4242 research outputs found
Sort by
Interview with Zainuddeen Fahadh, Founder of Ogre Head Studio
Get PDFInterview with Zainuddeen Fahadh, Founder of Ogre Head Studio, Hyderabad, Indi
Video Game Development In Asia: Voices From The Field
Get PDFIntroduction to the gamevironments Special Issue Video Game Development in Asia: Voices from the Field
No Sympathy for Devils : What Christian Video Games Can Teach Us About Violence in Family-Friendly Entertainment
Get PDFPublic debates around video games and violence tend to be overwhelmingly focused on realistic attacks on bleeding, screaming, undeniable humans in a small number of blockbuster games. This essay seeks to open new possibilities for ethical reflection on video games by considering, instead, why games full of destroyable enemies of a somewhat less human sort are often engaged as uncontroversial family-friendly entertainment. This study opens with a brief historical analysis of enemies and gamers as conceptual pillars of video game culture. The strange entity I identify as the gamer/enemy dyad is then refracted through George Bataille and Giorgio Agamben to consider how some of its tendencies could become exempt from moral critique. This frame is then used to examine 50 games created for Christian players, a market well identified by a collective desire to enjoy family-friendly games, to discover what sorts of enemies these games include and what can be done to them. The result, finally, is neither a sense that more games should be kept from children, nor that more games should be given to them, but a clarified attention to the dramatic prioritization of the explicitly human over the nearly human and what this says about contemporary popular cultur
Isolierung und Strukturaufklärung von Naturstoffen aus Pilzen der Gattungen Mycena, Megacollybia und Tricholomopsis
No full textIn the present work, new secondary metabolites were isolated from the higher fungi Mycena epipterygia, Megacollybia platyphylla and Tricholomopsis decora and their structure elucidated. Their ecological role was investigated by testing their antibacterial and herbicidal activity, so as to determine if they protect the fungi against bacteria or predators. In addition, more NMR data were collected for the full characterization of mycenarubin C 58 , first isolated from Mycena rosea by Peters. Mycenarubin C (33) has been known to evolve from the reaction of mycenarubin A (31) with formaldehyde, the latter being enzymatically released after injury of the fruiting body of Mycena rosea. This information was used to optimise the amount of mycenarubin C isolated from the fungi by treating the raw extract with a formaldehyde solution. The desired compound could then be isolated in high purity and the necessary experiments for its full characterization were performed. Mycenarubin A (31) Mycenarubin C (33) Subsequently, two new yellow compounds were isolated from Mycena epipterygia, another fungus of the genus Mycena. The molecular formula, as well as information about fragments of the first compound, denoted A, could be obtained from HR-( )-ESI-MS measurements. NMR experiments revealed the presence of more than one compound in the sample, making it difficult to interpret the different spectra. Attempts to clean the sample by size exclusion chromatography or the use of different solvents and gradient programmes for the HPLC separation remained unsuccessful. The second compound, denoted B, exhibited the same mass and similar fragmentation pattern as compound A in HR-( )-ESI-MS measurements. A distinct separation of both compounds on a C18ec column could not be achieved as they eluted in an interval of 0.5 min. Further investigations were hindered due to lack of more mushroom material. To obtain sufficient amount of both compounds for further investigation, large quantities of fruiting bodies would be required since Mycena epipterygia is a small fungus. Megacollybia platyphylla delivered two new chorismic acid derivatives, 3-(1-carboxyvinyloxy)-5-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoic acid (42) and 3-(1-carboxyvinyloxy)-4, 5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (43). Their structures were fully characterized and their biological activity tested. Even though related compounds were found to exhibit antibacterial activity, compounds 42 and 43 neither showed inhibitory activity against the tested organisms nor did they exhibit herbicidal activity against the garden cress Lepidium sativum. 42: R = CH3 43: R = H An orange compound, denoted D, was isolated from the fungus Tricholomopsis decora. ESI-MS measurements exhibited an M H ion at m/z 804. Generating a molecular formula from such a high molecular mass proved to be very challenging, since six formulas were retained as potential candidates. By applying of the a seven golden rules for heuristic filtering of molecular formulasa and mostly due to the comparison of isotopic patterns, a molecular formula could be postulated. NMR experiments did not generate conclusive results due to the very low yield obtained from the HPLC separation. Further probing here again was interrupted due to shortage of the mushroom. Large quantities of fruiting bodies of Tricholomopsis decora would be needed for further investigations because compound D seems to occur in very low amount in the fungus
Sich vom Ballon wegtragen lassen
Get PDFKindheit, Bewegung und Ästhetik in Der rote Ballon und Die Reise des roten Ballon
Inductive heat treatment as an alternative tempering method for the selective oxidation of 1.2379 tool steel surfaces
Get PDFSelective surface oxidation of a hardened conventional tool steel (1.2379) was carried out with controlled oxygen partial pressures at elevated temperatures. In order to obtain a defined oxygen partial pressure, the experiments were carried out under pure nitrogen and silane doped nitrogen atmosphere. Depending on the actual heat treatment parameters, morphologically different iron based oxide systems could be generated. Some of the selectively oxidized surfaces featured advantageous tribological properties, which appear suitable for lubricant free forming applications. For selected oxide layer systems a batch process for the heat treatment was developed. This set-up is described including the sensitive process control with respect to gas composition. The oxide layer systems generated were characterized by analyzing their composition and surface morphology. In addition, an inductive heat treatment procedure was developed. With this hybrid approach mixed layer systems could be realized that combine different characteristics of conventionally oxidized specimen surfaces
Four forms of datafied journalism. Journalism's response to the datafication of society
No full textMany grand narratives on the transformation of society relate recent changes to broader processes of datafication and algorithmic data processing. This paper situates the datafication of journalism in relation to society's datafication and discusses four forms of datafied journalism: data journalism, algorithmed journalism, automated journalism, and metrics-driven journalism. It will demonstrate that the transition to an increasingly datafied form of journalism represents a reflexive process between media-related change and social transformation that can best be understood as journalism's response to the overall datafication of society, illustrating the way that journalism is profoundly affected by datafication, and, by being inextricably intertwined with the development of digital media technologies, is at the same time a main driver of this process. In this scenario, algorithms have not only permeated every stage of the news production process, they are beginning to go beyond these quotidian functions and literally perform journalism-like services of their own - affecting the very nature of society's communicative foundations
Gaze-Based Control of Robot Arm in Three-Dimensional Space
Get PDFEye tracking technology has opened up a new communication channel for people with very restricted body movements. These devices had already been successfully applied as a human computer interface, e.g. for writing a text, or to control different devices like a wheelchair. This thesis proposes a Human Robot Interface (HRI) that enables the user to control a robot arm in 3-Dimensional space using only 2-Dimensional gaze direction and the states of the eyes. The introduced interface provides all required commands to translate, rotate, open or close the gripper with the definition of different control modes. In each mode, different commands are provided and direct gaze direction of the user is applied to generate continuous robot commands. To distinguish between natural inspection eye movements and the eye movements that intent to control the robot arm, dynamic command areas are proposed. The dynamic command areas are defined around the robot gripper and are updated with its movements. To provide a direct interaction of the user, gaze gestures and states of the eyes are used to switch between different control modes. For the purpose of this thesis, two versions of the above-introduced HRI were developed. In the first version of the HRI, only two simple gaze gestures and two states of the eye (closed eyes and eye winking) are used for switching. In the second version, instead of the two simple gestures, four complex gaze gestures were applied and the positions of the dynamic command areas were optimized. The complex gaze gestures enable the user to switch directly from initial mode to the desired control mode. These gestures are flexible and can be generated directly in the robot environments. For the recognition of complex gaze gestures, a novel algorithm based on Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) is proposed. The results of the studies conducted with both HRIs confirmed their feasibility and showed the high potential of the proposed interfaces as hands-free interfaces. Furthermore, the results of subjective and objective measurements showed that the usability of the interface with simple gaze gestures had been improved with the integration of complex gaze gestures and the new positions of the dynamic command areas
Strukturelle und funktionelle Charakterisierung des bunyaviralen L-Proteins
No full textThe order Bunyavirales possesses the largest diversity of species and hosts among all RNA viruses and represents a major health concern not only for low income countries. Despite a rather simple molecular architecture with only a few proteins the different viruses replicate highly efficient in various host species. The L protein is the key player of viral replication and besides genome replication performs the specific and highly efficient cap-snatching mechanism to prime the translation of the viral genome which requires an endonuclease activity. This mechanism has most intensively been studied for the related influenza virus. So far there is evidence for cap-snatching endonucleases in the N-terminus of three bunyaviral L proteins which despite low sequence conservation show structural and functional homology to the influenza endonuclease. The CCHFV endonuclease has been recombinantly expressed and recovered in high purity. The protein shows structural homology in comparision to related nairoviruses but is larger in size compared to related bunyaviral families which can be attributed to two insertions in the sequence. The lack of in-vitro activity and a different coordination of manganese ions in the active site reveal closer relation to the endonuclease of the Arenaviridae family. The RVFV endonuclease has been identified in a recombinantly expressed N-terminal fragment of the L protein. The active site binds manganese ions and cleaves ssRNA in- vitro which is consistent with recently published data on related bunyaviral endonucleases and proves functional homology. Detailed structural data were not obtained due to poor protein quality. This thesis presents fundamental new insights in the cap-snatching endonucleases of two uncharacterized bunyaviral endonucleases which further underlines the structural and functional homology of the endonucleases and validates the conservation of the cap-snatching mechanism. The identified proteins are a valuable tool for high-throughput screening applications and thus the presented work provides an important progress in the future development of drugs to combat bunyaviral infectious diseases
Tropicalizing abelian covers of algebraic curves
Get PDFIn this thesis, we study the Berkovich skeleton of an algebraic curve over a discretely valued field K. We do this using coverings C - P1 of the projective line. To study these coverings, we take the Galois closure of the corresponding injection of function fields K(P1) - K(C), giving a Galois morphism overline C - P1. A theorem by Liu and Lorenzini tells us how to associate to this morphism a Galois morphism of semistable models C - D. That is, we make the branch locus disjoint in the special fiber of D and remove any vertical ramification on the components of Ds. This morphism C - D then gives rise to a morphism of intersection graphs Sigma(C) - Sigma(D). Our goal is to reconstruct Sigma(C) from Sigma(D) and we will do this by giving a set of covering and twisting data. These then give algorithms for finding the Berkovich skeleton of a curve C whenever that curve has a morphism C - P1 with a solvable Galois group. In particular, this gives an algorithm for finding the Berkovich skeleton of any genus three curve. These coverings also give a new proof of a classical result on the semistable reduction type of an elliptic curve, saying that an elliptic curve has potential good reduction if and only if the valuation of the j-invariant is positive