275 research outputs found
Connectivity Does Not Ensure Community: On Social Capital, Networks and Communities of Place
No full textPutnam reports a decline of social capita l in society, Castells speaks of a privatisation of sociability. In this paper, I argue that, in local contexts, the internet holds the potential to grow strong communities of place which are rich in social capital. However, this potential can only be realised by online communication networks which are designed to create a sense of social ownership within the community. This paper provides the rationale for a research project currently undertaken by the author which seeks to inform the design and development of online communication networks to grow sustainable communities of place
Preliminary observations on the bone histology of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian archosaur Batrachotomus kupferzellensis reveal fast growth with laminar fibrolamellar bone tissue
No full textThe bone tissue of femur, rib, and gastralia from three different individuals of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian Batrachotomus kupferzellensis from southern Germany is studied. The femoral bone tissue comprises laminar fibrolamellar bone tissue throughout and is stratified by three annual growth cycles, indicating that the individual died early in its fourth year of life, at which time it had reached 87% of maximum known femur length. Thus, compared with most other Pseudosuchia (e.g., phytosaurs, aetosaurs, and most crocodylomorphs, including marine taxa), Batrachotomus achieved its large body size in a very short time by fast, although interrupted, growth and not by protracted longevity. Such fast growth as well as the organization of the tissue is similar to the condition observed in ornithodirans. The pseudosuchians Effigia and Postosuchus also show fibrolamellar tissue, but vascular density is lower when compared with Batrachotomus and dominated by a longitudinal organization of primary osteons. The rib and gastralium of Batrachotomus both show an inner spongious organization surrounded by a ring of compact, avascular, highly organized parallel-fibered and/or lamellar bone largely covered by short fibers. Maximal growth cycle count in the proximal rib sample suggests an age of at least 11 years for this individual with a reduction of growth rate after the sixth cycle.SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVPCitation for this article: Klein, N., C. Foth, and R. R. Schoch. 2017. Preliminary observations on the bone histology of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian archosaur Batrachotomus kupferzellensis reveal fast growth with laminar fibrolamellar bone tissue
Pathogenesis of Endocarditis in Bioprosthetic Heart Valves—Re-evaluation of the Current Concept
No full textCombining dependency parsing with PP attachment
No full textPrepositional phrase (PP) attachment is one of the major sources for errors in traditional statistical parsers. The reason for that lies in the type of information necessary for resolving structural ambiguities. For parsing, it is assumed that distributional information of parts-of-speech and phrases is sufficient for disambiguation. For PP attachment, in contrast, lexical information is needed. The problem of PP attachment has sparked much interest ever since Hindle and Rooth (1993) formulated the problem in a way that can be easily handled by machine learning approaches: In their approach, PP attachment is reduced to the decision between noun and verb attachment; and the relevant information is reduced to the two possible attachment sites (the noun and the verb) and the preposition of the PP. Brill and Resnik (1994) extended the feature set to the now standard 4-tupel also containing the noun inside the PP. Among many publications on the problem of PP attachment, Volk (2001; 2002) describes the only system for German. He uses a combination of supervised and unsupervised methods. The supervised method is based on the back-off model by Collins and Brooks (1995), the unsupervised part consists of heuristics such as ”If there is a support verb construction present, choose verb attachment”. Volk trains his back-off model on the Negra treebank (Skut et al., 1998) and extracts frequencies for the heuristics from the ”Computerzeitung”. The latter also serves as test data set. Consequently, it is difficult to compare Volk’s results to other results for German, including the results presented here, since not only he uses a combination of supervised and unsupervised learning, but he also performs domain adaptation. Most of the researchers working on PP attachment seem to be satisfied with a PP attachment system; we have found hardly any work on integrating the results of such approaches into actual parsers. The only exceptions are Mehl et al. (1998) and Foth and Menzel (2006), both working with German data. Mehl et al. report a slight improvement of PP attachment from 475 correct PPs out of 681 PPs for the original parser to 481 PPs. Foth and Menzel report an improvement of overall accuracy from 90.7% to 92.2%. Both integrate statistical attachment preferences into a parser. First, we will investigate whether dependency parsing, which generally uses lexical information, shows the same performance on PP attachment as an independent PP attachment classifier does. Then we will investigate an approach that allows the integration of PP attachment information into the output of a parser without having to modify the parser: The results of an independent PP attachment classifier are integrated into the parse of a dependency parser for German in a postprocessing step
Modification of Loop 1 Affects the Nucleotide Binding Properties of Myo1c, the Adaptation Motor in the Inner Ear
No full textMyo1c is one of eight members of the mammalian myosin I family of actin-associated molecular motors. In stereocilia of the hair cells in the inner ear, Myo1c presumably serves as the adaptation motor, which regulates the opening and closing of transduction channels. Although there is conservation of sequence and structure among all myosins in the N-terminal motor domain, which contains the nucleotide- and actin-binding sites, some differences include the length and composition of surface loops, including loop 1, which lies near the nucleotide-binding domain. To investigate the role of loop 1, we expressed in insect cells mutants of a truncated form of Myo1c, Myo1c1IQ, as well as chimeras of Myo1c1IQ with the analogous loop from other myosins. We found that replacement of the charged residues in loop 1 with alanines or the whole loop with a series of alanines did not alter the ATPase activity, transient kinetics properties, or Ca2+ sensitivity of Myo1c1IQ. Substitution of loop 1 with that of the corresponding region from tonic smooth muscle myosin II (Myo1c1IQ-tonic) or replacement with a single glycine (Myo1c1IQ-G) accelerated the release of ADP from A.M 2?3-fold in Ca2+, whereas substitution with loop 1 from phasic muscle myosin II (Myo1c1IQ-phasic) accelerated the release of ADP 35-fold. Motility assays with chimeras containing a single ?-helix, or SAH, domain showed that Myo1cSAH-tonic translocated actin in vitro twice as fast as Myo1cSAH-WT and 3-fold faster than Myo1cSAH-G. The studies show that changes induced in Myo1c via modification of loop 1 showed no resemblance to the behavior of the loop donor myosins or to the changes previously observed with similar Myo1b chimeras
Unleashing Creative Writers: Situated Engagement with Mobile Narratives
No full textThe emergence of sophisticated multimedia phones in combination with improvements to the mobile Internet provides the possibility to read texts and stories on mobile handsets. However, the question is, how to adapt stories in order to take advantage of the user’s mobility and create an engaging and appealing experience. To address these new conditions, a Mobile Narrative was created and access to individual chapters of the story was restricted. Authors can specify constraints, such as a location or time, which need to be met by the reader if they want to read the story. This concept allows creative writers of the story to exploit the fact that the reader’s context is known, by intensifying the user experience and integrating this knowledge into the writing process. Interviews with authors and creative writers and two user studies explored the effects of this way of writing on both parties. The paper presents our preliminary research findings discussing this new experience that was found to be exciting and interesting by both sides. Author Keywords Restrictions, constraints, mobile media, locative media, placed-based community engagement, mobile interaction, urban informatics. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation
Designing for place-based social interaction of urban residents in México, South Africa and Australia
No full textThe design of technology to facilitate social interaction of urban residents is increasingly important for many countries around the world. México and South Africa are particularly prone to issues that stem from urban densification and a lack of adequate affordable housing. Governments look to ICT to take on a mediating and facilitating role. This paper reports on research-inprogress of a tri-continental study. The external factors and aims of this pilot project identifying local case studies to prepare for a larger and longer term international comparison of local community networking approaches are examined. It is argued that by careful attention to cultural and social assets in the community, innovations will be engendered which enhance economic and social development. Preliminary design implications for the support of neighbourhood interactions across different socio-cultural contexts are presented. Copyright the author(s) and CHISIG
Revealing the Shopper Experience of Using a "Magic Mirror" Augmented Reality Make-Up Application
No full textVirtual try-ons have recently emerged as a new form of Augmented Reality application. Using motion caption techniques, such apps show virtual elements like make-up or accessories superimposed over the real image of a person as if they were actually wearing them. However, there is as of yet little understanding about their value for providing a viable experience. We report on an in-situ study, observing how shoppers approach and respond to such a "Magic Mirror" in a store. Our findings show that after the initial surprise, the virtual try-on resulted in much exploration when shoppers looked at themselves on a display integrated in the make-up counter. Behavior tracking data from interactions with the mirror supported this. Moreover, survey data measured perceptions of augmentation as well as hedonic and utilitarian value of the app and suggested the augmented experience was perceived to be playful and credible while also acting as a strong driver for future behavior. We discuss opportunities and challenges that such technology brings for shopping and other domains
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