“I’m Happy with Who I Am” : A Discursive Analysis of the Self-characterisation Practices of Boys in “Behaviour” Schools

In this chapter, I draw on poststructural theories of language to examine the self-characterisation practices of 33 boys attending special schools for students with disruptive behaviour. During a semi-structured interview, each boy was asked to describe his personality and then to choose from a selection of positive/negative word pairs. The objective was to determine whether these young people would characterise themselves in positive or negative ways. Participants were then asked if there was anything they would change about themselves if they could. Responses were analysed and compared against a discourse model developed from media reports and interviews with their principals. Findings suggest that while discourse may well ‘form the objects of which it speaks’ (Foucault, 1972, p. 49) in the eyes of teachers, principals, psychiatrists and paediatricians, it also offers a means through which the constituted subject can re-author itself in a more positive frame.

An upstream open reading frame is essential for feedback regulation of ascorbate biosynthesis in arabidopsis

Ascorbate (vitamin C) is an essential antioxidant and enzyme cofactor in both plants and animals. Ascorbate concentration is tightly regulated in plants, partly to respond to stress. Here, we demonstrate that ascorbate concentrations are determined via the posttranscriptional repression of GDP-l-galactose phosphorylase (GGP), a major control enzyme in the ascorbate biosynthesis pathway. This regulation requires a cis-acting upstream open reading frame (uORF) that represses the translation of the downstream GGP open reading frame under high ascorbate concentration. Disruption of this uORF stops the ascorbate feedback regulation of translation and results in increased ascorbate concentrations in leaves. The uORF is predicted to initiate at a noncanonical codon (ACG rather than AUG) and encode a 60- to 65-residue peptide. Analysis of ribosome protection data from Arabidopsis thaliana showed colocation of high levels of ribosomes with both the uORF and the main coding sequence of GGP. Together, our data indicate that the noncanonical uORF is translated and encodes a peptide that functions in the ascorbate inhibition of translation. This posttranslational regulation of ascorbate is likely an ancient mechanism of control as the uORF is conserved in GGP genes from mosses to angiosperms.

Effect of constitutive material models on seismic response of two-story reinforced concrete frame

This paper focuses on the finite element (FE) response sensitivity and reliability analyses considering smooth constitutive material models. A reinforced concrete frame is modeled for FE sensitivity analysis followed by direct differentiation method under both static and dynamic load cases. Later, the reliability analysis is performed to predict the seismic behavior of the frame. Displacement sensitivity discontinuities are observed along the pseudo-time axis using non-smooth concrete and reinforcing steel model under quasi-static loading. However, the smooth materials show continuity in response sensitivity at elastic to plastic transition points. The normalized sensitivity results are also used to measure the relative importance of the material parameters on the structural responses. In FE reliability analysis, the influence of smoothness behavior of reinforcing steel is carefully noticed. More efficient and reasonable reliability estimation can be achieved by using smooth material model compare with bilinear material constitutive model.

Fire design rules for load bearing cold-formed steel frame walls exposed to realistic design fire curves

Light gauge Steel Frame (LSF) walls are extensively used in the building industry due to the many advantages they provide over other wall systems. Although LSF walls have been used widely, fire design of LSF walls is based on approximate prescriptive methods based on limited fire tests. Also these fire tests were conducted using the standard fire curve [1] and the applicability of available design rules to realistic design fire curves has not been verified. This paper investigates the accuracy of existing fire design rules in the current cold-formed steel standards and the modifications proposed by previous researchers. Of these the recently developed design rules by Gunalan and Mahendran [2] based on Eurocode 3 Part 1.3 [3] and AS/NZS 4600 [4] for standard fire exposure [1] were investigated in detail to determine their applicability to predict the axial compression strengths and fire resistance ratings of LSF walls exposed to realistic design fire curves. This paper also presents the fire performance results of LSF walls exposed to a range of realistic fire curves obtained using a finite element analysis based parametric study. The results from the parametric study were used to develop a simplified design method based on the critical hot flange temperature to predict the fire resistance ratings of LSF walls exposed to realistic fire curves. Finally, the stud failure times (fire resistance rating) obtained from the fire design rules and the simplified design method were compared with parametric study results for LSF walls lined with single and double plasterboards, and externally insulated with rock fibres under realistic fire curves.

A "Candidate-Interactome" Aggregate Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Data in Multiple Sclerosis

Though difficult, the study of gene-environment interactions in multifactorial diseases is crucial for interpreting the relevance of non-heritable factors and prevents from overlooking genetic associations with small but measurable effects. We propose a "candidate interactome" (i.e. a group of genes whose products are known to physically interact with environmental factors that may be relevant for disease pathogenesis) analysis of genome-wide association data in multiple sclerosis. We looked for statistical enrichment of associations among interactomes that, at the current state of knowledge, may be representative of gene-environment interactions of potential, uncertain or unlikely relevance for multiple sclerosis pathogenesis: Epstein-Barr virus, human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, cytomegalovirus, HHV8-Kaposi sarcoma, H1N1-influenza, JC virus, human innate immunity interactome for type I interferon, autoimmune regulator, vitamin D receptor, aryl hydrocarbon receptor and a panel of proteins targeted by 70 innate immune-modulating viral open reading frames from 30 viral species. Interactomes were either obtained from the literature or were manually curated. The P values of all single nucleotide polymorphism mapping to a given interactome were obtained from the last genome-wide association study of the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium & the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, 2. The interaction between genotype and Epstein Barr virus emerges as relevant for multiple sclerosis etiology. However, in line with recent data on the coexistence of common and unique strategies used by viruses to perturb the human molecular system, also other viruses have a similar potential, though probably less relevant in epidemiological terms. © 2013 Mechelli et al.

Dissimilarities in alignment-free methods for phylogenetic analysis based on genomes

Whole genome sequences are generally accepted as excellent tools for studying evolutionary relationships. Due to the problems caused by the uncertainty in alignment, existing tools for phylogenetic analysis based on multiple alignments could not be directly applied to the whole-genome comparison and phylogenomic studies. There has been a growing interest in alignment-free methods for phylogenetic analysis using complete genome data. The “distances” used in these alignment-free methods are not proper distance metrics in the strict mathematical sense. In this study, we first review them in a more general frame — dissimilarity. Then we propose some new dissimilarities for phylogenetic analysis. Last three genome datasets are employed to evaluate these dissimilarities from a biological point of view.

Partial Loss Of Support And Frame-Soil Interaction

An interaction analysis has been conducted to study the effects of a local loss of support beneath the beam footing of a two-bay plane frame. The results of the study indicate that the magnitude of increase in the bending moment and axial force in the structure due to the presence of a void are dependent, not only on the extent of support loss, but also on the relative stiffnesses between foundation beam and soil, and between superstructure and soil. The increase in bending moment even for a void span of 1/12 of the foundation beam length can become so significant as to exceed the safety provisions. The study shows that the effect of a void on the superstructure moments can be greatly minimized by a combination of rigid foundation and flexible superstructure.

Given and News : Media discourse and the construction of community on national days

National anniversaries such as independence days demand precise coordination in order to make citizens change their routines to forego work and spend the day at rest or at festivities that provide social focus and spectacle. The complex social construction of national days is taken for granted and operates as a given in the news media, which are the main agents responsible for coordinating these planned disruptions of normal routines. This study examines the language used in the news to construct the rather unnatural idea of national days and to align people in observing them. The data for the study consist of news stories about the Fourth of July in the New York Times, sampled over 150 years and are supplemented by material from other sources and other countries. The study is multidimensional, applying concepts from pragmatics (speech acts, politeness, information structure), systemic functional linguistics (the interpersonal metafunction and the Appraisal framework) and cognitive linguistics (frames, metaphor) as well as journalism and communications to arrive at an interdisciplinary understanding of how resources for meaning are used by writers and readers of the news stories. The analysis shows that on national anniversaries, nations tend to be metaphorized as persons having birthdays, to whom politeness should be shown. The face of the nation is to be respected in the sense of identifying the nation's interests as one's own (positive face) and speaking of citizen responsibilities rather than rights (negative face). Resources are available for both positive and negative evaluations of events and participants and the newspaper deftly changes footings (Goffman 1981) to demonstrate the required politeness while also heteroglossically allowing for a certain amount of disattention and even protest - within limits, for state holidays are almost never construed as Bakhtinian festivals, as they tend to reaffirm the hierarchy rather than invert it. Celebrations are evaluated mainly for impressiveness, and for the essentially contested quality of appropriateness, which covers norms of predictability, size, audience response, aesthetics, and explicit reference to the past. Events may also be negatively evaluated as dull ("banal") or inauthentic ("hoopla"). Audiences are evaluated chiefly in terms of their enthusiasm, or production of appropriate displays for emotional response, for national days are supposed to be occasions of flooding-out of nationalistic feeling. By making these evaluations, the newspaper reinforces its powerful position as an independent critic, while at the same time playing an active role in the construction and reproduction of emotional order embodied in "the nation's birthday." As an occasion for mobilization and demonstrations of power, national days may be seen to stand to war in the relation of play to fighting (Bateson 1955). Evidence from the newspaper's coverage of recent conflicts is adduced to support this analysis. In the course of the investigation, methods are developed for analyzing large collections of newspaper content, particularly topical soft news and feature materials that have hitherto been considered less influential and worthy of study than so-called hard news. In his work on evaluation in newspaper stories, White (1998) proposed that the classic hard news story is focused on an event that threatens the social order, but news of holidays and celebrations in general does not fit this pattern, in fact its central event is a reproduction of the social order. Thus in the system of news values (Galtung and Ruge 1965), national holiday news draws on "ground" news values such as continuity and predictability rather than "figure" news values such as negativity and surprise. It is argued that this ground helps form a necessary space for hard news to be seen as important, similar to the way in which the information structure of language is seen to rely on the regular alternation of given and new information (Chafe 1994).

Kuvan ja tekstin välissä : Kuvateksti uutiskuvan ja lehtijutun elementtinä

The study focuses on picture captions: their grammar and interplay with photographs and their position as semi-independent elements of the news stories. The research was conducted in the framework of critical discourse analysis, social semiotic visual theory and fennistic syntactical research. The data consist of 441 press photographs, 1,815 captions and a number of news items from Finnish dailies. The generic structure potential of the caption includes the caption headline, the caption proper, i.e. the verbalization of the picture content, and the frame. In the data, 41 per cent of the captions have a headline, and 44 per cent contain a caption proper. Characteristic of the caption proper is omission of the finite verb and the use of the present tense, both of which have decreased in Finnish papers during the 20th century. The caption proper is typically a main clause, and both subordinate clauses and participal phrases occur mostly in the frame. While comparing caption variants attached to the same pictures, the processes and their participants proved to be identified considerably identically, following the news agency captions. Instead, the reader?s interpretations of a picture could be directed by framing it in different ways. For example, the caption may focus on the only person depicted, deal with a whole group, or give an abstract account of the situation. The caption is a paratext, a typographically marked, semi-independent element of a news story. Between the headline and the caption, four semantic relations have been identified. The caption may be a paraphrase of the headline, or a close-up illustrating an abstract headline with a concrete example. If the name of the person depicted is their only common factor, the relation between the caption and the headline is additive. A specifying caption will give more details than the headline. The caption may complete, repeat, or summarize the body copy. Naturally, most captions completing the story verbalize the content of the picture. As the caption is often based on the story, it may even repeat the body copy verbatim. The summarizing function is probably becoming increasingly important, as most Finnish newspapers have abandoned the use of a separate standfirst.

Application of Maclaurin Series in Structural Analysis

In the simple theory of flexure of beams, the slope, bending moment, shearing force, load and other quantities are functions of a derivative of y with respect to x. It is shown that the elastic curve of a transversely loaded beam can be represented by the Maclaurin series. Substitution of the values of the derivatives gives a direct solution of beam problems. In this paper the method is applied to derive the Theorem or three moments and slope deflection equations. The method is extended to the solution of a rigid portal frame. Finally the method is applied to deduce results on which the moment distribution method of analyzing rigid frames is based.

Parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis of fat deposition models in beef steers using acslXtreme.

The Davis Growth Model (a dynamic steer growth model encompassing 4 fat deposition models) is currently being used by the phenotypic prediction program of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Beef Genetic Technologies to predict P8 fat (mm) in beef cattle to assist beef producers meet market specifications. The concepts of cellular hyperplasia and hypertrophy are integral components of the Davis Growth Model. The net synthesis of total body fat (kg) is calculated from the net energy available after accounting tor energy needs for maintenance and protein synthesis. Total body fat (kg) is then partitioned into 4 fat depots (intermuscular, intramuscular, subcutaneous, and visceral). This paper reports on the parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) logistic growth equations and the fat deposition first-order differential equations in the Davis Growth Model using acslXtreme (Hunstville, AL, USA, Xcellon). The DNA and fat deposition parameter coefficients were found to be important determinants of model function; the DNA parameter coefficients with days on feed >100 days and the fat deposition parameter coefficients for all days on feed. The generalized NL2SOL optimization algorithm had the fastest processing time and the minimum number of objective function evaluations when estimating the 4 fat deposition parameter coefficients with 2 observed values (initial and final fat). The subcutaneous fat parameter coefficient did indicate a metabolic difference for frame sizes. The results look promising and the prototype Davis Growth Model has the potential to assist the beef industry meet market specifications.

Syntactic Approach to ECG Rhythm Analysis

A diagnostic system for ECG rhythm monitoring based on syntactic approaches to pattern recognition is presented here. The method proposed exploits the difference in shape and structure between arrhythmic and normal ECG patterns to generate distinctly different descriptions in terms of a chosen set of primitives. A given frame of signal is first approximated piecewise linearly into a set of line segments which are completely specified in terms of their length and slope values. The slope values are quantized into seven distinct levels and a unit-length line segment with a slope value in each of these levels is coded as a slope symbol. Seven such slope symbols constitute the set of primitives. The given signal is represented as a string of such symbols based on the length and angle of the line segments approximating the signal. Context-free languages are used for describing the classes of abnormal and normal ECG patterns considered here. Analysis of actual ECG data shows efficiency comparable with that of existing methods and a saving in processing time.

Nucleotide sequence of the 3' terminal region of belladonna mottle virus-Iowa (renamed Physalis mottle virus) RNA and an analysis of the relationships of tymoviral coat proteins

The 3prime terminal 1255nt sequence of Physalis mottle virus (PhMV) genomic RNA has been determined from a set of overlapping cDNA clones. The open reading frame (ORF) at the 3prime terminus corresponds to the amino acid sequence of the coat protein (CP) determined earlier except for the absence of the dipeptide, Lys-Leu, at position 110-111. In addition, the sequence upstream of the CP gene contains the message coding for 178 amino acid residues of the C-terminus of the putative replicase protein (RP). The sequence downstream of the CP gene contains an untranslated region whose terminal 80 nucleotides can be folded into a characteristic tRNA-like structure. A phylogenetic tree constructed after aligning separately the sequence of the CP, the replicase protein (RP) and the tRNA-like structure determined in this study with the corresponding sequences of other tymoviruses shows that PhMV wrongly named belladonna mottle virus [BDMV(I)] is a separate tymovirus and not another strain of BDMV(E) as originally envisaged. The phylogenetic tree in all the three cases is identical showing that any subset of genomic sequence of sufficient length can be used for establishing evolutionary relationships among tymoviruses.

Re-imagining public journalism for community radio news-gathering

This paper explores the use of public journalism within a community radio news context. It argues that, the central tenets of the public journalism movement can help to frame, more adequately, a news gathering and production approach Tailored to the needs of community media. . Community radio stations generally enjoy strong relationships with their listeners and play an important role in the formation of the community itself (Lowrey et al., 2008). This paper argues that such strong community ties, in conjunction with public journalism news gathering approaches give community radio stations a strong opportunity to produce relevant, local news sourced driven by their listeners. In this regard ,this paper examines a particular case of public journalism used within the The Wire, a national, daily current affairs program broadcast on community radio. In the case study examined here ,public journalism informed story production that were designed to better meet the needs of community radio stations and their audiences.

Mutational analysis of active-site residues in the Mycobacterium leprae RecA intein, a LAGLIDADG homing endonuclease: Asp(122) and Asp(193) are crucial to the double-stranded DNA cleavage activity whereas Asp(218) is not

Mycobacterium leprae recA harbors an in-frame insertion sequence that encodes an intein homing endonuclease (PI-MleI). Most inteins (intein endonucleases) possess two conserved LAGLIDADG (DOD) motifs at their ctive center. A common feature of LAGLIDADG-type homing endonucleases is that they recognize and cleave the same or very similar DNA sequences. However, PI-MleI is distinctive from other members of the family of LAGLIDADG-type HEases for its modular structure with functionally separable domains for DNA-binding and cleavage, each with distinct sequence preferences. Sequence alignment analyses of PI-MleI revealed three putative LAGLIDADG motifs; however, there is conflicting bioinformatics data in regard to their identity and specific location within the intein polypeptide. To resolve this conflict and to determine the active-site residues essential for DNA target site recognition and double-stranded DNA cleavage, we performed site-directed mutagenesis of presumptive catalytic residues in the LAGLIDADG motifs. Analysis of target DNA recognition and kinetic parameters of the wild-type PI-MleI and its variants disclosed that the two amino acid residues, Asp(122) (in Block C) and Asp(193) (in functional Block E), are crucial to the double-stranded DNA endonuclease activity, whereas Asp(218) (in pseudo-Block E) is not. However, despite the reduced catalytic activity, the PI-MleI variants, like the wild-type PI-MleI, generated a footprint of the same length around the insertion site. The D122T variant showed significantly reduced catalytic activity, and D122A and D193A mutations although failed to affect their DNA-binding affinities, but abolished the double-stranded DNA cleavage activity. On the other hand, D122C variant showed approximately twofold higher double-stranded DNA cleavage activity, compared with the wild-type PI-MleI. These results provide compelling evidence that Asp(122) and Asp(193) in DOD motif I and II, respectively, are bona fide active-site residues essential for DNA cleavage activity. The implications of these results are discussed in this report.