“Game over, man. Game over”:looking at the Alien in film and videogames

In this article we discuss videogame adaptations of the Alien series of films, in particular Alien: Colonial Marines (2013) and Alien: Isolation (2014). In comparing critical responses and developer commentary across these texts, we read the very different affective, aesthetic and socio-political readings of the titular alien character in each case. The significant differences in what it means to ‘look’ at this figure can be analyzed in terms of wider storytelling techniques that stratify remediation between film and games. Differing accounts of how storytelling techniques create intensely ‘immersive’ experiences such as horror and identification—as well as how these experiences are valued—become legible across this set of critical contexts. The concept of the ‘look’ is developed as a comparative series that enables the analysis of the affective dynamics of film and game texts in terms of gender-normative ‘technicity’, moving from the ‘mother monster’ of the original film to the ‘short controlled burst’ of the colonial marines and finally to the ‘psychopathic serendipity’ of Alien: Isolation

A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE IRISH ELECTORAL REGISTER AND ITS USE FOR POPULATION ESTIMATION AND SAMPLE SURVEYS. General Research Series Paper No. 130, July 1986

The Electoral Register’s prime purpose is to serve as a list of those persons in tile State who are eligible to vote in national and local elections. Apart from this function it is also used by researchers in the social sciences for other purposes, as it is tile only regularly updated list of the adult population which is readily available. In particular, it has been used as a sampling frame for social surveys and as an indicator of population levels. The accuracy of the Register is, therefore, of interest to researchers

Production of lectin-affinity matrices for process-scale glycoprotein purification

A selection of prokaryotic lectins with a variety of glycan specificities and affinities have been identified, cloned, expressed in Eschericia coli and characterised. The aims of this project are to: - express the lectins at 1L scale to produce sufficient quantities for immobilisation studies (~100 mg) - immobilisethelectinsonSepharose - evaluate lectin performance on column by monitoring their ability toreproducibly capture and elute glycoprotein glycoforms

The use of Cold Setting Whey Proteins to enhance the Gelation Properties of Foods.

End of Project ReportThe main objective of this project was to produce dried, denatured, whey protein-based powders, which on reconstitution in food formulations show an increased ability to bind water in the presence of added salts, especially in the ambient temperature range. To achieve this, a number of secondary objectives were set to observe the behaviour of the whey protein system. These included the effects of salt on increases in viscosity during the heating process, the requirement for pH adjustment during processing and the ability of the pre-treated whey protein to interact with fat. The main conclusions were as follows: * It was shown that, compared to a commercial 75% whey protein concentrate, a preheated whey protein ingredient (cold-setting whey protein) improved the consistency of surimi and a cold-set dessert system. * For cold-setting applications, the whey proteins need to withstand heating without gel formation. For example, as the protein concentration was increased, the salt concentration had to be decreased and pH increased to prevent the initiation of gelling during processing. When the salt concentration was increased, a lower heat treatment was needed to prevent viscosity increase. However, lower heat treatment resulted in a lower degree of protein unfolding and weaker cold-set gels. This example implies that only certain whey sources are suitable starting materials for cold-set applications. * Model oil-in-water emulsions were studied using whey proteins pre-treated at different homogenisation and heating conditions to evaluate the potential of cold-setting whey proteins in yoghurt, mayonnaise and sauces. It was found that with these pretreatments, emulsion viscosity increases were observed at very low whey protein concentration (< 1%), when salt was added after emulsion formation, indicating that cold-set whey proteins are much more effective gelling agents than normal whey protein ingredients. For this reason, they have potential in acidified dairy products such as yoghurt. * Pre-heated whey protein dispersions are also capable of binding and stabilising calcium phosphate. This property can be exploited in the stabilisation of calcium-fortified milkbased beverages. * The commercial production of cold-setting whey protein ingredients will depend on the ability to retain whey protein solubility during processing. A number of mechanisms exist to achieve this but, in all cases, very exact control of the process is required. * Because low salt levels prevent the aggregation and gelling of denatured whey proteins, whey protein isolate is an ideal starting material for the production of these ingredients, but due to the high cost, de-mineralised whey was chosen instead as the starting material. Careful consideration has also to be given to the processing equipment and the economics involved. * The development of whey protein ingredients especially for cold-set end uses is a product specific exercise. General guidelines were developed in the current work, but further work with industry partners will be necessary before commercial success is achieved.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

Genetically enhanced recombinant lectins for glyco-selective analysis and purification

- Generation of a library of recombinant prokaryotic lectins (RPL’s) through random mutagenesis of the carbohydrate binding sites of bacterial lectins. - Characterisation of mutant lectins with respect to structure and specificity - Provision of mutant RPL’s with enhanced affinity and/or altered specificity, alongside wild-type RPL’s, for glycoprotein analysis and purificatio

Regions of the Cry1Ac toxin predicted to be under positive selection are shown to be the carbohydrate binding sites and can be altered in their glycoprotein target specificity

The cry gene family, is a large family of homologous genes from Bacillus thuringiensis. Studies have examined the structural and functional relationships of the Cry proteins. They have revealed several residues in domains II and III that are important for target recognition and receptor attachment. In 2007 Wu, Jin-Yu et al employed a maximum likelihood method to detect evidence of adaptive evolution in Cry proteins. They identified positively selected residues, which are all located in Domain II or III. Figure 1 shows a protein sequence alignment between domain II and III of Cry1Ac and Cry1Aa. This highlights the areas which are thought to be under positive selection. Cry1Ac and Cry1Aa are structurally very similar and they both bind to a variety of N-aminopeptidases (APN’s) in different insect species. However Cry1Aa has a higher specificity for the cadherin like receptor HevCalP and Cry1Ac binds to N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) on the surface of APN’s. Differences in the binding of the two toxins has been shown in an in-direct toxin-binding assay where GalNAc completely abolished toxin binding of Cry1Ac but had no effect on the binding of Cry1Aa. The binding site has been shown to be located in the third domain of Cry1Ac. Some of these sites correlate with the positively selected residues found by Wu et al 2007 in Cry1Aa. Our aim was to use the comparison of the toxins to analyse the potential to alter the binding specificity of Cry1Ac and its domains. In this work we identified critical amino acid residues for this objective

The investigation of a recombinant GalNAc binding protein from bacillus thuringiensis as a tool for glycan analysis and detection

Changes in the structures of glycans on the surfaces of eukaryotic cells can be important biomarkers for developmental or disease states. Improved methods are needed for the detection and analysis of alterations in glycan structures. Carbohydrate binding proteins such as lectins have potential for the recognition of changes in glycan structure. Host-pathogen interactions frequently involve the recognition of host carbohydrates by proteins of bacteria or viruses. Many bacterial toxins have evolved to interact with host cell receptors or with a specific tissue due to lectin like properties. The toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis have been shown to have carbohydrate binding abilities, in particular N-Acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) has been shown to inhibit the binding of the toxin Cry1Ac. GalNAc has been shown to be an important marker in many diseases such as breast cancer and colon carcinogenesis. Moreover, changes in GalNAc glycosylation have been identified in many disorders such as cystic fibrosis, neuromuscular disorders and nephropathy. Here we describe the purification of a GalNAc binding protein of bacterial origin that may have potential in the development of diagnostic assays

Exploitation of siderophores for the speciation of iron

Iron is essential for life. It acts as an electron donor/acceptor in metabolic processes facilitated by its variable valency. Although vital, it is toxic at high levels due to Fe2+ oxidation. Iron toxicity is a concern as it can affect growth and product yields in animal cell culture. Siderophores are high affinity Fe3+ chelators produced by microorganisms. This affinity gives them the potential to be used as a basis in platforms to detect and speciate iron in industrial cell culture. Rhizobactin 1021 is of interest due to its decanoic acid “tail” that is not involved in chelation which makes it an ideal target for immobilisation