Enzymatic transhalogenation of dendritic RGD peptide constructs with the fluorinase

We thank EPSRC and the Scottish Imaging Network (SINAPSE) for grants. DO’H thanks the Royal Society for a Wolfson Research Merit Award and ST is grateful to the John and Kathleen Watson Scholarship for financial support. We are grateful to Dr Catherine Botting and Dr Sally Shirran of the St Andrews Mass Spectrometry Service for MALDI-MS acquisitions. We also thank Dr Sally Pimlott of the University of Glasgow for the use of radiochemistry facilities. Open access via RSC Gold for Gold.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Putting Pleasure First: Localizing Japanese Video Games

Since their humble beginnings, video games have undergone huge technological advances, becoming a significant global industry today and highlighting the role played by translation and localization. Despite the continuing localization activities undertaken in the industry, translation studies (TS) have not paid much attention to video games as a research domain. Drawing on the author’s previous work on the Japanese Role Playing Game (RPG) Final Fantasy titles, this paper attempts to demonstrate the ample research scope that this domain presents for TS scholars. In particular, it discusses the unique localization model used by Final Fantasy’s Japanese publisher, illustrating how the games’ new digital platform allows the (re)creation of a new gameplaying pleasure directly through the localization process itself. In this model, the original game merely sets off a chain of improvements through localization. In turn, understanding the different pleasures drawn from different localized versions of games will contribute useful insights into emerging games research.Depuis leurs humbles origines, les jeux vidéo ont fait l’objet d’immenses avancées technologiques : ils sont aujourd’hui une importante industrie transnationale et illustrent le rôle joué par la traduction et la localisation. Cependant, en dépit de la croissance des activités de localisation dans cette industrie, la traductologie n’a guère envisagé les jeux vidéo comme domaine de recherche. En nous inspirant de nos travaux antérieurs sur le jeu vidéo de rôle japonais Final Fantasy, nous tentons de montrer quel vaste champ d’étude ce domaine présente pour les chercheurs en traductologie. Nous abordons plus particulièrement le modèle de localisation utilisé par l’éditeur japonais de Final Fantasy, unique en son genre, pour illustrer comment la nouvelle plate-forme numérique des jeux permet la (re)création d’un nouveau plaisir ludique à travers le processus de localisation lui-même. Dans ce modèle, le jeu original est simplement le point de départ d’une succession d’améliorations grâce à la localisation. Dès lors, une meilleure compréhension des différents plaisirs ludiques offerts par chaque version localisée d’un jeu fournira d’utiles pistes de recherche dans le domaine émergent de l’étude des jeux vidéo

An LED pulser for measuring photomultiplier linearity

A light-emitting diode (LED) pulser for testing the low-rate response of a photomultiplier tube (PMT) to scintillator-like pulses has been designed, developed, and implemented. This pulser is intended to simulate 80 ns full width at half maximum photon pulses over the dynamic range of the PMT, in order to precisely determine PMT linearity. This particular design has the advantage that, unlike many LED test rigs, it does not require the use of multiple calibrated LEDs, making it insensitive to LED gain drifts. Instead, a finite-difference measurement is made using two LEDs which need not be calibrated with respect to one another. These measurements give a better than 1% mapping of the response function, allowing for the testing and development of particularly linear PMT bases.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

The depositional environments and structures of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group and the Windermere Supergroup in the Southern Lake District, England

Field studies have been undertaken on the Borrowdale Volcanic Group (BVG) and the Windermere super group (WS) in the southern Lake District. This study has been conducted to provide further work towards the understanding of the BVG’s emplacement and the depositional environments of the WS. Formal unit descriptions and stratigraphic columns are compiled from field data and accompanied by stereonet, cross section, and thin section analysis. Numerous depositional features, including asymmetric ripples and aligned clasts, found within the BVG are supportive of a sub aerial and lacustrine setting for emplacement. Bow tie fiamme and rheomorphic flow structures also hold similar implications, by the necessity of heat input, to the environment of emplacement. An unconformable contact between the WS and the BVG is concluded by observations of parasitic folds passing below the WS at High Pike Haw. This is further supported by bedding anomalies uncovered by stereonet analysis. Four transgressions are linked with the deposition of the WS and show correlation with eustasy fluctuations and global cooling events, including the Hirnantian glaciation. Southward verging, open folds through Low Long Beck predate WS deposition and hold similarities with pre-Bala folding. A D2 folding event occurred post deposition to produce isoclinal folding along Dow Crag and a slatey cleavage throughout both units

Chromatin modifications during repair of environmental exposure-induced DNA damage: a potential mechanism for stable epigenetic alterations

Exposures to environmental toxicants and toxins cause epigenetic changes that likely play a role in the development of diseases associated with exposure. The mechanism behind these exposure-induced epigenetic changes is currently unknown. One commonality between most environmental exposures is that they cause DNA damage either directly or through causing an increase in reactive oxygen species, which can damage DNA. Like transcription, DNA damage repair must occur in the context of chromatin requiring both histone modifications and ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling. These chromatin changes aid in DNA damage accessibility and signaling. Several proteins and complexes involved in epigenetic silencing during both development and cancer have been found to be localized to sites of DNA damage. The chromatin-based response to DNA damage is considered a transient event, with chromatin being restored to normal as DNA damage repair is completed. However, in individuals chronically exposed to environmental toxicants or with chronic inflammatory disease, repeated DNA damage-induced chromatin rearrangement may ultimately lead to permanent epigenetic alterations. Understanding the mechanism behind exposure-induced epigenetic changes will allow us to develop strategies to prevent or reverse these changes. This review focuses on epigenetic changes and DNA damage induced by environmental exposures, the chromatin changes that occur around sites of DNA damage, and how these transient chromatin changes may lead to heritable epigenetic alterations at sites of chronic exposure

Tiny Home Innovations: Alternative Uses and Designs with the San José Bridge Housing Community

Homelessness is without question one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the Bay Area. Regardless of whether people think ending homelessness is feasible, the bottom line is that every human deserves the right to have a place they call home. Despite the simplicity of this right, achieving it in today’s society is difficult because of the economic, social and political complexities which make homelessness appear to be a problem with no solution. Unfortunately, belief in the hopelessness of efforts to end homelessness dissuades many from taking action. This project is not guided by the belief that ending homelessness is hopeless. The goal of this project was to provide organizations that counteract homelessness with more housing options because the project team valued their mission to provide the marginalized and forgotten with the rights they deserve. This project investigated, analyzed, and developed alternative tiny home uses for the City of San José’s Bridge Housing Community (BHC) program. To accomplish this, a fully engineered, modular version of the existing BHC cabin was designed for if the BHC program is expanded, and appropriate retrofit modifications to the current cabin design were determined for if the program is discontinued

Cerebrospinal fluid protein and glucose examinations and tuberculosis: Will laboratory safety regulations force a change of practice?

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein and glucose examinations are usually performed in chemical pathology departments on autoanalysers. Tuberculosis (TB) is a group 3 biological agent under Directive 2000/54/EC of the European Parliament but in the biochemistry laboratory, no extra precautions are taken in its analysis in possible TB cases. The issue of laboratory practice and safety in the biochemical analyses of CSF specimens, when tuberculosis infection is in question is addressed in the context of ambiguity in the implementation of current national and international health and safety regulations. Additional protective measures for laboratory staff during the analysis of CSF TB samples should force a change in current laboratory practice and become a regulatory issue under ISO 15189. Annual Mantoux skin test or an interferon-? release assay for TB should be mandatory for relevant staff. This manuscript addresses the issue of biochemistry laboratory practice and safety in the biochemical analyses of CSF specimens when tuberculosis infection is in question in the context of the ambiguity of statutory health and safety regulations