8,575 research outputs found
Powerful Prose
What makes a reading experience »powerful«? This volume brings together literary scholars, linguists, and empirical researchers to elucidate the effects and reader responses to investigate just that. The thirteen contributions theorize this widely-used, but to date insufficiently studied notion, and provide insights into the therefore still mysterious-seeming power of literary fiction. The collection investigates a variety of stylistic as well as readerly and psychological features responsible for short- and long-term effects - topics of great interest to those interested or specialized in literary studies and narratology, (cognitive) stylistics, empirical literary studies and reader response theory
Overcoming the Digital Tsunami in e-Discovery: is Visual Analysis the Answer?
New technologies are generating potentially discoverable evidence in electronic form in ever increasing volumes. As a result, traditional techniques of document search and retrieval in pursuit of electronic discovery in litigation are becoming less viable. One potential new technological solution to the e-discovery search and retrieval challenge is Visual Analysis (VA). VA is a technology that combines the computational power of the computer with graphical representations of large datasets to enable interactive analytic capabilities. This article provides an overview of VA technology and how it is being applied in the analysis of e-mail and other electronic documents in the field of e-discovery, as well as discussing several challenges and limitations of the technology. The article concludes that VA has the potential to overcome some of the limitations of current search and retrieval techniques, but that addressing the digital tsunami is more likely to be achieved by using VA in combination with other search and retrieval technologies in the context of creating an effective data governance program
The silent burden of anaemia in Tanzania children:a community-based study
Objective was to document the prevalence, age-distribution, and risk factors for anaemia in Tanzanian children less than 5 years old,thereby assisting in the development of effective strategies for controlling anaemia.\ud
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Cluster sampling was used to identify 2417 households at random from four contiguous districts in south-eastern\ud
United Republic of Tanzania in mid-1999. Data on various social and medical parameters were collected and analysed.\ud
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Blood haemoglobin concentrations (Hb) were available for 1979 of the 2131 (93%) children identified and ranged from 1.7 to 18.6 g/dl. Overall, 87% (1722) of children had an Hb <11 g/dl, 39% (775) had an Hb <8 g/dl and 3% (65) had an Hb <5 g/dl. The highest prevalence of anaemia of all three levels was in children aged 6–11 months, of whom 10% (22/226) had an Hb <5 g/dl. However, the prevalence of anaemia was already high in children aged 1–5 months (85% had an Hb <11 g/dl, 42% had an Hb <8 g/dl, and 6% had an Hb <5 g/dl). Anaemia was usually asymptomatic and when symptoms arose they were nonspecific and rarely identified as a serious illness by the care provider. A recent history of treatment with antimalarials and iron\ud
was rare. Compliance with vaccinations delivered through the Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) was 82% and was notassociated with risk of anaemia.\ud
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Anaemia is extremely common in south-eastern United Republic of Tanzania, even in very young infants. Further implementation of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness algorithm should improve the case management of anaemia. However, the asymptomatic nature of most episodes of anaemia highlights the need for preventive strategies. The EPI has good coverage of the target population and it may be an appropriate channel for delivering tools for controlling anaemia and malaria
HAZMAT VI: The Evolution of Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation Emitted from Early M Star
Quantifying the evolution of stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV, 100 -- 1000
) emission is critical for assessing the evolution of
planetary atmospheres and the habitability of M dwarf systems. Previous studies
from the HAbitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time (HAZMAT) program
showed the far- and near-UV (FUV, NUV) emission from M stars at various stages
of a stellar lifetime through photometric measurements from the Galaxy
Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The results revealed increased levels of
short-wavelength emission that remain elevated for hundreds of millions of
years. The trend for EUV flux as a function of age could not be determined
empirically because absorption by the interstellar medium prevents access to
the EUV wavelengths for the vast majority of stars. In this paper, we model the
evolution of EUV flux from early M stars to address this observational gap. We
present synthetic spectra spanning EUV to infrared wavelengths of 0.4
0.05 M stars at five distinct ages between 10 and 5000 Myr, computed
with the PHOENIX atmosphere code and guided by the GALEX photometry. We model a
range of EUV fluxes spanning two orders of magnitude, consistent with the
observed spread in X-ray, FUV, and NUV flux at each epoch. Our results show
that the stellar EUV emission from young M stars is 100 times stronger than
field age M stars, and decreases as t after remaining constant for a few
hundred million years. This decline stems from changes in the chromospheric
temperature structure, which steadily shifts outward with time. Our models
reconstruct the full spectrally and temporally resolved history of an M star's
UV radiation, including the unobservable EUV radiation, which drives planetary
atmospheric escape, directly impacting a planet's potential for habitability.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, accepted to Ap
High Energy Field Theory in Truncated AdS Backgrounds
In this letter we show that, in five-dimensional anti-deSitter space (AdS)
truncated by boundary branes, effective field theory techniques are reliable at
high energy (much higher than the scale suggested by the Kaluza-Klein mass
gap), provided one computes suitable observables. We argue that in the model of
Randall and Sundrum for generating the weak scale from the AdS warp factor, the
high energy behavior of gauge fields can be calculated in a {\em cutoff
independent manner}, provided one restricts Green's functions to external
points on the Planck brane. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we calculate the
one-loop correction to the Planck brane gauge propagator due to charged bulk
fields. These effects give rise to non-universal logarithmic energy dependence
for a range of scales above the Kaluza-Klein gap.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages; minor typos fixe
The Carnegie Hubble Program: The Distance and Structure of the SMC as Revealed by Mid-infrared Observations of Cepheids
Using Spitzer observations of classical Cepheids we have measured the true
average distance modulus of the SMC to be mag (corresponding to kpc), which is
mag more distant than the LMC. This is in agreement with previous results from
Cepheid observations, as well as with measurements from other indicators such
as RR Lyrae stars and the tip of the red giant branch.
Utilizing the properties of the mid--infrared Leavitt Law we measured precise
distances to individual Cepheids in the SMC, and have confirmed that the galaxy
is tilted and elongated such that its eastern side is up to 20 kpc closer than
its western side. This is in agreement with the results from red clump stars
and dynamical simulations of the Magellanic Clouds and Stream.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 38 Pages, 11 figures. Figure 9 is
interactive. Spitzer photometry for all Cepheids available as online tabl
STING-dependent recognition of cyclic di-AMP mediates type I interferon responses during Chlamydia trachomatis infection.
UnlabelledSTING (stimulator of interferon [IFN] genes) initiates type I IFN responses in mammalian cells through the detection of microbial nucleic acids. The membrane-bound obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis induces a STING-dependent type I IFN response in infected cells, yet the IFN-inducing ligand remains unknown. In this report, we provide evidence that Chlamydia synthesizes cyclic di-AMP (c-di-AMP), a nucleic acid metabolite not previously identified in Gram-negative bacteria, and that this metabolite is a prominent ligand for STING-mediated activation of IFN responses during infection. We used primary mouse lung fibroblasts and HEK293T cells to compare IFN-β responses to Chlamydia infection, c-di-AMP, and other type I IFN-inducing stimuli. Chlamydia infection and c-di-AMP treatment induced type I IFN responses in cells expressing STING but not in cells expressing STING variants that cannot sense cyclic dinucleotides but still respond to cytoplasmic DNA. The failure to induce a type I IFN response to Chlamydia and c-di-AMP correlated with the inability of STING to relocalize from the endoplasmic reticulum to cytoplasmic punctate signaling complexes required for IFN activation. We conclude that Chlamydia induces STING-mediated IFN responses through the detection of c-di-AMP in the host cell cytosol and propose that c-di-AMP is the ligand predominantly responsible for inducing such a response in Chlamydia-infected cells.ImportanceThis study shows that the Gram-negative obligate pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis, a major cause of pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility, synthesizes cyclic di-AMP (c-di-AMP), a nucleic acid metabolite that thus far has been described only in Gram-positive bacteria. We further provide evidence that the host cell employs an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-localized cytoplasmic sensor, STING (stimulator of interferon [IFN] genes), to detect c-di-AMP synthesized by Chlamydia and induce a protective IFN response. This detection occurs even though Chlamydia is confined to a membrane-bound vacuole. This raises the possibility that the ER, an organelle that innervates the entire cytoplasm, is equipped with pattern recognition receptors that can directly survey membrane-bound pathogen-containing vacuoles for leaking microbe-specific metabolites to mount type I IFN responses required to control microbial infections
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