4,379 research outputs found
Wavelength tunable 10-GHz 3-ps pulse source using a dispersion decreasing fiber-based nonlinear optical loop mirror
No full textWe experimentally demonstrate the use of a dispersion decreasing fiber (DDF)-based nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) for the generation of wavelength tunable soliton-like pulses at a repetition rate of 10 GHz. We compress ~12 ps Gaussian pulses from an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) (followed by 125 m of DCF for preliminary linear dispersion compensation) into 3 ps pedestal-free pulses using both high-order soliton compression and nonlinear switching effects within an 8.5 km DDF-based loop mirror. The output pulses from the DDF-based NOLM show considerable pedestal reduction compared to those obtained by directly compressing the EAM seed pulses via a single passage through the DDF. Wavelength tuning of the compressed pulses over a ~15 nm bandwidth (from 1541 to 1556 nm) is demonstrated without a significant increase in pulse duration or degradation in pulse quality
Health and romance: understanding unprotected sex in relationships among gay men
No full textBook synopsis: `This book was an absolute joy to read and offers a comprehensive review of health psychology.... This book should become a classic - necessary reading for students in all branches of health. Nursing students will find it invaluable, but other students - and their teachers - will also find it very useful. SAGE have added a valuable and important text to their already impressive list, and Marks can be complimented on his scholarly organisation of complex topics into an accessible and readable whole. No library should be without it and serious students should invest in a copy of their own' - Health Matters
The Health Psychology Reader is designed to complement and support the recent textbook Health Psychology: Theory, Research and Practice by David F Marks, Michael Murray, Brian Evans and Carla Willig (SAGE, 2000). It can also be used as a stand-alone resource given its didactic nature. The Reader explores key topics within the health psychology field with incisive introductions to each section by the editor and includes a selection of the most important theoretical and empirical published work. The Reader is organized into the following parts:
Part 1: Health Psychology's development, definition and context
Part 2: Theories in health psychology
Part 3: Health behaviour and experience
Part 4: Beliefs, explanations and communication
Part 5: Critical approaches to health psychology
In each of these areas the editor has written introductory sections which highlight the key issues, questions and problems. These are summarized in Boxes, which condense into a few words the essential features of each topic
Typology of Punctuation Marks
No full textВ рамках статьи рассматривается вопрос о типологии знаков препинания в различных языках мира. Анализируются пунктуационные знаки в русском, турецком, английском и азербайджанском языках, выявляются их общие и отличительные свойства. Как аналогичные, так и дифференциальные особенности наблюдаются в знаках препинания, разработанных или применяемых в письменной системе народов мира. Современная теоретическая лингвистика требует, чтобы пунктуационная система языка рассматривалась с точки зрения когнитивной и текстовой лингвистики, а не с традиционного подхода. В этом и заключается актуальность данного исследования. В статье представлена подробная информация об особенностях пунктуации в разносистемных языках. Исследование показывает, что в мировых языках больше общего в использовании знаков препинания. Вне зависимости от грамматической структуры и графики похожие знаки препинания встречаются в различных языках.The article deals with the issue of the typology of punctuation marks in various languages of the world. The punctuation marks in Russian, Turkish, English and the Azerbaijani languages are analyzed, their common and distinctive properties are revealed. Both similar and differential features are observed in punctuation marks, developed or used in the writing system of the world’s peoples. Modern theoretical linguistics requires the punctuation system of the language to be considered from the point of view of cognitive and textual linguistics and not from the traditional approach. This makes the relevance of this study. The article provides detailed information about the peculiarities of punctuation in different system languages. The study shows that the world’s languages have more in common in the use of punctuation marks. Similar punctuation marks are found in various languages regardless of grammatical structure and graphics
Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author
No full textThe question motivating this review paper is, how can
computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn-
ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to
link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory,
and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional
question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in-
teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while
maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question
derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that,
as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency.
Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip-
ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based
on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are
reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the
conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question
that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional
question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in-
teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity
Working memory delay period activity marks the engagement of a domain-unspecific attention mechanism
No full textWorking memory (WM) recruits neural circuits that also perform perception- and action-related functions. Among the functions that are shared between the domains of WM and perception is selective attention, which supports the maintenance of task-relevant information during the retention delay of WM tasks. The tactile contralateral delay activity (tCDA) component of the event-related potential (ERP) marks the attention-based rehearsal of tactile information in somatosensory brain regions. We tested whether the tCDA reflects the competition for shared attention resources between a WM task and a perceptual task under dual-task conditions. The two tasks were always performed on opposite hands. In different blocks, the WM task had higher or lower priority than the perceptual task.
The tCDA's polarity consistently reflected the hand where the currently prioritized task was performed. This suggests that the process indexed by the tCDA is not specific to the domain of WM, but mediated by a domain-unspecific attention mechanism. The analysis of transient ERP components evoked by stimuli in the two tasks further support the interpretation that the tCDA marks a goal-directed bias in the allocation of selective attention. Larger spatially selective modulations were obtained for stimulus material related to the high-, as compared to low-priority, task. While our results generally indicate functional overlap between the domains of WM and perception, we also found evidence suggesting that selection in internal (mnemonic) and external (perceptual) stimulus representations involves processes that are not active during shifts of preparatory attention
Charisma and Spirituality in the Early Church: A Study of Messalianism and Pseudo-Macarius
No full textThe thesis is an investigation into the concept of Charisma and Spirituality in the Early Church with particular emphasis upon the writings of Ps-Macarius, and of a group of ascetics known as the Messalians, evident in the late fourth / early fifth centuries. The Macarian writings are
examined to see what they reveal about the experiential pneumatic theology of the Early Church, the relationship between Syrian and Hellenic traditions of Christian Rhetoric, and the relationship between Ps-Macarius and the Cappadocian Circle. The Macarian corpus as a whole is examined to assess its rhetorical influences and style. The rhetoric of the Macarian corpus is seen to illustrate a high degree of sophistication. This study also gives definition to two terms that have become imprecise and diverse in their use: 'enkrateia' (self-control), and
`Syrian Christianity'. By isolating the characteristics of enkratefa the definitive stages of an encratic lifestyle are identified. The breaking down of the term into enkrateia, radical enkrateta and exclusive enkrateta enables a much clearer discussion to take place as to the
nature of the encratic theology of a group or individual. The final element of this study is a consideration of the distinct Macarian imagery that is evident within the corpus. Two images are considered in detail, the 'flight of the soul' and 'sober intoxication'. Overall this study
shows the variety of influences upon Ps-Macarius, and the uniqueness of his expression. The influences upon Ps-Macarius include a context of endemic Syrian spirituality, a radical encratic lifestyle, a Hellenic rhetorical training, and a distinct interpretation of Platonic and Neo-
Platonic images, coupled to the wider Judaic / Mesopotamian influences of his Church. It is shown that Ps-Macarius represents an individual voice that is distinct and recognisable amongst the Fathers of the Church
Nuclear translocation and signalling of L1-CAM in human carcinoma cells requires ADAM10 and presenilin/gamma-secretase activity
No full textL1-CAM (L1 cell-adhesion molecule), or more simply L1, plays an important role in the progression of human carcinoma. Overexpression promotes tumour-cell invasion and motility, growth in nude mice and tumour metastasis. It is feasible that L1-dependent signalling contributes to these effects. However, little is known about its mechanism in tumour cells. We reported previously that L1 is cleaved by ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloprotease) and that the cytoplasmic part is essential for L1 function. Here we analysed more closely the role of proteolytic cleavage in L1-mediated nuclear signalling. Using OVMz carcinoma cells and L1-transfected cells as a model, we found that ADAM10-mediated cleavage of L1 proceeds in lipid raft and non-raft domains. The cleavage product, L1-32, is further processed by PS (presenilin)/gamma-secretase to release L1-ICD, an L1 intracellular domain of 28 kDa. Overexpression of dominantnegative PS1 or use of a specific gamma-secretase inhibitor leads to an accumulation of L1-32. Fluorescence and biochemical analysis revealed a nuclear localization for L1-ICD. Moreover, inhibition of ADAM10 and/or gamma-secretase blocks nuclear translocation of L1-ICD and L1-dependent gene regulation. Overexpression of recombinant L1-ICD mediates gene regulation in a similar manner to full-length L1. Our results establish for the first time that regulated proteolytic processing by ADAM10 and PS/gamma-secretase is essential for the nuclear signalling of L1 in human carcinoma cell lines. Key words: a disintegrin and metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10), L1 cell-adhesion molecule (L1-CAM), nuclear translocation, presenilin (PS)/gamma-secretase activity, raft, signalling
Integration of the NLR with ECOG PS in the prediction of OS (Training and Validation Set).
No full text<p>Chi-square test of equality of survival distributions for the different NLR categories.</p><p><sup>#</sup> Patients with PS 2 and 3 were considered together due to the small number of patients with PS = 3 (n = 9),</p><p><sup>##</sup> Patients were dichotomized as “favourable PS” (ie. 0–1) versus “poor PS” (ie. 2–3) due to limited sample size.</p><p>Marks an association reaching statistical significance (p<0.05).</p
Dark angels : a study of Anne Rice's Vampire chronicles
No full textThe international success of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and the release
of the film Interview with the Vampire (based on her novel of the same name) has
fueled an explosion of interest in the vampire genre, resulting in further
incarnations of the vampire story in fiction and film. This study attempts to
analyse Rice's development of the vampire narrative in relation to a body of
novels and short stories which comprise a recognizable genre.
The first chapter has three sections: an Introduction comprising a comparison
between the Chronicles and Bram Stoker's Dracula,- a study of the Chronicles as a
metaphor for homoeroticism and AIDS; and a study of the psychoanalytic aspects
of vampirism linked with the concept of Rice's vampire as a Sadean hero. The
second chapter has two sections: an analysis of Rice's representations of
femininiiy; and a study of the myths of womanhood employed in the novels,
together with the origins of these myths. The third chapter has two sections: a
focus on the complex self-conscious and moral life of Rice's vampires in relation
to contemporary consciousness and subjectivity; and a comparison of Rice's
treatment of genre, historical romance and erotica with the vampire narratives of
her contemporaries. The fourth and concluding chapter is a summary of Rice's
treatment of genre, gender and religion in relation to evolving feminist, cultural
and psychoanalytic debates, including reference to material from her other
novels.
In her self-conscious appropriation of the vampire tradition, Rice introduces a
wider scope to the formulaic elements of the gothic genre, interweaving different
genres with the gothic horror story. Her innovative approach to the vampire
novel, with its complexity of intermingling issues, leaves many unanswered
questions. It is the unresolved nature of the contradictions and paradoxes intrinsic
to Rice's work that disturb and generate further debate
LinoSPAD2: A 512×1 linear SPAD camera with system-level 135-ps SPTR and a reconfigurable computational engine for time-resolved single-photon imaging
No full textThe LinoSPAD2 camera combines a 512×1 linear single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array with an FPGA-based photon-counting and time-stamping platform, to create a reconfigurable sensing system capable of detecting single photons. The read-out is fully parallel, where each SPAD is connected to a different FPGA input. The hardware can be reconfigured to achieve different functionalities, such as photon counters, time-to-digital converter (TDC) arrays and histogramming units. Time stamping is performed by an array of 64 TDCs, with 20 ps resolution (LSB), serving 256 channels by means of 4:1 sharing. At sensor level, the pixel pitch is 26.2 μm with a fill factor of 25.1%. The median dark count rate of each SPAD at room temperature is below 100 cps at 6V excess bias, the single-photon timing resolution (SPTR) of each channel is 50 ps FWHM, and the peak photon detection probability reaches ~50% at 510 nm at the same excess bias. The fill factor can be increased by 2.3× by means of microlenses, with good spatial uniformity and flat spectral response above 400 nm. At system level, the average instrument response function (IRF) is 135 ps FWHM. The LinoSPAD2 camera enables a wide range of time-of-flight and time-resolved applications, including 3D imaging, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), heralded spectroscopy, and compressive Raman imaging, to name a few. Thanks to its features, LinoSPAD2 is a novel generation of reconfigurable single-photon image sensors capable of adapting their read-out and processing to match application-specific requirements, and combining SPAD arrays with advanced, massively-parallel computational functionalities. Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.QCD/DiCarlo La
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