Specular suffering: (staging) the body in pain

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Application of inflated structures to hovercraft annual survey 1968-69: inflated structures report C1206/3

1.0 Introduction This report surveys work carried out in the Department of Aircraft Design at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, in accordance with the terms of Ministry of Technology contract reference PD/28/045/ADM, College of Aeronautics reference 0.1206. The period covered by this report extends from 1st October 1968 to 1st October 1969, which constitutes the first complete year of operation under the contract terms. The reporting procedure agreed with Mintech is that individual research topics shall be separately reported in the form of technical memoranda, and that comprehensive surveys of a descriptive nature shall be submitted at regular intervals

Joining forces: engineering and arts students get physic(al) – problem solving strategies in the trans-school project

This paper / web article describes the practical investigations undertaken as part of the arts/engineering trans-school project.University of the Arts, London and Brunel University LTDU (APDU

Mean and Extreme Radio Properties of Quasars and the Origin of Radio Emission

We investigate the evolution of both the radio-loud fraction (RLF) and (using stacking analysis) the mean radio-loudness of quasars. We consider how these values evolve as a function of redshift and luminosity, black hole (BH) mass and accretion rate, and parameters related to the dominance of a wind in the broad emission line region. We match the FIRST source catalog to samples of luminous quasars (both spectroscopic and photometric), primarily from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. After accounting for catastrophic errors in BH mass estimates at high-redshift, we find that both the RLF and the mean radio luminosity increase for increasing BH mass and decreasing accretion rate. Similarly both the RLF and mean radio loudness increase for quasars which are argued to have weaker radiation line driven wind components of the broad emission line region. In agreement with past work, we find that the RLF increases with increasing luminosity and decreasing redshift while the mean radio-loudness evolves in the exact opposite manner. This difference in behavior between the mean radio-loudness and the RLF in L-z may indicate selection effects that bias our understanding of the evolution of the RLF; deeper surveys in the optical and radio are needed to resolve this discrepancy. Finally, we argue that radio-loud (RL) and radio-quiet (RQ) quasars may be parallel sequences but where only RQ quasars at one extreme of the distribution are likely to become RL, possibly through slight differences in spin and/or merger history.Comment: 55 pages, 28 figures, accepted to A

Target shape dependence in a simple model of receptor-mediated endocytosis and phagocytosis

Phagocytosis and receptor-mediated endocytosis are vitally important particle uptake mechanisms in many cell types, ranging from single-cell organisms to immune cells. In both processes, engulfment by the cell depends critically on both particle shape and orientation. However, most previous theoretical work has focused only on spherical particles and hence disregards the wide-ranging particle shapes occurring in nature, such as those of bacteria. Here, by implementing a simple model in one and two dimensions, we compare and contrast receptor-mediated endocytosis and phagocytosis for a range of biologically relevant shapes, including spheres, ellipsoids, capped cylinders, and hourglasses. We find a whole range of different engulfment behaviors with some ellipsoids engulfing faster than spheres, and that phagocytosis is able to engulf a greater range of target shapes than other types of endocytosis. Further, the 2D model can explain why some nonspherical particles engulf fastest (not at all) when presented to the membrane tip-first (lying flat). Our work reveals how some bacteria may avoid being internalized simply because of their shape, and suggests shapes for optimal drug delivery.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Structure-function relations in phosphorylcholine-binding mouse myeloma proteins

The binding site interactions between the phosphorylcholine (phosphocholine)-binding mouse myeloma proteins TEPC 15, W3207, McPC 603, MOPC 167, and MOPC 511 and the isotopically substituted hapten phosphoryl-[methyl-13C]choline have been investigated using 13C and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Each protein exhibits a unique NMR pattern, but extensive similarities in chemical shift parameters upon binding of hapten to immunoglobulin suggest a significant degree of conservation of important hapten-binding site interactions. Moreover, independent binding studies, in conjunction with the NMR data, allow construction of a simple model of the binding sites of these antibodies, analyzed in terms of the relative strength of interaction between hapten and two main subsites. The NMR evidence supports the view that the heavy chains of these proteins dominate in interacting with bound phosphorylcholine; the various subspecificities of these proteins for phosphorylcholine analogues can be accounted for by amino acid changes in the hypervariable regions of the heavy chains

Multi-wavelength Observations of Blazar AO 0235+164 in the 2008-2009 Flaring State

The blazar AO 0235+164 (z = 0.94) has been one of the most active objects observed by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) since its launch in Summer 2008. In addition to the continuous coverage by Fermi, contemporaneous observations were carried out from the radio to γ-ray bands between 2008 September and 2009 February. In this paper, we summarize the rich multi-wavelength data collected during the campaign (including F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, Kanata, OVRO, RXTE, SMARTS, Swift, and other instruments), examine the cross-correlation between the light curves measured in the different energy bands, and interpret the resulting spectral energy distributions in the context of well-known blazar emission models. We find that the γ-ray activity is well correlated with a series of near-IR/optical flares, accompanied by an increase in the optical polarization degree. On the other hand, the X-ray light curve shows a distinct 20 day high state of unusually soft spectrum, which does not match the extrapolation of the optical/UV synchrotron spectrum. We tentatively interpret this feature as the bulk Compton emission by cold electrons contained in the jet, which requires an accretion disk corona with an effective covering factor of 19% at a distance of 100 R_g. We model the broadband spectra with a leptonic model with external radiation dominated by the infrared emission from the dusty torus

The One-Loop H^2R^3 and H^2(DH)^2R Terms in the Effective Action

We consider the one-loop B^2h^3 and B^4h amplitudes in type II string theory, where B is the NS-NS two-form and h the graviton, and expand to lowest order in alpha'. After subtracting diagrams due to quartic terms in the effective action, we determine the presence and structure of both an H^2R^3 and H^2(DH)^2R term. We show that both terms are multiplied by the usual (t_8t_8\pm{1/8}\epsilon_{10}\epsilon_{10}) factor.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures; corrected typo

A Bilateral Comparison of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: United States and Canada

Many public programs promote diets rich in fruits and vegetables based on evidence of the derived health benefits. Still, produce consumption in the United States lags behind other nations, even its most culturally similar neighbor--Canada. This study uses a structural latent variable model to test the role played by quality and health information in explaining observed differences in produce consumption. The Alchian-Allen effect predicts that higher quality, higher absolute margin produce will be exported, suggesting quality may be an important demand factor in importing nations such as Canada. The results show that dietary health information is significant in expanding demands. Quality also promotes fruit consumption in Canada.Alchian-Allen effect, fruit and vegetable trade, health information, latent variable, MIMIC model, produce quality, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,