Snapshots of complexity: using motion capture and principal component analysis to reconceptualise dance

This article brings together the disparate worlds of dance practice, motion capture and statistical analysis. Digital technologies such as motion capture offer dance artists new processes for recording and studying dance movement. Statistical analysis of these data can reveal hidden patterns in movement in ways that are semantically ‘blind’, and are hence able to challenge accepted culturo-physical ‘grammars’ of dance creation. The potential benefit to dance artists is to open up new ways of understanding choreographic movement. However, quantitative analysis does not allow for the uncertainty inherent in emergent, artistic practices such as dance. This article uses motion capture and principal component analysis (PCA), a common statistical technique in human movement recognition studies, to examine contemporary dance movement, and explores how this analysis might be interpreted in an artistic context to generate a new way of looking at the nature and role of movement patterning in dance creation.

Animal-borne sensors successfully capture the real-time thermal properties of ocean basins

Climate change is perhaps the most pressing and urgent environmental issue facing the world today. However our ability to predict and quantify the consequences of this change is severely limited by the paucity of in situ oceanographic measurements. Marine animals equipped with sophisticated oceanographic data loggers to study their behavior offer one solution to this problem because marine animals range widely across the world’s ocean basins and visit remote and often inaccessible locations. However, unlike the information being collected from conventional oceanographic sensing equipment, which has been validated, the data collected from instruments deployed on marine animals over long periods has not. This is the first long-term study to validate in situ oceanographic data collected by animal oceanographers. We compared the ocean temperatures collected by leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in the Atlantic Ocean with the ARGO network of ocean floats and could find no systematic errors that could be ascribed to sensor instability. Animal-borne sensors allowed water temperature to be monitored across a range of depths, over entire ocean basins, and, importantly, over long periods and so will play a key role in assessing global climate change through improved monitoring of global temperatures. This finding is especially pertinent given recent international calls for the development and implementation of a comprehensive Earth observation system (see http://iwgeo.ssc.nasa.gov/documents.asp?s=review) that includes the use of novel techniques for monitoring and understanding ocean and climate interactions to address strategic environmental and societal needs.

Metabolic profile analysis of zebrafish embryos

A growing goal in the field of metabolism is to determine the impact of genetics on different aspects of mitochondrial function. Understanding these relationships will help to understand the underlying etiology for a range of diseases linked with mitochondrial dysfunction, such as diabetes and obesity. Recent advances in instrumentation, has enabled the monitoring of distinct parameters of mitochondrial function in cell lines or tissue explants. Here we present a method for a rapid and sensitive analysis of mitochondrial function parameters in vivo during zebrafish embryonic development using the Seahorse bioscience XF 24 extracellular flux analyser. This protocol utilizes the Islet Capture microplates where a single embryo is placed in each well, allowing measurement of bioenergetics, including: (i) basal respiration; (ii) basal mitochondrial respiration (iii) mitochondrial respiration due to ATP turnover; (iv) mitochondrial uncoupled respiration or proton leak and (iv) maximum respiration. Using this approach embryonic zebrafish respiration parameters can be compared between wild type and genetically altered embryos (mutant, gene over-expression or gene knockdown) or those manipulated pharmacologically. It is anticipated that dissemination of this protocol will provide researchers with new tools to analyse the genetic basis of metabolic disorders in vivo in this relevant vertebrate animal model.

Selection of DNA aptamers against epithelial cell adhesion molecule for cancer cell imaging and circulating tumor cell capture

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is overexpressed in most solid cancers and is an ideal antigen for clinical applications in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, imaging, and therapy. Currently, most of the EpCAM-based diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic strategies rely on the anti-EpCAM antibody. However, the use of EpCAM antibody is restricted due to its large size and instability. In this study, we have successfully identified DNA aptamers that selectively bind human recombinant EpCAM protein. The aptamers can specifically recognize a number of live human cancer cells derived from breast, colorectal, and gastric cancers that express EpCAM but not bind to EpCAM-negative cells. Among the aptamer sequences identified, a hairpin-structured sequence SYL3 was optimized in length, resulting in aptamer sequence SYL3C. The Kd values of the SYL3C aptamer against breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and gastric cancer cell line Kato III were found to be 38±9 and 67±8 nM, respectively, which are better than that of the full-length SYL3 aptamer. Flow cytometry analysis results indicated that the SYL3C aptamer was able to recognize target cancer cells from mixed cells in cell media. When used to capture cancer cells, up to 63% cancer cell capture efficiency was achieved with about 80% purity. With the advantages of small size, easy synthesis, good stability, high binding affinity, and selectivity, the DNA aptamers reported here against cancer biomarker EpCAM will facilitate the development of novel targeted cancer therapy, cancer cell imaging, and circulating tumor cell detection.

Dancing in suits: a performer's perspective on the collaborative exchange between self, body, motion capture, animation and audience

The motion capture process places unique demands on performers. The impact of this process on the simultaneously artistic/somatic nature of dance practice is profound. This paper explores, from a performer’s perspective, how the process of performing in an optical motion capture system can impact and limit, but also expand and reconfigure a dancer’s somatic practice. This paper argues that working within motion capture processes affects not only the immediate contexts of capture and interactive performance, but also sets up a dialogue between dance practices within and beyond the motion capture studio.

Carbon nanotube architectures as catalyst supports for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Catalyst support materials exhibit great influence on the performance and durability of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. This minireview article summarises recent developments into carbon nanotube-based support materials for PEM fuel cells, including the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The advantages of using CNTs to promote catalyst performance and stability, a perspective on research directions and strategies to improve fuel cell performance and durability are discussed. It is hoped that this minireview will act as a conduit for future developments in catalyst supports and MEA design for PEM fuel cells.

Beyond anonymity and the every-day: celebrity and the capture of educational leadership

This conceptual paper traces the development of the culture and capture of celebrity in the field of educational leadership. Drawing on Rojek’s (Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books, 2001) typology of celebrity, we examine the emergence of celebrity of leadership that is activated via the current policy environment that compels schools and school leaders to be recognised and well-known. It is this well-knownness that subsequently contributes to the school as a marketable commodity that “people like us” desire. We highlight the complex convergence of these two phenomena in our reading of the independent school sector in Victoria (Australia).

Estimating cumulative exposure of wildlife to non-lethal disturbance using spatially explicit capture-recapture models

Impact assessments often focus on short-term behavioral responses of animals to human disturbance. However, the cumulative effects caused by repeated behavioral disruptions are of management concern because these effects have the potential to influence individuals' survival and reproduction. We need to estimate individual exposure rates to disturbance to determine cumulative effects. We present a new approach to estimate the spatial exposure of minke whales to whalewatching boats in Faxaflõi Bay, Iceland. We used recent advances in spatially explicit capture-recapture modeling to estimate the probability that whales would encounter a disturbance (i.e., whalewatching boat). We obtained spatially explicit individual encounter histories of individually identifiable animals using photo-identification. We divided the study area into 1-km2 grid cells and considered each cell a spatially distinct sampling unit. We used capture history of individuals to model and estimate spatial encounter probabilities of individual minke whales across the study area, accounting for heterogeneity in sampling effort. We inferred the exposure of individual minke whales to whalewatching vessels throughout the feeding season by estimating individual whale encounters with vessels using the whale encounter probabilities and spatially explicit whalewatching intensity in the same area, obtained from recorded whalewatching vessel tracks. We then estimated the cumulative time whales spent with whalewatching boats to assess the biological significance of whalewatching disturbances. The estimated exposure levels to boats varied considerably between individuals because of both temporal and spatial variations in the activity centers of whales and the whalewatching intensity in the area. However, although some whales were repeatedly exposed to whalewatching boats throughout the feeding season, the estimated cumulative time they spent with boats was very low. Although whalewatching boat interactions caused feeding disruptions for the whales, the estimated low cumulative exposure indicated that the whalewatching industry in its current state likely is not having any long-term negative effects on vital rates.