29 research outputs found
The evolution of surfaces and their measurement
No full textSurfaces and their interactions are at the heart of living systems and all moving objects.
They have fascinated man from the ancient Egyptians, through Leonardo Da Vinci in the
Renaissance period, to nanotechnologists of today. This paper elucidates the science of
surfaces and their interactions, covering the importance of surfaces and how they influence us
all in terms of energy, environment and quality of life. It attempts to uncover the story of
mankind‟s deepening understanding of surfaces and their measurement, and to provide an
overview of surface measurement and shows how current thinking has evolved from a
complicated historical background
Penentuan arah kiblat menggunakan arah tenggelam bintang As-Simak (Arcturus) dalam kitab Tahrir Aqwa al-Adillah fi Tahsil ‘Ain al-Qiblah karya Syaikh Usman al-Betawi
No full textDidalam kitab Tahrir Aqwa al-adillah fi Tahsil ‘Ain al-Qiblah karya sayyid utsman bin yahya al-betawi untuk menentukan arah kiblat ada keunikan tersendiri. Dijelaskan di dalam kitab tersebut arah kblat daerah Jawa dan Melayu ialah menghadap ke arah tenggelamnya bintang as-Simak ar-Ramih atau biasa disebut dengan bintang Arcturus yang berada di rasi Bootes (Biduk). Kemunculan bintang ini sangat mudah diamati terutama di daerah Jawa dan Melayu karena letak bintang ini berada di deklinasi 19 derajat dari equator (khatulistiwa) serta nilai magnitude -0,05, menjadikan bintang ini bintang paling terang ke empat dilangit malam. Penulis di sini akan meneliti posisi bintang di arah tenggelamnya, karena menurut Sayyid Utsman bin yahya penentuan arah kiblat dengan bintang ini ialah menghadap ke kakbah secara ‘ainul ka’bah.
Penelitian yang dilakukan ini adalah penelitian lapangan (field research) yang termasuk ke dalam penelitian kualitatif numerik, dengan membandingkan hasil arah kiblat yang didapat dengan metode azimuth Matahari. Data primer penelitian adalah dari kitab Tahrir Aqwa al-adillah fi Tahsil ‘Ain al-Qiblah dan untuk memverifikasi menggunakan data yang didapat melalui observasi dan hasil data-data perhitungan dengan menggunakan azimuth arah tenggelam bintang as-Simak (Arcturus). Sedangkan data penunjangnya adalah aplikasi stellarium mobile untuk membantu penulis menjabarkan temuan di lapangan.
Hasil penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa as-Simak (Arcturus) dalam rasi Bootes dapat dipakai sebagai penentu arah kiblat. Arah kiblat hasil pengukuran dengan bintang as-Simak (Arcturus) cukup akurat, karena objek pembidikanya berupa satu titik pusat bintang.
ABSTRACT:
In the book Tahrir Aqwa al-adillah fi Tahsil 'Ain al-Qiblah by Sayyid Uthman bin Yahya al-Betawi to establish the direction of Qibla there has its own peculiarity. It is explained in the book that the kblat direction of the Javanese and Malay areas is towards the direction of the sinking of the star as-Simak ar-Ramih or generally called the star Arcturus which is in the Bootes constellation. The appearance of this star is quite easy to view, especially in the Java and Malay areas since the location of this star is at a declination of 19 degrees from the equator, a magnitude value of -0.05, making this star the fourth brightest star in the night sky. The author here will investigate the location of the star in the direction of its sinking, because according to Sayyid Uthman bin Yahya the determination of the direction of the Qibla with this star is facing the Ka'bah in a 'ainul ka'bah.
This research is a field research which is incorporated in a qualitative numerical analysis, by comparing the results of the Qibla direction obtained with the azimuth method of the Sun. The core data of the research is from the book of Tahrir Aqwa al-adillah fi Tahsil 'Ain al-Qiblah and to verify using the data obtained through observation and the findings of the calculating data using the azimuth direction of the sinking star as-Simak (Arcturus). While the supporting data is the Stellarium mobile application to enable the authors discuss the findings in the field.
The results of this investigation indicated that as-Simak (Arcturus) in the Bootes constellation can be used as a determinant of the Qibla direction. The Qibla direction measured using the star as-Simak (Arcturus) is quite accurate, because the targeting object is a single star center point
'A far green country' : an analysis of the presentation of nature in works of early mythopoeic fantasy fiction
No full textThis study undertakes an examination of the representation of nature in works of literature that it regards as early British ‘mythopoeic fantasy’. By this term the thesis understands that fantasy fiction which is fundamentally concerned with myth or myth-making. It is the contention of the study that the connection of these works with myth or the idea of myth is integral to their presentation of nature. Specifically, this study identifies a connection between the idea of nature presented in these novels and the thought of the late-Victorian era regarding nature, primitivism, myth and the impulse behind mythopoesis. It is argued that this conceptual background is responsible for the notion of nature as a virtuous force of spiritual redemption in opposition to modernity and in particular to the dominant modern ideological model of scientific materialism. The thesis begins by examining late-Victorian sensibilities regarding myth and nature, before exposing correlative ideas in selected case studies of authors whose work it posits to be primarily mythopoeic in intent. The first of these studies considers the work of Henry Rider Haggard, the second examines Scottish writer David Lindsay, and the third looks at the mythopoeic endeavours of J. R. R. Tolkien, the latter standing alone among the authors considered in these central case studies in producing fiction under a fully developed theory of mythopoesis. The perspective is then widened in the final chapter, allowing consideration of authors such as William Morris and H. G. Wells. The study attempts to demonstrate the prevalence of an identifiable conceptual model of nature in the period it considers to constitute the age of early mythopoeic fantasy fiction, which it conceives to date from the late-Victorian era to the apotheosis of Tolkien’s work
Author Correction: Transcript expression-aware annotation improves rare variant interpretation
No full textIn this Article, author Marquis P. Vawter was missing from the Genome Aggregation Database Consortium list. They are associated with the affiliation: ‘Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA’, and contributed to the generation of the primary data incorporated into the gnomAD resource. The original Article has been corrected online
Author Correction: The mutational constraint spectrum quantified from variation in 141,456 humanS
No full textIn this Article, author Marquis P. Vawter was missing from the Genome Aggregation Database Consortium list. They are associated with the affiliation: ‘Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA’, and contributed to the generation of the primary data incorporated into the gnomAD resource. In addition, in the legend to Fig. 1, ‘ten’ should have been ‘seven’ in the sentence: “a, Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP)46,47 plot depicting the ancestral diversity of all individuals in gnomAD, using seven principal components.” The original Article has been corrected online
Escritura, realidad e invención en Arturo, la estrella más brillante, de Reinaldo Arenas
No full textA contextual and literary analysis of Arturo, la estrella más brillante [Arcturus, the brightest star], the brightest star, is carried out; it is one of the least known brief novels by Reinaldo Arenas, in which he pays homage to writer Nelson Rodríguez. Emphasis is made on the metafiction, intertextuality and rhetorical resources the author resorts to build the narration. The work recreates the horror of the concentration camps for sexual and political dissidents in Castro's Cuba. At once the novel locates in the testimonial literature and autobiography and puts forward imagination as a form of creative evasion that opposes censorship.Se realiza un análisis contextual y literario de Arturo, la estrella más brillante, una de las novelas breves menos conocidas de Reinaldo Arenas, en la que hace un homenaje al escritor Nelson Rodríguez. Se hace énfasis en la metaficción, la intertextualidad y los recursos retóricos de los que se vale el autor para construir la narración. La obra recrea el horror de los campos de concentración para disidentes sexuales y políticos de la Cuba castrista. Al mismo tiempo que se inscribe dentro de la literatura testimonial y la autobiografía, esta novela propone la imaginación como una forma de evasión creativa que se opone a la censura
Pleuroprion
No full textGenus Pleuroprion zur Strassen, 1903 Antares zur Strassen, 1902: 687–688 (preoccupied). Pleuroprion.—zur Strassen, 1903: 31 (replacement name).— Richardson, 1905: 342, key to species.— Stebbing 1908: 51–52.— Barnard, 1914: 216.— Hansen, 1916: 193–194, key to species.— Gurjanova, 1933: 160.— Gurjanova, 1936: 197–198, key to species.— Kensley, 1978: 33.— Kussakin, 1982: 420–421, key to species.— Wägele, 1989: 138–139.— Poore, 2001: 224.— Poore, 2015: 14. Diagnosis: Body flattened, with subparallel pereonites, pereonite 1 separated from head by shallow transverse groove, lateral margins of head and pereonite 1 shallow, convex. Pleonite 1 articulating with pleotelson, its posterior dorsal margin clearly indicated. Pleonite 2 of male dorsally doomed. Eyes prominent, bulbous. Antenna 2 flagellum of 2 articles plus claw. Maxillipedal palp article 3 not mesially lobed, about 1.5 times as wide as article 4. Pereopod 1 dactylus with unguis. Pereopods 2–4 with carpus longer than ischium and merus together; carpus and propodus tapering; fringed with long, pappose setae and some single simple setae on inferior margin; dactylus slender, unguis less than half length of body of dactylus, total 0.6 times propodus. Uropod biramous; exopod with terminal robust seta; endopod shorter than wide, with terminal stout seta. Penial plate tapering, apically bifid. Pleopod 1 of male exopod with 13 lateral plumose setae, with 9 distomesial plumose setae, with strong groove on its posterior face opening on short distolateral lobe; endopod shorter than exopod. Pleopod 2 with styliform appendix masculina, slightly longer than endopod. Oostegites unknown. Type species: Antares chuni zur Strassen, 1902. Included species: Pleuroprion chuni (zur Strassen, 1902). Remarks: Zur Strassen (1902) described a new species collected off South Africa and placed it in a new genus Antares. However, Antares was preoccupided and zur Strassen (1903) replaced it with Pleuroprion zur Strassen, 1903. Zur Strassen (1902, 1903) did not provide a generic diagnosis but distinguished it from Antarcturus zur Strassen, 1902, by the shape and spination of the head, size, shape and fusion of the first pereonite with the head without a clear suture, the epimera not distinct from the pereonites, and pleonite 1 articulating with the pleotelson. He noticed the difference in the shape of the fourth pereonite between Pleuroprion and other „arcturids“ s.l., and found the body of Pleuroprion to be more asellote-like than arcturid-like. Richardson (1905) provided a short diagnosis of Pleuroprion without consulting type material and added no detail. She included two species, Arcturus murdochi Benedict, 1898, and A. intermedius Richardson, 1899a, without discussion. Hansen (1916) found Pleuroprion closely allied to Arcturus Latreille, 1829, and moved Arcturus hystrix G.O. Sars, 1877, to Pleuroprion and described a new species, Pleuroprion frigidum Hansen, 1916. Neither author discussed Pleuroprion chuni. Kussakin (1982) found Pleuroprion intermediate between Neastacilla Tattersall, 1921, and Idarcturus Barnard, 1914b, though by some characters being close to Arcturus. Wägele (1989) suggested that Pleuroprion (as then diagnosed) belonged to an early branch of Arcturinae (now partly Antarcturidae), since their body was similar to those of the Pseudidotheinae. Wägele (1989) stated that isopod does not geniculate between pereonites 4 and 5. The simple, undifferentiated ungues of the pereopods would also support the suggestion of Wägele (1989) that these are primitive antarcturids. Later, Poore (2001) placed the genus within Antarcturidae. Pleuroprion, as now defined and containing only the type species, Pleuroprion chuni, is clearly a member of Holidoteidae, possessing a body without geniculation between pereonites 4 and 5, an apically bifid and splayed penial plate, both uropodal rami with a robust terminal seta and the uropodal exopod shorter than wide. Pleuroprion resembles Austroarcturus and differs from the other genera, Neoarcturus and Holidotea, in having a suture between the first and second pleonites and in having pereopods 2–4 fringed with dense pappose setae along the posterior margin. Pleuroprion differs from Holidotea and Austroarcturus in the narrower maxilliped palp, shorter terminal grooved lobe of the male pleopod 1 endopod, in ratio of the lengths of the rami of male pleopod 1, and in the relatively longer appendix masculina. Pleuroprion differs from Neoarcturus in having tergites of pereonite 1 to pleotelson well developed, the posterior ventral margin of pereonite 4 not notched in the male, by having several setae along pereopods 2–4 carpus and propodus and the ungues of pereopods 2–4 being shorter than the body of dactylus.Published as part of Stransky, Bente, Svavarsson, Jörundur, Poore, Gary C. B. & Kihara, Terue Cristina, 2020, Revision of Pleuroprion zur Strassen, 1903 (Holidoteidae) and re-evaluation of Spectrarcturus Schultz, 1981 (Arcturidae) (Crustacea, Isopoda, Valvifera), pp. 1-52 in Zootaxa 4894 (1) on pages 3-4, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4894.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/431536
Analyzing and interpreting deoxyribonucleic acid from multiple donors using a forensically relevant single-cell strategy
No full textThe complexity of interpreting forensic DNA stains from multiple donors, often a cacophony of signals arising from unknown numbers of contributors (NOC), artifacts, and noise, presents considerable challenges. Traditional methods in forensic analysis rely on probabilistic interpretations prone to inefficiencies and potential inaccuracies due to mixed profiles and partial information of each donor. This study introduces a novel, forensically relevant single-cell strategy to address these issues. It used metrics for electropherogram (EPG) signal quality and statistical tests to optimize the process from extraction to interpretation. Our method combines multiple approaches of direct-to-PCR extraction, microfluidic DEPArray™ technology, and Model-Based Clustering (MBC) algorithms, to improve the reliability and interpretability of forensic DNA analysis. We evaluated four direct-to-PCR extraction treatments across 102 single buccal cells, measuring allele detection rates, peak heights, peak height ratios, and peak height balance for short tandem repeat (STR) markers. Statistical tests identified significant EPG metric variations among treatments. The Arcturus® PicoPure™ extraction method showed the most efficient, exhibiting the lowest median allele drop-out rate and the highest median average peak height, among others. We then adjusted reagent concentrations, specifically phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and proteinase K. Results indicated that decreased PBS concentrations from 1X to 0.5X or 0.25X significantly improved EPG quality metrics, while variation of proteinase K concentrations yielded negligible impact.
Leveraging DEPArray™ technology, the research further incorporated a semi-automated single-cell strategy that was optimized for the forensic pipeline. Furthermore, an innovative framework was developed to streamline the interpretation of single-cell electropherograms (scEPGs) using MBC and a novel algorithm, EESCIt (Evidentiary Evaluation of Single Cells). This framework clustered scEPGs by genetic origin calculates likelihood ratios (LR) for each cluster and averaged these across all clusters to provide a comprehensive weight of evidence summary. Our analysis revealed that 99% of comparisons provided log LR values greater than 0 for true contributors, regardless of the mixture complexity. It significantly expanded the applicability of DNA forensics.
In summary, this thesis demonstrates the feasibility and statistical robustness of a single-cell forensic DNA strategy. It provides an integrated approach for the probabilistic interpretation of forensic DNA data from multiple donors, improving both the efficiency and reliability of forensic DNA analysis.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vit
A comparison of RNA amplification techniques at sub-nanogram input concentration
No full textAbstract Background Gene expression profiling of small numbers of cells requires high-fidelity amplification of sub-nanogram amounts of RNA. Several methods for RNA amplification are available; however, there has been little consideration of the accuracy of these methods when working with very low-input quantities of RNA as is often required with rare clinical samples. Starting with 250 picograms-3.3 nanograms of total RNA, we compared two linear amplification methods 1) modified T7 and 2) Arcturus RiboAmp HS and a logarithmic amplification, 3) Balanced PCR. Microarray data from each amplification method were validated against quantitative real-time PCR (QPCR) for 37 genes. Results For high intensity spots, mean Pearson correlations were quite acceptable for both total RNA and low-input quantities amplified with each of the 3 methods. Microarray filtering and data processing has an important effect on the correlation coefficient results generated by each method. Arrays derived from total RNA had higher Pearson's correlations than did arrays derived from amplified RNA when considering the entire unprocessed dataset, however, when considering a gene set of high signal intensity, the amplified arrays had superior correlation coefficients than did the total RNA arrays. Conclusion Gene expression arrays can be obtained with sub-nanogram input of total RNA. High intensity spots showed better correlation on array-array analysis than did unfiltered data, however, QPCR validated the accuracy of gene expression array profiling from low-input quantities of RNA with all 3 amplification techniques. RNA amplification and expression analysis at the sub-nanogram input level is both feasible and accurate if data processing is used to focus attention to high intensity genes for microarrays or if QPCR is used as a gold standard for validation.</p
