Small molecular logic systems can draw the outlines of objects via edge visualization

The recently-discovered ability of small logical molecules to recognize edges is exploited to achieve outline drawing from binary templates. Outlines of arbitrary curvature, several colours and thicknesses down to 1 mm are drawn in around 30 min or less by employing a common laboratory two-colour ultraviolet lamp. The outlines and the light dose-driven XOR logic with fluorescence output or ‘off-on-off’ action which is observed in the irradiated regions are modelled by combining foundational principles of photochemistry, acid-base neutralization and diffusion.

PESSTO: Survey description and products from the first data release by the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects

Context. The Public European Southern Observatory Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) began as a public spectroscopic survey in April 2012. PESSTO classifies transients from publicly available sources and wide-field surveys, and selects science targets for detailed spectroscopic and photometric follow-up. PESSTO runs for nine months of the year, January - April and August - December inclusive, and typically has allocations of 10 nights per month. 

Aims. We describe the data reduction strategy and data products that are publicly available through the ESO archive as the Spectroscopic Survey data release 1 (SSDR1). 

Methods. PESSTO uses the New Technology Telescope with the instruments EFOSC2 and SOFI to provide optical and NIR spectroscopy and imaging. We target supernovae and optical transients brighter than 20.5^m for classification. Science targets are selected for follow-up based on the PESSTO science goal of extending knowledge of the extremes of the supernova population. We use standard EFOSC2 set-ups providing spectra with resolutions of 13-18 Å between 3345-9995 Å. A subset of the brighter science targets are selected for SOFI spectroscopy with the blue and red grisms (0.935-2.53 μm and resolutions 23-33 Å) and imaging with broadband JHK<inf>s</inf> filters. 

Results. This first data release (SSDR1) contains flux calibrated spectra from the first year (April 2012-2013). A total of 221 confirmed supernovae were classified, and we released calibrated optical spectra and classifications publicly within 24 h of the data being taken (via WISeREP). The data in SSDR1 replace those released spectra. They have more reliable and quantifiable flux calibrations, correction for telluric absorption, and are made available in standard ESO Phase 3 formats. We estimate the absolute accuracy of the flux calibrations for EFOSC2 across the whole survey in SSDR1 to be typically ∼15%, although a number of spectra will have less reliable absolute flux calibration because of weather and slit losses. Acquisition images for each spectrum are available which, in principle, can allow the user to refine the absolute flux calibration. The standard NIR reduction process does not produce high accuracy absolute spectrophotometry but synthetic photometry with accompanying JHK<inf>s</inf> imaging can improve this. Whenever possible, reduced SOFI images are provided to allow this. 

Conclusions. Future data releases will focus on improving the automated flux calibration of the data products. The rapid turnaround between discovery and classification and access to reliable pipeline processed data products has allowed early science papers in the first few months of the survey.

A Japanese Family with Congenital Erythrocytosis Caused by Haemoglobin Bethesda

We herein present a case of congenital erythrocytosis caused by haemoglobin (Hb) Bethesda in a Japanese family. A 55-year-old asymptomatic man was referred to our hospital for the investigation of erythrocytosis, which was present in other members of his family. The patient's serum erythropoietin level was normal, and the JAK2 V617F mutation was not detected. His P50 value was mildly decreased, thus we suspected the presence of an Hb variant with a high oxygen affinity. The high-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed an abnormal Hb, and by direct sequencing we identified the Hb Bethesda variant in this patient. For the differential diagnosis, we recommend the estimation of the P50 value as a practical and useful test.

YSOVAR: Mid-infrared Variability of Young Stellar Objects and Their Disks in the Cluster IRAS 20050+2720

We present a time-variability study of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the cluster IRAS 20050+2720, performed at 3.6 and 4.5 μm with the Spitzer Space Telescope; this study is part of the Young Stellar Object VARiability (YSOVAR) project. We have collected light curves for 181 cluster members over 60 days. We find a high variability fraction among embedded cluster members of ca. 70%, whereas young stars without a detectable disk display variability less often (in ca. 50% of the cases) and with lower amplitudes. We detect periodic variability for 33 sources with periods primarily in the range of 2–6 days. Practically all embedded periodic sources display additional variability on top of their periodicity. Furthermore, we analyze the slopes of the tracks that our sources span in the color–magnitude diagram (CMD). We find that sources with long variability time scales tend to display CMD slopes that are at least partially influenced by accretion processes, while sources with short variability timescales tend to display extinction-dominated slopes. We find a tentative trend of X-ray detected cluster members to vary on longer timescales than the X-ray undetected members.

Feedback Networks and Self-Oscillating Objects

A system of self-designed microphones, speakers and transducers creating performable feedback networks and self-oscillating objects. Performance SARC Sonic Lab, Belfast, 18 March 2015

Productive Knowledge of English Binomials by Japanese Learners of English

The purpose of this research is to reveal (1) which English binomials Japanese learners of English have productive knowledge of and (2) what strategies they use to produce English binomials when they do not know the binomials. One hundred and three Japanese learners of English with intermediate proficiency level completed an online survey of 44 binomials. The participants were given the first word of a binomial and asked to type a word following “and”. The target word was provided by more than 75% of participants for 19 of the 44 binomials, meaning that learners have productive knowledge for certain binomials. An analysis of errors suggested that the participants relied heavily on semantic relationships between items in binomials.However, the use of a semantic strategy for producing the second words often leads to non-binomial expressions. From these results we suggest that giving more input to learners, as well as teaching the “Me first” principle (Cooper & Ross, 1975) explicitly would help the learners to develop more accurate and effective strategies for uncertain or unfamiliar binomials.

Triangular Objects and Systematic K-Theory

We investigate modules over “systematic” rings. Such rings are “almost graded” and have appeared under various names in the literature; they are special cases of the G-systems of Grzeszczuk. We analyse their K-theory in the presence of conditions on the support, and explain how this generalises and unifies calculations of graded and filtered K-theory scattered in the literature. Our treatment makes systematic use of the formalism of idempotent completion and a theory of triangular objects in additive categories, leading to elementary and transparent proofs throughout.

Objects of Transcendence: Scots Protestantism and an Anthropology of Things

This anthropological essay takes as its ethnographic point of departure two apparently contrasting deployments of the Bible within contemporary Scotland, one as observed among Brethren and Presbyterian fisher-families in Gamrie, coastal Aberdeenshire, and the other as observed among the Orange Order, a Protestant marching fraternity, in Airdrie and Glasgow. By examining how and with what effects the Bible and other objects (plastic crowns, ‘Sunday clothes’, Orange regalia) enter into and extend beyond the everyday practices of fishermen and Orangemen, my aim is to sketch different aspects of the material life of Scottish Protestantism. By offering a critique of Bruno Latour’s early writing on ‘quasi-objects’ via Alfred Gell’s notion of ‘distributed personhood’, I seek to undermine the sociological assumption that modernity and enchantment are mutually exclusive.

During pregnancy, recreational drug-using women stop taking ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine) and reduce alcohol consumption but continue to smoke tobacco and cannabis

While recreational drug use in UK women is prevalent, to date there is little prospective data on patterns of drug use in recreational drug-using women immediately before and during pregnancy. A total of 121 participants from a wide range of backgrounds were recruited to take part in the longitudinal Development and Infancy Study (DAISY) study of prenatal drug use and outcomes. Eighty-six of the women were interviewed prospectively while pregnant and/or soon after their infant was born. Participants reported on use immediately before and during pregnancy and on use over their lifetime. Levels of lifetime drug use of the women recruited were high, with women reporting having used at least four different illegal drugs over their lifetime. Most users of cocaine, 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA) and other stimulants stopped using these by the second trimester and levels of use were low. However, in pregnancy, 64% of the sample continued to use alcohol, 46% tobacco and 48% cannabis. While the level of alcohol use reduced substantially, average tobacco and cannabis levels tended to be sustained at pre-pregnancy levels even into the third trimester (50 cigarettes and/or 11 joints per week). In sum, while the use of ‘party drugs’ and alcohol seems to reduce, levels of tobacco and cannabis use are likely to be sustained throughout pregnancy. The data provide polydrug profiles that can form the basis for the development of more realistic animal models.

Simulation of economic benefits achieved by water quality improvement for recreational and professional users, within the SPICOSSA SSA (SPICOSSA System Approach) 11 - Guadiana estuary ecosystem sic

Dissertação de Mestrado, Gestão da Água e da Costa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2010