Collaborative working - from HPC, Vis to AG developments in Australia

The large distances that we face in Australia mean that electronically enabled remote collaborations are gaining traction. The Access Grid (AG), for multi-site, room-to-room meetings and collaborative working, is now widely used in the university sector. Decades of R&D and infrastructure building in High Performance Computing (HPC), cyber-infrastructure and now e-infrastructure, have led to a rich fabric of distributed computing, data and user interface technologies in Australia. We will present recent AG developments including shared files systems based on the Storage Resource Broker (SRB), shared software applications (eg molecular viewers, GIS) and High Definition Video capabilities, all integrated within the AG systems. These systems now provide a richer collaborative working environment for accessing e-infrastructure facilities

The Effect of Connectivity, Proximity and Market Structure on R&D Networks

In a seminal paper, Goyal and Moraga-Gonzalez (2001) use an undirected network to characterize knowledge flows between firms engaging in research in an oligopolistic market. In their paper, firms are regarded as inhabiting a research joint venture (RJV), if they share the same edge of the network. These firms are allowed an R&D spillover of 1; the outside firms (firms not sharing an edge in the network) are permitted a constant knowledge spillover that is less than one. We begin our paper by showing that this last assumption has important consequences when dealing with R&D networks of size greater than or equal to six firms. We present examples of topologically non-equivalent networks that have the same degree of connectivity and generate identical outcomes in terms of R&D effort, firm profits and total welfare. We then modify their model so that R&D spillovers decrease as the number of shortest paths increases between any two firms. We show that under product differentiated Cournot and Bertrand competition, we have different outcomes for all economic variables. We also show that R&D effort increases with respect to the number of collaborative links if firms are in a weakly competitive market, whereas it declines if firms are in a more competitive market where products are closer substitutes. We also find that in more competitive markets there is a conflict between the stability and the efficiency of RJVs.

La cuestión de la Fortuna y del deseo amoroso en las novelas cortas de María de Zayas: un camino hacia el desengaño barroco

Seminario de grado: Textos y contextos del Siglo de Oro españolVersión original del auto

Protection against ultraviolet radiation by commercial summer clothing: need for standardised testing and labelling

BACKGROUND: The use of clothing as a means of sun protection has been recommended in recent education campaigns. Contrary to popular opinion, however, some fabrics provide insufficient ultraviolet (UV) protection. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We investigated 236 apparel textiles of the spring/summer collections 2000 and 2001. In accordance with the forthcoming European standard the UV protection factor (UPF) of the fabrics was determined spectrophotometrically. RESULTS: Seventy-eight (33%) fabrics had UPF < 15, 45 (19%) had UPF = or > 15 and < 30, and 113 (48%) had UPF = or > 30 (30+). More than 70% of the wool, polyester, and fabric blends, and only less than 30% of the cotton, linen, and viscose fabrics had UPF values of 30+. Fabrics with black, navy-blue, white, green, or beige colours provided most frequently UPF values of 30+. CONCLUSIONS: It is difficult for the sun-aware consumer to choose the 'right' garment, with a third of summer clothing providing insufficient UV protection and only half of the fabrics having UPF 30+, the UPF recommended by the European standard. Therefore, apparel summer fabrics should be measured and labelled in accordance with a standard document

An evaluation of UV protection imparted by cotton fabrics dyed with natural colorants

BACKGROUND: The ultraviolet properties of textiles dyed with synthetic dyes have been widely reported in literature. However, no study has investigated the ultraviolet properties of natural fabrics dyed with natural colorants. This study reports the Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) of cotton fabrics dyed with colorants of plant and insect origins. METHODS: Three cotton fabrics were dyed with three natural colorants. Fabrics were characterized with respect to fabric construction, weight, thickness and thread count. Influence of fabric characteristics on Ultraviolet Protection Factor was studied. Role of colorant concentration on the ultraviolet protection factor was examined via color strength analysis. RESULTS: A positive correlation was observed between the weight of the fabric and their UPF values. Similarly, thicker fabrics offered more protection from ultraviolet rays. Thread count appears to negatively correlate with UPF. Dyeing with natural colorants dramatically increased the protective abilities of all three fabric constructions. Additionally, within the same fabric type UPF values increased with higher depths of shade. CONCLUSION: Dyeing cotton fabrics with natural colorants increases the ultraviolet protective abilities of the fabrics and can be considered as an effective protection against ultraviolet rays. The UPF is further enhanced with colorant of dark hues and with high concentration of the colorant in the fabric

Celestial Bodies/Terrestrial Beings

Un avenir funeste nous est prédit par les outils économiques (virtualisant les comportements hypothétiques dans ses modélisations), les industries technologiques (la croissance technologique, dite inévitable, allant jusqu’à la colonisation spatiale) et des systèmes écologiques (annonçant l’apocalypse environnementale). Alors que le mouvement des humains sur terre est chorégraphié par des GPS satellites en orbite et les signaux éthérés des applications de rencontre, l’exploration spatiale privatisée repousse les frontières du colonialisme créant un contexte de « chaosmos » dans les relations entre le céleste et le terrestre.Notre monde est marqué par des fictions coloniales et capitalistes. Et à l’ère des “fake news” et des “deep fakes”, la vérité ou les faits deviennent encore plus précieux. Malgré cela, le genre de la creative non-fiction ou l’essai-fiction pourrait-il nous offrir un espace liminal et indéterminé pour imaginer des futurs alternatifs? Peut-on se réorienter et imaginer d’autres mondes à venir ? Comment libérer l’imaginaire social, politique et économique des strates hiérarchiques et des orbites accélérées du capitalisme colonial ? Qu’est-ce que cela signifie pour des pratiques médiatiques et artistiques qui se lient souvent aux structures technologiques, économiques et politiques, qui encadrent les discours et les projections sur le monde réel ?Le colloque Corps célestes, êtres terrestres, présentera les travaux d’artistes et de chercheuses·eurs qui s’interrogent sur les rapports culturels, technologiques et écologiques qui influencent des perceptions du ciel et la terre, et comment ils se manifestent dans des pratiques contemporaines. En explorant les résonances scientifiques et imaginaires de ces deux lieux, on vise à explorer des formes de créativité artistiques, politiques et sociales qui nous mènent vers un avenir durable.Le colloque, composé de présentations plénières et d’une table ronde lors de laquelle s’exprimeront des artistes exposant dans le festival, se poursuivra en soirée par des performances.Outre les deux conférencières organisatrices, Manuela de Barros et Denise Thwaites, représentant les universités organisatrices (Université Paris 8 et University of Canberra - Australia), ce colloque international réunira des participants de divers pays (Australie, Belgique, France, Pays-Bas

Evolution of the patellar sesamoid bone in mammals

The patella is a sesamoid bone located in the major extensor tendon of the knee joint, in the hindlimb of many tetrapods. Although numerous aspects of knee morphology are ancient and conserved among most tetrapods, the evolutionary occurrence of an ossified patella is highly variable. Among extant (crown clade) groups it is found in most birds, most lizards, the monotreme mammals and almost all placental mammals, but it is absent in most marsupial mammals as well as many reptiles. Here, we integrate data from the literature and first-hand studies of fossil and recent skeletal remains to reconstruct the evolution of the mammalian patella. We infer that bony patellae most likely evolved between four and six times in crown group Mammalia: in monotremes, in the extinct multituberculates, in one or more stem-mammal genera outside of therian or eutherian mammals and up to three times in therian mammals. Furthermore, an ossified patella was lost several times in mammals, not including those with absent hindlimbs: once or more in marsupials (with some re-acquisition) and at least once in bats. Our inferences about patellar evolution in mammals are reciprocally informed by the existence of several human genetic conditions in which the patella is either absent or severely reduced. Clearly, development of the patella is under close genomic control, although its responsiveness to its mechanical environment is also important (and perhaps variable among taxa). Where a bony patella is present it plays an important role in hindlimb function, especially in resisting gravity by providing an enhanced lever system for the knee joint. Yet the evolutionary origins, persistence and modifications of a patella in diverse groups with widely varying habits and habitats—from digging to running to aquatic, small or large body sizes, bipeds or quadrupeds—remain complex and perplexing, impeding a conclusive synthesis of form, function, development and genetics across mammalian evolution. This meta-analysis takes an initial step toward such a synthesis by collating available data and elucidating areas of promising future inquiry

Automatic particle picking algorithms for high resolution single particle analysis

As new genome sequencing initiatives are completed, one of the next great challenges of cell biology is the atomic resolution structure determination of the enormous number of proteins they encode. Single particle analysis is a technique which produces 3D structures by computationally aligning high resolution electron microscope images of individual, randomly oriented molecules. One of the limiting factors in producing a high resolution 3D reconstruction is obtaining a large enough representative dataset (~100,000 particles). Traditionally particles have been picked manually but this is a slow and labour intensive process. This paper describes two automatic particle picking algorithms, based on correlation and edge detection, which have been shown to be capable of quickly selecting a large number of particles in micrographs. Currently circular and rectangular particles are able to be picked