatur und Globalisierung – Einleitung

In Luis de Camoes's epic The Lusiads, diverse semantic levels of writing overlap. The intertwining of poetry and documentation results here in perspectives on writing that judge it in different ways, since a tension springs up in The Lusiads between poetry and the new fields of knowledge concerning experimental 'New Science' and nautical experience. With respect to the poetics of The Lusiads, this tension becomes evident when a line is drawn from the Renaissance to classical antiquity. A further level of writing can be seen in the field of the shipping of writings - primarily of the founding work of The Lusiads - which was, from a textually external point of view and from that of the history of the media - facilitated by book printing;conversely, the process of writing down ships, that is, their routes registered on maps and in the periplus, manifests itself in Camoes's epic in the form of a documentary mode of writing

Microdosing for drug delivery application—A review

There is an increasing amount of research on microfluidic actuators with the aim to improve drug dosing applications. Micropumps are promising as they reduce the size and energy consumption of dosing concepts and enable new therapies. Even though there are evident advantages, there are only few examples of industrial microdosing units and micropump technology has not yet found widespread application. To answer the evoked question of what limits the application of microdosing technology for drug delivery, this work provides a comprehensive insight into the subject of drug dosing. We highlight and analyse specific microfluidic challenges and requirements in medical dosing: safety relevant aspects, such as prevention of freeflow and backflow; dosing-specific requirements, such as dosing precision and stability; and system-specific aspects, such as size, weight, and power restrictions or economic aspects. Based on these requirements, we evaluate the suitability of different mechanical micropumps and actuation mechanisms for drug administration. In addition to research work, we present industrial microdosing systems that are commercially available or close to market release. We then summarize outstanding technical solutions that ensure sufficient fluidic performance, guarantee a safe use, and fulfil the specific requirements of medical microdosing

Microfluidic cell transport with piezoelectric micro diaphragm pumps

The automated transport of cells can enable far-reaching cell culture research. However, to date, such automated transport has been achieved with large pump systems that often come with long fluidic connections and a large power consumption. Improvement is possible with space- and energy-efficient piezoelectric micro diaphragm pumps, though a precondition for a successful use is to enable transport with little to no mechanical stress on the cell suspension. This study evaluates the impact of the microfluidic transport of cells with the piezoelectric micro diaphragm pump developed by our group. It includes the investigation of different actuation signals. Therewith, we aim to achieve optimal fluidic performance while maximizing the cell viability. The investigation of fluidic properties proves a similar performance with a hybrid actuation signal that is a rectangular waveform with sinusoidal flanks, compared to the fluidically optimal rectangular actuation. The comparison of the cell transport with three actuation signals, sinusoidal, rectangular, and hybrid actuation shows that the hybrid actuation causes less damage than the rectangular actuation. With a 5% reduction of the cell viability it causes similar strain to the transport with sinusoidal actuation. Piezoelectric micro diaphragm pumps with the fluidically efficient hybrid signal actuation are therefore an interesting option for integrable microfluidic workflows

B Cells Regulate Neutrophilia during Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection and BCG Vaccination by Modulating the Interleukin-17 Response

We have previously demonstrated that B cells can shape the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including the level of neutrophil infiltration and granulomatous inflammation at the site of infection. The present study examined the mechanisms by which B cells regulate the host neutrophilic response upon exposure to mycobacteria and how neutrophilia may influence vaccine efficacy. To address these questions, a murine aerosol infection tuberculosis (TB) model and an intradermal (ID) ear BCG immunization mouse model, involving both the μMT strain and B cell-depleted C57BL/6 mice, were used. IL (interleukin)-17 neutralization and neutrophil depletion experiments using these systems provide evidence that B cells can regulate neutrophilia by modulating the IL-17 response during M. tuberculosis infection and BCG immunization. Exuberant neutrophilia at the site of immunization in B cell-deficient mice adversely affects dendritic cell (DC) migration to the draining lymph nodes and attenuates the development of the vaccine-induced Th1 response. The results suggest that B cells are required for the development of optimal protective anti-TB immunity upon BCG vaccination by regulating the IL-17/neutrophilic response. Administration of sera derived from M. tuberculosis-infected C57BL/6 wild-type mice reverses the lung neutrophilia phenotype in tuberculous μMT mice. Together, these observations provide insight into the mechanisms by which B cells and humoral immunity modulate vaccine-induced Th1 response and regulate neutrophila during M. tuberculosis infection and BCG immunization. © 2013 Kozakiewicz et al