COVID-19 and the UK Live Music Industry: A Crisis of Spatial Materiality

For the live music industry, and those who work in it, the COVID-19 outbreak has been predominantly framed as an economic crisis, one in which the economic systems through which revenue is derived from music-based products and practices have been abruptly closed off by a crisis of public health. Using Lefebvre’s trialectics of spatiality as a theoretical lens, we will argue that, for live music, the COVID-19 outbreak can be seen as a crisis of spatial materiality. During a time of lockdown and social distancing, spaces of music production (rehearsal spaces, studios) and consumption (venues, nightclubs) have found themselves suddenly unfit for purpose. Drawing upon empirical data from ongoing research projects in Scotland and the Midlands, we will highlight the ways in which COVID-19 has disrupted the spatial practice of music. From there, we will argue that there is a need for new representational spaces of music, and the creation of new forms of musical-spatial practice, appropriating spaces of the domestic and the everyday, and fusing / overlaying them with new cultural meaning and (crucially for musicians) a reconsideration of value by potential consumers

Crisis as a Catalyst for Change: COVID-19, Spatiality and the UK Live Music Industry

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, live music spaces – and the practices which produce them as economically viable – have found themselves in crisis. In spite of a UK government announcement on the 25th of July 2020 which allocated £2.25 million to support 150 music venues across the country, the processes of allocation, the conditions under which this emergency funding is allocated, and capacity to secure medium-to-long-term sustainability of the live music industries in the UK, remains unclear. In this paper, we present a Lefebvrian analysis of live music, highlighting the complex ways in which space is produced and consumed within a live music environment. By extending this framing to consider Lefebvre’s conceptualisation of dominated and appropriated space, we argue that the economic viability of live music stems from its spatiality, and that ongoing responses to the crisis require greater sensitivity to the spatial practices of music production and consumption

Orientation and structure of the Ndc80 complex on the microtubule lattice

The four-subunit Ndc80 complex, comprised of Ndc80/Nuf2 and Spc24/Spc25 dimers, directly connects kinetochores to spindle microtubules. The complex is anchored to the kinetochore at the Spc24/25 end, and the Ndc80/Nuf2 dimer projects outward to bind to microtubules. Here, we use cryoelectron microscopy and helical image analysis to visualize the interaction of the Ndc80/Nuf2 dimer with microtubules. Our results, when combined with crystallography data, suggest that the globular domain of the Ndc80 subunit binds strongly at the interface between tubulin dimers and weakly at the adjacent intradimer interface along the protofilament axis. Such a binding mode, in which the Ndc80 complex interacts with sequential α/β-tubulin heterodimers, may be important for stabilizing kinetochore-bound microtubules. Additionally, we define the binding of the Ndc80 complex relative to microtubule polarity, which reveals that the microtubule interaction surface is at a considerable distance from the opposite kinetochore-anchored end; this binding geometry may facilitate polymerization and depolymerization at kinetochore-attached microtubule ends

A new era of wide-field submillimetre imaging: on-sky performance of SCUBA-2

SCUBA-2 is the largest submillimetre wide-field bolometric camera ever built. This 43 square arc-minute field-of-view instrument operates at two wavelengths (850 and 450 microns) and has been installed on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. SCUBA-2 has been successfully commissioned and operational for general science since October 2011. This paper presents an overview of the on-sky performance of the instrument during and since commissioning in mid-2011. The on-sky noise characteristics and NEPs of the 450 and 850 micron arrays, with average yields of approximately 3400 bolometers at each wavelength, will be shown. The observing modes of the instrument and the on-sky calibration techniques are described. The culmination of these efforts has resulted in a scientifically powerful mapping camera with sensitivities that allow a square degree of sky to be mapped to 10 mJy/beam rms at 850 micron in 2 hours and 60 mJy/beam rms at 450 micron in 5 hours in the best weather.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures.SPIE Conference series 8452, Millimetre, Submillimetre and Far-infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VI 201

Solution Structure of the Link Module: A Hyaluronan-Binding Domain Involved in Extracellular Matrix Stability and Cell Migration

AbstractLink modules are hyaluronan-binding domains found in proteins involved in the assembly of extracellular matrix, cell adhesion, and migration. The solution structure of the Link module from human TSG-6 was determined and found to consist of two α helices and two antiparallel β sheets arranged around a large hydrophobic core. This defines the consensus fold for the Link module superfamily, which includes CD44, cartilage link protein, and aggrecan. The TSG-6 Link module was shown to interact with hyaluronan, and a putative binding surface was identified on the structure. A structural database search revealed close similarity between the Link module and the C-type lectin domain, with the predicted hyaluronan-binding site at an analogous position to the carbohydrate-binding pocket in E-selectin

First NuSTAR Limits on Quiet Sun Hard X-Ray Transient Events

We present the first results of a search for transient hard X-ray (HXR) emission in the quiet solar corona with the \textit{Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array} (\textit{NuSTAR}) satellite. While \textit{NuSTAR} was designed as an astrophysics mission, it can observe the Sun above 2~keV with unprecedented sensitivity due to its pioneering use of focusing optics. \textit{NuSTAR} first observed quiet Sun regions on 2014 November 1, although out-of-view active regions contributed a notable amount of background in the form of single-bounce (unfocused) X-rays. We conducted a search for quiet Sun transient brightenings on time scales of 100 s and set upper limits on emission in two energy bands. We set 2.5--4~keV limits on brightenings with time scales of 100 s, expressed as the temperature T and emission measure EM of a thermal plasma. We also set 10--20~keV limits on brightenings with time scales of 30, 60, and 100 s, expressed as model-independent photon fluxes. The limits in both bands are well below previous HXR microflare detections, though not low enough to detect events of equivalent T and EM as quiet Sun brightenings seen in soft X-ray observations. We expect future observations during solar minimum to increase the \textit{NuSTAR} sensitivity by over two orders of magnitude due to higher instrument livetime and reduced solar background.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

The First Focused Hard X-ray Images of the Sun with NuSTAR

We present results from the the first campaign of dedicated solar observations undertaken by the \textit{Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray} ({\em NuSTAR}) hard X-ray telescope. Designed as an astrophysics mission, {\em NuSTAR} nonetheless has the capability of directly imaging the Sun at hard X-ray energies ($>$3~keV) with an increase in sensitivity of at least two magnitude compared to current non-focusing telescopes. In this paper we describe the scientific areas where \textit{NuSTAR} will make major improvements on existing solar measurements. We report on the techniques used to observe the Sun with \textit{NuSTAR}, their limitations and complications, and the procedures developed to optimize solar data quality derived from our experience with the initial solar observations. These first observations are briefly described, including the measurement of the Fe K-shell lines in a decaying X-class flare, hard X-ray emission from high in the solar corona, and full-disk hard X-ray images of the Sun.Comment: 11 pages, accepted to Ap

A novel series of positive modulators of the AMPA receptor : discovery and structure based hit-to-lead studies

Starting from an HTS derived hit 1, application of biostructural data facilitated rapid optimization to lead 22, a novel AMPA receptor modulator. This is the first demonstration of how structure based drug design can be exploited in an optimization program for a glutamate receptor

Open source Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) chemistry modelling for hypersonic flows

An open source implementation of chemistry modelling for the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is presented. Following the recent work of Bird [1] an approach known as the quantum kinetic (Q-K) method has been adopted to describe chemical reactions in a 5-species air model using DSMC procedures based on microscopic gas information. The Q-K technique has been implemented within the framework of the dsmcFoam code, a derivative of the open source CFD code OpenFOAM. Results for vibrational relaxation, dissociation and exchange reaction rates for an adiabatic bath demonstrate the success of the Q-K model when compared with analytical solutions for both inert and reacting conditions. A comparison is also made between the Q-K and total collision energy (TCE) chemistry approaches for a hypersonic flow benchmark case