A gradual depth-dependent change of connectivity features of supragranular pyramidal cells in rat barrel cortex

Recent experimental evidence suggests a finer genetic, structural and functional subdivision of the layers which form a cortical column. The classical layer II/III (LII/III) of rodent neocortex integrates ascending sensory information with contextual cortical information for behavioral read-out. We systematically investigated to which extent regular-spiking supragranular pyramidal neurons, located at different depths within the cortex, show different input-output connectivity patterns. Combining glutamate-uncaging with whole-cell recordings and biocytin filling, we revealed a novel cellular organization of LII/III: (i) “Lower LII/III” pyramidal cells receive a very strong excitatory input from lemniscal LIV and much fewer inputs from paralemniscal LVa. They project to all layers of the home column, including a feedback projection to LIV whereas transcolumnar projections are relatively sparse. (ii) “Upper LII/III” pyramidal cells also receive their strongest input from LIV, but in addition, a very strong and dense excitatory input from LVa. They project extensively to LII/III as well as LVa and Vb of their home and neighboring columns, (iii) “Middle LII/III” pyramidal cell show an intermediate connectivity phenotype that stands in many ways in-between the features described for lower versus upper LII/III. “Lower LII/III” intracolumnarly segregates and transcolumnarly integrates lemniscal information whereas “upper LII/III” seems to integrate lemniscal with paralemniscal information. This suggests a finegrained functional subdivision of the supragranular compartment containing multiple circuits without any obvious cytoarchitectonic, other structural or functional correlate of a laminar border in rodent barrel cortex.

Telefantasy tower blocks: space, place and social realism shake-ups in Misfits

This article considers the ways in which British youth telefantasy Misfits (E4, 2009–13) takes up and makes strange urban spaces familiar from social-realist narratives. Filmed on the sprawling East London estate, Thamesmead, the programme chronicles a group of young offenders who are given powers by a freak storm, turning them into ‘ASBO superheroes’. Misfits depends on its British urban landscapes for the assertion of its ‘authenticity’ within British youth television, using spaces and landscapes familiar from urban youth exploitation cinema and television's narratives of the underclass. After situating the series within existing cultural discourses and recent developments in social-realist representations, the article explores how Misfits disrupts what have become signifiers for the ‘real’ – the brutalism of housing estates, the grey of the concrete and sky – by making them strange, turning them into telefantasy. The series presents the estate as an uncanny place: the domestic, social-realist world shifted into a fantastical space by the storm. Through close analysis, this article explores how the familiar spaces become skewed and unsettling to match our protagonists' isolation, shifting bodies and scrambled sense of self.

Raising the roof

The atmosphere’s lowermost 10 km have long been assumed to be almost solely responsible for weather and climate on Earth. Emerging evidence points to the layer above as an important influence on surface winds and temperatures on seasonal to decadal timescales.

Inter-comparison of stratospheric mean-meridional circulation and eddy mixing among six reanalysis data sets

The stratospheric mean-meridional circulation (MMC) and eddy mixing are compared among six meteorological reanalysis data sets: NCEP-NCAR, NCEP-CFSR, ERA-40, ERA-Interim, JRA-25, and JRA-55 for the period 1979–2012. The reanalysis data sets produced using advanced systems (i.e., NCEP-CFSR, ERA-Interim, and JRA-55) generally reveal a weaker MMC in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) compared with those produced using older systems (i.e., NCEP/NCAR, ERA-40, and JRA-25). The mean mixing strength differs largely among the data products. In the NH lower stratosphere, the contribution of planetary-scale mixing is larger in the new data sets than in the old data sets, whereas that of small-scale mixing is weaker in the new data sets. Conventional data assimilation techniques introduce analysis increments without maintaining physical balance, which may have caused an overly strong MMC and spurious small-scale eddies in the old data sets. At the NH mid-latitudes, only ERA-Interim reveals a weakening MMC trend in the deep branch of the Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC). The relative importance of the eddy mixing compared with the mean-meridional transport in the subtropical lower stratosphere shows increasing trends in ERA-Interim and JRA-55; this together with the weakened MMC in the deep branch may imply an increasing age-of-air (AoA) in the NH middle stratosphere in ERA-Interim. Overall, discrepancies between the different variables and trends therein as derived from the different reanalyses are still relatively large, suggesting that more investments in these products are needed in order to obtain a consolidated picture of observed changes in the BDC and the mechanisms that drive them.

Long-term positive effects of repeating a year in school: Six-year longitudinal study of self-beliefs, anxiety, social relations, school grades, and test scores

Consistently with a priori predictions, school retention (repeating a year in school) had largely positive effects for a diverse range of 10 outcomes (e.g., math self-concept, self-efficacy, anxiety, relations with teachers, parents and peers, school grades, and standardized achievement test scores). The design, based on a large, representative sample of German students (N = 1,325, M age = 11.75 years) measured each year during the first five years of secondary school, was particularly strong. It featured four independent retention groups (different groups of students, each repeating one of the four first years of secondary school, total N = 103), with multiple post-test waves to evaluate short- and long-term effects, controlling for covariates (gender, age, SES, primary school grades, IQ) and one or more sets of 10 outcomes realised prior to retention. Tests of developmental invariance demonstrated that the effects of retention (controlling for covariates and pre-retention outcomes) were highly consistent across this potentially volatile early-to-middle adolescent period; largely positive effects in the first year following retention were maintained in subsequent school years following retention. Particularly considering that these results are contrary to at least some of the accepted wisdom about school retention, the findings have important implications for educational researchers, policymakers and parents.

Reproductive biology of six Brazilian Myrtaceae: is there a syndrome associated with buzz-pollination?

The floral phenology and reproductive biology of six sympatric arboreal Myrtaceae species were studied in the coastal plain forest (Ubatuba, Brazil, 44 degrees 48`W 23 degrees 22`S), from September 1999 to April 2002. Flowering started in the transition from the driest to the most humid season (Sep/Oct) and lasted until March. The sequence with which the species flowered each year was consistently the same. However, the timing of flowering onset, peak, end, and overlap differed from one year to another. Myrtaceae species were classified as xenogamic according to the pollen:ovule ratios, but two of them seem to present some degree of self-compatibility. Flowers of all species opened at sunrise and lasted for I day. Bombus morio (Apidae: Bombini) was the most common visitor followed by Melipona rufiventris (Apidae: Meliponini). Buzz pollination in Myrtaceae was common at the study area and seems to be related to bees` behaviour and to some aspects of flowers` morphology.

Stacked central configurations for the spatial six-body problem

In this paper we show the existence of three new families of stacked spatial central configurations for the six-body problem with the following properties: four bodies are at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron and the other two bodies are on a line connecting one vertex of the tetrahedron with the center of the opposite face. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a new stir bar sorptive extraction coating and its application for the determination of six pesticides in sugarcane juice

In this article, a novel polydimethylsiloxane/activated carbon (PDMS-ACB) material is proposed as a new polymeric phase for stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE). The PDMS-ACB stir bar, assembled using a simple Teflon (R)/glass capillary mold, demonstrated remarkable stability and resistance to organic solvents for more than 150 extractions. The SBSE bar has a diameter of 2.36 mm and a length of 2.2 cm and is prepared to contain 92 mu L of polymer coating. This new PDMS-ACB bar was evaluated for its ability to determine the quantity of pesticides in sugarcane juice samples by performing liquid desorption (LD) in 200 mu L of ethyl acetate and analyzing the solvent through gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A fractional factorial design was used to evaluate the main parameters involved in the extraction procedure. Then, a central composite design with a star configuration was used to optimize the significant extraction parameters. The method used demonstrated a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.5-40 mu g/L, depending on the analyte detected; the amount of recovery varied from 0.18 to 49.50%, and the intraday precision ranged from 0.072 to 8.40%. The method was used in the analysis of real sugarcane juice samples commercially available in local markets.

Six-Day System Test and Component test and System Simulation for Combitanks with Internal heat Exchangers

An international standard, ISO/DP 9459-4 has been proposed to establish a uniform standard of quality for small, factory-made solar heating systerns. In this proposal, system components are tested separatelyand total system performance is calculated using system simulations based on component model parameter values validated using the results from the component tests. Another approach is to test the whole system in operation under representative conditions, where the results can be used as a measure of the general system performance. The advantage of system testing of this form is that it is not dependent on simulations and the possible inaccuracies of the models. Its disadvantage is that it is restricted to the boundary conditions for the test. Component testing and system simulation is flexible, but requires an accurate and reliable simulation model.The heat store is a key component conceming system performance. Thus, this work focuses on the storage system consisting store, electrical auxiliary heater, heat exchangers and tempering valve. Four different storage system configurations with a volume of 750 litre were tested in an indoor system test using a six -day test sequence. A store component test and system simulation was carried out on one of the four configurations, applying the proposed standard for stores, ISO/DP 9459-4A. Three newly developed test sequences for intemalload side heat exchangers, not in the proposed ISO standard, were also carried out. The MULTIPORT store model was used for this work. This paper discusses the results of the indoor system test, the store component test, the validation of the store model parameter values and the system simulations.

Passive crosslaminated timber buildings : Final report Cerbof-project no. 76

In this project, Stora Enso’s newly developed building system has been further developed to allow building to the Swedish passive house standard for the Swedish climate. The building system is based on a building framework of CLT (Cross laminated timber) boards. The concept has been tested on a small test building. The experience gained from this test building has also been used for planning a larger building (two storeys with the option of a third storey) with passive house standard with this building system. The main conclusions from the project are:  It is possible to build airtight buildings with this technique without using traditional vapour barriers. Initial measurements show that this can be done without reaching critical humidity levels in the walls and roof, at least where wood fibre insulation is used, as this has a greater capacity for storing and evening out the moisture than mineral wool. However, the test building has so far not been exposed to internal generation of moisture (added moisture from showers, food preparation etc.). This needs to be investigated and this will be done during the winter 2013-14.  A new fixing method for doors and windows has been tested without traditional fibre filling between them and the CLT panel. The door or window is pressed directly on to the CLT panel instead, with an expandable sealing strip between them. This has been proved to be successful.  The air tightness between the CLT panels is achieved with expandable sealing strips between the panels. The position of the sealing strips is important, both for the air tightness itself and to allow rational assembly.  Recurrent air tightness measurements show that the air tightness decreased somewhat during the first six months, but not to such an extent that the passive house criteria were not fulfilled. The reason for the decreased air tightness is not clear, but can be due to small movements in the CLT construction and also to the sealing strips being affected by changing outdoor temperatures.  Long term measurements (at least two years) have to be carried out before more reliable conclusions can be drawn regarding the long term effect of the construction on air tightness and humidity in the walls.  An economic analysis comparing using a concrete frame or the studied CLT frame for a three storey building shows that it is probably more expensive to build with CLT. For buildings higher than three floors, the CLT frame has economic advantages, mainly because of the shorter building time compared to using concrete for the frame. In this analysis, no considerations have been taken to differences in the influence on the environment or the global climate between the two construction methods.

LiLEDDA – a six step forum-based netnographic research method for nursing and caring sciences

Internet research methods in nursing science are less developed than in other sciences. We choose to present an approach to conducting nursing research on an internet-based forum. This paper presents LiLEDDA, a six-step forum-based netnographic research method for nursing science. The steps consist of: 1. Literature review and identification of the research question(s); 2. Locating the field(s) online; 3. Ethical considerations; 4. Data gathering; 5. Data analysis and interpretation; and 6. Abstractions and trustworthiness. Traditional research approaches are limiting when studying non-normative and non-mainstream life-worlds and their cultures. We argue that it is timely to develop more up-to-date research methods and study designs applicable to nursing science that reflect social developments and human living conditions that tend to be increasingly online-based.

Steel Sheet Applications and Integrated Heat Management

Increasing energy use has caused many environmental problems including global warming. Energy use is growing rapidly in developing countries and surprisingly a remarkable portion of it is associated with consumed energy to keep the temperature comfortable inside the buildings. Therefore, identifying renewable technologies for cooling and heating is essential. This study introduced applications of steel sheets integrated into the buildings to save energy based on existing technologies. In addition, the proposed application was found to have a considerable chance of market success. Also, satisfying energy needs for space heating and cooling in a single room by using one of the selected applications in different Köppen climate classes was investigated to estimate which climates have a proper potential for benefiting from the application. This study included three independent parts and the results related to each part have been used in the next part. The first part recognizes six different technologies through literature review including Cool Roof, Solar Chimney, Steel Cladding of Building, Night Radiative Cooling, Elastomer Metal Absorber, and Solar Distillation. The second part evaluated the application of different technologies by gathering the experts’ ideas via performing a Delphi method. The results showed that the Solar Chimney has a proper chance for the market. The third part simulated both a solar chimney and a solar chimney with evaporation which were connected to a single well insulated room with a considerable thermal mass. The combination was simulated as a system to estimate the possibility of satisfying cooling needs and heating needs in different climate classes. A Trombe-wall was selected as a sample design for the Solar Chimney and was simulated in different climates. The results implied that the solar chimney had the capability of reducing the cooling needs more than 25% in all of the studied locations and 100% in some locations with dry or temperate climate such as Mashhad, Madrid, and Istanbul. It was also observed that the heating needs were satisfied more than 50% in all of the studied locations, even for the continental climate such as Stockholm and 100% in most locations with a dry climate. Therefore, the Solar Chimney reduces energy use, saves environment resources, and it is a cost effective application. Furthermore, it saves the equipment costs in many locations. All the results mentioned above make the solar chimney a very practical and attractive tool for a wide range of climates.