549 research outputs found
Curating Multisensory Experiences: The Possibilities of Immersive Exhibitions
The immersive exhibition is a specialized exhibition genre flourishing in the 21st century. It creates illusions of time and space by applying multisensory display methods to envelop visitors in a three-dimensional virtual world. The enhanced sense of presence facilitates public engagement. Not only have immersive exhibitions transformed audience experience, they have triggered discussions on the evolution of the museum and how curators can productively incorporate new technology. Based on interdisciplinary theory and the case studies of Grande Experiences (Melbourne) and teamLab (Tokyo), this thesis addresses issues around defining, developing, and curating immersive exhibitions. I discuss the genre’s operation from three perspectives: managing the physical space by using nonlinear thematic frameworks and dynamic displays; curating audiences’ subjective immersive experience by applying natural sensory interactions, mediator-based interactions, and collaborative participation; and identifying multisensory stimulation as immersive exhibitions’ critical attribute. These aspects hold possibilities for implementation in all museum contexts. The purpose of this thesis is to offer curators and exhibition creators practical guidelines on reshaping existing displays and collections with immersive design and technology. Immersive exhibitions encourage museums to rethink the possibilities for enabling and diversifying connections between art, technology, and the public in the digital era
Is there a compact companion orbiting the late O-type binary star HD 164816?
We present a multi-wavelength (X-ray, -ray, optical and radio) study
of HD 194816, a late O-type X-ray detected spectroscopic binary. X-ray spectra
are analyzed and the X-ray photon arrival times are checked for pulsation. In
addition, newly obtained optical spectroscopic monitoring data on HD 164816 are
presented. They are complemented by available radio data from several large
scale surveys as well as the \emph{FERMI} -ray data from its
\emph{Large Area Telescope}. We report the detection of a low energy excess in
the X-ray spectrum that can be described by a simple absorbed blackbody model
with a temperature of 50 eV as well as a 9.78 s pulsation of the X-ray
source. The soft X-ray excess, the X-ray pulsation, and the kinematical age
would all be consistent with a compact object like a neutron star as companion
to HD 164816. The size of the soft X-ray excess emitting area is consistent
with a circular region with a radius of about 7 km, typical for neutron stars,
while the emission measure of the remaining harder emission is typical for late
O-type single or binary stars. If HD 164816 includes a neutron star born in a
supernova, this supernova should have been very recent and should have given
the system a kick, which is consistent with the observation that the star HD
164816 has a significantly different radial velocity than the cluster mean. In
addition we confirm the binarity of HD 164816 itself by obtaining an orbital
period of 3.82 d, projected masses = 2.355(69) M,
= 2.103(62) M apparently seen at low inclination
angle, determined from high-resolution optical spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS, 11 pages, 6 figures, 4 table
XRCC4 deficiency in human subjects causes a marked neurological phenotype but no overt immunodeficiency
Background
Nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) is the major DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair mechanism in human cells. The final rejoining step requires DNA ligase IV (LIG4) together with the partner proteins X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 4 (XRCC4) and XRCC4-like factor. Patients with mutations in genes encoding LIG4, XRCC4-like factor, or the other NHEJ proteins DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit and Artemis are DSB repair defective and immunodeficient because of the requirement for NHEJ during V(D)J recombination.
Objective
We found a patient displaying microcephaly and progressive ataxia but a normal immune response. We sought to determine pathogenic mutations and to describe the molecular pathogenesis of the patient.
Methods
We performed next-generation exome sequencing. We evaluated the DSB repair activities and V(D)J recombination capacity of the patient's cells, as well as performing a standard blood immunologic characterization.
Results
We identified causal mutations in the XRCC4 gene. The patient's cells are radiosensitive and display the most severe DSB repair defect we have encountered using patient-derived cell lines. In marked contrast, a V(D)J recombination plasmid assay revealed that the patient's cells did not display the junction abnormalities that are characteristic of other NHEJ-defective cell lines. The mutant protein can interact efficiently with LIG4 and functions normally in in vitro assays and when transiently expressed in vivo. However, the mutation makes the protein unstable, and it undergoes proteasome-mediated degradation.
Conclusion
Our findings reveal a novel separation of impact phenotype: there is a pronounced DSB repair defect and marked clinical neurological manifestation but no clinical immunodeficiency
Recommended from our members
East London’s Homeless: a retrospective review of an eye clinic for homeless people
Background
There is very little published work on the visual needs of homeless people. This paper is the first study to investigate the visual needs of homeless people in the UK. Although similar work has been done in other countries, this study is unique because the United Kingdom is the only country with a National Health Service which provides free healthcare at the point of access. This study analysed the refractive status of the sample used, determined the demographics of homeless people seeking eye care and established if there is a need for community eye health with access to free spectacle correction in East London.
Methods
This retrospective case study analysed the clinical records of 1,141 homeless people using the Vision Care for Homeless People services at one of their clinics in East London. All eye examinations were carried out by qualified optometrists and, where appropriate, spectacles were dispensed to patients. Data captured included age, gender, ethnicity and refractive error. Results were analysed using two-sample t-tests with Excel and Minitab.
Results
Demographics of age, gender and ethnicity are described. Spherical equivalents (SE) were calculated from prescription data available for 841 clinic users. Emmetropia was defined as SE–0.50DS to +1DS, myopia as SE +1DS.
The majority of clinic users were male (79.2 %, n = 923). Approximately 80 % (n = 583) of clinic users were white, 10 % (n = 72) were ‘black’, 4 % (n = 29) ‘Asian’ and the remaining 5.6 % (n = 40) were of ‘mixed ethnicity’ and ‘other’ groups. The mean age of females attending the clinic was significantly lower than that of males (45.9 years, SD = 13.8 vs’ 48.4 years, SD = 11.8) when analysed using a two-sample t-test (t (317) = 2.44, p = 0.02). One third of service users were aged between 50–59 years. Myopia and hyperopia prevalence rates were 37.0 % and 21.0 % respectively. A total of 34.8 % of homeless people were found to have uncorrected refractive error, and required spectacle correction.
Conclusions
This study has identified a high proportion of uncorrected refractive error in this sample and therefore a need for regular eye examinations and provision of refractive correction for homeless people
SDSS-IV MaNGA: faint quenched galaxies I- sample selection and evidence for environmental quenching
SJP acknowledges postdoctoral funding from the University of Portsmouth. AW acknowledges support of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. This work was supported by World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan. J. F-B. acknowledges support from grant AYA2013-48226-C3-1-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), as well as from the FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission, via the Initial Training Network DAGAL under REA grant agreement number 289313. MAB acknowledges support from NSF AST 1517006.Using kinematic maps from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we reveal that the majority of low-mass quenched galaxies exhibit coherent rotation in their stellar kinematics. Our sample includes all 39 quenched low-mass galaxies observed in the first year of MaNGA. The galaxies are selected with Mr > -19.1, stellar masses109 M⊙ 1.9. They lie on the size-magnitude and σ-luminosity relations for previously studied dwarf galaxies. Just six (15 ± 5.7 per cent) are found to have rotation speeds ve, rot 5 × 1010 M⊙), supporting the hypothesis that galaxy-galaxy or galaxy-group interactions quench star formation in low-mass galaxies. The local bright galaxy density for our sample is ρproj = 8.2 ± 2.0 Mpc-2, compared to ρproj = 2.1 ± 0.4 Mpc-2 for a star forming comparison sample,confirming that the quenched low mass galaxies are preferentially found in higher density environments.PostprintPeer reviewe
The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in
operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from
this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release
Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first
two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14
is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all
data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14
is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation
Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the
Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2),
including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine
learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes
from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous
release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of
the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the
important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both
targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS
website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to
data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is
planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be
followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14
happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov
2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections
only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected
Measurement of the branching fraction and CP content for the decay B(0) -> D(*+)D(*-)
This is the pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the links below. Copyright @ 2002 APS.We report a measurement of the branching fraction of the decay B0→D*+D*- and of the CP-odd component of its final state using the BABAR detector. With data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.4 fb-1 collected at the Υ(4S) resonance during 1999–2000, we have reconstructed 38 candidate signal events in the mode B0→D*+D*- with an estimated background of 6.2±0.5 events. From these events, we determine the branching fraction to be B(B0→D*+D*-)=[8.3±1.6(stat)±1.2(syst)]×10-4. The measured CP-odd fraction of the final state is 0.22±0.18(stat)±0.03(syst).This work is supported by DOE and NSF (USA), NSERC (Canada), IHEP (China), CEA and CNRS-IN2P3 (France), BMBF (Germany), INFN (Italy), NFR (Norway), MIST (Russia), and PPARC (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the A.P. Sloan Foundation, Research Corporation, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events
The - oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of
23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II
asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B
mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the
flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference
distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives ps.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Measurement of the Branching Fraction for B- --> D0 K*-
We present a measurement of the branching fraction for the decay B- --> D0
K*- using a sample of approximately 86 million BBbar pairs collected by the
BaBar detector from e+e- collisions near the Y(4S) resonance. The D0 is
detected through its decays to K- pi+, K- pi+ pi0 and K- pi+ pi- pi+, and the
K*- through its decay to K0S pi-. We measure the branching fraction to be
B.F.(B- --> D0 K*-)= (6.3 +/- 0.7(stat.) +/- 0.5(syst.)) x 10^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 1 postscript figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid
Communications
- …