Gather round the wiki-tree : virtual worlds as an open platform for architectural collaboration

The growth of internet based communication has facilitated the development of open source, collaborative projects. Here we describe the results of three 'Wikitecture' experiments in collaborative, open source architectural design within the virtual world Second Life. We describe the in-world platform developed and its use for a design competition entry. Issues such as contribution assessment and the role of open source collaborative design in architecture and construction are discussed, concluding with a wish list for future enhancements

Assessing the climate vulnerability of the world’s natural and cultural heritage

Climate change is the fastest-growing global threat to the world’s natural and cultural heritage. No systematic approach to assess climate vulnerability of protected areas and their associated communities has existed—until now. The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) is scientifically robust, transparent, and repeatable, and has now been applied to various World Heritage properties. The CVI builds upon an established Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework to systematically assess vulnerability through a risk assessment approach that considers the key values of the World Heritage property in question and identifies key climate stressors. The CVI process is then used to assess the climate-related vulnerability of the community (including local residents, domestic visitors, and international tourists) associated with the World Heritage property considering economic, social, and cultural connections. Climate impacts are increasingly adding to a wide range of compounding pressures (e.g., increasing tourism, infrastructure development, changing land use practices) that are affecting places, people, customs, and values. Applications of the CVI to date have led to commitments to integrate outcomes into relevant management plans, and to periodically repeat the process, enabling responsive management to changing future circumstances. The CVI has also demonstrated its potential applicability for protected areas beyond World Heritage properties. The CVI process engages local community members in determining impacts, provides opportunities for identifying adaptation and impact mitigation within the community, and aids broader communication about key climate issues

A Brief Overview of the Life and Work of Lyon Henry Appleby, M.D. (1895-1970).

The life and work of Dr. Lyon Henry Appleby, M.D., portrays the essence of a devoted clinician committed to scholarly excellence. Born in Deseronto, Ontario, in 1895 and passing in 1970, Dr. Appleby influenced all areas of general surgery, most notably popularizing a procedure that bears his name today. After a tour in World War I, he quickly proved himself to be a dedicated clinician with roots in academia, which translated into excellence within the Department of Surgery at St. Paul\u27s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. He served in various leadership roles including Chair of the Department of Surgery, President of the International College of Surgeons, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. The Appleby procedure, or en bloc removal of the celiac axis, at the time of gastrectomy, is the technical focus of this paper, although reference is made to Appleby\u27s extensive contributions to historical medicine

Ambient video awareness: “It’s great, but I still don’t want it”

Video instant messaging tools are not as widely used as we would have predicted and have so far failed to fulfill their promise to become an indispensable tool of social presence, interacting within the workgroup environment and creating a sense of community. Whilst users are becoming comfortable with videoconferencing and software video meetings, the use of video in “awareness” is still very uncommon. Over a 2-year period, we have run 8 discrete Hexagon room studies on naturalistic “ambient video awareness”. Only one of these studies can be considered to be a (limited) success. This paper discusses some of the factors inhibiting the use of such tools in e-learning environments, based on users’ feedback on issues, such as the tool promotion, user interface, size of community and visibility concerns

Exclusive development of T cell neoplasms in mice transplanted with bone marrow expressing activated Notch alleles

Notch is a highly conserved transmembrane protein that is involved in cell fate decisions and is found in organisms ranging from Drosophila to humans. A human homologue of Notch, TAN1, was initially identified at the chromosomal breakpoint of a subset of T-cell lymphoblastic leukemias/lymphomas containing a t(7;9) chromosomal translocation; however, its role in oncogenesis has been unclear. Using a bone marrow reconstitution assay with cells containing retrovirally transduced TAN1 alleles, we analyzed the oncogenic potential of both nuclear and extranuclear forms of truncated TAN1 in hematopoietic cells. Although the Moloney leukemia virus long terminal repeat drives expression in most hematopoietic cell types, retroviruses encoding either form of the TAN1 protein induced clonal leukemias of exclusively immature T cell phenotypes in approximately 50% of transplanted animals. All tumors overexpressed truncated TAN1 of the size and subcellular localization predicted from the structure of the gene. These results show that TAN1 is an oncoprotein and suggest that truncation and overexpression are important determinants of transforming activity. Moreover, the murine tumors caused by TAN1 in the bone marrow transplant model are very similar to the TAN1-associated human tumors and suggest that TAN1 may be specifically oncotropic for T cells

Straw boats and the proverbial sea: a response to 'Island Archaeology: In Search of a New Horizon'

In a recent ISJ paper, “Island Archaeology: In Search of a New Horizon”, Boomert and Bright (2007) argue that the field of “island archaeology” should be replaced by an “archaeology of maritime identity”. We disagree and counter that although islands share many physical, biological, and cultural similarities with continental coasts, coastal zones also grade uninterruptedly into riverine, lacustrine, and terrestrial landscapes, raising questions about the validity of their concept of the archaeology of maritime identity. In our view, island archaeology (the application of archaeology to island settings), regardless of past biogeographical underpinnings, has made major contributions to understanding the historical ecology, human impacts, and cultural developments of islands around the world. A focus on islands by archaeologists has encouraged scholars to study the history of island and maritime societies within a comparative framework that is useful for breaking out of the often provincial focus on a single island or archipelago

Digging Digitally: Creating a More Dynamic Archaeological Field Journal Archive

As the daily record of observations, the field journal always has been central to the archaeological process. Yet in recent decades, these important texts have been ignored in the rush to create digital artifact archives. This project, which builds upon software designed to manage the field books at the Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia, will correct this oversight by enabling a community of scholars to use scans of the hand written texts to link electronically the disparate forms of evidence that make up the archaeological record. Also, this project will determine the best equipment and practices to allow archaeologists to utilize a digital notebook archive in their research. The result will be an inexpensive, multi-platform, and open source system that can be adapted by other scholars to simplify and enhance research in any field of humanities research that depends upon hand written documents as a primary source of evidence