Tracking changes in everyday experiences of disability and disability sport within the context of the 2012 London Paralympics

The 2012 Paralympics was the biggest ever, the most accessible and best attended in its 64-year history. The Paralympics and ideas of disability associated with the Games provide significant opportunity for reflection on how far societal opinions, attitudes and behaviour have changed regarding disability. In 2012 – the first ever “legacy games” – an explicit aim of the Paralympics was to “transform the perception of disabled people in society”, (Channel 4), and use sport to contribute to “a better world for all people with a disability” (IPC 2011). The 2012 Games therefore came with a social agenda: to challenge the current perceptions many people have about disability and disability sport. Within this report – commissioned by the UK’s Paralympic broadcaster, Channel 4 – we consider everyday experiences of disability and disability sport within the context of the London 2012 Paralympics and televised coverage of the Games. The analysis is based 140 in-depth interviews that took place in the UK over a period of eighteen months, during the lead up to, and immediately after, the Games: between January 2011 and September 2012. Embedded in the lifeworld of our participants, we ask whether the 2012 Paralympics was successful in changing perceptions of disability

Factors influencing the development and carbohydrate metabolism of Echinococcus granulosus in dogs

Echinococcus granulosus adult worms, 35 days postinfection, were measured for dispersion in the intestines of 10 dogs, a range of morphological characters, and the excreted end products of carbohydrate catabolism following 4 hr incubation in vitro. Most worms were found in the proximal sections of the small intestine, but the pattern of dispersion differed between dogs. Worm development varied both between dogs and between different regions of the small intestine of individual dogs. Overall there was a high level of variability with no simple patterns. Worm metabolism was related to worm development and, also independently, to local population density within the intestine. Larger, more mature worms produced less lactate and, at higher densities. worms tended to produce more acetate and succinate (pathways with a higher energy yield than lactate) and less ethanol. Thus, both more developed worms and high population density are associated with a shift from cytosolic to mitochondrial metabolism. The variation between worm populations along the small intestine along with the observed variation between worm populations from sibling dogs infected with genetically identical parasites suggests that the local host environment has a significant effect on parasite development

Accounting for the foreground contribution to the dust emission towards Kepler's supernova remnant

‘The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15061.xWhether or not supernovae contribute significantly to the overall dust budget is a controversial subject. Submillimetre (sub-mm) observations, sensitive to cold dust, have shown an excess at 450 and 850 μm in young remnants Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and Kepler. Some of the sub-mm emission from Cas A has been shown to be contaminated by unrelated material along the line of sight. In this paper, we explore the emission from material towards Kepler using sub-mm continuum imaging and spectroscopic observations of atomic and molecular gas, via H i, 12CO(J= 2–1) and 13CO(J= 2–1). We detect weak CO emission (peak T*A = 0.2–1 K, 1–2 km s−1 full width at half-maximum) from diffuse, optically thin gas at the locations of some of the sub-mm clumps. The contribution to the sub-mm emission from foreground molecular and atomic clouds is negligible. The revised dust mass for Kepler's remnant is 0.1–1.2 M⊙ , about half of the quoted values in the original study by Morgan et al., but still sufficient to explain the origin of dust at high redshifts.Peer reviewe

Topological Structure of the QCD Vacuum Revealed by Overlap Fermions

Overlap fermions preserve a remnant of chiral symmetry on the lattice. They are a powerful tool to investigate the topological structure of the vacuum of Yang-Mills theory and full QCD. Recent results concerning the localization of topological charge and the localization and local chirality of the overlap eigenmodes are reported. The charge distribution is radically different, if a spectral cut-off for the Dirac eigenmodes is applied. The density q(x) is changing from the scale-a charge density (with full lattice resolution) to the ultraviolet filtered charge density. The scale-a density, computed on the Linux cluster of LRZ, has a singular, sign-coherent global structure of co-dimension 1 first described by the Kentucky group. We stress, however, the cluster properties of the UV filtered topological density resembling the instanton picture. The spectral cut-off can be mapped to a bosonic smearing procedure. The UV filtered field strength reveals a high degree of (anti)selfduality at "hot spots" of the action. The fermionic eigenmodes show a high degree of local chirality. The lowest modes are seen to be localized in low-dimensional space-time regions.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted to appear in the Proceedings of "HLRB, KONWIHR and Linux-Cluster: Review, Results and Future Projects Workshop", Leibniz Rechenzentrum Munich, December 200

Building information deduced : state and potentials for Information query in building information modelling

In recent years, Building Information Models have become commonplace in building profession. The extensive use and increasing experience with BIM models offers new perspectives and potentials for design and planning. A recent stakeholder study conducted by the authors of this paper show that in practice models are no longer solely observed as culmination of knowledge in a 3d representation of future built structures, but as a source of information in itself. Experienced users of BIM want to Find Information within a model or across a set of these and Compare models in order to evaluate states of a model, differences in separate models or models from different point of time. Current BIM tools support both modes only in a rudimentary form. This paper discusses current modes of information query within and across BIM models, shows beneficial scenarios for building and planning practice through customised queries and exemplifies these on the base of a scripted tool. This customized approach is used to test approaches for a machine-based assessment of Level of detail and BIM-readiness in BIM models

The aromatase inhibitor letrozole enhances the effect of doxorubicin and docetaxel in an MCF7 cell line model

Introduction: Post-menopausal women with estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer receive adjuvant chemotherapy and endocrine therapy sequentially since tamoxifen may antagonise the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy drugs. With increased use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) in place of tamoxifen, the potential use of concomitant chemo-endocrine treatments with the AI letrozole, before clinical trials are undertaken, requires evaluation. Methods: MCF7-aro cells expressing the aromatase gene were treated with letrozole, doxorubicin and docetaxel. The effects of different drug concentrations, drug combinations and scheduling on cytotoxicity and aromatase activity were investigated. Key receptor, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis proteins were examined by immunoblotting. Results: Administration of letrozole with either doxorubicin or docetaxel resulted in increased levels of cytotoxicity under all treatment schedules (add in, sequential or simultaneous drug administration) with the greatest anti-proliferative effect observed using concomitant treatment (letrozole first with chemotherapy added in). The inhibitory effect of letrozole on aromatase activity was unchanged by the addition of doxorubicin or docetaxel. Letrozole treatment resulted in decreased HER2 expression and addition of doxorubicin and docetaxel to letrozole led to elevated ER-ß levels. Conclusions: In vitro, letrozole, unlike tamoxifen, enhances the cytotoxicity of both doxorubicin and docetaxel. This supports the prospect of trials using letrozole with chemotherapy in postmenopausal women with ER positive breast cancer

<i>Sneathiella chinensis</i> gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel marine alphaproteobacterium isolated from coastal sediment in Qingdao, China

The taxonomic position of strain LMG 23452T, which was isolated from coastal sediment from an aquaculture site near Qingdao, China, in 2000, was determined. Strain LMG 23452T comprised Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, motile rods and was found to be a halotolerant, aerobic, chemoheterotroph that produces catalase and oxidase. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain LMG 23452T shared approximately 89 % sequence similarity with members of the genera Devosia, Hyphomonas, Ensifer and Chelatococcus, which belong to two different orders within the Alphaproteobacteria. Further phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain LMG 23452T formed a separate branch within the order Rhizobiales, falling between the genera Devosia and Ensifer of the families Hyphomicrobiaceae and Rhizobiaceae, respectively. Strain LMG 23452T could be differentiated from its closest phylogenetic neighbours on the basis of several phenotypic features, including hydrolysis of the substrates starch and casein and assimilation of the carbohydrates d-glucose, d-mannose, mannitol, maltose and l-arabinose, and chemotaxonomically by the presence of the fatty acids C14 : 0 3-OH, C16 : 1ω11c, C16 : 1 ω5c and C18 : 1ω5c. The major fatty acids detected in strain LMG 23452T were C18 : 1 ω7c, C16 : 0, C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c, C16 : 1 ω7c and C17 : 1ω6c and the G+C content of the genomic DNA was 57.1 mol%. Therefore, the polyphasic data support the placement of strain LMG 23452T within a novel genus and species, for which the name Sneathiella chinensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LMG 23452T (=CBMAI 737T)

On the Truncated Pareto Distribution with applications

The Pareto probability distribution is widely applied in different fields such us finance, physics, hydrology, geology and astronomy. This note deals with an application of the Pareto distribution to astrophysics and more precisely to the statistical analysis of mass of stars and of diameters of asteroids. In particular a comparison between the usual Pareto distribution and its truncated version is presented. Finally a possible physical mechanism that produces Pareto tails for the distribution of the masses of stars is suggested.Comment: 10 pages 6 figure

A tensor-based morphometry analysis of regional differences in brain volume in relation to prenatal alcohol exposure

Reductions in brain volumes represent a neurobiological signature of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Less clear is how regional brain tissue reductions differ after normalizing for brain size differences linked with FASD and whether these profiles can predict the degree of prenatal exposure to alcohol. To examine associations of regional brain tissue excesses/deficits with degree of prenatal alcohol exposure and diagnosis with and without correction for overall brain volume, tensor-based morphometry (TBM) methods were applied to structural imaging data from a well-characterized, demographically homogeneous sample of children diagnosed with FASD (n = 39, 9.6–11.0 years) and controls (n = 16, 9.5–11.0 years). Degree of prenatal alcohol exposure was significantly associated with regionally pervasive brain tissue reductions in: (1) the thalamus, midbrain, and ventromedial frontal lobe, (2) the superior cerebellum and inferior occipital lobe, (3) the dorsolateral frontal cortex, and (4) the precuneus and superior parietal lobule. When overall brain size was factored out of the analysis on a subject-by-subject basis, no regions showed significant associations with alcohol exposure. FASD diagnosis was associated with a similar deformation pattern, but few of the regions survived FDR correction. In data-driven independent component analyses (ICA) regional brain tissue deformations successfully distinguished individuals based on extent of prenatal alcohol exposure and to a lesser degree, diagnosis. The greater sensitivity of the continuous measure of alcohol exposure compared with the categorical diagnosis across diverse brain regions underscores the dose dependence of these effects. The ICA results illustrate that profiles of brain tissue alterations may be a useful indicator of prenatal alcohol exposure when reliable historical data are not available and facial features are not apparent

Charge and Current Sum Rules in Quantum Media Coupled to Radiation

This paper concerns the equilibrium bulk charge and current density correlation functions in quantum media, conductors and dielectrics, fully coupled to the radiation (the retarded regime). A sequence of static and time-dependent sum rules, which fix the values of certain moments of the charge and current density correlation functions, is obtained by using Rytov's fluctuational electrodynamics. A technique is developed to extract the classical and purely quantum-mechanical parts of these sum rules. The sum rules are critically tested in the classical limit and on the jellium model. A comparison is made with microscopic approaches to systems of particles interacting through Coulomb forces only (the non-retarded regime). In contrast with microscopic results, the current-current correlation function is found to be integrable in space, in both classical and quantum regimes.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur