60 research outputs found
Visualization of tandem repeat mutagenesis in Bacillus subtilis
No full textDormeyer M, Lentes S, Ballin P, et al. Visualization of tandem repeat mutagenesis in Bacillus subtilis. DNA REPAIR. 2018;63:10-15.Mutations are crucial for the emergence and evolution of proteins with novel functions, and thus for the diversity of life. Tandem repeats (TRs) are mutational hot spots that are present in the genomes of all organisms. Understanding the molecular mechanism underlying TR mutagenesis at the level of single cells requires the development of mutation reporter systems. Here, we present a mutation reporter system that is suitable to visualize mutagenesis of TRs occurring in single cells of the Gram-positive model bacterium Bacillus subtilis using microfluidic single-cell cultivation. The system allows measuring the elimination of TR units due to growth rate recovery. The cultivation of bacteria carrying the mutation reporter system in microfluidic chambers allowed us for the first time to visualize the emergence of a specific mutation at the level of single cells. The application of the mutation reporter system in combination with microfluidics might be helpful to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying TR (in)stability in bacteria. Moreover, the mutation reporter system might be useful to assess whether mutations occur in response to nutrient starvation
Die Familie Ballin, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung ihres Hannoverisch-Braunschweigischen Zweiges /
No full textBibliography: p. 74
Customisation and Context for Expressive Behaviour in the Broadband World
No full textThe introduction of consumer broadband makes it possible to have an
emotionally much richer experience of the internet. One way of achieving
this is the use of animated characters endowed with emotionally expressive
behaviour. This paper describes Demeanour, a framework for generating
expressive behaviour, developed collaboratively by University College
London and BT plc. The focus of this paper will be on two important
aspects; the customisation of expressive behaviour and how expressive
behaviour can be made context dependent.
Customisation is a very popular feature for internet software, particularly
as it allows users to present a specific identity to other users; the ability
to customise beahviour will increase this sense of identity. Demeanour
supports a number of user friendly methods for customisng behaviour, all
of which use a character profile that ultimately controls the behaviour of
the character.
What counts as appropriate behaviour is highly dependent on the context,
where you are, who you are talking to, whether you have a particular
job or role. It is therefore very important that characters are able to
exhibit different behaviours in different contexts. Demeanour allows characters
to load different profiles in different contexts and therefore produce
different behaviour
Individuality and Contextual Variation of Character Behaviour for Interactive Narrative.
No full textThis paper presents a system for generating non-verbal communication behaviour suitable for characters in interactive narrative. It is possible to customise the behaviour of individual character using a system of character profiles. This allows characters to have a strong individuality and personality. These same profiles also allow the characters’ behaviour to be altered in different contexts, allowing
for suitably changing behaviour as the story unfolds
Gedanken zu Frank Broezes "Albert Ballin, the Hamburg-America Line and Hamburg"
No full textIn his article on Albert Ballin appearing in the "Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv" No. 15, 1992, pp. 135-158, Frank Broeze advocates two theses: (1) that contrary to popular opinion Albert Ballin used ruthless tactics to pursue his policy of expansion and (2) that he practiced a dubious financial policy and frequently did not know exactly what he wanted. Broeze bases his argumentation primarily on the observations of Johannes Merck and Max von Schinckel who both regarded Ballin from a critical distance. The author of the present article focuses chiefly on Broeze's accusations concerning the personal and business integrity of Albert Ballin and arrives at conclusions quite different from Broeze's: 1. In addition to the construction of the IMPERATOR class, Ball in also had internationally outstanding ships built for the South America routes (east and west coast) as well as for the East Asia service- a carefully targetted business policy, the success of which was hindered only by the First World War. Ballin's restraint in regard to austral traffic, which would have remained deficitary for Hapag because of the absolute predominance of the British, also points to a faculty for clever decision-making. 2. The low dividend payments of the Hapag in comparison to other shipping companies are not an indication of the negative effects of Ballin's business policies but of the reinvestment of a larger proportion of the profits. 3. The increase in the cost of the IMPERATOR's construction from the 25 million Marks first projected to a final total of 38 million Marks were not caused by Ballin's having habitually ordered ships in a "totally unbusiness-like" manner, but by the fact that the original plans were for a 30,000 ton vessel whereas the ship finally ordered weighed 51,000 tons. 4. There is no evidence to support Broeze's assertions that Ballin's behaviour was inconsiderate, violent, dictatorial, antagonistic and uncompromising . On the contrary, his main competitors in Bremen, England and among his pool partners have never expressed any such criticism. This is in itself a remarkable fact and speaks clearly for Ballin's integrity
Recommended from our members
Anticipative Criminal Investigation ::Theory and Counterterrorism Practice in the Netherlands and the United States /
No full textThis book deals with the adoption of counterterrorism measures in the Netherlands and the United States which facilitate criminal investigations with a preventive focus (anticipative criminal investigations). These anticipative criminal investigations are assessed from the perspective of rule of law principles. Anticipative criminal investigations have emerged in the legal systems of the Netherlands and the United States as a consequence of counterterrorism approaches that combine the objective of the prevention of terrorism with the objective of eventually prosecuting and punishing terrorists. Because of the attribution of a preventive function to criminal investigations, the role of the criminal justice system in providing security has been repositioned. With respect to this new preventive function of criminal justice, the author identifies the rule of law principles that limit the role of criminal investigation in preventing terrorism. She identifies the possibilities andlimits of criminal investigation in general and discusses the cooperation and the division of responsibilities between law enforcement and intelligence. These issues are addressed in a manner which transcends differences between national legal systems. This book is of great interest for academics and practitioners engaged in criminal investigations, counterterrorism and terrorism prevention and the rule of law in general. Dr. Marianne F.H. Hirsch Ballin is presently working as an attorney at Pels Rijcken & Droogleever Fortuijn, The Hague, the Netherlands. The research for the present book was conducted at the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Recommended from our members
Advanced introduction to legal research methods /
No full text"Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. In this carefully drafted work, Ernst Hirsch Ballin uncovers the foundations of legal research methods, an area of legal scholarship distinctly lacking in standardisation. Offering a critical overview of the theories underlying methodological research, as well as the methods themselves, the book explores how such methods differ along critical, empirical, and fundamental lines, and how, by building on these approaches, legal research may contribute to well-considered developments in the law. Such explorative research, the author argues, is crucial in overcoming crises and restoring trust in the law. Key features include: consideration of the theoretical underpinnings of legal research methods special emphasis on the legal-grammatical category of personhood and on constitutional foundations a consideration of law as a normative language intended to guide behaviour an exploration of the common object of legal research: law in the sense of legal rules, decisions, principles and values. This Advanced Introduction will greatly benefit legal scholars who seek to understand the object and methods of their work, as well as law and philosophy students looking to grasp the theoretical and methodological foundations of law and legal development"-
A qualidade de serviços na internet: instrumentos para a gestão da qualidade de serviços de governo eletrônico
No full textTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção.A tecnologia da informação (TI) e a Internet estão revolucionando a indústria de serviços e ampliando de forma significativa a oferta e a demanda de serviços totalmente eletrônicos (e-serviços) de qualidade, tanto no setor privado quanto no governo. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho desenvolveu instrumentos para a gestão da qualidade de serviços de governo eletrônico. Considera que a organização deve se estruturar para prestar serviços de qualidade e adequar-se periodicamente à percepção de qualidade dos clientes. O processo de gestão da qualidade é apresentado com base nos instrumentos desenvolvidos neste trabalho, os quais podem ser utilizados individualmente ou combinados com os resultados complementares de outros autores. A metodologia para identificar e validar os Fatores Críticos de Sucesso se baseou na técnica Delphi, com a participação de 4 grupos de especialistas (profissionais de programas de governo eletrônico, profissionais de TI no governo, docentes das áreas de gestão da qualidade e acadêmicos do último ano de cursos da área de TI), com 150 especialistas na primeira rodada e 85 na segunda. Para identificar e validar as Dimensões da Qualidade e criar o instrumento de avaliação, utilizou-se abordagem de Marketing aplicando-se as técnicas da Análise de Conglomerados sobre respostas de grupos focais, completada com Análise Fatorial sobre respostas de clientes de serviços de governo eletrônico. As amostras tinham tamanho mínimo de 200 e foram obtidas a partir de avaliações de qualidade de serviços de governo eletrônico. As respostas foram coletadas basicamente de cidadãos do estado do Paraná, mas representativas de diferentes níveis e poderes de governo: 3 de governo estadual, 1 de governo municipal, com serviços do poder executivo; 1 do governo federal, com serviços do poder judiciário. Os resultados do trabalho foram: a) relação dos Fatores Críticos de Sucesso para a qualidade de serviços de governo eletrônico (FCSweb), que orientam a estruturação da organização para prestar e-serviços; b) as Dimensões da Qualidade, que orientam ações pré e pós projeto de serviços na Internet e; c) um instrumento para avaliar a percepção de qualidade do cliente (QSweb), para ser utilizado durante a operação dos e-serviços. The Information Technology (IT) and the Internet are causing a revolution in the service industry and increasing in a significant way the offer and the demand of electronic services (e-services) of quality, in the private sector as in the government one. This piece of work has developed instruments for the service quality management of the electronic government (e-government), considering that the organization should structure itself to be useful and adjusting time to time to client´s quality perception. The process of e-service quality management is showed based on the instruments developed on this piece of work, which means they can be used individually or combined with previous results of others researchers. The methodology to identify and legalize the Critical Success Factors was based on the Delphi technic with the participation of 4 specialist groups (professionals of electronic government programs, IT professionals in the government, professors of the quality management area and the seniors of IT area), overcoming 150 on the first round and 85 on the second one. To identify and legalize the Quality Dimensions and to create the instrument of evaluation we´ve made use of the Marketing approach using the Clusters Analysis based on responses of the focal groups, completed with the Factorial Analysis based on responses of the clients of electronic government services. The samples had the minimum size of 200 and they were based on the evaluations of service quality of electronic government. The answers were obtained of citizens of Paraná State, but they represented different levels and government powers: 3 from State Government, 1 from City Department with services from the Government Administration; 1 from Federal Government with services of the Justice Department. The results are: a) the Critical Success Factors for the service quality of e-government (FCSweb) that conduct the structure of the organization to give e-service support; b) the Quality Dimensions that conduct previous and post projects of the Internet services and; c) an instrument to evaluate the client´s quality perception (QSweb) to be used during the operation of the e-services
Towards a Reactive Virtual Trainer
No full textRuttkay Z, Zwiers J, van Welbergen H, Reidsma D. Towards a Reactive Virtual Trainer. In: Gratch J, Young M, Aylett R, Ballin D, Olivier P, eds. Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol 4133. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer; 2006: 292-303.A Reactive Virtual Trainer (RVT) is an Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) capable of presenting physical exercises that are to be performed by a human, monitoring the user and providing feedback at different levels. Depending on the motivation and the application context, the exercises may be general ones of fitness to improve the user’s physical condition, special exercises to be performed from time to time during work to prevent for example RSI, or physiotherapy exercises with medical indications. In the paper we discuss the functional and technical requirements of a framework which can be used to author specific RVT applications. The focus is on the reactivity of the RVT, manifested in natural language comments on readjusting the tempo, pointing out mistakes or rescheduling the exercises. We outline the components we have implemented so far: our animation engine, the composition of exercises from basic motions and the module for analysis of tempo in acoustic input
- …
