Real-time optical micro-manipulation using optimized holograms generated on the GPU

Holographic optical tweezers allow the three dimensional, dynamic, multipoint manipulation of micron sized dielectric objects. Exploiting the massive parallel architecture of modern GPUs we can generate highly optimized holograms at video frame rate allowing the interactive micro-manipulation of 3D structures.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Transition Pioneers – Urban Planners as a Source of Momentum for Sustainable Cities and Regions?

Sustainability as a guiding, normative concept for spatial development faces various challenges when it comes to planning practice. Spatial planners have to contribute to comprehensive societal changes that are necessary in order to transform society to sustainability. This fundamental societal change has been framed as “Great Transformation” by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Urban planners as one of the key actors for sustainable urban and regional development are faced with the challenge of contributing to societal transformation processes towards sustainability. Based on the theoretical background of transition theory and the Multi-Level-Perspective this paper identifies innovative planners as pioneers for sustainable urban development. It examines the role of these innovative planners in their specific context and asks what role they play on the way towards a “Great Transformation”. The paper is based on guideline-based expert interviews with innovative urban planners across the whole of Germany. By examining the career patterns of planning practitioners of different areas the existence of personal beliefs relating to sustainability becomes clear. In order to fulfil their beliefs pioneers find themselves in varying positions ranging from communicators, developers and multiplier of alternative ideas and projects of sustainable urban development. They perform their role on niche level as well as on the regime level and are able to connect actors of the both. Applying unorthodox methods and planning tools and being involved in local, regional as well as global actor networks, the selected pioneers contribute to the sustainability transformation

Sushi in the United States, 1945-1970

Sushi first achieved widespread popularity in the United States in the mid-1960s. Many accounts of sushi’s US establishment foreground the role of a small number of key actors, yet underplay the role of a complex web of large-scale factors that provided the context in which sushi was able to flourish. This article critically reviews existing literature, arguing that sushi’s US popularity arose from contingent, long-term, and gradual processes. It examines US newspaper accounts of sushi during 1945–1970, which suggest the discursive context for US acceptance of sushi was considerably more propitious than generally acknowledged. Using California as a case study, the analysis also explains conducive social and material factors, and directs attention to the interplay of supply- and demand-side forces in the favorable positioning of this “new” food. The article argues that the US establishment of sushi can be understood as part of broader public acceptance of Japanese cuisine